i walked down the empty aisles of books, the smell captivating me as it always did. stopping every once in a while and pick out a book with an interesting title and tossing it into my half full basket. see, i'm a dreamer; i read all these books about things i wish i could do, things i wish i could be, and do none of them. i don't even make an effort. even if i tried it would never work, my anxiety was so severe i can't even buy my own groceries at the store, my brother or mom had to do it for me. that's why i like this library, there is almost always no one here when i am (basically an hour before they close), plus there is this magical thing called self check out, so i don't have to normally worry about making any contact with people.
i tend to get lost in my thoughts, dreaming of being a character in one of the hundreds of books i have read in the past couple of months. i continued walking down the teen romance section for the second time and that's when i noticed him. he looked to be in his mid twenties, he had brown, fluffy hair and warm pools of dark chocolate for eyes, he had lilac bags under his eyes and his lips were a light shade of pink and were in dire need of some chapstick. I clenched my hands together, scratching and pulling at loose flesh on my fingers, feeling that all too familiar feeling of anxiety. i didn't know what to do. i didn't know where to go. all i knew was that i needed to get out of there as quickly as possible. i leaned down and grabbed my basket where i had left it and walked quickly (you could almost consider it running) to the self checkout station. i did my normal routine, except this time with half as much books as i normally have. i printed my receipt, threw it in my bag and bolted it out of the library before looking behind me to see the same man, with a very, very confused and worried look on his face.
