One Day You Will Look Back And Laugh

Chapter 2

I like sitting in the library for as long as I am given the time, just to completely indulge in books. I love the smell of books, it is strangely comforting so I can use this as an excuse to spend more time with books whenever I get an anxiety attack or my depression starts to hit hard.

I would sit in the corner praying I don't run into a couple. I am not always lucky though. Whenever I run into this problem I just turn as quickly as I could and run away to another corner.

Being around books and reading can be somewhat of a problem sometimes. Once I start with a book I really like I can shut the entire world out. My father always said that about me, joking on how an earthquake could hit but I would not even notice.

My psychology teacher in grade 12 once told us that it is impossible to shut the entire world out and not notice anything. All I could think at the moment was,"Has she never read a good before?"

The library is my safe haven, the place I go to after finishing classes and all the work I have. This was my daily routine and I expected it to stay that way.

Until, something unexpected happen today. A boy. A boy approached me.

This is something new, I never engaged in a conversation with anyone in my university before until it was mandatory even then I kept the conversations short and to the point. I made myself as invisible as possible. The first year went without a hitch. I thought this year would too but it is just the start of the second month and someone is standing in front of me smiling.

We were still in our break so I had more time to go to the library, I entered, took a book and found a sit. I don't know how long I was gone for but I was rudely interrupted from my book when a crumpled piece of paper landed in front of me.

But I couldn't be bothered about it so I just pushed it aside and continued reading.

Athara ran as fast as she could the moment she heard a scream, opening the door sh-

Another piece of paper landed in front of me. I pushed it away again.

Where was the paragraph again ?

Ah, opening the door she saw the most horrific sigh-

Another paper. Annoyed, I picked up the paper and opened it. "Hi." It said. I looked up thinking to find some teenagers laughing and fooling around or something. What I didn't expect to see a guy looking at me from across where I was sitting, he looked at me with an amused look on his face. I felt my face heating up.

What does he want ? Is he trying to play some trick with me? This is a dare isn't it ? Just ignore him, not worth your time.

Okay. I thought, so I slowly started picking up my book, turning away from him.

Wait. But what if he needs something? He didn't look like he needed anything. But what if he was just masking his desperation ? He could be having a seizure or something. That's irrational. Have you ever seen a person having a seizure? N- Oh no.

I quickly looked up again to find him gone. I started panicking.

Great! We killed him. Well, it was nice knowing you. We should leave as quickly as we can before anyone else notices he is missing or they find a body or something.

With all these thoughts swirling around me I became too preoccupied to hear the sound of a chair shifting beside me.

"Hey!"

I literally jumped out of my skin, or at least it felt like it when I heard that. Turning my head towards the sound, I saw the same guy laughing so hard tears fell from his eyes.

Good, he is not dead. Or is it his ghost?

I turned towards him again, looking to see if he would become transparent or something.

His laughter had subsided and now he was just wiping the tears from his eyes. He looked up to see me looking at him and seems to be trying to compose himself as much as possible.

"Who are you ?" Were the first words that came out of my mouth before I had a chance to catch myself. He extended his hand for, what I presume to be, a handshake. "I am sorry for startling you like that. Hi, again, my name is Stephan. Its nice to meet you." He said, smiling.

Taking his outstretched hand, I said,"It is nice to meet you too." I released his hand and picked up the book again.

His hand was warm. So he isn't dead.

"Umm .." I glanced up from my book to see him nervously scratching his head. "May I know your name?"

"Huh?"

Ooooohhhh ... You screwed up.

"Your name. I don't think I was told your name."

"Ah. M. M. My name is Keturah. HI!" Said the 'Hi' too loud and didn't you already say it before ?

I turned away, so embarrassed.

Well, the worse he can do is laugh at you to your face and point it out, making fun of you consistently.Brace yourself.

"Keturah ? That's a pretty name. It means fragrance in Hebrew doesn't it ?"

He isn't making fun of me? Wait what did he say?

"Yes. It is. It was given by my mother."

"I think it suits you." He was smiling. I couldn't help but smile back. A small smile. Though it did not hold as much emotion as his. I wish it did.

"Uh, do you want or need something from me ?"

"Oh, no. Not really. I just thought you looked really pretty so I wanted to say hi." He is constantly smiling at me with every sentence he speaks and looking directly into my eyes.

"Are you sure?" I persisted. "Yup. Actually no. That is not all." He hesitated for a moment before looking at me with the most emotion filled eyes I had ever seen and said, "I like you! I have been seeing you around for a while and I finally worked up the courage today to tell you this. Will you go out with me ?"

"You're lying." I said pointing towards towards the left of us. He looked and start laughing again. "Since when?" "Since you called me pretty."

He shook his head and called his group of friends who were hiding behind the bookcases. "She found out, guys." I heard a couple of curses before they all came out. They were not all bad looking, I will admit that much.

He walked towards them and were talking about something, I was about to go back to my b ook when I heard the alarm from my watch beeping.

I suddenly remembered that I had to call my family today. My dad was going to make the two hour trip on his bicycle to the town just to get reception so that we would be able to communicate. The book would have to wait, for now I have got to get to the phone boot.

Packing my things away, I started to stand up, fix my chair and was putting my book away when the guy, Stephan was it?, came to me and asked if I was leaving already. I told him that I was and he offered to walk me out the exit door. I was in a bit of a hurry so I juts reluctantly agreed after he assured that he was going to keep his distance.

Once we were outside, I thanked him and proceeded to speed walk to the nearest phone booth when I heard someone shouting. "Keturah!", I turned around and Stephan was still standing where I left him. "You are pretty! I wasn't lying about that and don't let anyone tell you otherwise !" He was shouting so loud I was sure everyone heard him but at the moment all I knew was a guy was standing in front of me, shouting and smiling as he called me 'pretty'.

I smiled back and waved at him, then I turned around running so fast that when I finally reached the booth, I could hear my own heart pounding against my chest. I guess I need to work out more, my stamina is getting worse.

Yeah, right.