Quoting Nolan

«Be Daring»

«Quoting Nolan»

-Chapter Six» Be Daring-

Austen woke the next morning to a quote. She rolled over in bed, checked the time on her phone, only to find a text message sat waiting to be read.

The night before she had saved the number that she presumed was Nolan's to her contacts, and the fact that his name was flashing on screen now made her lips twitch in a small smile.

At long last the sun made a show behind the clouds and sprang rays of light through Austen's curtains, brightening her room.

Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, and sitting up slowly, she stretched her arms above her head and released a lioness yawn.

Reaching for her pristine white iPhone, she slid her thumb across the screen and was instantly welcomed by a family photo home screen and layers upon layers of applications.

Brushing away a few grains of sand that stuck to the screen since last night, she clicked the messages and read;

"Be daring, be different, be impractical. Be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace and the slaves of the ordinary."- quote by Cecil Beaton. Take a risk today Austen and do something you wouldn't normally do. Meet me at the library today? Take a good look around and finally see me.

Yours hopefully, Nolan.

Austen let a soft chuckle leave her lips as they turned up into a grin, falling back onto her bed, she pushed the fiery locks out her eyes and locked the screen of her iPhone, deciding to leave Nolan 'hopeful' for now.

It wasn't long until the excitement swam it's way to the surface and she allowed herself to look forward to finally meeting the boy that she had been conversing with for quite some time.

She stared at her reflection in the mirror. Her fiery hair was pulled back into a scruffy bun, where loose curls and waves framed her face and the base of her neck. She dressed in her signature ripped jeans and into a black baggy vest top that fell to above mid-thighs with the words, "So far, this is the oldest I've ever been" tattooed across the front in white. Sliding into a pair of white converses, Austen grabbed a jacket and left to go to the library.

She ignored her routine today and walked straight past the recycling that had to be taken out and the dishes that had to be done. A summer project was sprawled across the dining room table, she skipped right past that too and made a bee-line for the front door.

The distant sound of her mothers footsteps on the landing above made her rush to leave the house before being interrogated for details and then forced into another one sided heart felt conversation.

Finally out on the streets, she headed towards the library. She was borderline desperate to send Nolan a reply, but then she remembered something that Julia used to tell her, that "all good things come to those who wait."

She nodded to herself and rearranged her fringe absentmindedly.

Was she really ready to meet Nolan yet?

What would happen once they met?

What if he's not all what he's cut out to be?

What if... what if things get really awkward and- no, Austen made herself a promise to follow Nolan's quotes. He asks very little of her, and today he requested that she saw him for him and not his messy loopy handwriting. Today was the day that she could match a face to the hidden identity of 'quote boy'. The faceless hero, the invisible near enough therapist, the hidden genius.