She read me like today's newspaper

1

For every chapter, I will choose a song that you can listen to while reading. I hope you enjoy it!

Music credit: Golden hour by Jonathan Moraly (Life Is Strange OST)

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"Damn it, Karie, this is the last time I do this for you!"

The rain is pounding hard on my poor head. I knew I shouldn't have agreed, but she is counting on me now, I can't go back. I finally arrive in front of the building, lightly lit from the inside. Without much thought, I push the heavy wooden door and walk inside the library. Water is dripping from my hair and some of it got in my backpack.

"Fuck, my computer...!"

"Watch your language young lady." A short white-haired lady watches me behind a pile of heavy books. Miss Hendy. Of course. Even though I'm a grown ass woman I still manage to get those kinds of comments, especially from her. I make sure my computer isn't dead and walk to her desk.

"Sorry, ma'am." I sigh. "Do you have another copy of this book? It's for a friend." I show her my copy of the Scottish play. She looks at it but doesn't move an inch.

"The last row, to your left," she mutters. 

She looks down at the paperwork she was working on before I bothered her and doesn't add another word. I guess it's the end of our conversation, so I turn and go look for the goddamn play. I knew as soon as Karie saw me study it that she'd want to read it too. She's my little sister, and I can't seem to say no to her when it comes to stuff like this. She has the kind of face that makes you do what she wants, you know? At least she's responsible and doesn't do it frequently, but when she does I'm somehow running in the rain to get a stupid book. Ah, speaking of it, I finally find it and take it when-

"It's a good choice. Do you study plays?" a soft voice says.

I jump and turn to see a girl I never saw on the campus before. She has the lightest skin I have ever seen and cool white hair.  Of course, I immediately forget what she just asked. 

"I, uh, I'm sorry what?"

"The play. Is it for your classes?" she adjusts her glasses and puts back on the shelf the book she was reading. She looks up and... Damn, her eyes are so pale. Light blue, with a hint of green. Everything else about her is white like snow.

"Oh, right... Yeah, it's not for me it's for my sister," I chuckle a bit, realizing how stupid I must look: wet from head to toe to get a book not even for myself. " I study in literature, though, if that's what you were wondering."

"Interesting." She nods and looks back at the books. 

Is she an albino? Probably. I haven't seen anyone like her before, it's fascinating. Is it offensive to ask her? Definitely. 

"Oh, it's not much, really... " This is the exact moment where I realize I'm not good at small talk. My heart is pounding. "What were you looking for here? I thought no one would be here at this time of the day." Usually, the library is full at night only when finals arrive.

"Oh, just browsing." She has the softest voice ever, oh my god. "I always come when there aren't many people around, it's less stressful for me. I was looking for some poetry actually, but I appeared to just... be in the theatre section for some reason." She chuckled and replaced her glasses again.

"Why would it be stressful to browse in a library? Seems pretty harmless to me."

"Well..." She takes a book and replaces it somewhere else on the shelf. "To you, yes, but I'm not what one would call... typical. People stare a lot, and I don't really like that."

"It's true, but at least usually they're not judging. They're just jealous of your cool hair."

She laughs. "Maybe, I never thought of that. Didn't you do it too when I started talking to you, though?" She lowered her voice a little bit. thank god we're in a quiet place, or else I wouldn't be able to hear her. "Judging me, I mean."

"No, I..." That's something I didn't expect to hear, shit. Don't we all put assumptions on people without knowing them...? And I mean, she's quite out of the ordinary, but... Should I lie? What do I say? "Well, I might have but... Probably not in the way you think."

"I doubt it." She smiles. Not the bitter kind, she just seems relieved that I told her the truth. Why does she smile when I just admitted the fact that I judged her?

"You seem to take it pretty well, actually." I pause for a moment, hesitating on if I should ask or not. "Are you..."

"Yes." She grins. "I have albinism. It took you quite a while to ask, usually people ask right away."

She's taking it all so well, it's definitely not the first time she's had this conversation. "Wow, people can be really insensitive sometimes." 

"I wouldn't say it like that, but if you say so." She looks at me and I feel my stomach drop. I feel like I'm gonna say something really stupid at any moment.

"You don't deserve that. I think you look lovely actually." Shit. Smooth, very smooth. She looks at me perplexed and blushes a little. Now she's the one taken off-guard.

"I- uh..." She briefly looks away, not sure of what to say. I feel bad, did it feel weird? It was definitely weird. Oh no, I'm spiralling again.

"Oh sorry I didn't mean to..."

"No no, it's fine, really." She looks up at me again and smiles. "Thank you." She holds out her hand and adds, "I'm Hazel."

I shake her hand, it's warm. "Tess."

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Oh hello there! Thank you for checking out this story! It's been such a long time since I've been on Wattpad, I kinda lost my good habits. 

I will try my best to stay on schedule (maybe one chapter every week? every two weeks? Who knows at this point.) But I will probably forget once or twice- sorry in advance about that. I have no idea about what you're supposed to write in an author's note, so I will keep it short this time.

Don't forget to give me feedback on my story, I always try to get better at writing :)

See ya next time!