Returns

Chapter 5: The Party

The next day at school passed very quickly, most likely because JJ did not want it to. She'd considered every possible excuse she could think of to get out of meeting Benjamin when classes were over, but everything just sounded stupid. She didn't have the pain tolerance to break her own hand, she rarely threw up so she doubted she could make herself do it on command... she was acutely allergic to mango...

"Ryn are mangos in season right now?"

"You need help, J." Ryn shook her head smirking, "Anyways, the bell just rang. It's time to go."

The two packed their things and headed to their lockers.

"So what did you tell your boss about the stolen goods?" Ryn asked, throwing some books in her backpack.

"I doubt she'll notice that two things are gone, people steal things all the time. But I guess if she asks I'll just say the new guy messed up on inventory."

"Why are you covering for Benjamin, dude?" Ryn looked at her friend earnestly.

"I don't know, leave me alone. I gotta go meet the devil." JJ slammed her locker shut and trudged toward the library.

"Go forth my child. Tryith not to commit murder." Ryn laughed as she said it, but she was worried for her friend.

JJ loved the library at her school. A wealthy alumni donated an ungodly amount of money to have it redone and restocked a few years before she was a student, and it turned out beautifully. It was three stories of nothing but books and comfortable places to read them. It was always warm, and it smelled like the cherrywood that all of the shelves and furnishings were built out of. To JJ, it felt like home. She was even good friends with the librarian, Mrs. Balbuena.

JJ walked into the library to find Mrs. Balbuena at the large front desk, pouring over a large volume about the Israeli-Palestine conflict. She smiled to herself as she took in the librarian's mess of curly hair and colorful scarf. The woman in question must have sensed JJ's presence.

"Jordan you're here! How are you?" Mrs. Balbuena's enthusiastic Brazilian accent was comforting.

"I'm alright, how are you doing?"

"I'm doing fine, fine. Tell me, are you really going to spend your afternoons with that Benjamin boy?"

"Yeah... they kind of roped me into it I guess." JJ pouted, signing her name on the library's sign-in sheet.

"Don't let him pull anything. You let me know first if he does because I will take him down." The woman was small, but she was intimidating.

"Yes ma'am." JJ laughed, heading up the stairs to find Benjamin.

Eventually she found him in a far corner of the third floor, well away from the chatter of the other student groups. He was laying on a couch asleep with his arms and legs crossed, and he had candy-red headphones covering his ears. This was the first time JJ was able to actually look at what had become of her dear friend. She'd spent the past few years avoiding eye contact or seething mad whenever she was within five feet of him, so she never really had a chance to get a good look.

He'd grown, that much she already knew. His legs hung off the end of the two person couch he was occupying. His body was certainly more mature now, his shoulder had filled out and he was decently muscular. His style hadn't changed much, he still dressed fairly simply. Most of his wardrobe was comprised of dark jeans, white t-shirts and high top converse. No, besides being bigger, these things hadn't changed much.

What she did notice was that his face looked so tired, even in the serenity of sleep. Not the kind of tired that comes from pulling an all-nighter before a test, but true exhaustion. His eyes had bags beneath them, and his cheeks were shallow, he looked tired of life. But he was handsome, there was no denying it. His eyes were sharp, so were the angles of his face, and whatever had created him balanced his sharpness with the soft brown curls that covered his head. They'd begun to grow out a bit again, so they fell just above his eyes.