The pages of our love.

2.

Louis rushed to the library, a copy of ‘Treasure Island’ in his hands. He finally found himself giving into the scheme and decided that this particular book held enough part(s) of his soul for him to part with them. He found himself staring at the library gates at 11:58AM sharp. He heaved a sigh and a gasp. He was actually doing this.

He walked up the steps and found there was a small crowd forming inside. People arriving with various genres of books and stories to share.

“What do we have here?” The guy with the horn-rimmed glasses asks him as he tries to manoeuvre his way through the crowd.

“Oh, I have a copy of ‘Treasure Island’ by Robert Louis Stevenson.” Louis says shyly as he fixes his fringe and shuffles on his feet, book in hand.

“Aah, young adult fiction. Um, I guess you can join that queue, right there. Also, take this post it. Write something for the other person. And remember the rack code. You can come back in an hour or so to see if anyone has returned something in its place. If you want you can register your name for the rack number, for free.” The horn-rimmed glasses guy says.

“Oh, I can do that? I sure would like to.” Louis says as he pushes his glasses back up his nose bridge.

The guy smiles at him as he hands him a form. Louis fills it for him and smiles at him before joining the queue. “By the way, my name is Zayn, Zayn Malik.”

“’m Louis. Louis Tomlinson.” Louis says as the guy pushes his hand out to shake his hand. Louis shakes his hand but as he moves behind he almost falls down. Zayn catches him in time.

“Thank you, Zayn!” Louis giggles before moving forward with the queue.

“Welcome, Louis.” Zayn stifles laughter at the stumbling boy.

Louis remembers his rack code which was 28 blue-green. Now all he had to do was come around later and see if anyone took the copy and left something in return.

~~~~~~

‘Seminar for Murder’ by B. M. Gill, alias Barbara Margaret Trimble  is lying on the rack three hours later when Louis returns back to the Library to check if someone had take the book. He had read that Trimble was an eloquent author and had written several award-winning novels in her life-time. Never having first-hand read the novelist’s work, Louis, though a little disappointed, picks it up and leaves without a word to Zayn; who just gets up from his place by the entrance of the newly opened hall inside the library and puts a small reserved board on the rack and smiles at Louis’ back.

~~~~~

Louis found out that the book belonged to a certain Harry Potter fanatic who had scribbled the words, “THIS BOOK IS THE PROPERTY OF H.E.S”, in very neat and beautiful calligraphy handwriting on the first page of the hard-bound book. And as he moved ahead, he saw that the book was marked with little scribbling, notes everywhere throughout, as if the person reading had tried to solve the mystery along with the writer.

On the last page of the book he saw a small note peeking out. It was the library post-it and it held the words, ‘I loved your suggestion. I have read it before and I absolutely love it. Hope you like this book! Hxxx ;) ;)’

Without further ado, Louis tends to the book and sits down to read it and finds himself reading and smiling at the very thoughtful notes the reader had made. He sees how the reader guessed absolutely correctly the causes of death and reasons too. He reads with awe when the actual plot twist on the last chapter of the book had turned the reader crazy and also him.