The Artist's Wife (BWWM)

Chapter 18~ Issues

flashback; thirteen years ago.

Books have never held any fascination to me.

I stared at the dust-coated shelves I had spent the past hour and a half restocking and made a final decision, books were never going to fascinate me. I picked up a battered copy of Wuthering Heights from the gradually decreasing pile of books and scowled at it as though it was responsible for my life's problems.

Stupid books. Stupid happy endings. In the real world here, we didn't get happy endings, we got disappointed. But in there, the guy got the girl and they all lived happily ever after.

What a load of crap.

I scowled again as I remembered the cause of my detention which lead to this pointless work in the library. Jason Hu, the class's all-around annoying guy, had been questioning me repeatedly on the reason why I always had a bandage on my left forearm. He kept poking me until I snapped in English class and yelled at him right in front of the whole class and our beady-eyed teacher.

She didn't hesitate to hand me the detention slip. At least she didn't take me to the Principal, because that would make mom angry and when mom got angry, terrible things happened.

I put away all murderous thoughts I had suddenly concocted for Jason and scanned the shelf meticulously for an open space to squeeze in the battered book. I found an opening right at the bottom of the shelf, groaned and bent to shove it in between two, old hardcovers. I pushed it really hard but the stupid book wouldn't fit in and after a few moments of grunting, I stood.

I scowled at the battered book and decide to ease my frustration on it, so I started kicking it with the hope that it would magically fit in the constricted space. I was in the middle of the kicking procedure when I heard a tiny cough which made my leg freeze in mid-air.

Mrs Giggle was the school librarian and contrary to her name, that woman could not smile even if you put her life on the line. She was as tall and thin as a stripper's pole with wire-rimmed glasses always perched on her hooked nose. She had earned the nickname 'Eagle' by ever constant, creepy watch on the occupants of the library.

She gave that tiny cough which she always used to announce her presence and I turned to face her with an angelic smile plastered on my face. "Hey, Mrs Giggle, lovely running into you here."

It's just two of you in this library, Karina.

She did not speak but continued to glare down at my thirteen-year-old form and making me feel even smaller.

I gave another forced smile and picked up the traitorous book from the floor. "Mrs Giggle, this is not what it looks like. I was..."

She pushed her glasses further up her nose before talking in her annoying nasal voice. "So you weren't trying to damage school property, Miss Spier?"

Her eyes dropped onto the book in my hands and I could swear she gave a snake-like hiss before reaching out for it. "I can see that working here has done nothing to cool off your anger issues, so I think we should meet here the same time tomorrow."

"Another detention?" I stared at her with my mouth open and she scoffed as though my time was of little importance to her.

"Yes, Miss Spier, another detention. You're free for today," she said, holding the book to her small, pointed breasts and sighing in content like all she needed was that book. She frowned slightly before looking out the window and at the gradually darkening clouds. "Do hurry, Miss Spier, a storm seems to be brewing."