The Never Ending

Chapter 12 - Dual

"In every real man there is a child that is hidden that wants to play." -- Friedrich Nietzsche 

Sometimes people need to be left alone and today was definitely one of those days. I liked the feeling of walking under the night sky with a load of fresh air. It has just been over an hour since I left the Anti-Council house and it feels great to be free.

As I continued to enjoy my luxurious walk, I could see a brown, old, tattered door which looked too suspicious to ignore. Even though I've only been here for a short while, I think I know the campus pretty well, at least enough to know that I have never seen this door over here before.

After checking if the coast is clear, I walked in. The room is circular with the walls aligned with shelves and shelves of books. Sitting in the middle of the room, are four green couches facing each other with two lamps at the edges of the couches.  Now, I see why no student would dare come in here, even if they did see the door,  because nothing is worse than more studying for a student.

I lightly touched the shelves as I walked pass them to a book that caught my eye, I am not sure what I am hoping for, but it felt like that book was somehow out of place. As I moved the book the slightest bit, an entire shelf of books lifted itself up, creating an opening to a passage of stairs. This all seemed really cliche and I felt like one of those characters in a book that opened a secret door by accident and took them to a prettier land, somewhere far away.

True to the cliche, the stairs lead to a plain field by a stream. Behind me stood the tall walls of MFC, indicating that I was right outside the campus. As I sat by the stream, I heard ruffling and looked over but didn't see anything, so I turned my attention back to the stream.

The ruffling continued from around the corner of the wall and when I looked over, I saw the last person on my to-meet-list, Andrew. He looked shocked to see me here and walked over. I let out a small groan and had the silly thought that he might get the point to leave, but since when is luck on my side? But this is the only chance I have to get away from the crowded, noisy, overly suffocating, party and I didn't want to ruin my night.

"What are you doing here?" He asked. And there goes my awesome night.

"What's it to you?" I fired back.

"I asked first."

"And I answered back."

"With a question."

"You never said I had to answer and nor did I say I will."

"Why can't you ever just answer something-" He was getting riled up and I could see that so I decided to cut this short.

"Look, not tonight. I don't want to ruin my alone time." At this, he came and sat right next to me, which I rolled my eyes at.

"So, even Miss 'I have so many friends and you only have minions' can get lonely?" He acted like he was surprised and I looked over at him shocked. How did he know that I think that about him?

"No, I just needed some time alone." I emphasized alone so maybe he would get the hint. "And when did I ever even say that to you?"

"You never said it, but the looks you give me say it all." That was an acceptable answer.

"So you're saying I'm easy to read?"

"No, in fact, you are the hardest to read." I sighed as I slumped back and laid on the grass. "How about we call a truce for the night?"

"Sounds good to me." Again, he left me shocked.

"So what are you doing out here?" He asked as he laid on his back with me.