Um, excuse me, miss." A small voice interrupted my reading.
I looked over the front desk of the library I worked in, and saw a small girl with bright red curls tied up in pig tails and a sprinkle of freckles across her nose and cheeks.
"Yes?" I responded, simultaneously popping the bubble of gum I was blowing.
"I- um, I want to check out these books." She placed a pile on the desk in front of me.
"Do you have a library card?" I asked, thoroughly unamused.
"Yep!" She reached into the small glitter covered bag on her hip and pulled out the bright yellow card.
I took the card from her and swiped it into the computer that showed her name was Olive.
Without a word, I began scanning her books but soon noticed that they all looked much too advanced for the small child waiting patiently in front of me.
"Olive," I said and she snapped her head up, her big brown eyes meeting mine. "How old are you?"
"I'm nine." She said with a decided nod of her head. I raised my eyebrows in shock, not only did she look no older than maybe six but the books she choose still seemed too mature for her.
"You like to read a lot?" I asked.
She nodded quickly, letting her pigtails bob around.
"What's your favorite book?" I continued to question her as I scanned a copy of Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows.
She scrunched up her face as she thought hard about her answer. "The Giver by Lois Lowry." She answered finally.
I smiled a little as I put her books into a plastic bag, as that was one of my favorites as well. "It is a good one, isn't it?"
Her eyes lit up and nodded and took the bag off the desk. "Thank you." She sang as she made her way out the front door. I watched her as she went, leaning to left slightly due to the weight of her books.
I chuckled lightly at the young girl and turned back to my book.
****
The next day, I sat in the same position behind the front desk of the local library reading my book when a familiar curly headed child appeared in front of me.
"Oh, you're back so soon?" I asked.
"Mhm." Olive nodded, letting her now loose curls bounce wildly around her head. "I finished these." She said as she place a pile, about half the size of the one she checked out yesterday, on the desk.
"Wow!" I said in surprise. "How do you get through these so fast? I'm still reading this book I started a week ago." I tapped the thick book I had been reading.
As I started to scan her books and place them on the 'returned' pile, Olive's small snaked on to the counter and slid my book closer to her so she could see the cover.
"Do you like to read stories where the main character has the same name as you?" Olive asked as she gently traced the letters of title with her small hands: "Clockwork Princess."
"Well, it's alright, a little weird at times, but sometimes- Wait, how do you know my name?"
"I heard your manager yell at you last week for reading the books you were supposed to be putting away."
"Of course you did." I sighed. "Do you have friends you meet here a lot, or something?"
"No." She said and she turned her head down. "My mom is always with her boyfriend and my dad works most of the time, so I just like to come here. It's more fun."
"That's a first." I chuckled, trying to brighten her mood. "When I was in school, kids would rather stab their eyes out with butter knives than sit in a quiet library."
"Like Peter and Edward in Divergent?" She giggled.
"Yeah," I said a genuine smile spreading across my face. "like Divergent."
Luke
I sat on the edge of my bed, with stacks of pictures siting around me. I picked one up and smiled. It was a photograph of me and Tessa at the beach, she was hanging off my shoulders making a silly face while I stood there, my hair flat against my forehead, laughing.
I continued going through the pictures, there was one of us smiling in the park, blurry ones of us messing around, and dozens of us making faces at the camera.
After what felt like hours of flipping through the photos and laughing, I stopped dead in my tracks.
Tessa's bright hazel eyes and frizzy brown hair were replaced with a mass of bottle blonde hair and piercing blue eyes outlined in a thick layer of black.
Sarah.
Our first date was set up by Michael, I never understood how he thought she and I could ever get along.
After only three dates, I was done with her. She became extremely clingy, wanting to hold my hand at all times in public and giving me long awkward kisses in the school hallways. The only escape I could get was playing with my band or talking to Tessa, but over time, Tessa became more and more distant.
I feared breaking up with Sarah. I hated making people upset, even if it was at the cost of my own happiness. Finally, after six months, my band and I were leaving to tour the country and I used that as an excuse to end my relationship with Sarah. To my surprise, she didn't seem upset at all. In fact, she was quite indifferent to it all.
The picture I was staring at was almost two years old. Last I heard of Sarah, she was dating some big German football player and moved to Berlin last spring.
Slowly, I rose from the edge of my bed and strode over to the wastebasket in the corner of my room.
The sound of ripping paper echoed in my head as I watched two halves of a photograph flutter into the metal can.
There are just some parts in a person's life that they'd like to forget.
At least Tessa and I still have one thing in common.
