ғɪɴᴅ ʏᴏᴜ - 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐬

019. evan

Inhale.

Come on, Evan! What was the big deal? He was just studying with someone! Evan stood in front of the plain library doors, staring down the door handle.

Exhale.

He reached out an open shaky hand, aiming for the doorknob. Just as his fingers brushed against the cool metal, Evan jerked his hand away. Nope, nope, nope! He backed away from the library entrance, bringing his hands up to his head and running them through his hair. He let out a puff of breath.

Just breathe, dammit!

Glancing back at the glass doors, Evan made eye contact with a puzzled librarian inside the building. He felt his face become hot. Torn between fight and flight, Evan really, really wanted to pick flight; but deciding that he didn't want to let Alana down because of his irrational fears, he sucked it up and shuffled over to the door.

Evan let out a strained, high pitched noise as he slowly reached towards the doorknob. He paused right before his hand made contact with it, hesitating once more. Evan swallowed.

Someone cleared their voice next to him.

Evan quickly jumped back. "Sorry," he said quietly.

The older man gave Evan a silent, annoyed look before he opened the door and walked inside. Evan caught the door as it was closing, nervously entering the building.

The blast of the unnecessarily chilly AC hit him immediately. Evan took an uneasy breath at the sight of the sea of bookshelves.

"You okay, sweetie?" the librarian at the main desk asked, her voice thick with a Brooklyn accent.

Evan flinched. "Uh, yeah, I—uh, I-I-I'm just... here..." Evan forgot to breathe for a moment. "I'm here to meet... girl..." he choked out.

"Oh, well, is that her over there?" The librarian pointed to a young woman seated facing the other way. Evan was sure that it was Alana from her neatly-done dark hair and navy patterned dress, but the ginormous backpack on the floor next to her was what gave it away.

Evan nodded, swallowing. He began to walk towards Alana until the librarian's voice interrupted.

"You two make such a cute couple!"

Evan thanked whoever was up there that the librarian was facing his back. He couldn't fight back the cringe that took over his expression. After a moment of hot embarrassment, he continued to shuffle awkwardly towards Alana's table. Curse school projects with arranged partners.

Alana noticed Evan as he set down his bag and sat down across from her.

"Evan!" Alana scolded in a hushed voice, "You're almost twenty minutes late! The library closes at five!"

"Sorry," Evan said pathetically. He didn't want to mention that he got to the library thirty minutes early and spent all of it struggling to pluck up the courage to walk inside.

Alana shook her head. "Well, no use crying over spilled milk. Have you finished the book?"

"Yeah, I—"

"Good. I was hoping that we could do a quick read-through just to get a refresher, but now we're on a time budget. I took a few notes on what each character symbolizes and how they contribute to the main theme—" Alana handed a thick stack of color-coded notes to a flabbergasted Evan, "—so you should maybe skim through those."

Evan opened and closed his mouth. "I—wow..."

"You're welcome." Alana grinned proudly. She stared at Evan expectantly, waiting for his reaction. When Evan only stared at her in uncertain surprise, Alana opened her book back up and picked up a highlighter. "Well. Let's get to work, then."