Accidental Adoption

The quiet boy.

Author's note: The last chapter was just shy of two thousand words.  This one his just barely over one thousand.  I'm writing this with a chapter layout.  There are going to be thirteen chapters.  If I chapter ends up longer or shorter than average, it's because that's when I finished what needed to be done in that chapter.

TW:  A lady gets followed by some guy but she's fine and it's just mentioned.

Phil discovered that while he didn't particularly like being an elevator technician, he was good at it. He was a hard worker who didn't cut corners, and everybody knew it. He'd already been promoted even though he'd only been at the firm two years. If Phil kept this up, he might be able to move back to London and go to college soon!

Of course, there were downsides to being so devoted to his job. Several of Phil's co-workers resented him for being so good, and because he landed the job fresh out of high school. Most of them were middle-aged and had several qualms about a twenty-year-old getting such a position. They couldn't seem to grasp that his youth had no bearing on his talent.

Phil was also kind of isolated all the way in L.A., while his family lived in London. He didn't have any real friends at the office or in the field because he was a slightly controversial figure there. People in L.A. were hardened, too, in a way that Phil wasn't yet. They never talked to strangers, never seemed friendly, and never went out of their way to do something nice, like hold open a door. Phil guessed that there were a lot of bad people out there, and this was just their way of dealing with it.

Not that people in L.A. couldn't be kind. Phil'd seen a man following a young woman down a block to the bus station Phil was at. Before Phil could tell him to go away, another woman swooped in, acting like the two knew each other, and they got on the bus together. The man stalked off instead of getting on the bus. Ignoring the creepy guy, it was honestly the most heartwarming thing Phil had seen in a while.

Today, Phil was heading to the Los Angeles Library. It was two stories tall and didn't have an elevator yet. Phil was going there to fix that, a.k.a. oversee and help build an elevator. Usually, Phil did some kind of maintenance so he was pretty excited to see some real construction. He was around five minutes early, and only a couple of streets away from the library. He hoped there wasn't a terrible traffic jam or accident.

Phil arrived at the library on time and saw that the construction was already underway. The library hadn't shut down for construction, instead simply cordoning off the affected area with gratuitous amounts of caution tape. To paraphrase, 'we will not limit the pursuit of knowledge.' This caused there to still be several patrons in the library. One, a young boy wearing a pink shirt, was sitting at the closest table to the ongoing construction and reading a book.

Phil brushed it off. There were plenty of reasons for a kid to be sitting there. Phil went to join the construction crew. He was fairly sure that the part they needed him for had to be done first, and he didn't want to delay the procedure by keeping everybody waiting.

Whoever was in charge of the library had already picked the exact type of elevator needed, as well as the area to put it in. However, the constraints of where the crew would put it were rather nebulous, so Phil was in charge of deciding exactly where to put the elevator so it didn't run into any electrical lines. After an hour of pouring over all the building plans, then mentally and digitally reconstructing the elevator, Phil was ready to mark off exactly where they had to cut into the building. He'd do it with electrical tape, so there wouldn't be any unsightly sharpie marks on the wall. He put an 'X' in electrical tape on any section that needed to be removed as well.

The workers were surprisingly competent, not that they weren't usually, but there always seemed to be one person who managed to mess up the simplest of tasks. They set right to work on doctoring the building up. Phil turned around to look for a certain piece of equipment, and something caught his eye. More accurately, someone. The boy with a pink shirt was still sitting at the same table as before, only this time he was staring straight at Phil. Phil couldn't disguise the look of shock on his face, and the boy looked back at his book so quickly Phil couldn't help but feel like he had imagined the whole thing.

Except for how tense the boy held himself, staring at the book studiously as if it held the sole focus of his mind, like it was the crook of his very being, the reason for his existence. The book the boy was reading was absurdly thick. Phil knew that kids who looked younger than the boy did sometimes read a lot, even the entire Harry Potter series. Still, something about the boy drew Phil's gaze. Then Noah, a member of the construction team, yelled for the appliance Phil was looking for, and Phil quickly went back to work.

Sometimes, he felt as if there were eyes watching him, but every time he caught sight of the boy, he was staring at his book nonchalantly. It took a large chunk of Phil's willpower, self-control, and patience to not just stare at the boy until he looked up. That would be a rude thing to do, especially if it made him feel half as uncomfortable as it made Phil feel.

When the time had come for the construction crew to be done for the day, the boy was still sitting in the same seat that he had been the entire time. Phil wasn't sure if he was properly concealing the expressions on his face, or if it was stuck in the constant blatant interest. Phil left the library that day feeling wholly unsatisfied with what had happened. He could only hope that the boy would show up tomorrow, and give Phil some closure.