You Are the Shell to My Tortoise | ✓

31

The next day, I was prepared with a plan I'd formulated the night before.

As expected, the moment the bell for lunch rang, Nolan all but flew out of the classroom.

Ashley joined me as I waited for her at my desk and we walked out.

"Sorry, Ash. I'll join you guys for lunch later, okay?" I said as we stepped out of the classroom together.

Her eyebrows furrowed. "Where are you going?"

"The library. I'm going to corner Nolan like we discussed the other day," I said, aware that the grin spreading on my face possibly bordered on disturbing, but I didn't care.

She blinked at me. "Uh ... okay. Want us to come with you?"

"No, it's okay," I said, smiling gratefully at her for the offer. "I can handle it."

There was a chance Nolan might clam up if there were other people around, and I didn't want to risk that happening.

"Alright, see you," she said.

With that settled, I dashed off in the direction of the library, dodging any teachers I passed by who yelled at me for running in the hallways.

I must have thrown the doors open with more noise than I thought, because the librarian behind immediately whipped her head around to glare at me.

"Sorry," I mouthed at her.

Shaking her head at me, she turned back to the book she had been reading.

True to my prediction, Nolan was there, sleeping at one of the tables near the back. I made a beeline for him. His face was buried in one arm, while the other arm was resting on the pages of an opened book before him.

How dare he look so cozy while I was kept up all night trying to figure out what he was talking about?

I shook his arm the way I did when I was trying to wake him in English class.

He grunted softly and tried, rather unsuccessfully, to shrug off my hand.

"Wake up," I whispered. "I need to talk to you."

I didn't want to risk being thrown out by the librarian, so I shook him again without saying anything.

He shifted his head so that he was lying on his cheek instead of his face, and I couldn't help but smile at how peaceful he looked when he was asleep. Then I shook my head to clear these distracting thoughts. I had to focus.

"Wake up," I whisper-snapped into his ear.

Nolan mumbled a string of gibberish as he finally started stirring. I continued to shake his arm even harder than I already was. His head rose after a few seconds, and his eyebrows were knitted together.

"What—" he began in an incensed tone, which changed when his gaze fell on me. "Oh."

"Yeah, oh," I whispered, crossing my arms and glaring at him. "Come outside with me. I need to talk to you."

"No, you don't," he said, lowering his head again.

"Okay, fine. You need to talk to me," I amended, shaking him again.

"Would you stop shaking me!" he snapped, to which there was a loud tsk from the librarian.

We both looked up to see her glower at us.

I shot her an apologetic smile, but she wasn't having it. Instead, she got up from her chair and started making her way around the counter.

Yikes, was she about to throw us out? Or, at the very least, give us a stern warning?