Hello, this is actual, unedited trash. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

 There was a section of Cordelia's Bounds called Lover's Library. It resided in the very back of the small bookshop, hidden, and yet everyone always seemed to find their way to it. There were half a dozen bookshelves, and other unorganized book stacks randomly placed across the floor. Vinyls from the likes of Louis Armstrong and Johnny Cash were also there, propped up against the sole record player. For their soft melodies would constantly be filling the room and drifting past people's heads.

There were two chairs in the library—one delicate and baby pink and the other worn and brown. When Cordelia went to buy the space for her bookshop, the only thing she found inside were two chairs sitting side-by-side. She had asked, and legend had it that those chairs belonged to a husband and wife, and they would sit there each day by the other's side until they passed. She was a sucker for a tragic romance, even a creepy one at that, and so Cordelia left those chairs exactly where she found them and built a small library around them.

Although Cordelia's Bounds was a bookshop, Lover's Library was the main attraction. The hundreds of books were loved and written in by everyone. Cordelia had a policy for the small library section of the bookshop—read a book, leave a note. Eventually it got to the point where entire conversations were being held between the margins in novels. Friendships were formed, anonymous crushes were being held, and jokes were being told. The novels told stories, but then again so did the words between the lines.

This section of the bookshop was also Adeline's long-time favorite. She was currently skimming through an exceptionally thick novel, and looking for a handwriting that had long since been seared into her brain. Adeline had been 15 when she first came across a note from the anonymous R.L. in a Lover's Library book. The note had read, "I can't help but notice that the protagonist is particularly idiotic." She hadn't thought anything of it, just laughed, because she was completely used to the random little notes scattered throughout books. But apparently, someone under the initials M.A. had.

"I can't help but completely agree," the response had read. And so for years Adeline had watched these stranger's quiet interaction with each other through the books in Lover's Library. There were dozens of people coming in each day and writing in those books, so Adeline never had a clue as to who exactly the people were. Over the years the messages had become more words of admiration to each other rather than book critiques. And so she could only hope—as a hopeless romantic does—that they would one day meet in real life if they hadn't already.

She was currently lying down, reading a book she'd never noticed before and looking for R.L.'s handwriting. Apparently Adeline had missed an entire book worth of notes between the pair of anonymous writers. This was extremely unlikely to have happened in the first place, because Adeline could remember every single book in the small library that she'd been going to for 15 years. The only explanation she could offer in favor of this is that one of the writers had been bringing their own books and placing them in the bookshelves.

Adeline finally found a snippet of conversation, "My lady, I would find it so absolutely endearing if you could shut up and simply enjoy the story as it is written." A small laugh escaped her throat as she read R.L.'s scratchy penmanship among the lines. Even though Adeline had never met, or possibly even seen, either of the anonymous people, she could only imagine that M.A. was a notably funny individual.

She also couldn't help but conjure up names for the pair. M.A. could be Mary Anne, Maybelle Anthony, Molly Adams, Melanie Aamot, or even Mallory Abendroth. Adeline couldn't help but always imagine the anonymous woman as a Mary Anne. R.L.—she imagined—would be named something sophisticated like Reginald or Roland.

More of the anonymous conversation followed in the book. "Only you could make my grin spread so wide when we are reading a novel about death," R.L. stated. Um okay, then.

"I'm glad you say so. I know I'm outstandingly funny, but to hear someone else say it really does feel good," M.A. retorted a couple paragraphs down. "You yourself aren't one of a humorous nature, so I feel as though It's my duty to make you smile."

"Of course, my dearest."

Adeline's heart always felt warm after reading the conversations between the pair, and that day was no different. It might've been the cable-knit blanket she laid under, the fact that she had slept for a mere 2 hours the night before, or maybe even her warm heart. Either way, she felt her eyelids droop drastically, and she was suddenly letting the welcoming hand of slumber drag her away.

Adeline woke to somebody shaking her. Vigorously. Like a lot. Her mouth felt slightly dry from going without water for a couple of hours, her legs and neck ached from being curled up on the small baby pink chair, and she could tell without even looking that her hair was an absolute mess. She suddenly shot up a bit disoriented and looked around the small section she resided in and stopped when her eyes fell on something. A great, big blob of color. She quickly remembered to put her thick, rounded pair of glasses on.

He didn't look familiar to Adeline, which was very unusual because everyone knew everyone in Agaron. His eyes looked as though they held reservoirs—so blue and striking that she couldn't help but stare at them. His hair was a brown so dark that it could've easily passed as black, and it was tousled like he had run his hands through it one-too-many times. His slightly bushy and unkempt eyebrows were frozen in a furrow and his mouth was hardened into a scowl as though that was it's sole purpose.

She didn't even have time to think before he started talking,"You work here." It wasn't a question. "That means you probably shouldn't be sleeping on the job. And plus, shop closes in about 10 minutes" Huh. So he had spotted her nametag. It took a while for what he said to hit her, his accent was so thick that it was almost like the words dripped from his tongue. 10 minutes? It couldn't possibly be almost midnight. The last time Adeline had checked her phone before she fell into slumber it was 7:03 PM. It had been almost 5 hours.

"Um excuse me... I don't know if you heard me or not or what your problem is, but if you don't get up I'm gonna have to report you to the boss," the boy said, his patience seemingly slipping away with each passing second.

Adeline's voice was gravely from her slumber. "Yeah, yeah. I shouldn't have fallen asleep, I'm aware. I was on my break and accidentally drifted off,"she stole a glance at the boy's own name tag. "Andrius." The edges of her thin lips quirked up.

Andrius promptly snorted and Adeline scrunched up her nose. "I'd hardly call sleeping for 5 hours 'drifting off'," he said. In response to that, she mockingly closed her eyes again, but they shot open to the sound of excessively loud footsteps retreating.

Andrius was gone, and Adeline could only assume that he was going to tell Cordelia about her sleeping on the job. She cradled her head in her hands when the world went spinning for a second, and she wiped away the stray wisps of hair sticking to her forehead. She placed the book from earlier back on a bookshelf with other books filled with R.L. and M.A. conversations and made her way to the front of the shop.

Cordelia was leaning against the counter, her head propped up on her hand. Her signature smile was splayed upon her face and she was nodding her head along to Andrius' words. At one point her eyes drifted away and suddenly caught on Adeline from across the room. "Ah there she is. Ms. Sunshine herself," she said with the edges of her mouth turned up.

Andrius himself turned to look at her, and shock briefly registered in his eyes before it was quickly replaced with his original cold exterior. "Now I've been told that you've been sleeping on the job. 5 hours in ol' Lover's Library," Cordelia started again, this time a more serious look splayed upon her face. Written in her eyes was worry, and they were scrunched up slightly beneath those big circle lenses, little lines forming on the old, delicate skin of her face.

A big sigh escaped Adeline's lungs, and she simply gave a small pleading look to Cordelia before saying, "I know, I'm so sorry Cordelia. I've been so disrespectful lately, but I promise I won't let it happen again." In response to this, Cordelia just lightly ruffled her hair, making it even messier than it had been previously. The pair shared a grin and relief took over their features once again, but Adeline didn't fail to notice the brief flash of pity that crossed her eyes.

Andrius probably thought that she was lazy and a horrible worker, but everyone there knew that was the farthest thing from the truth. She had just been having a bad week. Actually, scratch that. She had been having a bad couple of months.

"Okay, so um who exactly is the new kid? I've never seen him around before. Is is like a vampire or something, only comes out at night?" The question Adeline had been dying to ask spewed from her mouth the second Andrius was out of sight—mumbling about stocking some books.

"Well he is most definitely not a vampire. He's new, from somewhere in Ireland, I think, which is pretty incredible. He came to me first thing this morning and asked if he could work nights for me," Cordelia explained. "He seemed like a nice enough kid, so I said yes. Tonight is his first night on the job."

Two different emotions where currently whirling around in Adeline's head. Confusion—because nobody new had arrived in Agaron for years. Unless you counted the baby Ms. Shannon from down the street had a few months ago. The town was so small that usually nobody knew it existed, let alone wanted to come live there. Although it was a bit less evident, she was also feeling excitement, because she hadn't really met anyone new in town since she turned 10 years old. Adeline was pretty much desperate at this point to make some new friends. There was just one problem, though.

"I don't know, Cordelia. I mean he looks sort of rude. Did you see that look he gave me?" she laughed. "It nearly gave me goosebumps." The look Andrius had given Adeline had indeed been terrifying.

"I'm gonna admit it. It was pretty darn creepy. But you don't know the kid, so just use some of that famous Adeline charm and give him a chance. If anyone can brighten him up it'll be you."

Andrius came back up to the front of the store a few minutes later—a scowl still planted on his face that only seemed to deepen upon seeing Adeline still there. It was now officially past 12 AM, and while Adeline's parents knew she spent most of her days at the bookstore, they were probably beginning to get worried.

So Adeline grabbed her backpack from behind the front counter and sat patiently as Cordelia gave her a sloppy kiss on her cheek. She was halfway through the door when she had the odd impulse to turn around, and when she did, he was there. His face was emotionless as he looked at her, a steel wall put up around his demeanor. Adeline gave him a small smile, and when an emotion she couldn't place crossed over his eyes, she came to a conclusion rather quickly.

Whether he liked it or not, Adeline was going to make Andrius her friend.