I wished the school library had a coffee machine. Like seriously. But again, that would cause irreparable damage to the books (which, surely, were ancient and therefore priceless) by the giddy freshmen, careless sophomores, and tired upperclassmen. Pushing my head up with my palm, I sighed as I slouched even more on my armchair next to the window that looked out to Excelsior sports field. The things I'd do for a cappuccino...

Someone sat down on the armchair across from me with a thermos, which he placed so close to my hand that I could feel its warmth. Ugh, that'd better not be coffee. "Long night?"

"Yeah, something like that." I poked the thermos. "What's in there?"

Nolan shrugged, pulling it back closer to him. I let out a long breath—that was way too close. Hell, I'd even murder someone (the scary librarian was definitely a likely target) for some tea—or just anything with caffeine in it, in fact. "It's only hot chocolate," he said, shrugging again apologetically.

Damn, I wanted hot chocolate. "Where'd you get it?" I whispered, glancing up to find that very scary librarian standing a couple tables away from our little table. "Like, I'll love you forever if you could get me some. I'll give you anything." I paused to rub my eyes a little—my contacts were definitely starting to dry out.

Shit, I didn't bring my glasses today.

Nolan smirked and leaned in, like he was going to whisper a secret in my ear. I sat up in my chair as well—it was only polite. My back was killing me though (at the tender age of sixteen...I hoped it wasn't from all this studying). I squeezed my eyes shut, leaned back a little, and felt the satisfying cracks in my back. That felt amazing.

"What?" I said, blinking a little furiously since my vision was currently out of focus at the same moment I realized Nolan wasn't saying anything (and that he probably had no intention of doing so since he was rather intensely staring into my eyes like we were in some sad soap opera). "Spit it out, Hottell."

"I went to lunch out of campus today," he said after a pause. His eyes, which were these astonishingly cornflower blue, stayed on me a little longer than they should have. "Something about my custody issues."

Well, I didn't ask about it.

I nodded as sympathetically as I could and started to lean back into my chair slowly. I still had no idea what the hell Nolan wanted to do with me (both in this odd chance meeting as well as in general) aside from both our involvements in The Aquiline, but there were still the rules of propriety that I liked to follow, unlike someone I knew. "Right. I, uh, hope you'll get over whatever you're going through."

He got the hint and leaned back. "Thanks." There was an awkward pause. "It always looks like you're waiting for someone whenever I catch you."

I totally betted that he expected me to be waiting for Luc. Ugh, why did he have to use his relationship with me in The Aquiline staff to deal with rugby stuff? That wasn't cool. "Actually, yeah. I'm waiting for Olivia." I didn't really need to mention that I was going to hang out with Luc for a couple minutes later, did I?

"Olivia, yeah." Nolan nodded. He looked pretty nonplussed. Then maybe it wasn't about rugby. I needed to get better at this people guessing game (which, my dad always said, could always be improved through chess, which I rejected upon seeing about three different pieces). "I actually need to check out something before I head off. Thought I'd say hello. How are the poems going, by the way?"

That alone was enough to induce another headache. "Well, I'm really rushing to get everything organized before the finals, which you know are in, like, a couple weeks. Some of the staff members aren't, um, completing their jobs, so I have to cover for them. The usual."

Stupid Lila.

"I finished the foreword," Nolan offered, somewhat helpfully.

I ran a hand through my layered bangs. "Thanks, N. That was really cool of you." Even though that was his part of his job, actually, so I had no reason to thank him for it. And I probably had to go through and edit it—Nolan was notorious for having the strangest typos.

"If there isn't anything else I'm busy with"—Nolan stood up from the armchair across from me—"I can try to help you out as much as I can."

I totally appreciated the offer, but Nolan had rugby practice and the other three-fourths of his job to complete by the deadline, which was in the middle of next week. So no, he couldn't really help me any more than he already was. I shook my head, although as appreciatively as I could. "I'm fine, Nolan. Catch you later."

He smiled and headed off into the bookshelves toward the fiction section. That definitely looked totally important. I tried to keep myself from snickering, but I kind of failed miserably when a couple giggles slept out and the rest of them just assaulted me from there. It was in this state, body shaking as I hid my laughter behind my right hand futilely, that the next person found me.

And that person had fantastic timing, really, which was typical for him.

"Don't die yet," Luc said dryly as he stood next to me in my armchair. "I've still got plenty of Madame Bovary readings to torture you with."

I took a deep breath to try to calm myself, but I only dissolved into more giggles.

"I don't have much time," Luc said a little irritably, but I knew that he didn't really mean it. He didn't mean a lot of things he said, but at the same time, he meant everything he implied. That was one of my favorite things about him. He knew how to joke around.

I swallowed another breath, which effectively stifled my laughter. I sneaked a glance past Luc, where the librarian was standing, casting a wary eye on the two of us. And just at that moment, a gasp of air forced itself up my chest—ugh, the dreaded hiccups. I'd never be able to speak normally now.

"I—hic—I'm listening now." I winced at just how idiotic I sounded. Luc seemed to realize it too, since he let out a snicker of his own.

"You should, uh, get yourself some water," he said under his breath, covering his smile with a fist. He was seriously bad at hiding things. "And by the way, I just wanted to tell you that practice has been relocated to the gym, so don't go looking for me in the field. Baseball guys are hogging it today."

I nodded. "All right, cool. Nolan going to be there?" At least I'd be able to enjoy the air conditioning. Hic.

Luc held back another snicker, which was very considerate of him. "Yeah, I'd hope. He really wants to play this weekend, and he's got a long way to go with Coach." He paused. "Why him?"

"Oh, he just—hic—stopped by." I hit my upper chest a few times since that hiccup went out a little suspiciously. "I wanted to make sure he wasn't too—hic—busy with things before I—hic—gave him more stuff—hic—in The Aquiline."

I bit my lip and tried to look as demure as I possibly could while holding back hiccups, which was very difficult because of the way Luc was smirking at me. "You really need that water, A. Anyway, see you later."

And he left me, not without sending one last teasing glance at me as he walked off out into the library.

I knew I really should have taken Luc's advice about the water to get rid of the hiccups, but really, I felt too lazy to stand up to get some. So I just sat there, pulled a book from my backpack (The Iliad, to be precise, since I still was trying to remember how to spell Agamemnon's name), and read.

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After a while, I checked my watch. My hiccups were getting really unbearable. My body literally jumped whenever one of them struck, and the librarian kept giving me dirty looks like I was murdering young children in a dark corner or something (which wasn't possible since I was literally sitting next to a window). And Olivia was a little off schedule.

That was something a little different. Olivia was usually very punctual about everything (the opposite of Luc, in fact, since he believed that life was about ease and comfort, not keeping appointments—I needed to teach him that lesson very soon). Maybe whichever club she was coming from had let out late. She wouldn't have time to text me an alert in advance then.

Then I remembered that she was coming from Model UN, which almost always kept its members at least thirty minutes late.

Ugh, that wouldn't be good for me since I had an appointment to keep with Luc after speaking with Lila. Why did I forget about this?

I stood up, slinging my backpack over my shoulder, and sauntered out of the common area of the library (not without innocently wishing the librarian a "good afternoon" although I really was praying for one of those freshmen to give him the hell he deserved by accidentally dropping a book or something). It was a little embarrassing to admit, but I still got lost in the bookshelves like some sort of five-year-old.

After some wandering, I found myself in the romance category. (The tipoff was the huge poster on the wall next to it promoting Nicholas Sparks' new novel.) Hm, maybe this wouldn't be too bad of an idea. I started reaching for a historical romance that had a very nice font on its spine, but I stopped myself.

No, Audrey. You already have The Iliad, which you can barely understand, let alone write that three-page analysis due next week. Plus, you have Madame Bovary with Luc. How the hell are you going to stuff this book in with those massive literary headaches?

My inner sense of reason was rather...reasonable sometimes.

I shook my head and headed out of the bookshelves to the main entrance, where I caught sight of a dirty blond head. Yeah, it was Olivia. She looked lost as she stared into the library, presumably looking for someone (me) as she clutched her books to her.

"Why are you looking so lost?" I asked loudly, startling both her and the two other freshmen in her midst. "Dude, you used to hang out here for the past two weeks. Hic. And don't you have to photocopy something?"

Olivia shook her head. "Ugh, I guess. I'm, like, kind of drained now. Plus, I thought I was supposed to meet you at the photocopy machine."

"Well, I kind of forgot that Model UN is, like, almost always late, and I just wanted to meet you out here. And plus, I, like—hic—have something to catch with Luc after this..."

I trailed off when I realized that was the sort of thing that I really wasn't supposed to mention to Olivia at this very moment. She paused in her way into the library, looking at me flatly. Oops.

"You guys have been hanging out a lot," she said. That sounded a lot like something that she'd said a couple weeks earlier about my relationship with Luc before the thing at lunchtime happened.

I rubbed the back of my neck. Ugh, this was bad—I was picking up habits from Luc Mercier. I hoped Olivia didn't notice.

Apparently, she did. "And you too, with that neck rubbing matter? Ugh." She walked into the library.

I walked after her a little hesitantly. "O, please don't be mad at me. Or him. Or us in general. Because I don't think I could survive without someone to copy notes off in psych class. And French, too."

As I watched her, Olivia's expression cracked a little. That was good. We were getting closer to the copy machine, and she began to slow down. "You know I can't really be mad at you, A," she said under her breath. There were a couple of freshmen hanging around the machine. Those little people loved all the gossip they could get, especially from the upperclassmen.

"Then why have you been acting weird?" I whined, giving her my best Hepburn pout.

Olivia shrugged. "It's cool." She put down her backpack and started to pull out a library book from there.

"Tell me," I said, poking her arm. "You know I love you, Livy."

The freshmen scattered when they caught sight of us. Good. Now I didn't have to bother about keeping down my vehement feelings regarding winning back Olivia's good graces. I poked her again. "Livy, come on."

Olivia gave me a flat look as she opened the machine and put the book in. "Fine," she said after a while. "I guess I was just jealous of the fact that you decided to go and like my crush. And like, he likes you back. And that was annoying."

Woah, that was the first moment I'd ever heard her outright state that she liked him. I frowned. "I'm sorry."

Olivia closed the machine and shook her head. "No, it's nothing. I just, you know, needed to get that out."

I stepped up to her a little more closely. "Then are we good, boo?"

Pressing the button firmly, Olivia looked back to me and smiled, even though she did look a little strained. "Yeah, we're fine."

Nah, not really. But I'd give her time.

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Hey guys! I really have no time right now, so I'll just say thank you so much, and I love y'all!

Anne