Brandy awoke from her deep slumber, only to have the feeling of a weight draped across her and cage her in from the back breaking table she had rested on for the night. Managing to turn over, she faced the mysterious Ryker who, apparently, slept with a smirk painted on his pale pink lips. His arm had been casually thrown across her waist, acting like an anchor and not allowing her to escape his firm grasp. When she saw his smirk transform into a smile from her attempts of pushing his arm of steel off of herself, she knew he was alert to his surroundings. Brandy made a whimpering sound, to make it sound like she was in pain and needed to be let go immediately; she saw his dark eyes flash open, yet his grip only tightened around her and a growl escaped his throat.

"Are you alright, doll-face?" Brandy's heart soared at the term of endearment he had given her and heat flooded to her cheeks coating them in a light shade of red. Brandy nodded shyly, proceeding to distract herself with the light streaming through the windows. Ryker saw the look of happiness that crossed her features as she caught a glimpse of the sunlight and that made his heart flutter even more at the sight of her, Ryker would never tell anyone how in love he was for the fragile girl that molded to him at this very moment; he never wanted to let go. During last night he had crept over to her table and gathered Brandy in his arms after he heard her strangled groans of pain. She had been laying, stretched out, across the table on her back and after turning her over she let out a sleepy, sigh of relief.

"C-can you real-ease me-e?" A soft, delicate voice broke through his thoughts and his infamous smirk came back to the surface of his lips.

"For a kiss," he bargained and watched in pure amusement as her cheeks deepened to the color of a cherry snow cone. She swiftly placed a kiss on his nose, only for him to shake his head and tighten his hold, once again. "On the lips." He negotiated, the blush had spread to the tip of her nose by now, his surprise elevated as she leaned her head closer to his, connecting their foreheads. As their lips were about to collide in a passionate kiss the sound of a lock opening brought them crashing out of the trance they were once in.

Mrs. Callaghan came stumbling into the library with fresh tears mixed with old ones, seeing Mrs. Callaghan gave Brandy the strength to tear out of Ryker's hold and make her way to the elderly librarian.

"What's wrong, Mrs. Callaghan?" Brandy rushed out as the woman gripped onto her shoulders.

"Oh, Brandy.. It's terrible, I just-" Mrs. Callaghan fought back a sob that was bubbling up inside her, "I just need you to continue looking after the place. Please, and your boyfriend can help, can't he?" Brandy felt her heart break into a million pieces at the look of grief that was in her once, vibrant green eyes. She voluntarily nodded, not bothering to fix the small mistake she had made of referring to Ryker as her boyfriend.

"Will you be okay?" She watched as she made her way towards the door.

"Don't worry about me, dearie." She managed a sad smile, pushed open the glass door and disappeared in the fog that was left behind from the snow blizzard. Brandy gasped as two arms snaked around her waist before sinking into the broad chest that pressed against her back.

"Boyfriend?" The word bounced off the walls and stirred up a stampede of animals in her stomach.

"I couldn't bare to see her like that.." She replied, not stuttering and running her ice cold fingers over the arms that rested on her hips. She felt a head settle itself in the crook of her neck, it was an intimate position for two people who could barley be labeled as friends.

"We can start working on th-at project yo-ou have in Engli-shh," Brandy rushed out a few of the words leading her to stammer over them.

"I have another project we can work on," Ryker suggested flicking out a piece of white paper between his fingers that had been folded up into individual squares. She reached for it and carefully unfolded it, making sure not to tear it,

you seem to always be

studying

it can be a book,

a person,

anything

you just seem to be studying it,

maybe you should start studying your

surroundings more

-an admirer

Brandy couldn't believe her eyes, it was true. She was always searching for something, but she hadn't found it yet. "Whe-re did-d you fin-nd this-s?" She asked, folding it back up into its neatly done squares and turning in his arms to face Ryker, the boy who had offered to help her.

"It, um, it fell out of your jean pocket," he flashed a smile, and Brandy grew curious.

"Why-y didn't you-u give it to me?" Ryker was speechless, how do you answer a question like that.

"It must of slipped my mind-- through everything that took place yesterday." He felt his heart break off a tiny piece for lying to her. Brandy merely nodded her head before turning and studying the handwriting. It looked so familiar,

"Ryker?" She called out, he made a noise in return, telling her he was listening. "Can I see some of the notes we took from your notebook?" She was busy staring at the penmanship to worry about the words that slipped through, when her brain was off about something else, she could speak clearly. A composition notebook was placed in front of her; she flipped to a random page, she saw scribbles scratching out certain words. The font was identical, she turned to Ryker who stuffed his hands deep into his pockets. "Y-you?" He knew what she meant, he knew she knew, how could she not? In return, he nodded.

I changed the genre of this book to, 'short story' I'm not quite feeling the full length novel vibe for this book. the two books I just started could turn into novels if I decide to drag out the scenes, I'm not very good at doing such a thing so, just letting you know don't expect too much of that.. as you can see, I wasn't very good at dragging scenes along in this book or even this one chapter!! oh gosh, but now she knows!! when I label it short story, that means only eight to ten chapters, [for this book, not all my books]. let me know if you enjoyed this chapter, some-what of a cliffhanger???? kind-of, sort-of, maybe..