CHAPTER THREE

THE THIRD HOUR

"ANOTHER TIE," SHE groaned.  Emilia placed the pencil down.  "Okay, I'm done."

"What did you expect?" He responded.  "It's tic-tac-toe, that's the point. No one ever wins."

"That's so dumb," she said through a giggle.  "What else can we do?"

He climbed up off of the tiled floor, patting off some dust from his jeans.  Nick wandered over to the bookshelf and started grabbing handfuls of the novels. 

"What are you doing?"

He didn't answer. Soon, there was an entire pile of books. 

"What the hell are you doing? Cut it ou-"

He ignored her and ambled around the bookcase, the stack of stories so tall it covered his face. Soon, she heard the sound of even more books slumping off of their homes and into his arms. 

"Stop, stop! We're gonna get in trouble!  You have to put these all back," she cried out, jumping up to see what he was doing.  Emilia glanced down to see him lining up the books as if they were dominoes.  "Really?"

He shrugged.  "I've always wanted to do it."

She crouched on the balls of her feet and rested her arms on her knees, not quite sure what to do. Reprimand him? Start putting the books away?  She grabbed a book and gave Nick a side glance, noticing his furrowed eyebrows in concentration.  She then placed the book at the end of his line.

+    +    +

They had used over two full shelves of books. The fiction section, all of the author's last names from Lawrence to Monson.  The line of books snaked all the way from the first shelf, circling the table, past the glowing vending machine, down the hallway, up the spiraling staircase, and stopping at the top.

"You ready?" he said to her.  She nodded.  "Okay, on the count of three."

"One."

"Two."

"Three!"

They both tipped the first book over, and the parade was off.  They scrambled to their feet and followed the race, zigzagging down the hallway, spinning around the table, tiptoeing up the stairs, and finally, watching the last book drop.

"Yes!" she cried out, and he laughed with a big smile on his face.  He held up his wide hand for a high five, and she followed through with it.  His hand was so much bigger than hers, and much more coarse, whereas her chubby-fingered hand was just barely bigger than his palm.

"Nice job, Library Girl," he chuckled, and began collecting the stack of books, his arms full.  "Now, it's time to put these back."

Her jaw dropped. "All of them?"

"Yeah, all of them," he responded.  "I mean, we did make this mess."

She chewed at her bottom lip and began stacking some of the books.  They brought piles over to the two bookshelves, where they then began to alphabetize the authors once all of the books were carried.

"I have Lewis here," she said.  He grabbed it and placed it besides Lemont. 

They began a system.  He would stack the books and she would find the next authors.  She sat in the midst of the stacks, the piles around her swaying like weeds in a grassy field.  It was quiet for a few minutes until Nick spoke.

"Would you rather have ten fingers on each hand, or two toes on each foot?"

She grimaced, picturing the surplus of fingers. "I don't know. I feel like I'd have to go with the two toes."

"The two toes, really? I'd go with the fingers."

"Ew, why?" she asked, pausing her alphabetizing to stare at her fingers. "That would be so strange."

"Like two toes wouldn't be?" he exclaimed.  "Having twenty fingers would be awesome. I would be able to palm a basketball so easily."

She giggled, imagining him palm a basketball with ten fingers on one hand.  "Okay, what about this one.  Would you rather be able to teleport or become invisible?"

He scrunched up his face. "Is there a limit to how long I stay invisible?" he asked.

"I don't know, you're just invisible."

"And where can I teleport to?" he continued. "Anywhere in the world?"

"I mean, I guess, ye-"

"Do my clothes become invisible with me? Or do I have to be naked to be invisible?"

Emilia began to grin at the ridiculousness of his questionings, clutching her sides.  She hadn't slept in ages, so she'd grown delirious.  Everything is hilarious at 2:46 in the morning.

"Okay, okay, you're bad at this. I didn't know anyone could be bad at Would You Rather."

"Hey!" he cried out. "I'm not bad at the game, just getting some clarification."

She grinned, and handed him a book by Lurie.  "Yeah, sure."

Emilia silently passed him books with nothing but the whirring of the vending machine in her ear once more.  She sorted through some more M authors to hand to him.  Minutes of shuffling papers and brushing of hands passed, and he finally broke the silence.

"I can't keep doing this."

She handed him one of her favorite books by Toni Morrison.  "What?"

He closed his eyes and groaned.  "I'm so bored. Can we take a break?"

"Have you ever played that drawing game where you do it with your eyes closed?"

"Nope."

"Alright, put the book down," he said, grabbing the book out of her hand and tossing it to the side.

"Hey! I'm trying to pick up the mess you made!"

He blinked, taking a step back, eyebrows raised.  "Uh, the mess I made? You helped too!"

"Fine. I'll take a break. But we need to finish picking it up, or else w-"

He grabbed her small hand and pulled her to her feet, dragging her over to the table. She felt like a ragdoll, her hand limp in his, as he then proceeded to pull out a chair for her.

"How do you play?" she asked, feeling her cheeks grow hot.  "Like, draw whatever and the other guesses?"

"Basically. The drawer just needs to close their eyes."

"Sweet, okay, can I go first?" she asked, ripping out a piece of her notebook paper.  He nodded, folding his arms and resting his chin on them.

Emilia closed her eyes and began to draw. She felt his eyes on her as she set pen to paper. 

"Lion? Elephant? Camel? Alpaca?" She shook her head at all of those things.  "Am I warm?"

"I'm not giving you any hints!" she exclaimed, trying to peek at her drawing from below her eyelashes.

"I'm lost, what is it?"

She opened her eyes, taking a second to adjust to the dim blue lighting.  She looked down at her four-legged monstrosity. "It was supposed to be a cat."

He pursed his lips. "Don't take this the wrong way, but no part of that is cat-like."

"Hey, like you can do any better!"

He snagged the paper out of her hands and set his pen to the paper. He then closed his eyes, and she couldn't help but stare at him. "I'm ready."

He began to draw a series of squiggles, circles disconnected from rectangles, strange lines running through half of the page.  She unconsciously shifted her eyes from his pencil strokes to his face. His eyelids were squeezed shut, his skin appearing gossamer from the vending machine's light.  His bigger nose scrunched as he focused, which made her lips lift just a little.  His light brown hair wound around his ears and nearly reached his eyebrows. 

"Come on, you should be guessing!" he said, breaking her from her haze.

"I am genuinely trying," she lied, chewing on the inside of her cheek.  "It's so bad, I can't even guess anything."

"Okay, fine, I give up," he responded, opening his eyes.  Emilia quickly looked away, staring a hole into his child-like scribbles.

"What is it supposed to be?" she asked, grabbing the paper from him.

"A fire hydrant."

"A fire hydrant?" She thrusted the paper back to him. "Okay, you're bad at this game too."

He leaned back in the chair and folded his arms across his chest. "Like you did much better."

"Shut up."

"Whatever you say, Library Girl."

a/n
chapter three is done!! it has been a wild and chaotic week for me, and i have been looking forward to friday for so long. leave a vote, comment, share, follow! i know some of these comments will make me feel better :)

what would yall do if you were trapped in a library? what if you were trapped there with a stranger? i feel like i'd freak out at first, then i'd end up playing truth or dare or something ridiculous. honestly, sounds pretty fun to me. i'll have to try it sometime.

goals:
250 reads total
53 votes
43 comments

dedicated to NegativeWriter26 thank you for your comments, i love reading them as always <3

much love, stay safe
-s.c