Lost In The Library

"Take a shirt! Go into the library and use the bathrooms to change! We'll meet back up here in twenty minutes, so you've got time to make yourself picture perfect!" girl-Kim shouted out to the group as we milled about taking turns reaching into the bag she had with her to pull out a shirt and step aside to make room for the next person.

boy-Kim picked up the slack now, "And be sure to familiarize yourself with the library. It's probably going to be your home away from home and definitely the most important place on campus."

"Aside from the clubs and the bars," girl-Kim chimed in afterwards, eliciting a few errant chuckles from the group, "It goes wherever your bed is, wherever you can get a drink, and then the library. In that order!"

"Kim," boy-Kim chastised her, "Most of them can't drink."

His words elicited an eye roll from girl-Kim, and a hearty wink from her to whoever was nearest which just so happened to be Blake, maybe not coincidentally.

The tour had finished maybe five or ten minutes after I'd managed to get Rachel's number in my phone but the span of time had done nothing to diminish my mood. By the time I got my shirt from the bag and stepped out past the Kims to head into the library my mind was so twisted up that I barely knew up from down.

I could look at the bright side, at least. I didn’t know whether that vision was good or bad or what I wanted or not, but I’d managed to get the number of Rachel fucking Patrick and that was a big step. It was more than I’d ever accomplished on my last go around in this life.

So I was going to take it. I was going to be happy about it. I was going to stride with my head up high, walking with purpose into the library and moving in the general direction of the bathrooms, a destination clearly outlined with signs.

This was a necessity because the library of Phineas College was enormous, four stories tall and, in places, so overrun with shelves that it might as well have been a maze. By the time my third and fourth year came along I found that a comfort because more than once I'd utilized the quiet to find a little corner and curl up for a nap among the stacks, but I remember it taking me the totality of my first year to be able to build a map of this place in my mind that was usable. From day one, though, I could find the bathrooms.

They were so clearly labeled that not heading towards them was an oddity. Sure we had time and all, but every single other person in the group was making their way towards them that to see Eddie peel off and head in a different direction was notable and noteworthy.

It was also an opportunity.

Maybe it was because I'd already managed to do the impossible that I felt inclined to try the also relatively impossible as well. I found myself wandering off after Eddie, running through different options in my mind about how I was going to play this and how I was going to convince him that my efforts at friendship were sincere.

I settled on a, perhaps, obvious choice.

If there was one thing in this world that a cynic like him was certain to think of, it was how ridiculous the whole damn day had been so far. I remembered him mocking the trust exercises under his breath to me while they were happening. During the tour he'd pointed out, as we trailed along together at the back, how unnecessary it was considering our welcome packet contained 'a fucking map' that we would be using anyways. And then there was this whole affair with the **** school spirit of the t-shirt we'd been instructed to put on and the photo op that was going to follow, something he'd regarded as either an opportunity for **** down the line or, even worse, potential promotional material for their next glossy catalog to sell naive prospective students on just how much of a community this school was.

I figured if he heard those words come from me, he'd recognize me as a kindred spirit and it would go an awful long way. All I had to do now was find him so that I could have that conversation, but the maze of stacks in the library made sure that wasn't going to happen easily.

Or, in fact, at all.

Because instead of Eddie, I found entirely the last person I wanted to see.

For a limited time you can join my Patreon for only $2 and get access to over a month's worth of new pages of My Second Chance as well as SEVEN FULL STORIES with a new one every month! Join here: https://www.patreon.com/SophiePert