CHAPTER TWO

THE FIRST HOUR

"I'm sorry, can you repeat that?"

"What, my name? I'm Nick."

"No, no, not your name," Emilia snapped.  "The thing you said about the library."

"You mean how we're both stuck here? Until the library opens tomorrow at noon?"

"Yeah, that." Emilia felt around the table once more for her phone and turned on the flashlight.  "Lucky for you, my phone has ten percent."

She waved the light all around the basement, getting chills from the shadows of the bookshelves on the walls, the spines appearing larger than life and the shelves towering over them like silent trees in a forest.  Finally, she hovered the light over the little switch and the strange man flicked it on.  She grimaced at the blinding sensation and turned off her flashlight. 

"This has never happened to me before.  I can't believe I fell asleep."

"Well, I can't believe they didn't notice us.  I mean, how do you miss two fucking people sitting at a table? They should've made sure everyone was out before closing this shit place down."

"Can you please not swear like that? It's giving me a headache," Emilia mumbled, slowly prying her eyes open. 

As they began to adjust, she noticed a man towering over her.  His brown hair was all tangled, like he had woken up from a deep sleep like her.  It curled behind his ears and peeked out from under a baseball cap with some obscure logo on it.

"It's you!" she stammered, scouring at him.  "You came down here earlier, you gave me a weird look!"

"Yeah, hi," he murmured, shaking his head. "I didn't give you a weird look."

"Yes, you did!" she insisted, remembering his floppy hair and tall stature.  "I smiled at you, and you gave me, like, a scowl in return."

"Whatever, Library Girl," he muttered back, hoisting a backpack over his shoulder.  "I just gotta find a way outta here."

"Wait, you're not leaving me down here alone!" Emilia cried out, frantically shoving her belongings back into her backpack.  "And don't call me that!"

"What, do you prefer Dumbass?" Nick responded, his big strides leaving her in the dust.  "If you want to find a way out with me, you have to keep up."

Emilia struggled to match his pace, her heavy bag weighing her down.  "I'd prefer Emilia, but whatever. And I'm trying."

"Okay, Library Girl."

They reached the spiral staircase and ascended to the main level, which was eerily silent. Not just library silent, but "you shouldn't be here" silent.  He was feet in front of her, leaving her out of breath ass in the dust. Nick gripped both handles to the front doors and shook vigorously.

"Shit, shit. Okay, well, let's just go through an emergency exit."

"Wait, what? No, no, no, we shouldn't do that." Emilia nervously chuckled.

"Why not? It'll get us out of here, won't it?"

"Yeah, but it'll set off the alarms! The whole campus will wake up, and the police will show up! I cannot deal with that, I'm panicking enough as it is," she hissed.  "Plus, you swearing all over the place and calling me a dumbass isn't making me feel much better."

"I don't care, I can't stay overnight in this library."  He began to head towards the exit and Emilia darted towards him, grabbing onto his arm.  His head shot back and glanced at her, his eyes a brown tint, eyebrows squinted in the moonlight.  "What the hell are you doing?"

"You can't, please. You open that door and alarms will blare.  Someone's going to think we're breaking in, stealing some of the tech or something that they keep in here, I don't know. I just don't want campus security and alarms going off, please.  It's gonna stress me out even more and I already feel like I'm gonna pass out. We just have to wait a few more hours, it's not the end of the world."

"You do realize that means we're stuck here overnight?" She nodded, and he sighed.  Then he reluctantly let go of the door handles. "Fine, I'm sorry. I'm stressed, too. I have somewhere to be tomorrow morning, and now my phone's dead so I can't tell them that I can't make it."

"I'm sorry, too," Emilia whispered.  "But I mean, it'll be fine. They'll understand."

"That I got trapped in a library?" Nick scoffed.  "Yes, of course they'll understand. Who wouldn't?"

"Okay, listen here, dude," Emilia said. "If you keep it up with that sarcasm, this night will be a hell of a lot longer than just twelve hours."

He stuck his hands in his jean pockets and closed his eyes. "Okay, Library Girl.  But before we do... Whatever people trapped in a library do in these twelve hours, do you know where a vending machine is?"

Emilia took a deep breath. Okay. Okay. So what if she was stuck in the library overnight? It was fine, she didn't have anywhere to be.  She could just sleep the whole night, sure. Although, this Nick kid could do something to her in the night. She felt her breathing speed up, her breaths growing shakier and shakier as she eyed the man before her.

"Well?" Nick sucked her out of her web of dark thoughts.

"Well what?" she replied, blinking.

"I asked if you knew where a vending machine is?"

She exhaled.  "Good lord. Are you a freshman?"

"No, no, I'm a Sophomore. Just don't really use the library."

"Wait, seriously? I'm a Sophomore too."

"I know," he replied. "I've seen you around before. You were in my Critical Thinking in Times of Madness class last year.  The First Year Seminar."

Emilia blinked. "No way. I think I would remember that."

"Yes way.  I sat a few rows behind you."

She was silent and turned to the stairs. 

"Wait, where are you going?" he blurted out behind her.

"I thought you wanted to know where the vending machine was," she said, gesturing to the almighty glowing snack haven.  It was tucked away in the fourth aisle, near another section of floor cushions and desks. 

"Thanks," he replied, fishing in his pocket for quarters.  "Want anything?"

"No thanks."

"You sure? You're in for a long night," he noted.

She scrunched up her flat nose, raising her eyebrow at him.  "Fine. Maybe some chips?"

He punched in A3 and B5 and a bag of chips and a thing of pretzels fell out.  He passed the chips over to her and dropped his backpack by one of the cushions. He dropped like a sack of potatoes and patted the cushion next to his.  "Come on."

She hesitantly shrugged off her bag and sat, cross-legged, on the bean bag chair beside him.  The dim hue from the vending machine was the only source of light they used.  She glanced sideways at him as he chewed on his pretzels.  He was wearing a long-sleeved forest-green t-shirt and his light skin appeared to be glowing from the vending machine's light.

"So, Library Girl, what were you doing in the library on a saturday night?" Nick said with a full mouth.

Emilia popped open her bag of chips. "I'm starting a book."

"A book?" he questioned, gulping down more pretzels. "What book?"

"No, no, I mean, I'm writing a book. Or, I guess a short story. It has to be fifty pages, it's a portfolio for a class I want to take next year."

"And what is this book about?" he questioned even further.

She shrugged, letting a salty chip dissolve on her tongue.  "I don't know. I was trying to write this romance thing, but I hated it."

"Hate is a strong word," he said.  He reached across her for her backpack, his arm brushing across her stomach.  She recoiled at his warm touch, pulling down her shirt over her stomach.  "Here, let me read it."

"Are you crazy, no way!" she yelped, slapping his big hand away.  Her curls bounced in her face from the sudden movement like a slinky toy down stairs. "You can't read it."

"Why not? What's the point in writing something if nobody reads it?"

Emilia chomped on another chip.  "The point is to write, it doesn't matter if anyone reads it or not."

He squinted. "Sure."

"Okay then, smart mouth.  What were you doing here, then?"

He swallowed loudly.  "Nah, I'm not telling you."

"What? That's not fair, I told you my thing!"

"Okay, fine.  I was studying for my philosophy class."

She bit her lip.  "Philosophy? Like, Logic 125?"

"Yeah, do you know the class?"

She let a small giggle slip, but quickly stopped.  "Sorry.  Just - I took that last year.  I didn't think it was bad at all; I mean, it was just talking about things that are real and what could be real and stuff like that."

"Hey, quit laughing at me.  It's just hard for my brain to wrap itself around everything, you know? Questions like 'is there an afterlife' and 'what is reality' just trip me out."

She was quiet for a second. "I get that.  Sorry for laughing."

"It's alright. I did call you a dumbass earlier, so I guess it's payback."

The hum of the vending machine replaced their conversation.  The shadows of the books and the desks caused a feeling of emptiness to settle in the pit of her stomach. She glanced out the nearest window and noticed the few stars that peaked through, despite the intensity of the campus lights that seemed so eerie from inside the abandoned library. Emilia began to dig in her bag and pulled out her notebook.

"Here. It's really bad, I'm just warning you."

    Nick took it carefully with two hands as if the notebook were a piece of glass.  He flipped through a few pages until he found her scrawling writing, and his eyes began to shift over her words. 

    It was always awkward for Emilia when someone read her writing in front of her. There was nothing for her to do; she just sat there. She pulled down her shirt again, tucked her hair behind her ears.  Looked up at the ceiling, fiddled with her wrap ring on her thumb, or even snuck peeks at him while he read.

    His face was expressionless. No little grins, no chuckles, no frowns.  Suddenly, he finished. He closed the notebook and handed it back to her silently.

    She took it, but hesitantly. "So?"

    "So what?" he responded.

    She raised an eyebrow at him. "So, what are your thoughts?"

    "My thoughts?" he replied, crumpling up his empty pretzel bag. "Oh, my thoughts on your writing?"

    "Uh, yeah, usually when you read something of someone's, you give your opinion on it," she said incredulously. "It's gonna be a long night."

    "Sorry, I'm just tired.  It's late.  Okay, well, honest thoughts?"

    "Yes, honest thoughts," she said, her stomach clenching.

    "Well, I don't think you've ever kissed anyone in your life."

    Emilia blinked. "Excuse me?"

    "You've never kissed anyone. Correct?"

    She blushed, the red creeping up her neck like a rash of ivy.  Thank God he couldn't tell in the dim lighting.  The only kiss she'd ever had was during a school dance in middle school.  She'd never had a boyfriend or a girlfriend, and she'd definitely never done anything remotely freaky.

    "How could you tell that from my writing?" she asked, admitting defeat.  "Was it that bad?"

    "Nah, it wasn't that bad," he responded. "I could just tell you've never had a real kiss.  It was the way you wrote it. It had, like, no feeling whatsoever."

    "Okay, wow, that's harsh."

    "You told me to give my opinion! I mean, you did say this was for a class, right?"

    "Yes."

    "Oof," he breathed out.

She gasped and hit him lightly on the arm. "Hey! That's a little too honest, man."

"Wow, hey, I'm just saying."

Emilia crumpled up her chip bag and stuffed it in the front pocket of her backpack. She reached for her phone and checked the time; 1:42.  Just great.

She paused. "Oh, my God.  We're both dumbasses."

"What?" he responded.

"My phone's still at four percent. Oh, my God. My phone's at four percent! I can just try to call my roommate, and she can help us!"

"Yeah, that could work."

Emilia quickly fumbled with her phone, pulling up Olivia's number.  Two percent now. 

"Hey, this is Olivia, I can't come to the phone right now, please leave a message. Thanks!"

"Um, hey Olivia, this is Emilia, I'm trapped in the library, please help me. I'm trapped with this kid named Nick, he's in our grade apparently, but just pl-"

Her phone went black.  "Shit."

"What happened to the no swearing policy?" Nick asked.

"My phone just died."

"Oh. Shit."

"Yep."

The vending machine's rumbling once again drilled into her eardrums.  The massive beast growled, the droning echoing off the floor tiles and the popcorn ceiling.  The spines of the books in the blue glow looked like giant fireflies, the shelves towering over her like the ghosts of buildings in a desolate city.  She was growing delusional.

"So, what now?"

a/n
second chapter!! im very excited, it's picking up. my first week of my sophomore yr of college is done with, and im feeling... empty. i don't know, it's been really weird. not just because of covid, but i've had a lot of emotions and confusion in general. so hopefully this will clear my head a lil.

i think i will be posting every friday instead of every other now! thanks to all of you who read the last chapter! tell me your thoughts so far, what do you think of nick? emilia? what are your predictions? leave a vote or share, it would
mean a lot!!

goals:
200 reads total
50 votes
40 comments

dedicated to @jesscstories thank you for your comment on the first chapter!!

much love, stay safe
-s.c