In the library

Dave had escorted me to the bus stop, as usual and I was wondering how he was going to bid me good bye. As he saw my bus approaching from far, he bent down and kissed me on my left cheek and then my right cheek.. I felt a mixture of elation and deception as it was still better than last time's greetings, but deceived as it was slightly impersonal. But he was not done. He bent again, more quickly and gave me a peck on my lips. A wide smile broke out on my lips and after waving at him, I almost floated to the steps of the bus. I must have moved mechanically because when I came to my senses, I was seated and the bus was moving around the roundabout. Dave was looking at me and I blew him a kiss. I leaned my head against the window pane and contemplated my life at that point. Everything felt wonderful, even the assignments I had to do seemed fun now.

The next day after class, I followed Dave to the library. I had invited Brynise and Gaya to join us as well. Brynise said that she preferred to go shopping and Gaya said she would drop by later after meeting Roy. Dave's close fiends Julien and Nit also tagged along and I felt awkward. I thus walked one metre after them, hoping that they wouldn't notice. When we got in, the librarian checked our student ID and there we were, in the temple of learning.

'Dave, we are going to check out the new magazines,' Julien said pointing to the right.

'But the books we need for the assignment are on the second floor!' Dave replied.

'We'll move up later.'

'Ok'

So this is how I found myself going up the stairs with Dave. Usually when we met just the two of us, it was in the context of badminton, or more recently, to flirt,but this time we were going to study together. It added another dimension to our budding relationship.

The second floor opened up to around ten tables with their corresponding chairs arranged in an orderly manner and right now only one table was occupied. When you turned to the left you had rows and rows of books arranged by topics. Beyond the shelves, there were wide windows in front of which were small tables and two chairs on each side. Those tables looked more welcoming due to the light filtering in through the windows. It didn't hurt that they were more secluded as well and provided more privacy.

'Shall we sit there?' I said pointing to a table set far away from the others.

'Sure.'

I laid down my notebook and pencil case on the table and stated moving across the rows in search of books related to the assignment topic. I really enjoyed the smell of old books. To think that for decades students had come there in search of knowledge. Looking at the crinkled covers of some of the books, I felt humbled. Many of these books could not be found online.

'There it is.' A hand reached from behind me and pulled a book that was in front of me on the shelf. Dave was standing behind me, so close that his pullover brushed against my arm when he moved his hand forward. I had been so caught up in my own thoughts that I didn't even hear him walk up to me. The smell of his perfume wafted up to me and combined with the smell of old books, it was almost like an aphrodisiac.

'Here, this one can help as well.' And he pulled out another book for me. It turned out that studying could be so exciting as well.

We sat down and Dave was facing me. The table was so small that when I moved my knees kept bumping into Dave's. I sometimes moved deliberately so that I could maintain this bodily contact. I also took down notes, flirting was good but it was better to flirt while having good grades. I would sometimes sneak looks at Dave who looked so cute when he was concentrating. He caught me red-handed a few times, but only smiled.

After an hour, Julien and Nit had still not appeared, but they texted Dave to invite him for lunch.

'I've got to go. We'll take the opportunity to discuss our common presentation.'

'No prob.'

I was very deceived to see him go but it wasn't as if it was a date and he had to stay with me till the end. I watched his silhouette disappear as he went down the stairs, and then turned back to my work.

'Hey, Dave had left his notebook on the table in his haste.'

Checking that he was not coming back to retrieve it, I opened it and promptly fell in love with his handwriting. The letters were so well formed and were straight on the lines. His handwriting was so consistent, unlike mine. I took out my phone and texted him,

'You left your notebook. I'll give it to you tomorrow.'

'Thanks.'

Gaya came at that moment and we got back to work, but not before she gave me a knowing smile. This was what friendship was about, you could understand the friend even if words were not exchanged.