Chapter 5 : History and Foul Pranks

Eleonore’s POV

I found myself trudging through the wet grass of at the edge of campus the next day.

Classic, Eleonore, wearing your white shoes on a day that where there was a storm in the forecast!

I was too busy degrading myself internally to notice a particularly wet spot on one of the tiles near to the university’s big logo and would have slipped and fallen—if only an arm didn’t shoot out to catch me.

“Careful there, wouldn’t want your pretty face scratched up.” My eyes widened at the voice and I turned around just in time to see a wide grin begin to make its way across Hayden’s face.

“Are you alright?” He asked with a laugh and I nodded my head. “You seem a bit spaced out.”

I licked my lips as I reached for my phone and opened the notes app, typing out my thoughts before showing it to him.

‘Tired. Long day, still have work.’ I told the twin in front of me and he nodded solemnly.

“At the library?” He asked me and I nodded. “Rhett said something about doing some research there today, maybe you’ll run into him... can I walk you there?”

My eyes widened at his sudden offer and I quickly shook my head in denial. Why was he acting so nice? I mean I know we’ve met each other on a few occasions... but still.

‘You don’t have to do that,’ I typed out. ‘It’s only a few minutes from here.’

Once I was sure he had read the message I began to walk away from him with a wave. I could tell he still had more to say, and the look of him with his mouth open and a somewhat disappointed look on his face was too adorable to me not to laugh at lightly.

I hadn’t seen Rhett at the library like Hayden had assumed, so instead of focusing on the twins I pushed them out of my mind and began my hours of work. The first few hours went by without a hitch, and it wasn’t until the end of my shift did my wrist began to throb lightly.

“Ouch, that doesn’t look good,” My head shot up from the running water to see Robert coming up to stand next to me. He was fiddling with his name tag on his sweater with that usual bored look on his face. “Carlos finally stopped pulling his punches?”

I rolled my eyes at the slight jab from my co-worker and knocked him in his side with my elbow. I had always complained to Robert about my self-defense classes with the universities resident security expert who had taken me under his wing after one to many late night walks alone back home.

Robert and Carlos were very dear friends to me, both men in their late twenties and early thirties respectively, who had taken it upon themselves to look out for me at the only two places I seem to find myself; campus and the library.

‘Rowdy patrons’, I signed to Robert and watched as he read my hand signs and nodded his head.

“Flo should really do something about those guys,” Robert referred to the librarian, but we both knew it was hopeless and that she couldn’t. You can’t technically kick people out of libraries and stop university students from using it, unfortunately.

I rolled my eyes as I shrugged, quickly dismissing the entire situation. “In any case,” Robert continued, “Your shift is over now so you should get home as soon as you can, the weather app said it’s going to storm later on.”

‘See you later,’ I signed off to him and Robert only shooed me away with one hand as he began to put on his work attire and begin his shift. Sometimes I envied Robert, he usually took the later shifts at the library when most of the patrons had already gone home for the day.

It wasn’t so calm during exams season though, which is one of the reasons why I took the day shift instead.

I waved to him one last time before I left the staff room and grabbed my bags. But just as I was about to make my way across the main area and towards the door I heard my name being called out. When I turned around I saw Rhett coming up to me.

“Hey,” He flashed me a bright smile, “I was wondering if you could help me with something? I had to do some research on—" Rhett paused for a moment, his eyes scanning over my attire and noticing that I wasn’t wearing the standard uniform anymore but my casual clothes. “Oh, are you done for the day?”

I nodded my head up at him once and watched as he blinked in realization. “Oh... I’ll let you get going then, is there someone else I could maybe ask about this?” If I didn’t know any better I would have guessed that he sounded somewhat disappointed, but I couldn’t place my finger on why.

Shaking my head I took my phone out and began typing on the notes app once again.

‘What do you need?’ I showed him the screen.

“No, I don’t want to hold you back from getting to where you have to go, if you can just tell me where I can—" Rhett’s words were cut off when I rolled my eyes and grabbed his sleeve tightly before pulling it once, trying to get his attention back to me from where he was looking around for another employee.

I looked him dead in the eyes, trying to communicate that he should just ask me what he needed. I watched as his face became flustered and he took a step away from me, turning his head slightly before clearing his throat.

I raised my eyebrow at his actions, finding them somewhat endearing and a refreshing scene from usually over confident boys I’ve come to meet.

“Well, I uhh—I needed to do some research for a topic that the university is having me go over for a tutoring project. Do you know where I can find books based on ancient cultures?”

I nodded my head. ‘Which ancient culture specifically?’ I typed out on my phone as I walked towards the back of the library with Rhett following behind me.

“I was thinking I should start at the classical antiquity era, to be honest. I’m not exactly sure just how far they want me to go back...” I nodded my head as he began to tell me about his project and lifted a book from one of the shelves.

The titled read The Origins of Neoclassicism and I watched with an amused smile as Rhett gasped and reached for the book almost immediately.

“The classical era’s age of enlightenment,” He ran his fingers over the spine of the book and appreciated the cover of the hardcover, “This would come in handy.”

I spent the rest of the hour with Rhett in the library, finding books based on the ancient cultures and the world it thrived in and talking about their impact of it. I found a kindred spirit in the way he would speak about history and I found myself lost in conversation.

It wasn’t until my phone dinged with an alarm to have dinner did I excuse myself.

‘I should get going’ I typed out, and he quickly got up from his seat to help me gather my things that had somehow managed sprawled around us.

“Thank you again, really.” Rhett said as he walked me towards the libraries doors.

But just before I could get out of the door I noticed a large pile of equipment belonging to library just outside of the doors. I groaned to myself, making a note to chastise Robert for leaving those things outside again. Flo was already looking for a reason to kill him as is.

Hunching my bag further up my back I turned to pick it up, but Rhett must have noticed my movements and beat me to it instead. “Hey, you shouldn’t be carrying anything heavy with that wrist of yours.”

I sent a grateful smile towards him and led him towards the supply closet where we usually left our equipment. The room was small, especially with the two of us in there, but Rhett needed to place it on one of the higher shelves and I had to instruct him to where it went.

So the two of us were crammed into the small room as we worked together to save Robert’s behind.

‘Thank you.’ I typed out once the box was placed on the shelf, and Rhett gave me a light smile. But just before he could speak his response a loud slam sounded behind me and we were engulfed in darkness.

I heard the door click closed behind me and could hear the sounds of laughter ringing from outside of the supply closet. I turned to Rhett, but could barely see him in the darkness that surrounded us and I could feel panic begin to set in me.