Fun Night

Sitting at the front desk was a girl who was obviously a student, the girl looked to be 20 or 21 years old. She had that kind of pretty face that girls her age had, the kind of face that was all around Roger even when he was younger, but girls like here were never interested in him anyway. The tight t-shirt she wore showed her athletic-looking upper body. She was sitting back in her chair, her legs kicked out and looking athletic just like her upper body. Her feet were actually bare and resting on the desk. Roger thought how unprofessional that was and it angered him seeing just another example of lack of professionalism and respect of people her age.

He walked by her, looking at her, the bare soles of her feet looking right at him as if they were saying “Ha-ha, old man, I know this drives you crazy but there is nothing that you can do about it.” He looked past her soles to see her pretty eyes were actually staring him down, looking at him with a smile like she had such a little amount of respect for him. He was 44-years-old and she probably thought he was one of those adult students that the resident students looked down on, thinking they were so much better than them.

But he wasn’t a student, he was alumni, his status allowing him access into the library with the card reader that was at the entrance. She would not take her eyes off of him, it was like he could read her mind saying “Ha-ha, old man, you’re twice my age and you’re still doing the same studying I am doing, I’m so much further ahead in life that you were when you were my age, I’m going to make so much more money than you.” None of that was true, he had a good job, and he just liked to come here so he could read for free as going to the bookstore had been taking a real toll on his wallet. He looked away from her and walked away.

**

It was almost time for the library to close but he couldn’t put the book down. His plan had been to come, read as much as he could, and then put it back for next time as he had already maxed out the number of books he was allowed to take out. He kept reading, though, and they were going to have to kick him out to get him away from this book.

He looked at his phone. The library was closing in four minutes. Granted, he was sitting in the downstairs corner of the library where no one ever was (that’s why he liked that area so much) but he still was surprised they didn’t do one last check to get everyone out. He saw lights starting to go off. Screw it, if they weren’t going to come find him, he wasn’t going to stop reading.

He looked at his phone again. 11 p.m. Closing time. The remaining lights that were on in the library were turned off. He turned the light on his phone on to see his book. If he wasn’t going to get kicked out at closing time he may as well stay a bit longer until he was finished reading. He was too into the book to worry about the oddness of hanging out in a closed library.

**

He could have sat there all night and read the book but when he got to a part that was a bit less interesting he closed it up and put it back on the shelf for the next time. He was too honest of a man to take the book with him though he easily could have. He looked at the time to see it was 11:44. He turned his phone light off, stood up, and began walking through the dark library, now realizing how spooky it was walking in a closed library in the darkness.

He felt better when he got close to the exit and he also liked walking by the desk without that arrogant girl and her feet looking at him. He pulled on the door handle to get out but it was locked. Darn it. He pulled again. Totally locked. This could lead to anything from frustration, to embarrassment, to getting him in a lot of trouble. He looked around the door to see if there was any kind of a lock on it, but not seeing anything. The way doors were these days he was sure it was all locked electronically. He didn’t want to try his ID on it, figuring it wouldn’t work, and not wanting to somehow leave some trace that he was there. So instead, he just pulled the door handle some more.

“That’s not going to open,” he heard a pretty female voice say behind him which startled him enough to make him jump.

He turned around to see the girl that had been sitting at the front desk standing there, smiling a pleased smile. She was quite a bit shorter than he was, standing at probably 5’3 while he was a little over six foot and the fact that she was still barefoot made her look even shorter. Even in the dark he could see bright red nail polish on her toenails that he hadn’t noticed earlier. He felt so humiliated being caught in the library after hours.

“Can you let me out of here?” he said nervously, his nervousness being increased by the fact that he was talking to a pretty girl.

“That door’s not gonna open,” she said and she laughed as she said it, a humor that he wasn’t seeing at all. 

“OK, well can you open it?”

“Nope.” She said it proudly.

“Don’t you work here?”

“Yup. But the doors lock automatically at 11:30. Gives us time to shut everything down but one time someone forgot to lock up. It was a whole big thing, the dude got fired, but they don’t let the students lock up anymore cuz of it.” 

He was shocked and didn’t know what to say. This level of incompetence surprised him, even from the girl that thought it was OK to rest her bare feet on her desk while she was working. “Why didn’t you check the library and let me know it was shutting down? You just let me get locked in here – let both of us get locked in here?”

“Why didn’t you leave when you saw the lights getting turned off?” she said back. “And why’d you stick around so long afterwards? Still had a half hour to get out after the last light went off.”

“Because you were the one working and it was your JOB!” he said sternly. She still smiled at him mockingly which really annoyed him.

“I did it because I like beating up loser guys like you,” she said. “And now I can do that without any interruption.”

“What??” 

She reached up, grabbed on to his shirt right at the shoulders, turned her body, and then threw him down on the carpeted floor hard. He knew a lot of these girls were getting stronger – when he had tried another stint at the gym about a year earlier that didn’t last he saw some of them leg pressing amounts that his skinny body wouldn’t be able to handle – but he was still surprised by her strength.

He looked at her bare feet, up her strong legs, up her body to her pretty face that looked proud of what she had done to him. It didn’t matter that she was a girl or how old she was, getting thrown down like that was all he needed to know he wanted nothing to do with her. Thinking it would be the quickest way to get to his feet, he rolled over on his knees and started to push himself up with his hands.

He felt her jump on his back immediately, her strength making her feel a lot heavier than she was. Her strong body made sure he wasn’t going anywhere and he was unable to push himself off of his knees. He felt her arm wrap around his neck from behind. Whether it was the positioning she had or if she was just a lot stronger than he was, when he tried to pull her arm off of him it would not budge.

He heard her giggling in his ear as she choked him and he could do nothing, pulling desperately, but her arms still not moving. He felt her legs wrap around his ribs and that sure hurt. Her legs were incredibly strong and them squeezing such a weak part of his skinny body was brutal for him. She kept tightening her arm and legs and it felt for sure like she was going to knock him out.

He pulled on her arm as desperately as he could to no avail and when it was laughable how little a chance he stood when he tried to pull her legs off of him as they hugged him tighter. Knowing he had no chance to overpower her he tapped out on her arm but she didn’t respond to it in any way. Desperate, he tried to think of what he could do. He reached his hand down hoping he would reach. He did, and he tickled the bottom of her bare foot.

It worked as her whole body immediately started to shake as she laughed and let go of him. He jumped to his feet and just started running away, running in the opposite direction of her and the exit, just wanting to get away from her.

“Oh, you son of a…” he heard her start to say. She may have said more but he didn’t listen as he just wanted to get away from her.

He could hear her bare feet stomping on the carpet coming after him. Ahead were many aisles of bookshelves. He thought if he could just get to them he’d be able to lose her, he wasn’t sure how long he’d be able to do that, but he’d settle for anything at that moment. He felt relieved when he made his way down an aisle without her getting a hold of him.

He wasn’t the most athletic guy out there but when he was scared his adrenaline and smarts could help him. He made a quick turn down another aisle and after maneuvering a bit through the maze of bookshelves, he could no longer hear her bare feet stomping behind him and he thought he may have lost her, at least for the time being.

He didn’t want to stay put for too long as he feared she might find him eventually and he also wanted to see if he could find some way out of there so he wasn’t locked in a dark library all night, especially with her roaming around. There had to be some sort of emergency exit and he had no problem if he set off an alarm, since as far as he was concerned, she was the one at fault that he was locked in there.

He carefully made his way out of an aisle into the main area near a staircase. He saw no sign of her so he thought he was at least safe where he’d hear her coming down an aisle or down the stairs so she couldn’t sneak up on him. He looked around to find any way he could escape. The windows he saw not only looked like they couldn’t be opened but they were too high for him to be able to reach. He looked ahead to the exit and wondered if he could break down the door with a chair. He figured there was no way to do that without the girl hearing it and finding him long before….his thought process was then interrupted as he felt her jump on his back, jumping down from the stairs.

This time he was able to get his hand up to his throat to block her from choking him but he still wasn’t able to get her off of him. He tried to wrestle himself free but she stayed on his back. He felt himself losing his balance then fell down, landing on his back as she didn’t have the best hold on him. He tried to wiggle free as she stayed on top of him and was able to push her off but she wrapped her legs around his ribs, scissoring him. He pulled with all of his might at her strong legs but they wouldn’t budge. 

“You have no chance of moving my legs,” she said to him proudly as she watched him struggle. “I play soccer and work my legs all of the time.”

As he struggled harder, his ribs really starting to hurt, she just hummed a little tune like this was all fun for her. After keeping him like that for a while she sat back up and straddled him. She started tickling his ribs. It had probably been twenty years since he had been tickled but there was something about her fingers that had him letting out a high-pitched screech. It wasn’t normally a noise you’d hear in a library and it sounded extremely loud in the big building. 

“Pretty cheap shot when you tickled my foot,” she said to him as he was now laughing so hard that the laugh was getting quieter since his stomach was starting to hurt. “Let’s see how you like it.”

She continued to tickle him and this was worse than getting beaten up as being stimulated that way when there was nothing he could do about it was torture. She continued what she was doing just having a great old time, him trying to beg her to stop but he couldn’t get the words out. He was laughing so hard he couldn’t even move his arms enough to try and push her off of him.

Finally she stopped but she grabbed his wrists and held them down at his sides so he couldn’t do anything. He watched her lift her legs up and then she put the bottoms of her bare feet right on his face. They felt soft and smooth and smelled fresh other than the fact that he could smell carpet on them. Every time he tried to turn his head, she would just follow it with her feet so they kept covering his face.

“We have a fun night ahead of us!” she said as she pushed her feet into his face and giggled.