Just Peachy

"God why is this so difficult?" I asked myself aloud.

A shush came from the nearby librarian and I instinctively rolled my eyes at her. I scanned the bookshelves not knowing what I was looking at and sighed quietly. 

I don't need to be getting kicked outta the library now, not when my assignment's literally due tomorrow. I don't even know what I'm fucking looking at.

 I bit my lip ring as I tried reading the book titles on the spines trying to look for one to catch my eyes.

Have books always looked this boring?

I saw a book that had the title "Just Peachy" with the letters going horizontal, making it easier for me to read.

Alright that one.

I went to reach the book and just as my hands landed on them, a smaller,  petite hand covered mine. I looked to the right of me seeing a very flustered brunette. She immediately retracted her hand, holding it with her other one as I looked at her. Her green eyes expressing a feeling of worry and probably embarrassment.

Cliché.

"Um I s-sorry," she whispered to me.

"Nah you're good," I replied, sliding the book off the shelf and holding it in my hand.

I turned the book so I could see the cover, seeing an illustrated drawing of a man and woman looking at each other with a peach faded behind them.

"Uhm..t-that's a good book," the girl stuttered.

I looked at her again, seeing her playing with her fingers. I noticed she had dark red nail polish on, burgundy.

"You read it before?" I asked in a quiet voice.

"Mhm, if you uhm haven't read it it's a great first read,"

She seems really shy.

"I don't really read much, I have to get one for an assignment I have due tomorrow,"

"Oh really? Ah, I see," she said sadly.

Seeing her frown made my chest feel heavy with guilt.

"Could you tell me what it's about actually? I wanna see if it's worth my time." I said.

Her eyes looked up to meet mine and beamed as she replied,

"Yes,"

Footsteps were quick to approach the girl and I and when I turned around I saw the stingy librarian.

"You must be quiet, this is a library," she said sternly.

"Oh I'm sorry Jessica, I just got a little excited," the girl said apologetically.

"That's alright Violet," she said to the girl.

"You, on the other hand, need to quit with the attitude and follow the rules here," she said, turning to me.

"Yes ma'am," I replied.

She glared at me before turning on her heel and walking back to the front desk.

"If you'd like to, there's a downstairs area we can go to. It's usually for people to do their homework or need to talk on some level of normalcy,” Violet asked quietly.

"Sounds good," I whispered to her.

She started walking towards this "downstairs area" and I followed close behind her. Once we got to the stairs and started walking down, I had a moment of realization.

Wait what the fuck am I doing? I just came here to grab a book and leave but here I am with some chick going to talk about a fucking book.

"Hey you coming?" Violet asked, pulling her red plaid skirt down just a bit.

"Yeah, sorry," I replied, snapping out of my thoughts and continuing to walk down the stairs.

I didn't really know why but it was like a trance. This chick just drew me in and I can't get back out but if I'm being completely honest, I don't know if I want to.

"Okay, we're here. This room is open," Violet said, pointing towards a room with an open door just down the hall.

She started walking towards it and I followed suit.

"So since you uhm know my name now thanks to Jessica, what's yours?" She asked.

I scratched my head with my right hand as I clenched onto the book with the other.

"Evan," I replied.

"Oh nice, what school do you go to? The one in Newberry?" she asked, walking into the room.

"No uh the one on the west side,"

"Oh is it that really small one I've been hearing about? I forget the name," she asked, tucking her white shirt into her skirt.

She has a nice figure, even though her hands are pretty dainty, the rest of her body was a little more fuller.

"Hmm?" She asked.

"Oh yeah my school's the smallest one, Fox Niche," I said quickly looking away from her.

Fuck I hope she didn't catch me staring.

"Yeah that's the one. My parents were thinking about switching me there because it's closer to the house."

"I think you'd like it, the school's small so you don't have to deal with a lot of people every day but our library is kinda small due to lack of funding."

"You think I'll like it? Sir we just met," she laughed.

I raised my eyebrow at her, noticing her sudden change in demeanor.

"Yeah and you seemed a lot more shy before."

She looked confused at what I said before she let out a breathy laugh.

"Yeah I did didn't I?" she asked, more like to herself rather than to me.

"Well I am known to be the life of the party so maybe you just fell to my "shell-less" spell," I said sarcastically.

"Shell-less?"

"Yeah, you know people are all like "Oh you gotta get outta your shell" and all that?"

"Oh okay I gotchu," she replied.

We stood in our places for what felt like much longer than it probably was, just shuffling our feet and looking at the stuff in the room.

"So do you wanna sit at a table or the couch?" she asked suddenly.

"Couch is fine," I replied quickly.

We both walked over to the light gray couch and sat down just a few inches away from each other.

"So tell me, is this book "Just Peachy?" I asked, raising my eyebrow again.

She giggled, moving a strand of her hair behind her ear.

"Well to me it is, it's a comedy romance story though so I don't know if that's really your genre."

If it means you keep talking to me, it's my genre.

"Like I said, I don't really read much so technically any genre is my genre," I replied.

"Okay then, well it's a story about a girl and a boy that used to date in high school but one day they get into a pretty big argument and break up because of it. Both of them miss each other but don't want to admit it because they're both so stubborn which is also part of the reason why they broke up in the first place. Some years later, the girl finds herself moving into an apartment to try and get a fresh start and finds out that the guy  lives in the same apartment. At first they try to avoid each other as much as they can but soon they end up bumping into one another more and more and slowly make their way towards talking base and then liking base. It's really cute each of them try to make the other jealous by getting with other people which in retrospect is both good and bad because it means they still like each other but it's bad for the other people involved cause then they're basically being used. But anyways one night she ends up drinking too much and going to his apartment and then they do the deed if you know what I mean. Then when she wakes up she sneaks out and basically doesn't leave her apartment for the next week. Everyday he comes to her apartment to try and talk to her but she wont let him in, until he apologizes. He apologizes for being so stubborn when he was younger and letting his feelings get in the way of their relationship and not being mature about the situation. He explains that he moved right after he turned 18 to try and get away from everything and that when she moved in it was like both terrible and great at the same time and he didn't know what to do so that's why he avoided her even though everything in his body was telling him to go to her and awe it's just so cute I can't," she rambled.

"Alright yeah that's a lot to process. At this point I feel like I don't even need to read it anymore,"

"What? But we haven't even gotten to the part where they find out their parents are gonna marry each other."

"They what?!" I asked in surprise.

Violet started laughing a lot, wheezing a little while doing it.

"Oh my gosh, okay yeah you're shitting me," I said in relief.

"Yeah but your face was priceless, I love doing that to people when they ask what I'm reading," she said, coming down from her laughter.

"Yeah whatever," I said, waving her off and chuckling to myself.

"Awe man never gets old," she said, resting her back on the couch.

I looked at her and saw she looked a bit young, maybe around my age.

"How old are you?"

She hummed,

"How old do you think I am?"

"My age."

"Which would be?"

"17,"

"Oh yeah, pretty close, 16 actually."

"So are you in 10th grade?"

"Yep.

"Are you good in school?"

"Depends on what you deem as good,"

I don't know how long we were talking for but soon enough our conversation about the book quickly died down and questions about each other began to arise. At Least long enough till the library was about to close. We walked out of the library together after a staff member told us and checked the book out.

"Wow I've never talked to someone as long as that before," she said once we got outside. 

"Same," I replied, feeling dazed.

She looked at the cars driving past us as I walked up to her.

"So did you drive?"

"Yeah, my car’s right there," she said, pointing to a car in the darkness.

Even with the street lights it was still hard to see.

"Cool, I walk home so uhm I guess this is goodbye?" I asked sadly.

"Well it doesn't have to be," she stated.

I don't think she could see anyways but I covered the smile that was forming on my face.

"I don't have my phone on me though, it's in my car," she said.

I dug through my pockets and pulled out a pen. I quickly grabbed her arm making her let out a small gasp when doing so and started writing down my phone number on her arm.

"There, you got mine then."

She looked down at her arm and started giggling.

"You do realize that I could've just gone in my car quick and got my phone right?" she asked through her giggles.

I realized what I had just done and scratched the back of my head awkwardly trying to think of an excuse.

"Uh well you know I gotta get going like now, my mom's worried sick about me so yeah that's why- I…yeah you get the point," I said quickly.

She smiled and sighed.

"Alright, I'll believe it for the sake of your dignity," she replied.

"Gee thanks."

We stood there in silence for a few minutes. I just wanted to linger for that little longer.

"What happened to needing to get home right away?" she asked in a questioning tone.

"Yeah well… yeah I need to- I should go- uhm yeah uh y-you're gonna text me right?" I stammered.

"Yes I will, you'll just have to wait," she replied with a sly smile on her lips.

She started walking away towards her car giving me a wave before getting into it and driving off into the busy night life. I stood there just feeling the bit of presence she left behind and looked at the book.

I'll just have to wait? Just peachy.