When All She Is

In the morning, Carli escaped to the library early the next morning. Her dad still wasn’t home. She sat behind the checkout counter and opened Leaving Time, her mother’s favorite book. It was always on a high shelf.

The fresh morning light poured through the tall windows. A year and two days ago, the same library was swarmed with people, most between twenty and thirty years of age.  She missed the welcoming crowd that gathered. It was never too big or small. She was lonely here.

Did she have to be?

Again, she did what she figured she would usually do when she was alone. Call Kylian.

“Kylian?”

“Yisssssss. It’s seven thirty. What is it?”

“Could you come to the library?”

“What library?”

“The closed one next to Needle & Thread.”

He hung up. Carli was disappointed, but did she really expect him to show up to an abandoned library at seven thirty and -

Ding

“Wanna explain to me why I’m here this early in the morning?”

Carli ran to the door and hugged him. “Thanks for coming, Kyl.”

He sat down next to her behind the counter.

“You gonna tell me your life story or what?”

“Not now.”

She had been holding back tears for hours now, and she couldn’t anymore. She put her head on his chest and sobbed.

Ding

Carli and Kylian sat up straight inu a split second and turned their attention to the door.

Mela entered, looking slightly less creepy than the last time.

“Mela, why are you here?!” Carli was still crying.

“You told me not to come back, but he’s here.”

“Kylian gets to be here. You don’t.”

“Is it because he’s your boyfriend?”

“He’s not my boyfriend!”

“I’m not her boyfriend!” he said at the same time.

They had been in this place several times before during the school year. So what if Carli actually hoped he was? That didn’t matter.

Kylian met Carli’s eyes, and for a split second, he might have blushed.

Maybe.