-Intro-

Spencer sat by herself in a large cushioned chair in the library, ear buds stuffed in her ears, and her tan leather coat tucked around her. The library was gloomy, the lights turned down sending shadows across the towering bookcases. Her eyes started to nod shut, exhaustion sweeping over her.

                “Spencer,” somebody said from the shadows. Her eyes snapped open, music playing quietly it was almost non-existent. “Spencer,” said the voice again. She’d told Garrett to meet her at this chair when he finished with band rehearsal; he was supposed to be done over 20 minutes ago. Spencer slowly lifted herself from the giant armchair and pulled her cell phone out of her pocket. There was no messages or missed calls, where was he?

                “Spencer,” the voice called again from the darkest shadow. She walked over to the bookcase, peering into the darkness. There was nothing, books packed tightly together on the heavy wooden shelf. One title in particular jumped out at her. The Wicked Collection of the Sinister Master of Stories: Edgar Allen Poe. The title glistened in dark scarlet letters sending a shiver down her spine. There was no barcode on the pitch black spine.

                “Spencer?” She spun around; Garrett was standing behind her his bass case in his hand. James stood just behind Garrett’s left shoulder staring at Spencer’s shocked face. “What’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” She let out a nervous laugh.

                “More like heard one. I could have sworn I heard somebody calling my name,” she sighed. “I think that I’m going insane.”

                “More than you already are?” Garrett laughed. Spencer stuck her tongue out at him and turned back to the bookshelf. The book still sat on the shelf. She slid it off the shelf and walked towards the boys.

                “The library is closed,” James said, moving to walk next to her. “You can’t check that out.”

                “It doesn’t have a barcode,” she said, holding it out to him. Something tells me that they aren’t going to miss it.” James grabbed the book from her, examining the pitch black hardcover with scrawling red calligraphy lettering. Spencer had noticed it was frigid when she’d picked it up off the shelf, James said nothing about it. He handed it back to her, smiling.

                “You like Poe?” he asked. She nodded her head emphatically, grinning like a goof. The trio pushed open the heavy glass doors of the library and walked out into the bitter, December chilled air. Spencer shivered into her coat, her hands instantly freezing. James’s hand twitched towards her but he rethought it, shoving it angrily into his own coat pocket. Spencer didn’t notice, absently following Garrett to his truck.

                Night had fallen around the old gothic library, making it look creepy beneath the tall bare oak trees. Over a hundred years ago an old gothic abbey was reverted into the town’s largest library.  It sat tucked away on the edge of the town, seven gigantic oak trees growing along the outside of the building. Check out was self- automated and Spencer couldn’t remember ever seeing somebody working there. But somehow, during the night, the shelves were dusted, dirt vacuumed, tiles swept and books returned to their shelves. Spencer didn’t know how but she loved the mystery of the entire place, inside she just felt safe.

                Tucked tight into the middle seat of Garrett’s truck, her shoulder was pushed uncomfortably behind James’s shoulder. His arm was pressed between his leg and her own. Spencer half wished that he’d just put his arm around her, it’d be a lot more comfortable that way but she knew James didn’t care for her that way and it would be emotionally uncomfortable.

                Garrett turned sharply onto James’s street, throwing their instrument cases against the far side of the truck bed. James glanced over his shoulder, out the back window. The tips of his pale blonde hair brushed Spencer’s cheek. His eyes were glued to her face, taking in the soft curve of her cheekbone and the gentle bow of her lips. Dark auburn strands were tucked behind her considerably pointed ears. Garrett shot him a look behind her head, knock it off creep. James turned to look out the windshield, letting out a deep breath. Garrett pulled into the dark, black driveway in front of James’s tall, Victorian style house.

                “Bye,” James mumbled, unbuckling his seatbelt and sliding out of the truck. They waited in the driveway until James pulled out his keys and unlocked the front door. The truck rolled backwards, onto the street and headed back up the street towards Garrett’s house.

                “Do you want to see a movie?” Garrett asked, glancing at her in the rearview mirror.

                “Right now? It’s kinda late isn’t it?”  She laughed, staring out the side window at the moon.

                “It’s 9:30,” he said, tapping the LCD clock on the dashboard. “Besides, you’re mom loves me. Just text her and ask. I’m sure that she’ll be fine with it.” Spencer sighed, pulling her cell phone out of her pocket. He was right. Her mom loved Garrett; she always invited him to dinner, holidays, and family outings. Garrett was by far her best friend in the world. They’d known each other since she moved to town 6 years ago. Garrett lived by himself, emancipated after his parents died.

                “Hello?” Spencer’s mom answered the phone.

                “Hey mom, uh, is it alright if I go to a movie with Garrett?” She heard her mom moving around on the other end.

                “Yeah that’s fine. Are you sleeping here or at his house afterwards?”

                “His house.”

                “Alright, have fun. I’ll see you tomorrow. You’re coming home before your shift right? Or do you have your uniform at his house? I always forget.” A sharp pain twisted in Spencer’s chest. Her mom had started to forget things more often lately; it was starting to worry her.

                “I have a spare uniform at his house. I’ll see you when I get off work. I love you mom. Bye.” Her mom hummed good-bye and clicked off. “I’m cleared,” She said to Garrett. He nodded. Without saying anything he pulled into the driveway of his house and turned off the truck.

                “I want to drop off the bass, just in case it decides to rain,” he said. Spencer nodded and slid out the door. She skipped up the stairs to the front door, punching in the key code on the front door and stepping inside. Garrett followed her in and shut the door.

                Spencer followed him through the house, into the living room. He set his bass guitar case on the ground next to the sofa and shrugged off his sweatshirt. Underneath the dark, scarlet sweatshirt he wore a black, skin tight, v-neck t-shirt. Spencer’s girl friends always talked about how attractive Garrett was and how lucky Spencer was that she was so close to him. She always had to convince them that she wasn’t sleeping with him and that the two of them weren’t dating. She did agree with her friends though, Garrett was very attractive. He was tall with thick muscle cording his entire body. He had shaggy golden blonde hair that curled just above his ears.

                “Do you want to change before we go?” He asked, glancing over at her. She looked down at her clothes. She hadn’t expected to go out in public besides the library today. She wore baggy grey sweatpants dotted with spatters of paint, and a tight black t-shirt that revealed just the slightest bit of flat, tanned skin of her stomach. She nodded and started up the stairs to his bedroom.

                There was a huge walk-in closet across from the bed. It was stuffed full with a combination of her clothes and Garrett’s. She walked past the large four-poster bed and pulled opened a drawer. Simultaneously, she slipped off her sweatpants and pulled a pair of black skinny jeans out of the drawer. Hopping around the room, she jumped into the jeans and opened the closet door.

                “The method with which you do things is fascinating,” Garrett laughed from the doorway. Spencer spun around and glared at him.

                “Nobody asked you to watch,” she growled. Garrett snickered and walked into the room. He came to stand next to her in the closet and stared at the array of clothing.

                Spencer moved away from him and grabbed a yellow tank top, and stripped off her black t- shirt. She pulled the tank top down over her head and snatched a white, flowered gauzy cover and pulled it over the thin straps. Garrett grabbed a blue zip-up sweatshirt off one of the hangers and put it on. Spencer grabbed her extra thick, brown leather belt and buckled it over the gauzy cover shirt.

                She smiled and led the way back down the stairs and out the front door. Garrett ran after her, throwing a black leather jacket over her shoulders. Spencer sighed and shrugged on the coat, scrambling into the truck and watching Garrett navigate his way through the streets towards the movie theater.

                The turned onto the highway, leaving the unlit, backstreets behind.  There was no music playing in the car, the rush of wind around the truck seemed amplified in the cold silence. Garrett’s radio had broken a few months ago, now whenever one of them remembered they’d bring CDs.

                “What are you thinking about?” asked Garrett. “You’re about a million miles away.”

                “I’m supposed to go camping with Drake and Patrick tomorrow after work,” she said.

                “Really? You’re mom is fine with you going off somewhere and spending the night with two boys?”

                “She lets me spend the night with you most nights,” Spencer pointed out.

                “I don’t know, just, this I don’t like” He sighed. “Where are you going?”

                “Leo- Amadeus Baxter Campground. It’s about two hours away,” she said, glancing at the looming movie theater nearby.

                “I’ve heard of it,” he sighed, again. Spencer snuck a glimpse at him between her hair. He was irritated, frowning angrily at the steering wheel.

                “Why don’t you come with us?” she asked. His head shot up, throwing a glance at her before turning back to the road.

                “I can’t,” he groaned. “I’m supposed to spend the day with James. I don’t want to just back out on him.”

                “Bring him,” she said, after a minute of thought. “I’m sure Drake and Patrick won’t mind. They’d wanted more people to go but everybody’s busy.”

                “You sure?” He asked, pulling into a parking spot in the parking lot of the movie theater. Spencer nodded, smiling a toothy grin at him. Without hesitation Garrett pulled out his phone and punched in a series of numbers.

                “Hey, I’ve got a question for you,” Garrett said once James picked up on the other end. The volume was turned down on his phone; Spencer couldn’t hear James’s response.

                “How’d you like to go camping tomorrow? Spencer is going down to Baxter to camp with two friends.” Pause. “Yeah she said it was okay, they’d been looking for more people but everybody was busy.” Another pause. “Yeah, I’ll ask.” He turned his head to look at her, “what time tomorrow?”

                “We were planning to leave here around 11,” she said.

                “Around 11,” he relayed the information. “Yeah I’ll pick you up at 10:30 and we’ll meet up at Spencer’s house. Alright dude, I’ll see you later.” He snapped his phone shut and looked at her. “Good?” Spencer nodded and jumped out of the truck.

                Together they sat through a movie about Hansel and Gretel being witch hunters. Spencer thought it was a great movie, she couldn’t tell what Garrett was thinking when the movie ended but it wasn’t about the movie. By the time the movie ended it was well past 11 at night. They drove silently to Garrett’s house and pulled into the driveway. Spencer’s car was still parked in the street outside the large house.

 The silver 2012 Ford Mustang GT looked like it belonged more than Garrett’s old red pick-up truck. In his neighborhood, the people had their fancy sports cars and luxury houses. Spencer didn’t understand how Garrett could afford the large, modern Victorian house but she felt it had something to do with his parents so she didn’t want to ask. Garrett unlocked the front door and led her inside.

“Are you tired?” Garrett asked, turning to face her.

“Exhausted,” she yawned. “I have to stop into work tomorrow to pick up my paycheck. I’ll be up around 9:00 if you want to have breakfast with me.”

“I’ll be up when you are,” he smiled. She nodded and walked with him up the wide staircase to the bedroom. Spencer changed back into her sweatpants and black t-shirt. Garrett changed into a similar outfit and they both curled up under the blankets of the large four- poster bed. Within minutes Spencer was asleep, breathing heavily into the silk pillow cover.

Garrett lay awake, staring up at the ceiling above him. The lights from the houses across the street shone through the window near the bed and made rectangular patterns on the ceiling.