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Motive - Ari + Doja
Friday dawned and brought the terrible anticipation of my birthday with it.
In contrast to my dismay, Sasha was extremely enthusiastic about Sunday and insisted on throwing a party harder than Zeke throws his balls — baseballs, that is.
Jean was the one friend in our group who organized every get-together, and it was no different for my birthday. For Sunday afternoon, we'd venture to Hannes' diner with just our inner circle, and for the evening, Jean was going to throw a party (Harder than Zeke throws his balls.)
Class was due soon, and I loitered in the library that neighbored Levi's lecture room. I wasn't completely aimless in that aisle, I was searching for a book that I remembered reading last year in Marley. My eyes scanned the lower shelves, then the middle shelves, then my eyes snagged on a familiar face on the other side of the shelves.
Eren quietly lingered, eyes skimming the titles of books until they found me on the other side.
"Hey bestie." I greeted him.
"Mhm." He hummed curtly, eyes heavy and hum deep.
" 'didn't take you to be the reader type — I'm shocked." I teased.
"Mhm." He hummed again.
He was clearly on a mission to annoy me with his stubborn 'mhms'.
I gave up trying to converse further, for both lack of his responses and lack of topics to bring up.
I scanned the top shelf, my eyes snagged on a familiar spine; The Many Myths of Ymir, it read in an ugly yellow font. That's it, that's the one I read in Marley — it was quite popular, much less in Paradis for obvious reasons. It painted us in a bad light, even if they were just myths.
Back in Marley, I encountered a few prejudiced peoples, but none got to me too much. People have grown more open-minded, but there's always going to be some stragglers littering the world just waiting to call you a devil.
"You need some help there?" Eren mused at my lengthy stretch to reach the top shelf.
"Fuck off." I scowled, then pulled the book out haphazardly by the top of its spine.
It nearly hit me on the nose as it tumbled down haphazardly.
"Such an independent woman." He scoffed.
Just a few books shielded us from full view of each other.
"Mhm." I mimicked derisively.
He rolled his eyes at me — he did that a lot, but this time it was less bitchy, so I took it as a positive eye roll.
I made a conscious effort to ignore his presence and breezed through the pages of the book, admiring the odd illustrations.
The book had my attention, yes, but at the same time I was calculating how to get to the other side of the bookshelf so I could attempt to strike up a conversation — a real one, not just 'mhms'.
It seemed like an impossible feat, really. How do you get closer to someone without it being evident that you're trying to do exactly that? I began overthinking, my eyes lingered vacantly on a page.
I skimmed through the book, only interjecting to check the time on my phone. When I was fully immersed in the pages, Eren had slipped away.
I arched my back and craned my neck to check if he went down the left side of my aisle, but then-
