North & West

Two

The thing about researching a problem you've got in the local library is that you've got to be discreet.

That being said, the act of being discreet had never been a particular talent of mine. Which was probably why my subconscious foot tapping and occasional swearing at the computer was drawing more than a little attention.

After I'd suffered the interrogation from my mother after the meeting less than a week before, she had told me that in order to recover, I needed to know my disease. The fact that she'd called it a disease made my skin tingle as if I needed to itch it, and above that, it made me feel dirty and as if I was doing something wrong. Which, in a way, I suppose I was – but it wasn't like I'd asked for it to be this way.

Nonetheless, since she had prompted my father into checking my browsing history on my private laptop as if I was some kind of criminal, I didn't really have any way to get some facts about what the fuck was going on with me.

It had fleetingly crossed my mind to ask that boy – West – if he knew any other useless facts, since he'd been so keen on sharing cigarette use facts, if I ever saw him again.

I clicked one of the first links on the library's bulky computer and scanned the page. It was basically just a website that told about the dangers of consuming alcohol or anything else fun – short term effects like nausea and blurry vision, and then the long term effects like liver damage and, of course, the most dangerous side effect – death.

After glancing over my shoulder to see if anyone was watching me, I clicked on another link and rolled my eyes when I found about the same sort of information. It wasn't anything really new, not even really anything more than I'd learned in health class.

One fact, however, did stand out at me – it said that alcohol has more of an affect on women and that they metabolized it slower than men. After reading that, I clicked out of the page and cleared the history on the computer before turning around.

Almost as if he'd appeared because of my fleeting thought about him, I noticed West standing behind my chair, a handful of paperback books in his hands and a little smirk on his face. I hadn't really been expecting to see the quirky boy again, let alone at the local library.

“Doing some research there?”

“Reading some dirty novels?” I quipped, nodding towards the stack of books resting in his hands, my lips tugging a bit at the corners when I caught sight of one that had the well-known label of a Harlequin novel on it.

Instead of being embarrassed as countless other people would have, West simply held the books up and shrugged. “My sister's at work and she had me drop them off for her. She's not a fan of late fees."

“That's a very kind thing of you to do.” I replied, not even sure for myself if I meant that in a sarcastic way or sincerely.

He shrugged again, fixing his eyes on me. “Want to go for a walk with me?”

I mulled it over in my head for a minute, before shrugging and nodding. I was more of a solitary person for various reasons, but something about this boy made it easy to be myself without feeling like I had to to check my words several times before letting them leave my mouth.

I waited on the bench beside the children's books while he went to the counter and turned the books in. After a quick glance at the counter and the quizzical look on the old man's face - he'd worked at the library probably since before I'd been born – I almost burst into an obnoxious bout of laughter.

I was sure that wouldn't go over well in a library though.

West, either oblivious or unashamed, waited as the man signed the books back in and then he walked back over to me. “What?” He asked, raising one of his dark eyebrows.