18 Months -- Michael Langdon x Reader

Chapter Three

You stood in the Hawthorne library, staring up at the walls of books in fascination. You were sure that there were plenty of books similar to the ones at Miss. Robichaux's, but you also knew there had to be plenty of different ones; ones you'd never even heard of. Your fingers itched to pull them from their shelves and start flipping through them, to see if there was any new magic or knowledge you could discover- but, you knew better. These books weren't yours, and the warlocks didn't see you as a guest, so you had no right to start taking things from their rightful places. The door of the library hesitantly creaked up, and you paused your ogling to see who had come in.

"Michael?" you hummed, fully turning to face him once the blond had entered the room. You had briefly seen Michael when your coven had gotten to the school earlier that morning before he was being rushed off for some last-minute preparations for his test tomorrow.

"Hello," he greeted, shutting the door and walking over to you. "I didn't have the opportunity to say hello to you earlier, so I thought I'd do it now."

"How'd you know I'd be here?" you grinned, looking back up at the books once he had come to a stop at your side.

"The same way you knew I'd be at the fire pit."

"A guess." The two of you spoke at the same time. You nodded in understanding and allowed the silence of the room to close off the conversation. You both just stood there for a while, staring up at that one particular wall of books. There wasn't anything obviously special about it, simply the bindings of roughly a hundred books looking down at you, in all sizes and colors. The books didn't even seem to be organized in any certain way either- the last names of the authors weren't alphabetical, and neither were the titles. Hell, it wasn't even color coded. After a while, you started trying to figure out if there was some sort of pattern you weren't seeing.

"You're staring at the books like they killed your grandmother," Michael spoke after a while. You looked up at him and shook your head with a frown.

"They're not organized..." you said softly, glaring up at the books once more. Michael snorted in disbelief, turning his body slightly so he could cross his arms at you.

"You're mad at the books because they're not organized?" he questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"Uh, yeah," you scoffed, crossing your own arms and staring up at him. "How do you boys even find anything?"

"This little, precious thing called magic," Michael mocked, waving his hand in the air. In an instant, he held a large, black, hardcover book in his hands.

"House of Leaves?" you questioned, instantly recognizing the cover. "Oh, and your smartass comment? Real cute, Langdon."

Michael snickered and flipped the book over to show off the cover and reveal the title. "Have you read it before?"

"Yeah, it's interesting. Took a while because I really wanted to understand the story and the house, but it was good. Why'd you choose it?" you asked, reaching out and grabbing it from his hands.

"I used to read it as a child. It... reminded me of home, you could say," he smirked. You nodded and left the conversation at that. "So, if you guys need a book, you just wave your hand?"

"Yeah. Are you telling me you don't?"

"No, we use our hands. You can't rely on magic for everything, that's what my mother says. Besides, if you get too used to it, you'll slip up in public. Probably get burned alive," you shrugged, watching as Michael rolled his eyes.