Beautiful Mess (Book I)

Chapter sixteen

"How can I fall in love when I'm afraid to fall?"

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•Kyle•

Shelley has brought us to the library today. I didn't even know that this place had a library.

The entire room is full of books. There's also this certain musty smell that reminds me of the hours of boredom I used to face back in elementary school, whenever our homeroom teacher forced us to spend an hour in the library.

"You can choose any genre you want." Shelley gestures to the shelves. "Here's the Romance section, and then there's Horror, Humor, Historical..."

"It'll be fun." Star smiles. "If we get to choose the books ourselves."

"Of course, that's the whole point." Shelley nods.

"So... we're supposed to read books?" Oliver mutters, and Megan doesn't look thrilled either.

"Only if you want to. The main goal for today is choosing what both you and your partner would want to read."

"We're going to pair up? Nice. I choose Meg." Oliver steps closer to Megan.

These two should get a room.

"I'm sure you'll enjoy this task. It's simple, and fun." Shelley smiles. "Okay, I'll leave you to it. Take as long as you need, I'll be back in a while to check on you."

"It's gonna take a while, that's for sure." Star chuckles, glancing at Lilly and Flint as they stand next to each other with a blank face.

Star and May are already taking a step towards the nearest shelf by the time Shelley leaves the room, but the rest of us are standing there in awkward silence.

"Let's get it over with," Megan mutters, grabbing Oliver's hand and dragging him to the shelves.

Rae and I glance at each other and silently agree to do the same. So we leave Lilly and Flint as they stubbornly cross their arms.

We skim over the first shelf and slow down as we get to the second one. Rae pays more attention to the books than I do, because, well, the look on her face whenever she comes across an interesting book is too distracting.
Her fingers brush past a few books before she pulls one out.

"Look at this one." She shows me the dull grey cover, designed with simple but cool patterns.

We hear a fit of laughter and before we even realize what's going on, I get shoved towards her and we both knock into the shelf.

"What the..." I turn around, and two worried faces stare back at me.

"Gosh, why am I so clumsy?" Star laughs nervously.

"Sorry," May adds with a guilty look. "It's my fault. I was chasing after her--"

"Because I snatched this book from her hands. So it's actually my fault." Star cuts her off.

"It's okay." Rae chuckles. But then she sucks in a sharp breath, and all three of us stare at her in confusion. "I'm fine. It's just, the shelf hit my lower back," she explains with a pained look. Star and May wince along with her as if they felt the pain.

"Gosh, that must've hurt a lot-- I'm so sorry, Raelyn. I should have been more careful--" Star starts to ramble before May cuts her off.

"It was my fault--"

"Guys, stop it. It doesn't hurt that much." Rae shrugs but bites her lip immediately to stop herself from crying out in pain.

"We'll just go away now," May mumbles in embarrassment before turning back, pulling Star along with her.