XIRUS

⚫Chapter 3⚫

Friday, June 14

Three days later, during my lunch break, I headed over towards the library to sign out more books. I was currently interested in Greek history. I returned my previous books and walked over towards the history section and began my search.

After picking up three books, I signed them out and took a seat at an isolated table far away from everyone else. I picked up the first book and opened it to its first page.

Suddenly a girl holding at least ten books walked past me to sit at the other end of the table. I looked up in confusion. Was she blind? Nobody ever sat near me. I noticed right away that she had dropped one relatively near me. I reached down to pick it up. It was a red book with no title. I slid it against the table. Once it got to her side, she stopped it with her hand. "Thanks," she said without taking her eyes off of the book she was reading. I stared at the girl in confusion. She looked familiar. Then I remembered where I had seen her. She was the same girl from Monday who bumped into me.

She suddenly looked up to stare at me. My eyes met with her brown ones. "Oh, it's you," she finally said. "Sorry for bumping into you the other day. I was running late for something," she said. "It's fine," I responded hesitantly. She wasn't from here. I opened my book and began to read. No later than thirty seconds, she was talking to me again. "Do you live here?" she asked. I looked up at her in bewilderment. "Are you ok?" she asked me seconds later. "Uh, yeah," I responded. "I live in the east," I told her. I stood there completely perplexed. This girl took a seat at the table that I was sitting at and is now talking to me. Was this actually happening or was I imagining it?

"Oh, cool," she said. I slowly looked back down for the second time and continued reading my book. Moments later I flickered my eyes to look at the girl again. She had her eyebrows scrunched as she sat there reading the book. Who was this girl?

Where we lived, there weren't a lot of people, so I basically knew everyone's faces, but I didn't know hers. She was definitely not from here. I sat there debating for several minutes if I should continue the conversation. After finally coming to a decision, I opened my mouth to speak. "Do you live here?" I asked her back. She looked up and smiled. "Um, no. I'm actually visiting." It felt weird talking to her. I never talked to anybody unless I was at work or to Jason at the house.

"What book are you reading?" she asked me. "Oh, uh it's about ancient Greece," I responded. "Oh wow. Greece," she said with excitement as her eyes lit up. "Shh!" the librarian said. Nia frowned at her before speaking to me again. "I would love to go there someday," she whispered. "Yes, me too," I responded. My eyes drifted to the tall pile of books that rested beside her on the table. "What are all those books about?" I asked. "Oh, um. Mythical books. They're about mythical creatures," she stuttered. "Cool," I responded. I wasn't expecting her to say that.

"Uh, I hope you don't mind me asking, but how old are you?" She was rather inquisitive. It seemed like she genuinely wanted to get to know me. "I'm turning twenty-one in a week," I responded. "Hmmm, you look younger," she said. "Oh really? Well, that's good," I said with a chuckle. After realizing I had just laughed, I froze. What was happening to me? "Are you ok?" she asked me for the second time. She probably thought I was a creep. "Uh, yeah I'm fine. Um, how old are you?" 

It took her a couple of seconds to respond. "I am nineteen," she said sounding unsure. "What do they call you?" she asked. I couldn't remember the last time someone had asked me what my name was. "Xirus," I finally said. "Xirus," she repeated underneath her breath. I felt a shiver hearing her say my name. "How do you spell it?" she asked. "X-I-R-U-S," I told her. Her eyes lit up. "Wow, that's so cool," she exclaimed. "Thanks. What's yours?"

"Uh, its Nia," she said. I nodded my head in response. I was somewhat enjoying this; us talking. I knew we weren't going to be friends, but it felt nice talking to someone other than Manda who actually sounded like they cared. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure," I told her.

"Is that your real skin colour?"

My eyes widened in shock hearing those words come out of her mouth. Was she serious? I got up from the chair feeling angry. I wasn't expecting that from her at all. I knew it was too good to be true.

I grabbed my books and walked away from the table. "Xirus! What's wrong?" I heard her call out to me. As soon as I got outside, I turned the corner and headed back to work. I couldn't believe I thought she was different. I was foolish to think that she was.