Not Today | ✔️

Chapter One.

"...on occasion, I can think too much
I get uncomfortable, hide behind my walls
And I talk in circles, but at least I say what I mean
And I rock my heart on the sleeve of my T-shirt..."

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Evelyn peeked over her hardcover book, trying to be inconspicuous as she watched the boy sitting far away from her, but not even close to out-of-view. She was sitting behind the reference desk of the library, "reading" a book as she watched him, her gaze curious. Observant.

Nearly every single day, without fail, he strolled into the library at 3:45 in the afternoon and left at nine at night, save for the occasional Friday. He stayed even longer when it was the weekend, for the most part. And every single day, some volunteer in the library left him a banana nut muffin and coffee, holding three pumps of cream in it, from the connected café.

"Poor boy," a voice said, making Evelyn jump so high she put a kangaroo to shame.

"Huh?" she asked, readjusting the glasses on her face as she looked over at the older librarian, her honey hair graced with streaks of silver, almost the way tinsel adorned a Christmas tree, glinting slightly in the harsh, fluorescent light.

Evelyn glanced at the rose necklace on the librarian's neck, a symbol of her name, Rose. It was a pretty name, but she couldn't focus on the pendant's attractiveness when all she could focus on was the unevenness of the pendant, not hanging in the middle of the chain, but laying near her right clavicle. Rose noticed Evelyn staring and quickly adjusted the necklace so it was even, causing an equal amount of relief and annoyance in Evelyn.

Rose sighed. "Nothing."

Evelyn adjusted her glasses once again and pulled the sleeves of her cardigan over the palms of her hands. "What?"

Rose frowned, causing the wrinkles in her skin to deepen, reminding her, ironically enough, of rose petals and the way each one was pressed against each other in an annular shape, creating the beautiful top of the flower. "Nothing. I'm just an old woman finally losing her mind."

Evelyn didn't reply, just adjusted her glasses, knowing Rose was a smart woman who rarely spoke without a valid reason and had a very sharp mind. As Evelyn looked between Rose's worried stare and the boy, she realized her observations were more correct than she thought, and wondered if Rose also worried about whatever it was he was running away from that always caused him to run towards the library. A crease made its way between her eyebrows and her lips naturally quirked downward in a frown, as if the weight of the realization was materializing through being heavy on her lips, pulling them down.

Rose walked away, but Evelyn remained, placing her bookmark, which had an elephant printed on it, neatly between the pages of the novel. She closed the book and set it on the table, shifting her hazel eyes to the boy once more. She tugged on her bottom lip repeatedly, unsure of what to do with the questions Rose had unleashed in her brain.

Evelyn wasn't dumb or unable to read between the lines, she was aware that it was unusual for him to come to the library the way he did, without really having an interest in books or homework, but it wasn't stupidity, or even naivety, that made her not want to believe that troubles at home were the case... it was optimism. She'd liked to think maybe he just enjoyed the quiet or the atmosphere, like she did.

She'd known that boy her entire life. His name was Tristan Montogomery. When she'd first met him, she thought his name was silly, but as she grew up, she grew accustomed to it and grew to like the name. It was not that she grew up with him, but she grew up in the same orbit as him, the way kids did when they were too young to learn judgements or find cliques. There were a few times, as a result, they ended up at the same birthday parties or play dates.