Seven Twenty-Eight

1.

Oliver wandered into the library before dinner, having his heart set on picking up a new math textbook the replace the dingy one he had gotten the week before. It was a rather pleasant surprise to him to find his lab partner tucked away into the corner, hiding herself away in the many aisles of books.

He took a deep breath as he approached, and heavy steps to help make her aware of his presence. "You know there's tables over there, right?" He joked, stopping ahead of her and towered over her small frame.

Her head snapped up to him, gripping onto her book as she pressed it against her chest. "Hey," She breathed out, in a clear haze of the land of her book.

He smiled weakly, taking a small step back to ease the tension on her neck.

"Uh— I-I know," She stammered, shooting her gaze in all different directions as she came back to reality, "It's quiet back here."

He nodded, awkwardly jamming his hands into his dress pants. "Yeah, I get it," He told her, "I was just teasing you."

She smiled weakly and looked back down, uncrossing her legs and pulled them up to her chest. She gestured out to the small path made before quickly moving to hold her bag closer. "Sorry," She mumbled, glancing up at him.

"You're good," He smiled back, "Sorry, I just wanted to say hey— I didn't mean to disturb you-"

"Wh— N-no, you aren't— You aren't disturbing me," Elisa quickly reassured him, "I thought I was in your way but I'm just— I'm just reading."

He hesitated, tapping his fingers against the shelf beside him before crouching down beside her. "What are you reading?" He asked quietly, tilting his head to take a peak at the spine.

She cleared her throat, cowering back into the corner as far as she could manage. She shuffled it in her hands, presenting it to him tensely.

"Harry Potter," He read out loud, "And the Prisoner of Azkaban-"

"And the Prisoner of Azkaban," She read out with him, and quickly pulled it back to her as she began to ramble, "It's a good read. An easy one, I think. I've read the whole series a handful of times but I wanted to come back to this one— It's definitely my favorite," She paused, taking a sharp breath and brushed her soft brown hair away from her face, "I mean, no book ever beats The Catcher in the Rye, but Rowling really knows how to do it."

"The Catcher in the Rye?" He repeated after her, shifting to sit down in front of her.

She shrugged her shoulders, refraining from grinning at him with excitement. "I'm a sucker for Salinger, I guess."

"Yeah, but-" He paused, gesturing his hands at her, "Catcher? It's a good book but it's not that good."

She smiled in amusement, shrugging her shoulders as she playfully rolled her eyes. "Speak for yourself," She replied calmly, "I have my reasons."

A helpless smirk smacked onto his lips, fascinated by her sudden confidence in retorting back at him. "I can respect that," He told her, leaning away slightly to invite her out of her obvious shell, only smiling wider when she sat up right, holding a more confident posture to him.

"When you've read as many books as I have, you'll get it," She teased him, releasing the grip on her book and dropped it into her lap.

Oliver's mouth opened in shock, gasping quietly in surprise. "Who says I haven't read many book?" He put his hand over his heart, playing his offense to her.

"The look on your face as soon as I started talking," She retorted, smiling innocently, "The second I started spitting out the authors last names, I knew you were done for."