vellichor short

The L's

He handed her another one. "I'm just saying. I mean, there's got to be a moral or something to it. Else there's no point!"

Lamb, Lamming, Landis, Landon, Lang, Lang, Larson, Laumer. She tucked the book into its place. "There doesn't need to be a moral, it's a horror movie. You watch it just to get scared!"

He gently tossed her another book. "But what's the point? Just to see a ghost? Or a vampire?"

She inspected the cover. "That's exactly the point! Well, not exactly. You watch a horror movie to distract yourself from the horrors of your own life."

He snorted as he sifted through another pile. "The horrors of your own life? That's a bit melodramatic."

"Granted, but seriously. Why do you not like horror movies?"

"I don't like them because there's no point to them! Why would I torture myself with something that I know is going to scare me?"

Lobel, Lockhart, Lockridge, Lodge, Lofting, Long, Long, Long, Lorde. She smirked into the bookshelf, a single arching eyebrow raised. "Scared?"

He stood, carrying another book over to her. She was so absorbed in the bookshelf that when she turned, she bumped into him. Still carrying the book, he grabbed one of her arms to brace her. He stood startlingly close, and she tried not to flush as she said again, "I think you're scared."

"Really? Because I think you're trying to bait me into watching a scary movie with you."

Instead of blushing and looking away like he usually did, he kept looking into her eyes, like he was waiting for her to challenge him. She finally broke away, taking the book from his hand, and busied herself by studying the cover. Lu, Lucas, Luceno, Lunan, Lynch, Lynch, Lyon. Her face was definitely warm.

They continued their discussion, finally reaching an agreement that horror books are always better than the movies.

Halfway through the L section, they came across an aging book bound in thick, weathered leather. The stitches were popping out of the seams, and the corners of some pages folded up in protest. Stories of Anton Chekhov, the cover read. As he delicately flipped through the pages, she came to stand across from him, studying the beaten brown pages.

"Can you fix something like this?" he asked, still flipping through the pages.

She gently pried the book out of his hands. "Sometimes. But a little glue and a mallet doesn't always do the trick." As she inspected the spine, she came across a note, scrawled close to the margin of the very last page. "Aaron, look at this! To Rebecca dearest, I love you with all my heart and soul." she read out loud. She looked up at him, only to discover that he had been trying to read the inscription upside down and had moved much closer to her than she had predicted. Bonk!

"Shit, sorry! I thought you were further away." she said, rubbing her head.

He took a step back and mirrored her. "Sorry, sorry." he echoed.

She realized a beat too late that she was staring at his lips. And he could clearly see this, as the tips of his ears were turning pinker by the second, a sign of embarrassment she had come to quickly recognize. Oh, shit. She looked away as nonchalantly as she could, handing him the book to read the inscription. God that's embarrassing, she thought to herself. He's probably super weirded out right now, idiot. She turned away, intently studying the L's as she ran a fingertip over the spines. Lackey, Ladd, Laffert, LaHaye, Laine, Laird, Lake.

They moved on to other, safer topics, and by the end of the night, they had organized almost an entire shelf. Like she did every night, she thanked him profusely, babbling about how she wished she was as tall as him. And just like he did every night, he listened to her with a small smile, watching as she bustled around the small space. But for the first time, as they left the bookstore, he paused for an uncertain moment, looking back at her, hesitating. He considered saying what he had been thinking all night. I really, really want to kiss you. Or what he had been thinking since he had first met her. God, you're beautiful. But then he imagined her shocked face, their friendship laying shattered between them, and he swallowed his words and simply smiled at her, and the moment passed, like it had never occurred at all.