Loose Change~ Montgomery De La Cruz / Zach Dempsey/Scott Reed

Part 3 Chapter 12a

"It's not your fault," she said, with a small smile. "I just like talking to you too much."

Her words were so precious to him. And her voice was so soft, and lovely, that he was now even more angry he wouldn't get lunch with her.

Montgomery pushed his other thoughts to the side, and smiled back. "Yeah, I like it too."

Ophelia tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. Her black hair clashing against her paler skin. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Tomorrow? That sounded so far away. But he just said, "Yeah."

It wasn't until she was gone that he realized how much happier he was to even just be in her presence. It was also when he realized he didn't want to go without it.

So at lunch, instead of heading back to his friends who had been asking where he was, he went to the library.

He had never gone in by himself, and when he had gone it was because the whole class was taken there. He felt lost, and confused. Especially since he didn't see Ophelia at all.

He caught sight of a sophomore athlete. Montgomery spoke to him a few times before, so he figured he could go up to him and ask for help.

"Hey, man," Montgomery greeted. "You seen a lil asian girl somewhere around here?"

The boy leaned back in his chair with a smile. "She was wearing a tight little dress?"

Montgomery felt a pang of jealously. He didn't think the dress was tight. But he did know she looked nice in it. "Yeah, her."

The boy pointed down the aisles of books. "I saw her go looking for something. Don't know if she came out yet."

Montgomery just nodded. He headed down the aisles, not seeing anyone. He was going to give up, but figured he should go all the way to the end, just in case.

And there she was, in the farthest row, sitting down with her back against the bookcase.

She must have heard his footsteps, because her eyes snapped over to where he was. She was on guard, but relaxed when she saw it was him.

"Monty?" she asked, confused. She didn't seem angry he was there. That was good. "How'd you know I was back here?"

"I didn't," he admitted. His voice was higher, because he was so happy he found her. "But I was looking for you."

He wondered if she would be mad he interrupted her. But she just smiled at him. "People don't usually come all the way back here. It's kind of a place where I'm able to be alone."

His face fell. "Oh, I can leave you alone." He felt stupid, because she already said she wanted to be alone.

"It's okay," she said, quickly. The smile was still on her face as she patted the spot next to her. "You can stay if you want."

Grinning, he sat next to her. "I promise I won't distract you."

Ophelia giggled. "Come on, obviously you can't keep that promise. I'm distracted already."