Summary: Arts student Aleena didn't think her life could be considered unique: her days, which consisted of studying and painting, were anything but interesting. Though, when Mick, frontman of the band Chordback, crosses her path in the best possible way, everything takes a turn.
In his entire lifetime, Mick had probably been at the public library twice. He had always been a noisy kid - with a mouth he could never shut and the attention span of a goldfish, as his mother liked to say - so, truly, the library had never been his place.
He had never been too interested in books or in the quiet that made his ears ring, at least until that exact moment. Mick entered the library he had passed by too many times to even remember with nothing in his mind, a headache from the long flight interrupting any possible train of thoughts.
The building was as quiet as he remembered it to be but, as an adult, the silence was much more appreciated. The smell of old books filled his nostrils just as he noticed the old librarian sit at his desk, his eyes hidden behind a thick pair of glasses.
As he looked in front of himself and noticed the few people sitting at desks, heads buried in books, he started feeling nervous. For some reason, he was scared he might get judged, as if everyone behind the thick glass doors could tell he had never been at a library before.
He was an adult, though, and he had learned to ignore what people thought about him from the moment Chordback had taken off: some people inside a library weren't going to bite. Right?
As he opened the doors and stepped inside the ancient building, its tall ceilings engulfed him in a comfortable embrace. The air was slightly cold, but he knew the goosebumps covering his arms weren't caused by the chill. They were the results of his amazement.
For a moment, Mick asked himself just why he hadn't explored the building before, but kept it to himself as he walked past the numerous tall bookcases. He didn't pay attention to his surroundings, rather taking some time to actually think about the real reason he had stepped inside the library in the first place.
The band.
He needed to clear his mind, understand what was going wrong between him and his closest friends. The fights, the loud silence that had been filling their penthouse ever since the disagreements had started - everything was too much.
An album was in the making, a tour was going to follow up soon after and, as the frontman, all the stress was on his shoulders. He didn't even know how he could deal with it, sometimes.
His body took a turn, stepping in the arts aisle as he stayed in his thoughts, not even noticing the body standing next to him.
There was a nightmare that had kept him up many times, and it was Charles leaving the band. As much as Mick hated the arguments that the guitarist often started, the thoughts of him leaving the band always left him scared.
What the hell would they do, without Charles?
"Greek art?"
The sound of a sweet voice snapped him out of his troubled thoughts, his eyes snapping towards a smaller woman standing right beside him.
"Oh- uh, no," he chuckled, shaking his head as he stuffed his hands in the pockets of his jeans. "I don't know why I'm here, to be honest,"
The girl giggled lightly, looking briefly at him before pointing towards a book too far away for her to reach. "Would you mind grabbing that one for me?"
He didn't even think about it, letting his arm rise until his fingertips ghosted over the back of the large book, carefully slipping it away from its spot. There was a moment of silence as he handed the book to the woman, a smile on his lips.
