Through His Eyes

Through His Eyes [12]

Now, at seven in the evening she stood on the public library's steps and without the heat provided by the strenuous activity of walking -yes, it was strenuous to her- she felt like warm evening breezes might have already started to depart and leave chilly ones in their wakes. She shivered as she dug her phone out of her pocket and saw an unread message from Caleb.

[Caleb Archer]: I'll be there in five

It had been sent three minutes ago, so according to Rhea's calculations, he would be there any minute. Indeed, a minute of scrolling through her twitter feed later, she heard footsteps of someone quickly climbing the steps she stood on the top of.

Raising her head as she tucked her phone back into the back pocket of her jeans, she saw Caleb approach her with quick steps. He was wearing a denim jacket not unlike hers over the long sleeved shirt she recognized to be his uniform for his job at the supermarket and the same black jeans she'd seen him wear on Saturday. He smiled a tired and weary smile when they made eye contact, making Rhea feel a surge of sympathy towards this boy who had more on his plate than was fair for an eighteen year old.

"Hey," she said when he came to a halt two steps short from the very top. This way, they were at eye-level with each other, which was pretty weird for her; she'd gotten used to craning her neck to talk to almost every guy she'd ever known after they'd all seemingly grown ten inches over the same summer holiday.

"Hey," he said, "Have you been here long? It's kind of cold."

"No, I just arrived five minutes ago." When another shiver went up her spine, she gestured towards the door, "Why don't we head inside?"

Inside the library was considerably warmer than outside and Rhea welcomed it, letting it seep into her bones and warm her up from the inside out. She climbed up the stairs to the second floor without even hesitating, and made her way to her usual table by the window. That particular window had a beautiful view of the Rosemary Park that she'd used to go to all the time as a kid. Nowadays, she didn't visit that place as often, but it was still one of her favorite places in the entire town.

She'd always been one of those people who couldn't study in their homes because of the hoard of distractions, so she came to the library a lot. She'd chosen to take up that particular table as her usual spot, because she liked to watch the leaves rattle, the pollens fall and the kids run around in the park whenever she needed a break from studying.

"Your parents won't mind us meeting so late, will they?" Caleb asked in a hushed tone after they'd sat down.

"No, they're cool," Rhea answered. "I have to be home before eleven though."

"And I at work, so let's do this quickly."

The assignment was easy enough to complete, seeing it was just the beginning of school year. The first couple of weeks were always like that; you could keep up with minimal effort. It was after a couple weeks that everything started to pile up, making studying inescapable.

Rhea looked at Caleb, who was busy working on the titration diagram they were to draw. Surprisingly, he was a better drawer than Rhea and he'd snatched the paper away from her hands when she'd reached for the eraser for the third time within thirty seconds of starting with drawing.

So currently, she was without a task, watching as Caleb effortlessly completed the diagram with precise strokes of his pencil on paper. When he was finished, he raised his eyes to her, giving her a smug grin.

"Yeah, I get it," Rhea said. "You're good."

"No," he corrected. "I am flawless."

She rolled her eyes. Boys and their need to boost their egos at every possible turn.