The Love Plot (boyxboy)

19| Between the Bookshelves: Part II

Adam didn't go to school on Friday.

He didn't want to have to look at Winnie. He didn't want to apologize for kissing her, or beg her to forgive him. He didn't even want to get out of bed.

What was her issue?

What was his issue?

He lay in bed with the covers pulled up to his chest, his arms thrown over his face.

"Are you ever going to get out of bed?" His mother asked, balancing Annie on one hip, a basket of his clean laundry on the other.

"Avogadro didn't feel that need to leave his bed when he created his famous chemical calculation-equation, so why should I?" was his sleepy reply.

Pamela Matthews frowned. "You're being very lazy, young man."

Adam say straight up. "6.02 times 10 to the 23rd: sometimes with a negative 23rd 10th. I'm a loser compared to Win- I mean, Avogadro."

Pamela rolled her eyes. "Get up and I'll take you to school late." She set the basket down by his bed.

He groaned and rolled over onto his side. His mother sighed in exasperation and left his room, grumbling about lazy teen boys.

In truth, Adam wasn't feeling mentally prepared to handle school.

• • • • •

"Have you seen Adam?" Winnie asked Kyle during lunch.

He shrugged, his arm snaking around Haydn's waist. "He wasn't in homeroom."

Winnie frowned in thought. She had wanted to talk to him about what had happened last night, but he hadn't been in first period and she was starting to get worried.

"He's probably just taking a sick day," Chase assured her, his shoulder pressing absently against Marcus's as he reached for the ketchup.

Kyle contemplated this. "That's weird. He usually never misses Fiery Fridays in AP Chem."

"You could go check up on him after school." Lucy suggested, her meal sitting untouched in front of her.

Winnie let her chin rest in her hand. "Yeah. I think I'll just catch him at the library."

• • • • •

Adam volunteered at the South Finley Children's Library after school on Fridays. He didn't get paid, but he had once told Winnie, a smirk turning his features up that "It gives me more stuff to put on my college applications."

She walked up the stone steps and entered the air-conditioned building quietly, smiling at the receptionist at the front desk and taking the stairs up to the third floor. A sign on the doorway read 'Children's Library' and Winnie walked through it, her eyes scanning the large room.

"Are you lost, dearie?" A tiny old women with white hair and laugh lines approached her.

"No, I'm just looking for someone. Do you know if Adam Matthews works here?"

"Oh, the tall and handsome, young man with the glasses?" Her eyes crinkled as her smile grew. "He's such a nice boy. Are you his...?"

"Dolores!" Adam was walking swiftly towards the two women, his eyes rimmed with sleepy circles and his features lined with exhaustion. "That's enough."

"Oh, but I was just talking with this pretty, young lady here." The boy steered Dolores away from Winnie, but not before she got out "She's really quite lovely!"

Adam looked slightly harassed when he turned to look at Winnie.

"What are you doing here, Win?"

"I- I came to see you. To make sure you're alright."

He turned away. "Well, here I am, perfectly fine. You can leave now."

"Can we at least talk about what happened last night?" Winnie followed him down a row of bookshelves. A little girl was trying to reach for a book from the tallest shelf, and he got it down for her, watching as she ran off with it happily.

"What's there to talk about?" He asked. "I already apologized." He picked up a book that had fallen to the ground and dusted it off.

"Why did you do it?"

He ran a hand across his jawline, looking tired and worn. "God, I don't know. I don't know, Win. It was in the spur of the moment, ok? I'm sorry."

"Stop apologizing, damn it." She grabbed the collar of his shirt and forced him towards her, connecting their lips. The book in his hands fell to the floor again as he wrapped both arms around her waist and pushed her against the shelf. She let her hands climb to his face, her thumbs tracing circles across his cheeks.

They broke apart.

"What was that for?" Adam asked breathlessly.

"I wanted you to shut up." She kissed him again, their tongues touching briefly before he broke off again.

"So, what?" His mouth was open and his eyes were wide. "What does this mean?"

"It means I like you, dumbass." They kissed again.

"But what about-"

"Adam," her words were thick. "Shut up. You talk too much."

It was all she needed to say. Swiftly his mouth found hers. He was so gentle, so careful with where he placed his hands and lips.

A few kids dashed past them and hastily they separated. Winnie cleared her throat and straightened herself out as the kids raced by, giggling and clutching books in their tiny hands. Adam pushed his glasses up his nose impatiently.

When the kids were out of sight, he pressed himself against her again, their lips magnets and their hands exploring.

The librarian walked up the next aisle and both of them leapt apart.

"We cannot get caught kissing in a children's library." Adam whispered, but even as he spoke his lips were pressing to her mouth.

"Shut up." She sighed.

He might have said something had his mouth not been preoccupied.