She's my world

1

She read that this was the first of many books in the Rizzoli and Isles series. She flicked through the pages, noticing someone had highlighted some sentences. She stopped at one highlight, The most intimate feeling people can share is neither love nor hate, but pain. Aeri swallowed, glancing around her before returning to the book. Something made her want to read it, but she didn't have a book to replace it with.

Her mind started to fill with thoughts. Who had highlighted that sentence? Was someone else going through a breakup like she was? Did someone find solace in the pages of this book?

As she opened the cover and began to read, she felt as though the pages were sobering her up somewhat, supplying a little comfort somehow, despite the darkness illustrated on its cover. She moved slightly on the bench, settling into it as she became engrossed in the words, in the world away from her own, away from her thoughts and her pain.

Despite the clear indication of death on the cover, Aeri found herself lost inside the world of Boston homicide and forgot her thoughts for a while, the book providing her with some sort of comfort within her sea of pain.

-

Aeri was jolted from the book by someone talking to her.

"Excuse me, miss?"

Aeri looked up when she became aware that the lady was talking to her.

"Are you okay? You look like you've been crying, and you must be freezing. It's so chilly tonight. Can I call someone to take you home?"

Aeri shook her head, wiping tears from her face that she never knew were there, noticing as she did so, how cold her hands were. She looked at the book and realized she'd read about 60 pages. She must have been sitting there for a while.

"Sorry," she muttered to the lady. "What time is it?"

The woman looked at her watch. "Almost midnight."

"Jesus," Aeri said, causing the lady to laugh and hold out a hand.

"I'm Yizhuo, but you can call me Ningning," she greeted.

Aeri took her hand and shook it. "Aeri."

"Your hands are freezing, Aeri. I have a blanket in my car, which is parked over there. Would you let me get it for you?"

She nodded and watched as Yizhuo walked to her car. She looked down at the book, folding the corner of the page over before closing it. That was when it struck her that she'd actually not thought about Jimin all that time she was reading.

She was interrupted from her thoughts by the warmth of a blanket being wrapped around her and the movement of the wooden slats as Yizhuo took a seat next to her. Her eyes were drawn to the closed book in Aeri's hands. She pointed to the cover. "So, how are you liking the book? It didn't make me cry when I read it."

Aeri let out a small laugh. "I don't know where those came from. Well, I do, but I don't know what the book did to bring them."

"I haven't seen you around here before. Do you use the book exchange much?"

Aeri put her book in her lap and pulled the blanket tighter around herself, the chill in her bones starting to diminish. "No. I didn't know that it was here. Someone told me about it tonight, and I guess I just got lost for a while."

"An escape from whoever made you cry?" Yizhuo asked softly, noticing as she did so, a slight change in Aeri's posture.

"What makes you assume that I'm crying over someone?"

"I don't know. I can usually read people pretty well and you look to me like you're hurting. I think you've maybe had a drink... or several going by the strong scent of bourbon I can smell when you talk..."