One Roof

Chapter 9

A week had passed since we first got stuck together. 

“This sucks…”

I exclaimed as I stood near the exit. Underneath the B building of my campus was the university’s cafeteria, and at the end of that cafeteria was a corridor that led to the motorcycle parking lot. I stood at the exit, looking at the rain that poured onto the ground. The droplets that fall from the dark clouded sky, crashing into the earth with tiny little splashes. 

“What’s going on?”

Emily asked as she looked at my annoyed face. 

“Rain.”

“Oh.”

She turned around and wandered off. Maybe it wasn’t raining at her place? Regardless, since I used a motorcycle, I wouldn’t be able to go home at this rate. It was already five in the afternoon. Being a Tuesday, I had three entire classes today. To be fair, they consisted of the shorter ones, with each class going on for just two hours. 

To add insult to injury, today I made the severe mistake of waking up too late. I didn’t bring my raincoat with me, nor did I check the weather forecast. I did see the clouds, but I was dumb enough to not prepare for rain. With nothing else to do, I thought about checking the library, since if I wasn’t mistaken, they opened until around seven. But before I turned around, I found Emily running back toward me, something in her hand. She reached for the inner side with one hand and pulled it backward. 

“Should we try this?”

I was about to reply when I remembered that I and only I could hear her. I took my phone and messaged her on Fine. 

“Alright.”

She took her own phone and read the reply. 

“Alright, one, two, three.”

I and Emily moved into the rain. I extended my hand under where I presumed to be under her umbrella. I took careful steps, matching my pace with hers. Eventually, I arrived at the end of the corridor, where the roof ended. As it turned out, my hand felt wet. I let out a sigh of resignation and shook my head, then turned around and headed back for the building. 

“Didn’t work, huh?”

“No, unfortunately.”

It would be nice if it worked, though.

“What will you do, then?”

“I don’t know. Library, probably.”

I made my way to building A, stepping past a large garden that separated the two buildings. The library occupied the space right across the cafeteria, and it didn’t take long for me to reach it. The library consisted of two floors, with the second one accessed through a staircase within the area. I stopped in front of the barcode that was placed in front of the room. Usually, a security guard would be standing guard here, asking every visitor to scan the barcode. That day, however, the security guard was nowhere in sight. I had already saved the link on my phone, though, so I didn’t need to scan it again. 

With that out of the way, I pushed the glass doors and headed inside. A large triangular table with its pointed side pointing away from the entrance surrounded several librarians. I always wondered what librarians actually do, but asking that question wasn’t my goal for the day. The room itself, along with almost all its furniture, had been painted in a clean white. There were several exceptions, though, with the security guard’s chair that had been left in its original silver color. I made my way left, heading for the circular staircase which occupied the left side of the room. 

There was a lot of empty space on the first floor, since it was already five, most students had finished their schedule for the day and headed home, I assume. Those left were probably like me, waiting for the rain to pass. I saw someone drawing, some other person playing with a 3D model, while someone else looked at a huge line of text. I left them to their own things, not that I know any of them to begin with, and headed for the second floor.