A wandering love

Henry..

Chapter 1

Toby sits at a table in the library, an open book in his hands entitled "Troilus and Cressida" by William Shakespeare. The book was interesting to him and he found himself buried in it. His shirt black hair fell over his amber eyes slightly, his bruised cheeks from a fight he had earlier looked purple. they probably hurt like hell.

He didn't pay any mind to anyone else in the library, nor had he paid any mind to the kids who had bad-mouthed him on the way there. He simply just existed right now. He was calm, for once.

Henry wanders the library listlessly, not sure what he should do. Luckily, some rugged kid about his age caught his eyes, and he immediately knew who he needed to talk to. This guy looked lonely, at least in his eyes, and his dad always told him to be nice to others.

He briskly walks over, leaning over the shoulder of the other to see what they were reading, in hopes that could be used to start up some sort of conversation. "What'cha reading there?" He slipped easily into his bubbly personality.

Toby jumps a bit, startled at the sudden interruption. He looks up at the newcomer, not really saying anything but showing him the cover of the book.

"It's uhm.. a mythology book by Shakespeare.." Toby says, a little awkwardly. He's not very used to people striking up a conversation with him.

Henry feels a bit bad that he'd caused the other to jump in his seat like that, but if he tries to smooth it over with a warm smile he'd perfected time and time again. He reads the title of the book, though he doesn't really recognize it. He was more into modern fiction, anyways.

He can hear the awkwardness in the other's voice, and he can't help but worry. Was he going to get angry if he kept pestering him? He pushed on, anyways, knowing it'd be weird to just suddenly leave. "Oh! I didn't know he wrote about mythology! Is it...interesting?"

Toby nods, putting a bookmark in the page he was obviously not going to continue reading. He puts the book down and puts his attention to whoever this guy was. He didn't want to be rude, I mean, Toby did find him interesting. Just like Toby, this newcomer was faking. And Toby could tell. After all, it takes a liar to know a liar.

"Yeah.. it takes place during the Trojan War and it's about the main Characters, Trollius and Crossed whom are in a love affair.." he catches himself rambling and shuts up, clenching his jaw slightly while he glances away. "Sorry, didn't mean to ramble.”

The fact that Henry had somehow gotten the other to set his book to the side and actually face him was amazing. This was good, he was making a friend all on his own with a kid who probably would have originally wanted to be anything but friends with him. It made a genuine smile start to creep through. He always got happy when he did something correct for once!

"No, no, continue! I like to listen to others, I get sick of my own voice a lot easier than I would others!" He was quick to reassure the stranger that he was all good.

Toby looks at the newcomer curiously. He may have seen the kid around every so often but never talked to him. He doesn't say anything for a bit, just studying the man in front of him. As the silence stretches, Henry genuinely thinks he might have said something wrong. But what could he have possibly said that would offend him? All he was doing was trying to encourage him to keep going about what was so fascinating about his book! That wasn't bad, right? Toby finally says something after a long while.

"Y'know you shouldn't be sick of your own voice. Shows that you don't have much self confidence." He says, remembering a psychology book he had read a while back. He then also realized that what he said sounded pretty rude so he then spoke once more, though this time a little more rushed and scrambled. "Uhm- I didn't mean it like that I just meant..." he sighs "Sorry.. What's your name?”