Unwanted Touch

Chapter 12

Chapter 12: Not Helpful

I brush my fingers over the spines of the books.

".....So we are basically the cast from Scooby-Doo." Chris speaks from the other side of the bookshelf.

"If you says so." Q replies, "Only if you're the dog though."

"How did you even come across the piece of paper in the first place?" Aaron asks.

"I broke a photo frame with a picture of her mum in it." Quentin says with guilt in his voice.

"Ouch. Dude, that's not cool." Chris adds.

"I know."

"You broke a girls photo of her dead mum." Aaron chuckles.

"Aaron! Shut up!" Q says too loudly for a library environment.

There is a smack sound and Aaron yelps.

"Would you guys quit being idiots, I'm trying to read book titles over here." I say to the three of them from the next aisle over.

"Sorry." Q mumbles and walks around to join me.

"This is what happens when your best friends are three boys." I laugh to myself.

"Excuse me," Aaron appears around the corner, "We are not boys."

Chris comes up behind him. "That's right."

"Oh really?" I smile, "Then what are you?"

Q steps in front of them and they form a staggered line, their arms out in a triumphant pose.

"We. Are. Men." They say in unison and I roll my eyes as people turn to look.

"You're all big idiots, that's what you are. Now I brought you all here to help me but so far I'm the only one doing any looking."

"Alright then, Negative Nancy." Chris sighs and starts to look down the next aisle of books.

The thing about our public library is that it isn't very organized. Meaning the book we are looking for could be anywhere in the thousands of bookshelves amongst the millions of books.

Quentin follows behind me, scanning the shelves twice to make sure I didn't miss it.

"Hey guys!" Aaron calls from another aisle.

We all rush to his position in the library and he stands holding a small book.

"You found it?!" I beam excitedly.

"No, but I found this book on animals and there happens to be a picture of Chris in here. Look!" he holds up the book to show us a picture of a baboon type monkey with a rather long nose.

"Not helpful." I deadpan and return to where I was searching.

What did I do to deserve this?

I sigh and check my watch. 4.45pm. The library closes at 5:30, which hopefully I have found the book by then so I can get out of here.

"This is hopeless, Rory." Quentin comes up behind me.

"I don't know what else to do. There is no easier way of getting this book. If I ordered it online it would take weeks to get here, and I can not possibly wait that long."

"I guess so. But these knuckleheads aren't helping, should I let them off the hook?" Q looks over at Chris and Aaron who are peering through a bookshelf at a young girl on the other side.

I laugh a little before nodding, "Yeah, you can tell them they are free to go."

After 10 minutes, it is just me and Quentin left in the library. Everyone else has left, the only other person being the old librarian with a grey beard, who looks fast asleep in his desk chair.