I took a deep, calming breath, gathering my strength, when the whispering stopped. I sat as still as I could manage, hardly daring to breathe in case it alerted him to my presence. For a moment, everything was still, then someone exhaled gustily, and strode out from the bookcase slipping silently out of the door. I watched as the door closed on Alex's tall frame. As soon as he was gone I let out a long suffering sigh.
Well, that was a twist. I should've just looked into his head, at least tried to understand before jumping to conclusions. Although I had a strong feeling I already knew. Knew exactly who he was talking about. I just didn't understand why. Before I had time to finish these thoughts, a harassed looking Amber came barrelling through the library door, disturbing the dark silence that had descended. I plastered a smile onto my face, not wanting her to think anything was wrong.
'Helen is SUCH a whiner. God, it's not like I send out a newsletter listing all of the names I made up, I should now though. She shouldn't be eavesdropping on my private conversations either-' She complained, slamming her bag down on the table, and sliding heavily into the chair opposite me, with a sour look on her face. Emily, who had managed to slip through the open door after Amber's dramatic entrance, pulled out a chair next to me, and quietly seated herself on it, pulling out her History book.
'Revision,' She mouthed at me, deciding not to interrupt Amber mid-rant. A wise decision. I nodded, feeling as though a hammer was pounding at my skull. By that I mean I had a headache.
'-calls me stuff too. I mean what about the time she made everyone call me 'Cow lick' when my hair wasn't even sticking up? Did I complain? No, I took it like a man and-'
'Just needta look something up,' I mumbled, not waiting for anyone's reply. I strode into an empty row of books, pretending to look for one. When I was sure nobody was around, I let the fake smile slide off my face, replaced by what I'm sure were very unattractive lines of worry. What was happening? So he was using me now? What for? It was as I was struggling to answer these questions, and prevent myself from asking new ones a sudden thought hit me. Who had he been talking to? I know he's weird but why would he say those things out loud. It had sounded like he was answering questions. Whose questions? Ok, this was getting into serious 'mysterious' waters. I've read enough books to know that around this time, the heroine of the story would be doing some awesome heroine-ish thing to 'find out the truth'. Unfortunately, not only do I have no tricks up my sleeve to find this 'truth' of which we speak, I also do not even remotely resemble any heroine I've ever seen (strong, beautiful, loads of well-conditioned hair). Where was that time machine I'd been hoping for, lost in the mail perhaps?
'Can I help you with something?' A pleasant male voice inquired. I jumped, fixing my face into something a little less dramatic. I turned to see the source of the voice. A library volunteer, Ash or Jack or something. He was in a few of my classes.
'Uh, nope it's ok,' I muttered, smiling my thanks, and picking a random book off the nearest shelf to hold out to him. Why I did that I'll never know, when people do that on TV they always pick up a sex book or something. I prayed I hadn't picked up anything too embarrassing, risking a quick glance at the title of the book I was showing him. Something about historical statues, nothing too bad. Thank god. He smiled as if approving my choice, and moved to the next isle, looking for more victims to intimidate into picking up a sex book to show to him, I'm sure. Stuffing the book back onto its shelf, I made my way back to our table, only to find Ambers rant was still in full swing.
'Like if I made an observation about your name, and shared it with a few others you can hardly call it name calling.' She was saying, waving a bookmark in the air to demonstrate her point. Well, we were in a library.
'Ok, yes Helen's a freak. We know please just let it go. What goes around comes around and all that jazz. She'll get her comeuppance.' Emily moaned, plucking the bookmark from Ambers outstretched hand and slapping it onto the table.
'People, it's a quiet place.' I reminded them softly, trying to avoid catching the librarians gaze.
'Whatever, just do your homework so we can go. Please.' Amber snapped, looking supremely annoyed.
I finished my essay, and managed to tick a few other bits and bobs off of my homework list. Although my heart wasn't in it. I was barely reading the questions, just sprawling down whatever answers came into my head and hoping for the best. More than once, I refocused on what I was doing, only to find I had scrawled 'Alex' in the margin without realising it. Eventually Emily packed up her things and, with a wave, left to get a lift home from her Dad. Time ticked by, and finally I decided I had had enough homework for one night. I stretched, letting Amber know I was done concentrating and she answered with a yawn. She had been doodling idly in her notebook. Not that she didn't have homework, but she usually did it all the night before. A skill I used to pride myself on, until my internet access was tragically taken away.
We packed up our things, Amber pulling out another magazine from the endless supply she had collected in her schoolbag, and seemed to carry around with her instead of, say, her school work. She insisted on performing multiple quizzes on me, ensuring me 'all the other teenage girls our age do it'. Lies. By the time we said goodbye to return to our own houses, the quizzes had told me I was a 'Super pal' and had 'totally unmanageable hair'. Lovely.
'You workin' tomorrow?' I asked, her scowl was enough answer for me.
'Yeah. But you could come to my house at around six-ish? I'll get off early.' She replied, with a smug smile. I assumed by 'get off early' she meant she'd skive.
'Rebel, yeah I'll be there at half past.' I smiled at her, a smile that felt somewhat genuine, and waved goodbye.
'By the way,' She yelled after me, 'I saw that library helper guy staring at you. Someone's got a new admirer!' I shook my head and carried on walking. I heard her laugh echo and die in the strong wind.
Family dinners were only ever made compulsory on three occasions: Christmas, Birthdays, and when Kate was leaving to go back to college. The third reason had to be the most pointless of all reasons to have a 'family dinner', and yet somehow, no-one in my family had picked that up yet. Never mind that she'd be visiting again in a few weeks. Never mind that whenever I go to sleep over at Amber's for example, we aren't forced to endure a 'family dinner' then. Never mind that the only person in our family who is a good cook is Grandma but Mother always insists she 'doesn't want Grandma to be under any stress', even though Nana (Grandma) has offered to cook many times. I've tried reciting these objections to my parents more times than I could count, and yet they still fall on deaf ears. Now I was faced with another family dinner, in the midst of my own personal crisis (dramatic, I know. Still if 'Bella' can do it...). My Grandma arrived at our house at around six o'clock. Followed by my cousins, Harry and Louise (twins, both also sixteen), and my Aunt and Uncle.
'Just put something decent on, god.' Kate was saying. She was kneeling on the floor of my bedroom using my straightners, which I'd let her borrow out of the goodness of my heart, and after a few stern words from Mother-dearest. I ignored her, choosing to take the high road. I'd spent an infuriating half an hour trying to convince my Dad that I was too ill to take part in our 'family dinner', and for the safety of our family, should be kept in isolation in my bedroom. It failed.
'Did you hear what I sai-'
'Yes.' I interrupted Kate mid whine, and continued to flip through an old magazine I'd found stuffed behind my nightstand. Don't ask why I was looking behind there; let's just say fish are slippery little squirmers.
'So?' Kate demanded. Why couldn't she just leave me alone? I needed to think. Thinking required quiet time. Quiet time did NOT require Kate rabbiting on.
'So...' I repeated, continuing to flip through the magazine at top speed. Occasionally pausing when I saw old celebrity 'gossip' that seemed somehow funny now.
'Like talking to a brick wall.' She muttered, smoothing down her newly styled hair, and spraying some weird product on it that smelled entirely too sweet (no, not vampire sweet).
'Well get out and maybe I could get changed.' I rolled my eyes at her. We have such a deep and meaningful relationship. Kate slammed the door behind her. I threw the magazine down, and heaved myself off of my bed, searching for something presentable to wear. I fished out a mid sleeved purple T-shirt, and threw on my jeans. I regretfully hung my PJ bottoms on my radiator, ready for when the family was gone. All the while I tried to think comforting thoughts. Nothing to do with Alex. I was not thinking about him. No. I turned my thoughts towards my impending doom A.K.A the family dinner. I'd have to be careful, not that my family ever spoke about our abilities, but my cousins didn't know what my Dad and I could do. Nobody trusted them enough; Harry couldn't keep a secret if his own mother's life depended on it. I suppose Louise was trustworthy enough, but nobody wanted to tell one twin without the other. Which is actually quite cruel, but still.
At seven that evening the feast began, I endured over an hour and a half's worth of 'family news'. Apparently Louise was doing well at school (I was doing better, ha-ha) but Harry wasn't giving one hundred and ten percent (which is impossible, hence why I hate that phrase!). Uncle Tom was considering taking a sign-language course and Grandma thought Mum was going through the menopause. I'll admit, when Nana came out with that last one the conversation died out pretty quickly. Of course Kate had been the centre of attention for an hour and a half so she was content to end the night there. After the family had left, we were all able to breathe a sigh of relief, although Mum wouldn't admit it. I managed to avoid plate cleaning duty, claiming I was still ill, but had soldiered on during the meal so as not to ruin it for everyone else. Apparently all that complaining to Dad earlier had a hand in laying the groundwork for this lie, so at least I hadn't wasted thirty minutes for nothing. I collapsed into bed, exhausted with the day's events, thankful that I'd fall asleep fast without having too much thinking time. I wish I'd have thought it through, maybe I could have realised what had been going on. Maybe what happened the next day would never have happened. Maybe...
Thanks for reading, If my calculations are correct then there should be only two more chapters left, so please stick with the story! Comments and feedback are appreciated!
Cheers!