I waved my hand at the old-aged librarian as I walked in with my nametag on. She waved back and I started making my way towards the back before she stopped me. I stayed still for a moment until she was done with checking someone's books out.
"Hello Zara, how are you today?" she asked. I gave her a thumbs up as I clocked in and then turned around to smile at her. She stared at my face for a moment and then smiled at me. "Who's the boy?" My eyebrows crinkled in confusion and she pointed to my face. "You're wearing makeup, you never do." I smiled a bit and wiped my hand against my cheek, to see some foundation come off.
"It's Liam." I turned around and started for my way to the shelves. "He's taking me over his parents' house and telling them his big secret." The thing is since I don't have any friends, Liam knew that he could trust me with his secret. I've only ever told one person his secret and that was the librarian but she knew how to keep secrets so it was okay.
"This is a big deal. No wonder you're wearing makeup." I nodded my head and shelved the rest of the books from this area. She followed me and I could tell that she wanted to say something that was on her mind. Knowing this, I turned around and politely smiled at her. "Alright, calm yourself." I started chuckling to myself as I went in the back. "Well you know my nephew, Dustin?"
"Not personally but I remember you talking about him."
"Well, he's staying over my house for a couple of months and he's here." I felt my eyebrows rise and I felt like I knew where this was going. "He's going to be working at the library for some money. I was wondering if you could tell him everything about it."
"Yeah, it'll be nice to have someone besides you and me." I smiled at her and the crinkles near her eyes rose too. "So where is he?"
"He's probably in the bathroom, doesn't like the library much." I nodded my head and understood. I didn't feel like this but I knew many people my age didn't like the library. "I'll go get him."
I nodded my head again and got myself a bottle of water from the fridge. Thankfully, Ruth didn't really care if I took any of the water because she got most of her money from overdue library books. She even goes to people's houses if they don't return them after a month and she'll hound them until they give her the money.
I personally love the library though. I feel like I'm in my own little world when I'm here because almost nobody from my school comes here. And if there is someone, they usually don't bully or harass me. They smile at me and give me a nod as they're leaving the store. Aside from the neglect of abuse, once I'm done with my work to do, I usually read some of the books.
I love mystery books and usually find myself thinking about them when I'm working. There's something about understanding and finding out why someone did something that brings me to loving the book. It eats me away when I don't know who did it but I never cheat and look at the back to see who did it. That'll just ruin the book. Besides I usually always guess right but sometimes the plot twist is so epic that I'm left dumbfounded and brokenhearted that it was over.
I'm emotionally unstable until I learn to accept the author's decisions.
Sitting down at the table in the break room, I slowly descend my thoughts into my world instead of the books. I have plenty of mysteries to solve myself but I know that it's much harder to solve a mystery in real life than in books.
Why does my dad hit me?
What happened to my mom?
Why does Meg pretend to be something she's not?
Why does Serenity hate me?
Why does Ashton hate me?
Why is Liam my friend?
My mind went blank for a moment and I felt the creases in my forehead become more permanent as I tapped my knuckled against the tabletop. I closed the water and stopped the tapping on the table as my mind slowly raced with ideas.
Why is Liam my friend?
He just randomly started being my friend. Out of all of the years he could've been my friend, he chose to be my friends in the middle of the year and as sophomores. He had it all too. He was basically the female version of Serenity; only he never hurt me.
As my mind slowly went into theories about how on graduation day he's going to blow all of my secrets because he was on a secret dare, I didn't realize that Ruth came back with Dustin. They must've stood a long time before she decided to clear her throat and it took a couple of tries to get my attention.
"Zara, this is my nephew, Dustin." I looked at him and nodded my head in approval. I looked back at Ruth and knew that she had caught the look that I had given Dustin. The up-and-down. "Zara just explain things to him and I'll be back."
I nodded my head as she closed the doors and Dustin sat down. I sighed and I felt my eyebrows raise slightly but I knew I would have to break the ice first.
"So, are you going to the same school as me or?"
"Same school," he said. He looked at me with disapproving eyes and I felt my eyes dart down towards the table. "Listen, I don't really want to be here and I guess you could tell but I need the money, so." He shrugged his shoulders and I nodded my head.
"Got it," I whispered. I got up and stretched. "So all you really have to do is put the books on the correct shelf." He nodded his head and took the cart from me as he rolled it out the door. He turned back at me once and I saw a tiny smirk on his face.
"Nice to meet you, Zara."
I blinked my eyes as him and turned off the lights as I got ready to stamp people's books. When I looked at Ruth and she looked back, I only nodded my head a bit before I heard her sigh as quietly as she could manage.
"Don't worry, he'll open up eventually."
I nodded my head again and brought a book out that I was recently reading. Ruth looked over at it and nodded her head with a smile. Every book in this library Ruth had read once. It was a small library but the collection was always growing because if I happened to suggest something, she would automatically buy it and add it to the appropriate section.
"Have any other books yet?" she questioned me. I nodded no and she continued putting books back on the other cart we had. She slowly tsked as she grabbed a book and all I saw were the pages were falling out. I felt my heart drop a little since I loved the book that was being ruined. "Well, looks like I have to buy another book." She didn't throw it away but she taped it up and I watched her bring out her notebook again.
She wrote down the title and the author and I couldn't help but sneak a peek at all of the other damaged books. I felt bad since there was a lot of books but I slowly placed a smile on my face as someone came to check their books out.
"Thank you and come again." They nodded and when I looked back, Ruth had already placed the list away.
"Can you check these back in for me Zara? I'm going to run and put some of these back."
She grabbed the cart and left. I trudged over to the check-in place and did the books. There were so many that were being returned and I hoped that everybody enjoyed the books they had borrowed. As I checked them back in, I couldn't process with the checking them in since Ruth and Dustin both had a cart.
Since we only had two carts, I just held off on the checking them out until Dustin came back. He gave me the cart with a nod and then sat down at another table and took his phone out. I sighed and nodded my head but eventually I continued on checking out.
When I realized there was a line for the check-out, I apologized and helped them with their needs. Since there was a line of people, I couldn't help but feel anguished as I tried to go as fast as I could. And as the line increased for requests and questions, I couldn't possibly keep up with the demands. I looked over to where Dustin was, but was saddened to see that he wasn't there anymore.
I sighed a bit but continued on checking people and answering questions.
"Okay, so what do I do?" Dustin asked. I jumped out of my skin and was thankful that he was there. He smirked at my jumpiness and I pointed to the scanner. He held it up awkwardly and watched what I did for a couple of seconds. "I could take you over here," he said to a young little girl.
She handed him the books and as he came to being finished, he looked over at me with a confused face.
"Ask for her card and scan it," I whispered. He nodded his head and did so. I couldn't help but smile when the little girl giggled at him. "Print the receipt."
"How?"
I stood still for a moment before giving him the look of death. He stared back at me with cheekish grin but I rolled my eyes and pointed to the button that said print. His cheeks burned and I couldn't help but laugh a little bit at his own stupidity.
Seeing as that was the last person, Dustin chilled back and watched me as I did my work. I couldn't help but feel like he was judging me but kept helping the customer since the library was basically my life. I loved it here and it always helped that I was paid.
"Enjoy your books and come again."
"You really like this job, don't you?" Dustin asked as I scooted him out of the way to check the rest of the books in. I nodded yes and placed them on the cart one by one. "Why? Most teenagers hate reading. They're always on their phones or they're out with their friends."
I nodded my head but after a couple of minutes of silence, I realized that he was expecting me to answer him. I sighed deeply and turned around ready to answer with the last book being placed in the cart.
"Oh you're done!" Ruth yelled. She came down the stairs and cheered excitedly. I nodded my head and saw her look at Dustin. "What are you doing back here?"
He shrugged his shoulders and came back out while taking the cart away. He looked back at me but I nodded my head no. I wasn't going to tell him now. If Ruth didn't interrupt, I might've answered but I don't think I would've said anything too big.
"Did I interrupt something?"
"Just a bit," I whispered. Ruth smiled at me and I couldn't be mad at her either. I smiled back at her and she looked at the clock.
"You want to go?" I looked longingly at the book on the counter and she picked it up. "Take it with you this time. I know you'll bring it back perfectly."
"Thanks." I picked the book and tucked it close to my chest. I nodded towards her as I started leaving for Liam's house. Today was the day.
Today was the day that Liam told his parents.