Felix's pov
"......was established a long time ago, around World War II, if I remember correctly. Don't know much about its previous owner. Maria's grandfather found it at that time. Abundant. It was a disaster when he......"
She goes on and on about the history of the library as we walk through the aisle, wall-like shelves standing on both sides of us and gawking at us silently. The air is heavy with the scent of old parchment. I have never been a fan of books, libraries, and stuff like that. Maybe that's because I have never tried these before. Never even thought of doing so. But this place has a strange tranquility that is bound to calm you down no matter what.
I look at the enchanting silhouette before me. The way she moves around, the way she talks, and the way her long vintage-style dress is flowing softly surprisingly match the vibe of the library. It feels as if she has always been here in between these ceiling-high shelves and ancient smells, as if she is a mythical character from one of these books that has come alive by some unknown magic.
She turns around and suddenly time goes slow. Is it just me or is she really glowing and emitting an unrealistic light? The ghost of a smile is dancing on her thin lips while her dark eyes are sparkling with interest. Light catches on her small nose pin, making it glint. She's saying something, her voice carrying a melodious lilt, but I'm too distracted by her radiant beauty.
"So beautiful," I whisper dreamily. I'm pretty sure my eyes have heart emojis in them right now.
"Isn't it? I love this place the most in the whole world." Though she says that in a rather normal tone, her expression is screaming otherwise. The way her lips are in a constant upward position and the way her eyes are shining more brightly than I've ever seen them, I can tell there is nowhere else she will be right now other than here.
"Me too," I reply. I'll always love the place where I can be by your side.
"I'm sorry. I'm probably boring you with all this info." She lets out a small laugh, waving her hand in the air. I keep staring at her in awe seeing how much she has changed in her favorite and comfortable environment. Where is that hard and rude Maisara? I can only see the happy and animated version of her who can talk all day about books if she's given the chance.
"Why don't you say which genre you prefer most?" Her melodious voice wraps my attention around her. A slow smile spreads on my lips as I shake my head.
"I absolutely suck at this." I gesture my hand around us. "I've read books only when my life depended on them."
"Oh." She nods her head in understanding. Averting her eyes from me, she glances up at the books on the shelves on her right side. I realize that her excitement has died down a little. Mentally cursing myself, I quickly add, "But you can always talk about them. I would love to hear. In fact, you can tell me what's your favorite genre."
"Why?" A soft whisper leaves her mouth. If the library didn't have a natural environment of pin-drop silence, I would probably miss that. She refuses to look at me. Slowly moving over to the books that she has been eyeing before, she starts trailing her delicate fingers over the sides of them. "Why would you love to hear me talk about them when you don't have any interest?"
The corners of my lips lift more this time. Either she's really dumb or she's trying to hear it from me once again. Maisara isn't dumb or anywhere near dumb. Which can only lead to the fact that she wants me to say it again.
This makes me happy and sad at the same time. Happy because of the obvious reason that she wants to hear that from me again. And sad because this means no one has ever said that to her before. How can no one do that? Haven't they ever seen the enlightened look on her face when she talks about something she really likes? Isn't that the most beautiful scene to witness? Why does anyone even exist if they don't wanna see that?
"Because that makes you happy." I tilt my head a little, leaning my side against the shelf to my left and crossing my arms over my chest. "And seeing you happy makes me happy."
Her only visible reaction is a slow subtle nod. But if I look closely, I can see that faint tint of pink over her cheekbones. I blink to be sure that I'm seeing right. Have I just made the cold and hard Maisara blush? I have done just that, no?
Oh God! Yes, I have made her blush!
"Romance." Her soft feather-like tone carries the word in the air to me. It takes more time than usual for me to process what she has said. Meanwhile, I keep looking at her. She is suddenly finding the books on that particular shelf really interesting.
"What?" I voice out my confusion before my head starts overthinking and makes out some weird meaning of her word. She glances at me once before concentrating on examining those books.
"My favorite genre," she clarifies, her voice much audible this time, still has a soft tone in it. Oh, that's what she has meant. Now it makes sense.
"Okay," I say, stretching the 'y' as I push myself off of the shelf. Shoving my hands into my pocket, I walk towards her. She looks at me from the corner of her eyes but still refuses to face me. "So what about—"
"No," she cuts me off abruptly, making me stop on my track as well. I raise my eyebrows in question when she finally turns to face me. Her hands move down from the books and now are crossed over her chest. She pins me with a serious look before stating, "Now I get to ask a question."
An easy chuckle erupts from me. I look at her in amusement. "And here I thought you didn't have anything to ask."
She rolls her eyes. "I do now."
I shrug. "Whatever. Shoot your question."
She nods once, looking away. The look in her eyes goes far away as if she's thinking really hard for this question. I lean my back against the shelf on the opposite side of hers. She looks back at me, eyes giving a much softer look than earlier. She has found the question. She opens her mouth and the air again carries her feather-like words to me, "How are you feeling today?"
The smile that is already on my lips spreads. I shrug, leaning my head against the shelf. "Of course, I'm feeling the best when I'm with you. But if you're asking about my hangover, then well, it was how a hangover is supposed to be when I woke up, you know. Headache and stuff. On top of that, I had to deal with that stupid Ian." I skip the part where I had two tablets of aspirin and a cup of coffee as my breakfast.
"But now it's better." That's true. The coffee and that special tea worked like magic.
She nods in understanding. "Glad to hear that." Then she shakes her head at me with a frown, speaking as if scolding me, "And don't call him stupid. He's a good friend of yours. He helped you a lot last night. And this morning too."
I suddenly feel a strange tightness in my chest. Irritation fills inside of me. Even my head starts throbbing again. I rub my temples, tearing my gaze away from her. She's only just telling the truth. Then why am I feeling so irritated when she's praising Ian?
"My turn," I say as she opens her mouth, trying my best to shake off that bad feeling. "Why did you and Ryker break up?"
Wait, what? No! That's not what I have intended to ask!
Her eyes widen at the same time as mine when the realization of what I have just done hits me. I suppress the urge to cringe. I just don't have the time to cringe. I need to fix it fast. That's exactly what happens when you let your emotion get to your head.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to ask that. After last night—"
"It's fine." Two words from her mouth and she manages to calm me down. When I look back into her eyes, I realize she feels far from being calm. And that's enough to throw my calmness out of the window as well. She turns around and starts walking. I take that as a cue to follow her.
"Mainly we broke up because of that last fight where he, you know, accused me of cheating on him and covered it with that false witness of yours. But it probably started six months before we officially broke up." She starts the story and I notice we have entered another aisle. It's the paranormal section. In bold black letters with a design that resembles dripping blood from beneath the letters, Paranormal is written at the head of the entrance of the aisle.
"That night," she continues. "We went on a date at a fancy restaurant. There we were doing all the things couples do, being goofy and silly as well as random touching and kissing. At one point, I snatched his phone as a joke from him."
She pauses and turns around to face me. Though her posture still looks calm and collected like always, her eyes scream the complete opposite. A storm is going on in there, behind her deep set of eyes. A fucking hurricane. It's taking all of my strength to stop myself from walking over to her and engulfing her in a tight hug, wrapping my arms around her so that no harm can ever touch her. But at first, I need to hear what that bastard I share my blood with did to her.
"He got mad and started yelling at me. I was surprised because he never raised his voice before that. Not with me, not even with anyone else in front of me. He knew it triggered—" she abruptly cuts herself off, her eyes widening at the same time. And I know the look in her eyes. That's the realization that she has overshared something with me.
She quickly recovers from it though. Clearing her throat, she continues, "Anyway, so he soon realized what he was doing and stopped. We went home. He was mad at me and wasn't talking. He didn't even apologize. I apologized for invading his privacy. Anyway, so, that's the start, I guess. Things started getting worse from there. We started growing apart. Fighting and arguing became a pretty common thing. And one day, we got into that last fight and broke up."
She shrugs as if it's nothing. And I feel it. No, actually I see it in her eyes. It is far from being nothing. There's something more to this story that she's hiding.
My brain starts working. I don't know why I have always been sure that Ryker messed something up leading to their breakup, even before I have known the whole lying thing that has led to our own fight last night. I mean it's Ryker we are talking about, the trouble magnet. And I have almost been convinced that he cheated on her at one point. Because again, he is he. But the story Maisara has said doesn't make much sense to me. I mean it makes sense but I have a strong feeling that there's something more than that.
"Did he cheat on you?" I end up asking her that. She lets out a short humorless laugh, shaking her head. "You aren't supposed to ask the next question, Felix. It's my turn now. Anyway, the answer is no. He wasn't cheating."
And I know she's telling the truth with the amount of confidence she has said it. Then that leaves me with a choice that both of them are mutually hiding something. Because I have known them and I have known what their relationship was like even from a thousand miles away. It wasn't something to break so easily, not at least the way she has described it.
"Did you have breakfast?" Her soft voice once again pulls me out of my head. Shoving away the thoughts for a moment, I look at her first before offering her a smile. "Yes."
"Okay, cool." She leans against the shelf and waits for my question. I take a few moments to decide what question I should go with. Let's drop the Ryker-Maisara topic for now and focus on other things. It changes the mood and I'm not liking that much. I don't think she prefers it either. I'll figure things out later.
"Why didn't you answer my calls?" I ask the most obvious question at this point, leaning my back against one of the bookshelves again. She shrugs. "My phone has been silent."
It hasn't been. I can pretty easily tell that she's lying. I can also tell that she has probably been trying to ignore me though I don't know the reason yet. Looks like she doesn't want to admit that to me.
"My turn," she says, shifting her weight from one leg to the other with her eyes on me. "How did you find that I'm here?"
My lips curl into a lopsided grin. Honestly, I have been waiting for this question. Actually, I have been dying for her to ask me that question so I can give her the answer. And she has finally done it.
"Pretty easy." I shrug, shoving my hands into my pockets. Definitely not easy. But I don't need to tell her that. "Your interest is in either coffee or books. So there is a high chance that you like to spend a Sunday morning either in a coffee shop, in a library or a bookshop, if not in your house. It's better if it's near where you live, well, used to live. So the best chance of finding you is in any of those."
I pause to take a breath. She takes the opportunity to say, "But there are a lot of bookshops, coffee shops, and libraries in that area."
"Not really. Near your old apartment were 10 altogether. 2 libraries, 5 coffee shops, and 3 bookshops. And you weren't in any one of them."
I pause again to watch her surprised reaction. She's looking at me like she doesn't believe any word coming out of my mouth. Or, to be exact, she doesn't wanna believe that anyone will go to this length to find her out.
Suppressing a grin, I continue, "Now the next step is looking beyond that area. And surprisingly found that there's this vintage library that's somewhere outside of the town. It seemed rather odd. So, it hits in my brain that this might be a cue. I took the chance. And ta-da." I spread both of my arms with a wide grin. "Here we are."
I wait for her reaction and response. She keeps staring at me and I keep staring back. Her eyes have a soft look in them and I feel like they are softening with each passing second. Even at one point, I'm pretty sure that they turn glassy. But then she blinks and that look is gone.
"Why would you go to such lengths to find me?" she finally replies with a question. I shrug in reply. "That brings my next question."
She motions me to continue. I clear my throat before starting. "Uhm, so I didn't quite remember what happened last night after...they left, you know, James, Ian, and Ryker. Can you please enlighten me if you don't mind?"
I try my best to not fidget as she again keeps staring at me. Her eyes, which have been the mirror for her emotions until now, completely cover themselves behind dark curtains like they always do. Her face doesn't betray any emotion either. I close my eyes and rub my temples as overthinking starts blooming in my mind.
God knows how badly I have embraced myself last night!
She still hasn't said a word and to be honest, I feel like taking my words back at this point. Whatever has happened is in the past right now. I don't wanna hear about it anymore.
Making up my mind, I open my eyes and look at her. And the scene unfolding before me almost knocks the breath out of me.
Maisara has the back of her hand in front of her mouth, the inside of her palm facing me. The corner of her eyes are crinkled and her eyes are shining brighter than ever. And the next second, I hear the sound, a soft yet strong sound of her letting out a loud and carefree laugh.
A sound so melodious, so pure, and so enchanting. Any perfectly rhythmic music is bound to fail against the sound of her laughter. It might sound dramatic but it feels like the sound of her laughter has an ancient magical power, something similar to the song of a siren. Hearing it definitely makes me feel the luckiest person alive. It feels like I'm melting and flowing away. It feels so nice and so soothing that I end up grinning as well.
"Oh." She finally manages to stop laughing and looks at me. Her face still has the happiness vibe on it. "That was something."
"Was it?" I grin, not knowing what it is that we are talking about but am happy that it has made her laugh like that.
Her eyes widen in amusement with the eyebrows raising on her forehead. "You seriously don't remember anything?"
"Bits and pieces." I shrug. "It'll help if you help me remember."
Her lips turn into a lopsided grin. It doesn't look dark like her usual smirk. Rather it makes me feel weirdly excited. Her eyes shine with something that's highly similar to madness when she says, "Well then I've no other choice but to help you remember what has happened last night."
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