Chapter-11|The Library

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As soon as I pushed open the door to my apartment, I could hear the blasting music. Silently shaking my head at the scene I know is playing inside, I threw my keys in the bowl placed beside the door. Without even realizing it, a smile graced my lips.

It's Friday night, and I just got back home after having an amazing dinner with Nora, my friend, which was a very last-minute plan. In reality, Nora had asked me earlier about dinner, but I had to decline because by then I already had plans with Ethan and there is only so much socializing I can do in a day. So, it was lunch with Ethan or dinner with Nora, but then things changed and I ended up having dinner with Nora.

"I am home, honey!" I yelled over the music, walking through the foyer.

As predicted, I found my two very gorgeous best friends dancing on the countertop to the beats of "S.L.U.T." by Bea miller.

Not thinking twice, I jumped on the counter and started dancing alongside them. We danced for three more songs and by the time we stopped; we were laughing so hard, I couldn't breathe.

"At the parties, if we dance the way we just did, then... hot damn!" Riley said, flipping her hair for the effect.

"Yeah Riley, with moves like that, people must drool all over you." Danielle said, hyping her up.

"Hell yeah." I smirked as Dani went back to her cooking.

"What are we cooking?" Riley asked, coming to my side and slinging an arm over my shoulder.

"By we, I am sure you mean what am I cooking, right?" Danielle snorted.

"Is that supposed to be different?" Riley feigned innocence.

"Yes sweet cheeks, because you two can't cook to save your lives." Dani pointed the spatula towards us, using the nickname intentionally to rile up Riley.

"Oh please, I am sure I made amazing pancakes last week." Riley said.

"Are you talking about a whole bowl of flour that you wasted with a hell lot of milk and even eggshells in it?" I asked, turning to her, faking curiosity.

"Okay, so moving on...." Riley exclaimed.

"What are we doing tonight?" Dani and I snorted at her not-so-subtle attempt at changing the topic.

"Let's just have a movie night or something?" I suggested.

"You know, I'd love to have a movie night, but don't we have a party to attend?"

Riley Knight loves to party, and the thing is, she is good at that, so she parties really hard. That's the reason she needs Dani or me to keep her sane at the said parties and fortunately, she knows that.

"No Riley, we don't have a party to attend tonight." Dani said, without even looking up from the vegetables she was chopping.

"We don't have a party to attend or we don't know of a party to attend?" She said, pouting.

"Doesn't make a difference." I said in a sing-song voice.

Suddenly, Dani steps back from her sacred cooking utensils with a fierce look on her face. She raises her spatula, holding her hand, and says, "Okay, no more discussions. We are gonna have an amazing movie night and catch up on every fucking single thing and I mean every. fucking. Single. Thing."

Riley and I look at each other slightly shocked but a lot more amused and say in unison, "Aye aye captain." making the three of us burst out laughing.

I think it was probably two in the morning when the three of us went to sleep. We didn't even make it to our beds before we fell asleep on the couch, which is not my most comfortable experience.

⤎❁⤏

It was a beautiful and bright Saturday morning, that's why the three of us decided to go to the library to complete our pending assignments so that we could spend our Sunday without having to worry about our submissions.

We were likely a turn away from the library when we noticed Ethan, Noah, and Mason coming our way, with duffel bags on their shoulders, probably coming back from their practice.

"Hey." Ethan said once he was within earshot, smiling at me while Dani went ahead to kiss Mason in greeting.

"Hey." I smiled back.

"Greetings Reed." Noah said, drawing out a small laugh from me and hugged me.

I hugged him back, raising my eyebrow at his 'greetings'.

"What's up with you?" I asked Noah when he pulled back.

"Nothing. I just thought I'd try something new today." He shrugged like it was a very normal way to greet people.

"Where are you guys coming from?" Riley asked, hugging Ethan.

"Oh, we had morning practice today." Mason answered.

"Actually, we are going to go eat something. You guys wanna join?" Noah asked.

"Yes, sure."

"Of course."

"Oh, I wish but I have this assignment that needs to be completed today." I said with a pout.

I really wanted to eat something, but I knew if I left my assignment for later, I'll probably end up procrastinating this for another week.

"Aww... We'll get you something to eat, don't worry." Noah said, hugging my shoulder.

"Thank you, Noah. That's really sweet of you, but I have to go now. Bye, guys." I said, looking at my wristwatch, knowing I need to start my work soon if I want to finish it on time.

Bidding my goodbyes, I continued on my way to the library, alone this time, but as I was about to turn into a hallway on the right, I heard footsteps behind me. Loud footsteps.

I contemplated not turning around and simply continuing on my way, but then curiosity won and I turned around, coming face to face with Ethan.

"Hey." Ethan said in a low voice.

"Hey." I replied, giving him a small but surprised smile.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, looking behind him to check if the others were coming as well, but when I didn't see anyone, I looked back at him, raising my eyebrows in curiosity.

"Uh... I could lie and say that I'm here to grab a book but we don't want this to turn into another water fountain situation, do we?" He said smirking, looking completely at ease.

It was the first time that either of us even mentioned the water fountain incident.

Iris, he is not talking about the almost kiss.

"Yeah, we don't but honestly, I won't particularly mind it because your expressions were hilarious." I said, chuckling.

"Yeah, I wouldn't mind it either." He whispered, making me look up and meet his slightly darker eyes.

He's definitely talking about the almost kiss.

For a while, the two of us simply stared into each other's eyes, seeming to be in a trance of some sort. I was the one to break that trance by clearing my throat when some explicit thoughts made their way into my mind.

"Do you wanna come in?" I asked, gesturing towards the library.

"Yeah, sure."

The library was quite filled for a Saturday. Clearly, I am not the only one dying to finish my assignment before Sunday. I walked straight to the back of the library and took a seat at the table in the corner as Ethan took a seat right across from me.

After noticing Ethan for the past fifteen minutes filled with idleness, I gave in and said, "You are in the library. Don't just sit there, do something."

"I would love to but unlike someone I know, all my assignments are complete." He replied with a small smirk on his face.

"Hey! It's not like that." I said in a small voice, defenseless.

It's exactly like that.

"Whatever helps you sleep at night, Reed."

Knowing I didn't have a reply to that, I went back to my work and pointedly tried to ignore him by focusing on my work, but how the fuck do you ignore six feel tall deliciousness?

I didn't have that kind of resolve, especially when I could feel the heat of his gaze on my ducked face.

"Can stop looking at me?" I said, chuckling once I realized I couldn't ignore his eyes on me anymore.

"Why? Am I distracting you?" He asked, leaning forward with a sly smile on his face.

"Will you stop it if I say yes?" I quirked my eyebrow, feeling myself lean forward, just to match his stance.

Or to increase the proximity.

"Maybe."

"Maybe isn't good enough for me to admit something so embarrassingly bold." I said, rolling my eyes.

"Oh come one, say it."

"Nope."

"Say it, Reed." He said, looking me in the eye. All traces of amusement gone from his face, instead replaced by something more dark and tempting. That look was enough for me to clench my legs, and at that moment, I would have complied with anything Ethan Knight had said.

"Yes, Ethan. You distract me." I whispered, maintaining eye contact with him.

"Good, because so do you. Now, go back to work. I won't distract you anymore." With that, he got up from his seat and walked towards the shelves of books. To pick a book for himself, I presume.

It was an hour, and a half later when I got groaned, fed up with my work. Ethan was still here, which was surprising because I expected him to leave an hour ago.

"What happened?"

Instead of telling him what was wrong, like a normal human would, I let out a string of unintelligent words which could only classify as an alien language.

"I'd love to decode whatever you said but I don't think that really meant anything." Ethan mused, putting his book away. Pride and Prejudice. Good choice.

"It's just... I'm done with this, it's complete but it doesn't seem right, you know. I sound so stupid." I groaned, covering my face with my palms out of frustration. Knowing what I just said made little to no sense.

"Let me read it." He suggested in a soft voice.

"It's a psychology assignment." I told him like it was obvious. He knows n nothing about psychology and it would be stupid of me to expect him to understand the stuff written in my assignment.

"Let me read it as a reader. Maybe I can give you a reader's perspective." He said, continuing his soft tone, which itself calmed me down a bit.

Instead of replying to him, I simply pushed my laptop towards him. It took Ethan fifteen minutes to read it and I could tell; he was genuinely reading instead of skimping over it.

"The content looks fine. I think it's the format. Try shuffling the last few paragraphs. You'll get it." He said, taking my hand in his and shifting the laptop over to me.

Keeping his words in mind, I re-read the whole thing and realized that he was right. The formatting of the last few paragraphs was completely off.

"Oh, my god! Yes!" I exclaimed, squeezing his hand, which was still entwined with mine.

"I told you. I could help." He smiled at me, shrugging his shoulders as if to say, 'You just don't believe in my greatness'.

"Looks like someone is getting the boasting right for the rest of the day." I grumbled and started re-arranging the paragraphs of my assignment.

"All done. It looks so much better. Thank you so much." I smiled, looking up at him after I proofread for the fourth and final time.

"Your welcome but you know, you could always thank me in other ways." He said, lowering his voice and leaned towards me.

"Oh, like what?" I lowered my voice and leaned in a little.

"Come to the party tonight." He said.

"What party?" I said, sitting up straight with a confused look etched on my face.

"We are having a party tonight since it's the last weekend of the month and everything." He shrugged like it made no sense to him, but he just rolled with it.

"You seriously can't be throwing a party because it's the last weekend of the month." I asked, as both of my eyebrows went up in sheer disbelief. It was an idiotic reason to invite a hell lot of people to your house and I could think of only one person who could come up with a reason like that and make it sound valid.

"We just wanna throw a party and this is the only reason Noah could come up with." He shrugged like it wasn't the worst reason ever.

"Of course, it's Noah." I shook my head, knowing my prediction was right.

"So, are you coming?" Ethan asked, looking a little too hopeful for my liking.

"Maybe, maybe not." I said, leaning back a little and shrugged.

"Riley and Dani will come. So, they'll probably drag you along." Ethan said like it was a perfect reason for me to come.

And it was. But I won't be telling him that.

"I could always pretend sick." I smirked but instantly felt bad when the smile on Ethan's face slipped. I was almost about to confirm my presence at the party. Almost. But the image of his surprised face when I show up made me continue my facade.

"I hope you come."

"Keep hoping."

⤎❁⤏

Hey guys! So, a lot happened in the last few days. Okay, not a lot but WE CROSSED 1K BABY AND THAT'S FUCKING HUGE! THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Because I am me, I wanted to actually like write an A/N separately for the 1K but then I realized it would be way too long if it's not at the end of any chapter because then I would be out of bounds. So, I scrapped that plan and instead compromised on an update that was supposed to come two days later but you guys gave me 1K reads, so you deserve an impromptu update. I am still very emotional about the whole 1K things. I cried, people. I cried the morning I got up and saw 1K. It's still unbelievable and there's a story behind why I am so overwhelmed which I might share sometime but now is not that time. Right now, the time is to do something I've been dying to do.

SHOUTOUTS! Shoutouts to some amazing gem of people who I've come to adore because of how much they support this book and I'll forever be grateful to you.

@nicoleshermann and @thatwarmfuzzyfeeling, I love you both for being the first few people to comment and just tell me that this can work.

@nycparisla21 For being my silent reader but still always voting almost as soon as I update. Thank you so much.

To all those whose name is not mentioned here, please know that I love you and I am equally grateful to you because without you guys this book wouldn't reach this far. Trust me.

I hope you liked this update. Don't forget to comment and vote if you did.<3

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