#shadow-library

Maybe she was just being paranoid. There’s nothing special about a seat, and there’s certainly nothing special about her. Yet she’s been trying to shake the feeling that something is amiss all weekend. She knows there could have been various other reasons why Mark might’ve sat there: perhaps he had forgotten his contacts, maybe he wanted to get back into the professors good graces. Regardless, the bothersome task of retrieving her textbook still remains.

 In the evening, Rowan makes her daily trip to the library to once again torture herself with the figurative stacks of homework she had, but finds him sitting at the table she always sits at. Another daily library-goer, Will, whom she’s become pretty close with over tedious study nights, shoots her a curious glance before flitting his eyes back to her table where Mark now sits.

 Sighing, she shifts the weight on her backpack that seems to be growing heavier with every second, and decides that now is as good as a time as any to ask for her textbook back. However, before she even gets a word out, he says “Sit.” with such a commanding tone that she obeys and situates herself squarely across from him before she even realizes it.

 “Um, hi,” she gets out. “What are you doing here?”

 “I took your textbook last week, didn’t I?” is all he says. Without looking up, he pulls it from his backpack and places it on the table.

 That doesn’t explain how he knew she was going to be here at this time, but she silently grabs her textbook anyways. Opening up her backpack, she tries again. “How’d you know to find me here today?”

 All Rowan gets in response was a noncommittal shrug. He still hasn’t looked up from his laptop, which he’s now furiously typing away on.

 Fine, she thinks. But she isn’t just going to yield her table to him. She pulls out her laptop and opens up her notes from today’s lecture. She has an essay due tomorrow that she’s barely started, but she still has the rest of the night. Grumbling about how she isn’t even a liberal arts major and why did engineers still have to write, she plugs in her headphones. At this mini outburst, though, Mark finally lifts his head with a brief chuckle, shaking his head slightly. Embarrassed that he had heard her, Rowan’s face heats up slightly, but she keeps her eyes firmly on the screen of her laptop, refusing to acknowledge the moment.

 The rest of the evening passes without incident, the clicking of the keys on both of their keyboards the only noise coming from their table and the now nearly-empty library. At some point, she must have come to some sort of silent agreement with him, for Mark, after taking a short trip to the vending machine, wordlessly sets down two Starbucks doubleshot cans and nudges one in front of her. She had emitted a small noise of surprise, but eventually murmured a thanks after she recovered, cracking it open and taking a much needed sip of caffeine.

 Finally, at 2am (an early night for her), Rowan deems her essay pass-worthy and closes her laptop with a satisfying snick. Mark’s perceptive gaze follows her hands and he slowly begins to pack up as well. Shrugging on her jacket, she finds herself standing by the table to wait for him to finish.

 After exiting the library, she asks, “Which direction are you going?”. The chilly wind of late fall howls slightly and blows leaves into the walkway ahead.

 “That way.” Mark points to East Campus. “Da Vinci Hall.”

 “Oh, I live in Debussy.” she says. “That’s close, right?”

 Humming a sound of mild agreement, he nods and sets off at a moderate pace in the general direction. They walk in relative silence, and she feels a strange sense of calm as she does so, glad to not be expected to talk for once.

 They arrive at Debussy first, and she waves a brief goodbye before heading into the dorms. Although the boy had been so strange tonight, her brain was too fuzzy to analyze the weird occurrence at the moment. Her roommate Eden is still awake when she opens the door to their room quietly, but she doesn’t seem to be doing any work. After asking her how her day had went and talking for a bit, Rowan sets her alarm and promptly falls asleep without brushing her teeth.

 The next day Rowan has just one class, and ends up spending the afternoon at a local coffee shop, during which she downs at least three cups of hot chai tea, a drink that she’s grown very fond of recently. After grabbing a small dinner at East Side dining, she realizes belatedly that it’s Friday. Should she do something fun? The only thing she can think of is binge watch a TV show or play some cards with friends. Although not shy by any means, Rowan doesn’t really have a thing for parties and instead prefers smaller hangouts.

 Then she remembers her research project, which has a deadline in the startlingly near future. Sighing, she decides maybe she’ll go to the library today too. At that moment, Aspen Ardor, her friend from her machine learning class walks in, looking quite disheveled. He approaches the table hastily and asks, “Can you go to the library today with me? I have to go home over the weekend so I need to get my work done now, but I don’t want to be alone,” he says with a slight pout.

 Laughing, she agrees without telling him she had already made resolutions to go anyways. As she packs up, her mind wanders back to last night when that boy, Mark, had sat across from her. He wouldn’t be there again today, would he? She still hasn’t made up her mind about exactly what had happened and why it had happened yet. Shaking her head to rid herself of the strange feeling that washed over her, she stands up to go to the library with Aspen.

 The library is mostly empty when they get there, most students probably off having real dinners and real food. More importantly, however, she hasn’t sighted Mark yet. Taking her spot at her regular table with Aspen, she feels sudden urge to take a nap. Mumbling to Aspen that she’s just going to take a 5-minute cat nap, she lays her head down on top of her bunched up jacket and closes her eyes.

 Rowan is awakened by the fire alarm going off. Opening her eyes groggily, she sees that the sky is already dark and that Aspen has already left. Slightly peeved that he didn’t even bother to tell her he was leaving, she quickly shoves her laptop back into her backpack and throws on her coat. The fire alarm is probably a mistake again--there’s already been multiple fire alarms go off at 3am this semester in her dorm and it’s really starting to get on her nerves.

 On her way out, she sees Will and gets waved over. “Hey, what’s up?” she says as she approaches him. With black-rimmed glasses and a mop of brown hair on his head, Will looks like a nerd, but an adorable one. He’s alone today, like he usually is when he comes to the library, but Rowan knows he’s pretty active with a lot of computer science organizations on campus. She thinks she might’ve even seen him at the artificial intelligence symposium she attended the other day.

 “No sleep last night?” Will’s quirks up into a smile at her sleep-deprived face. “I think I left before you yesterday.”

 Rowan shakes her head sadly. “Alas, no,” she proclaims, throwing a hand on her forehead for dramatic effect. “I had a lot of chai today, though, so we’re all good.”

 Will nods his head in agreement. After showing him the coffee shop she frequents, Will’s also become obsessed with chai, and sometimes after class she sees him sitting at a table at the cafe surrounded by dozens of empty cups.

 “Who was that guy with you yesterday?” he inquires, interested to know who was brave enough to sit at your table. There was an unspoken rule at the library--some tables were just reserved for those who practically lived there, the most famous of course being Will, and then perhaps her.

 “Mark,” she responds. “He’s in my discrete math class and he took my textbook last week by accident so he was returning it. But I never told him I come here. It’s so weird, don’t you think?”

 Will’s eyebrows jump at this and he leans in closer to her. “What if he’s a creep?” he whispers conspiratorially, looking left and right. “How does he know you sit at that table? He was there at least 20 minutes before you arrived.”

 Rowan frowns. This was something she had been thinking about too, and as nonchalantly nice as Mark was yesterday, she has to admit that it does seem stalker-like of him to wait at her library table. But she ends up just shrugging and casts a weary look at Will. “I don’t know Will, I’m too tired for this shit.”