where are you going? where have you been?

56. How many people have you fist fought?

“HAH - that’s such a strange question. uh, not necessarily proud of it, but quite a few. i like to think i’m not like the person i used to be anymore, the one who would fist fight.”

22. Do you want to have kids? How many?

“i have no fucking clue. ask me when i’m drinking.”

65. Your best friend of the opposite sex likes you, what do you do?

11: Do you like someone?

“stupid question.”

24. What are your best subjects?

“contemporary american literature, probably. i guess i should just say the entire literature subject since that’s what i’m in grad school for. i don’t mean for that to sound so hoity-toity or whatever, i for real just don’t know. books are books, writing is writing, i guess it comes easiest to me of everything else.”

33. Do you have trust issues?

dracula: If you were offered immortality, would you take it?

“absolutely not.”

king kong: Would you rather vacation in the city or the country?

“I like the city because of all the different people and personalities but the quiet of the country is probably much more relazing.”

the wolf man: Do you believe that everyone has a dark side?

“Frankenstein: If you could build the perfect partner, what would be their top 3 personality traits?”

click anywhere here for the ask box if you wanna ask this dork some q’s

Ilka looked over her shoulder and then back at Nick, just to make sure nobody was filming them for her reaction. She was well aware that college campuses were often plagued by wannabe YouTubers pulling so-called ‘pranks’ or worse, conducting ‘social experiments’ for views and accolades they didn’t deserve. “No way you can smoke in here,” she protested in disbelief, “Not even in Germany, you can’t,” she added, as if that was a substantial argument. Cigarette smoking was more socially acceptable in Europe but she was pretty sure there wasn’t a single place on the planet that allowed it in a library, let alone a university library. She chuckled as she observed his ashtray, however, “Your what, is it?” she asked, raising an eyebrow, amused by the nickname he’d given it.

“Um,” she hesitated, having almost forgotten that her presence in the library that afternoon actually served a purpose more productive than being entertained by the library assistant. “It’s this,” she offered, sliding a piece of paper across the desk, her teacher’s ornate handwriting marking it with the textbook she needed to help her catch up on things.

“You call cigarettes ‘ciggys?’” she asked, leaning on the desk in front of her. She normally hated smokers, but she had spent enough nights at the library to get used to Nick’s habit. At this point, waving off the smoke the came her way was second nature. “Newspaper articles from march of 1968… Again. Spare me the lecture, I know I’m being ridiculous.” It was somewhere around the fourth time she’d looked through them, but every time she felt like there was something she was missing.

“stop,” he said with a cautious smile. “you’re kidding!? only two dollars and fifty cents!?” elliot burst into a fit of laughter and slapped the desk excitedly. this was the biggest sigh of relief, although the anxiety only lasted for a few minutes. “dude, i was so scared. i think i shit myself a little, i’m not kidding.”

“just weird,” kenzie shrugged her shoulders in response to his question. “no one says that anywhere outside of the UK.” as he asked them once more what they needed help with, kenzie groaned and rolled her eyes. “i’ve been standing here for, like, fifteen minutes waiting on you so that you could get me a new book since the one i had was all sticky, remember? and now you come back without my book and claiming you can smoke a ciggy in here because you’re a senior. i just want my damn book!”

__

“I wasn’t,” Izzy said. Did she even ask him? Gosh, all she had to do was spare a glance at a guy and he’d start talking! Well, most of the time. Sometimes. Either way, it was a curse! And the fact that it was this guy, trying not to get all his cigarette ash on ancient texts.

“Who still says doo-hickey?” she asked. “Anyway, I was doing just a touch of studying. Integrated marketing. And last I checked, smoking isn’t allowed here. And it makes your breath smell. Duh!”

YEAH, WORK’S NOT GOING GREAT RIGHT NOW, chalk it up to the usual lack of sleep she gets, or her mind being somewhere else. but she’s been staring at this feature for far too long, only typing or fixing something every so often. she doesn’t think anything has changed much in the two hours she’s been working on it. so it’s a welcome, albeit always a little strange, distraction to have from nick. dark, clouded eyes glance up from her laptop as he speaks to her, snapping her out of whatever haze she previously was in. “no, uh– yes, actually, eventually, just… not right now,” she tells him, elbows propped on the table, her hands press against her hairline. “i don’t think i am either,” she admits. “the deadline isn’t until thursday anyways. do you think we’ll be royally screwed if we took a break?”

          nick is entrancing in the same way that foreign cities, modernist art and the cosmos are entrancing. he has that magnetic pull, but at the same time he’s so vastly out of her reach. first he was nana’s, now his heart is pip’s  — in theory, if not in practise. i think he likes you, she’d told pip once, the two of them passing a joint across a ouija board, though pippa had scoffed, oblivious to the affect that she had on men. edie was the opposite : she swore she knew of men’s attraction to her before they knew it themselves ; that she had a kind of sixth sense when it came to aphrodisiacs. “sex, death and witchcraft: a contemporary pagan festival…” hesitating, edie consulted her smart phone, a screenshot of the book in question prompting her. “—by douglas ezzy. it’s… for a paper. i don’t just go around borrowing sex books like some kind of nympho or whatever.” edie’s smirk mirrored his, the taste of smoke in the air. leaning against the desk, she watched as nick tapped his ash against the glass, and felt a familiar itch in her chest. “don’t suppose you’d give me a drag of that?”

        nick gave a chuckle that sounded much more of a cough. “what a title,” he mumbled, typing it into the online catalog. “been around you enough to know if you were a nympho by now. it’s a difficult secret to keep... what is this book even about, anyway?” out of the corner of his eye he saw her lean against the desk, her eyes on his mouth. he sucked on the filter to keep himself focused. 

his attention is almost entirely placed upon the cigarette, which was helping none in quitting his habit. the one ‘bad habit’ the so called golden boy seemed to dive head first into. it was only socially at first, then it developed into a stress-reliver and then…well now he’s simply trying to quit. god knows if his family caught wind of this he wouldn’t hear the end of it. “uh–” he blinks rapidly, trying to regain his focus. “right, right – your library, your rules.” he offers a polite smile in response, quietly trying to remember why he was here in the first place. oh, that’s right. “i was actually just returning this.” he digs through his backpack, retrieving the murder mystery novel he’d just finished reading. ironic timing, really.  “hope it’s not a late return.” 

“YEAH, I DO.” he admitted with a chuckle, rummaging a hand through long locks that always seemed to fall into his eyes, “i think you’d look cute in it. you’d rock it way better than me anyway.” digby hummed at the question, drumming his fingers against his own red solo cup that was nearly empty, “there’s a keg over there but the beer is shit. bet we can scavenge around to find better.”

          honestly, she couldn’t care less about this supposed ‘senior graduate library assistant’ causing a fire hazard in the library. maybe she should, and she would have, back when keeping her reputation and her grades high was all she cared about. right now, though, she just wanted to get the books she needed to pass a project and be on her way. she still coughed at inhaling the cigarette smoke, though, looking up to glare at nick - though, that might just be her default look. ❝ whatever, just as long as the librarian doesn’t catch me with you when you do get ash on the books. ❞ she waves the remaining smoke away with her hand. ❝ anyway. i’m pretty sure you have aristotle’s poetics, right ? ❞ 

          she hesitates for just a second, before adding on one more thing. ❝ and if you have books on programming, i’d like those too. ❞ if something like that could get her to crack open the case of nana’s twitter account… well, she’ll take anything she can get.

      nick watched the girl’s hand wave in the air, feeling only slightly guilty at her cough. guess the charm wasn’t doing much for him today. he typed in the book she needed, scanned the screen, and saw it was currently out of stock. all copies were checked out. “mmm... usually we do,” he mumbled with the cigarette between his teeth. “looks like we’re out of luck today though.” nick took the cigarette from his lips and put it out in the glass. it made a soft crunch. “all copies are out-” he scrolled down the screen, “-but i’ve got one coming in tomorrow. the girl who has it right now never misses a check-in date though.” 

“Uhh…” Taking small steps into the room, she started rambling. “You remember last time I was here, you offered to give me your opinion on my poems, right? I mean, I hope you do remember because I brought some of them.” Forcing herself to hold in a cough, she opened her bag and started flicking through the papers until she found and pulled beautifully handwritten poems out. “Please don’t be too harsh, ok?” She chuckled, scratching her neck as an automatic response to anxiety.

 “ a senior graduate library assistant ? is that a real thing ? it sounds made - up . like , ok . . as a senior chair sitter assistant . . i can ALSO have a cigarette . “ mali is reaching over , and snatching the cigarette from nick’s lips . she places it on her own , and goes cross - eyed as she views it dangling from her own lips . “ do i light this now ? “ she asks , admittedly having never had a cigarette before in her life . “ i was looking for porn  . do you have any ? “ mali’s only half joking . she’s pretty bored , and tired of looking at her own sports science textbooks . she could do with a break .  “ i’m bored . sit with me . “