And then they meet again! 

 

Chapter 3

“I'm coming, I'm coming! Stop calling me every five seconds!" I yelled into the phone angrily.

Lillian had never been good at waiting. She was a very impatient person. How we got along so well will forever remain a mystery to me because she was the exact opposite of what I was. She was loud, bubbly, outgoing and could never keep quiet for more than twenty seconds. Whereas I was shy, unsocial, usually patient, and quiet. Well I was quiet around everyone except Lillian and my parents.

In the process of crossing the road in a hurry I almost got ran over by a car. “Watch where you’re going lady!" the driver yelled. I muttered a “sorry!" and ran across the road. Finally I reached the flower shop that Lilly's grandmother owned. Lilly was standing outside the door with her phone pressed to her ear and an irritated expression on her face. I'm sure she was calling me. I had put my phone on silent and thrown it inside my bag because of its incessant ringing. The first thing she said when she spotted me was “You are worse than a tortoise! I called you twenty minutes ago! Where were you?!!!"

“That is because I was sleeping! I obviously would need some time to get up, get ready and walk all the way here!" I replied in an equally irritated tone.

“This is why I keep telling you Si, buy a car already." Lillian sighed.

I just made a face at her as she took my hand and dragged me inside the shop. I didn't want to buy a car yet. I wanted it to be bought with my own money and not with the money given by my parents. I would just have to wait for two more months. By that time I would have enough money to buy my first car.

I worked two jobs for this very reason, even though it made my days pretty hectic as I had to juggle Uni and the jobs. I grumbled even more when I remembered that there were still two long months to go and my mood worsened. Today was just not my day.

It had all started this morning. I had woken up late, almost missed my first class, forgotten to take my assignment on Chaucer to Uni and had run all the way back to my apartment to get it.

Not only had I missed my second class of the day but I had also fallen down on the road and scraped my knee while hurrying back. After I had submitted my assignment to the Professor I had gone to lunch with Lilly where I spilt half a glass of Pepsi on my favourite pair of jeans.By that time I was ready to cry. Lillian had somehow managed to calm me and had forced me to go home. Thankfully I had no more classes.

After reaching my apartment I had tried to get some sleep but had been rudely woken up by my best friend who had called and demanded that I meet her at her grandmother's shop because she was ‘facing a big problem’ and that I had to ‘save her’.

While I had chosen to rent an apartment, Lillian had chosen to live with her grandmother as her house was closer to the Uni. But both our parents lived two hours away.

So here I was, playing the saviour to Lillian, for God knows what reason when I could have spent my afternoon sleeping peacefully after a horrible day.The worst part was that all these things had happened because of a certain blue-eyed boy whose image I just couldn't seem to erase from my mind. It was because of him that I had been distracted throughout the day which led to all those disasters.

The effect he had on me, irked me to a great extent. He just kept coming back to my mind and there was nothing I could do about it. I hadn't even got the time to tell Lilly about him in the middle of this chaotic day and I actually needed to tell her. I needed to vent so that she could understand exactly why I was behaving like this.

She was the only person who had a calming effect on me. You see, Lilly was a Psychology major. She could read and understand people very well and was crazily accurate most of the time. But it looked like I would have to wait until her ‘big problem’ was solved.

The moment we stepped into the shop Amelia, Lilly's grandmother, enveloped me in a hug and squeezed almost all the air out of me. She had always been a lively and cheerful person and in the twenty years that I had known her never once had I seen her without her smile.

Once Amelia let me go, Lilly wasted no time in getting to the point. "Si, you have to help me! Granny  has to go to Mrs. Ellison's place to decorate the entire house with flowers for their anniversary party and Derek is sick. So I have to help her. I won't be able to go for my shift at the library. Can you take over my shift, please? You can even take my car. Please don't say no." I simply sighed and nodded without saying anything. Amelia was old and she wouldn't be able to handle it alone and Derek, the man who actually did most of the decorations had contracted the flu last week and hadn't been able to come to work ever since.

Even though I barely had any energy left after the exhausting day I couldn't say no because of two reasons. One, she was my best friend and two, I loved the library. Lilly squealed happily and threw her arms around me. "I owe you,Si. I know you are having a bad day. I promise to treat you to ice cream tomorrow!" I just took her car keys, grumbled out a "You better!", gave Amelia a wave as a sign of goodbye and walked out the door, towards Lilly's black Camaro.

I decided that I would tell her about the incident at Aroma,tomorrow positively. Her shift started at 5:15 so I had about ten minutes to get there. I reached the Public Library with two minutes still left for the shift to start. I parked the car on the far right and lazily made my way up the stairs and into the library. I worked here on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Lillian on Wednesdays and Fridays. But I came to the library almost every alternate day because I just could not seem to stay away from those books.

This is where I spent my evenings when I wasn't at Aroma. So when Pamela, the head librarian, saw me she did not look the least bit surprised even though it was Friday. "Sierra, my girl, what are you doing here? Couldn't bear staying away from the books any longer?" she teased with a wink. I smiled and replied softly "Actually I'm here to take over Lillian's shift. She had to help her grandmother at the store. Is that okay?"  She nodded her head enthusiastically and answered "Of course it is."

She pushed me towards the romance section with a knowing smile and gave me a cart full of books to arrange. She knew my choices, what I loved and what I disliked. I pushed the cart all the way to the back of the room and started from the last shelf. In between arranging the books I looked through the ones having interesting covers and during that process I never realised that it was already seven and was almost time for closing. I was browsing through a poetry book when I happened to glance at the clock on the opposite wall.

I yelped and hurried to finish arranging the few books that were left. In my hurry to finish on time I dropped the last book onto the floor. As I bent down to pick it up I heard a voice right behind me say “Hey, I had been looking for that book all evening.

Thanks for finding it." It was a boy. His voice was deep and smooth. He sounded young. I took the book and stood up straight ready to give it to him. But the moment I turned around to face him, I came face to face with those very familiar blue-eyes that had refused to leave my mind since the first time I had seen them.