The Space Between Us

Chapter 2 ~ Library

My graphic design class ended sooner than Alice's lecture, so I went to the library to study in the meantime. I could practically hear Alice's scolding if she knew I was studying on the first day.

The library was basically empty since it was midday and the first day of the semester, so I found a nice corner booth on the second floor.

I went to get a book from the first floor, but when I came back to my spot, I found a group of six people sitting there instead.

And at the center was River Alves.

He was hard to miss: his aura was confident and grand, as though he had been born to live in the spotlight. He had really dark brown, slightly wavy hair that was long enough to tie back during practice if he wanted. Tanned skin, muscular body from all the running he did, sharp jawline... He was the perfect Instagram model. Scratch that, he could be a real model. He was even tall! How did he get all the attractive qualities that a man could have?

It was a shame he was such a jerk. If you weren't in his friend group or close to the soccer team, you were lower than dirt to him.

His friend group was even worse. The soccer team was infamous for being rude and arrogant. The players moved around campus together, and they always had groups of girls following their every move like creepy fans.

This group of six were talking loudly, shout-laughing, and dramatically arguing. I wanted to chuck something at them, and all they were doing was laughing loudly.

I saw my backpack on the floor a few feet away, cast aside as though it was garbage.

Without a word, I walked over, grabbed my bag, and turned on my heels. Curse my meekness. If only I wasn't like this, I swore that I'd tell them off...

"Oh sorry, was that your bag?" one of them called.

Against my better judgment, I stopped and turned. They were all staring at me, a few of them clearly holding back laughter, which only made me angry.

I clenched my fists.

"Yes. I was sitting there."

The one who had spoken to me shrugged. He had bright red hair and freckles all over his handsome face, and I recognized him as Benji from the soccer team.

"This is the best spot in the library. Surely you weren't about to hog the whole thing to yourself when there's a group of us?"

His group burst into laughter, and I couldn't see River, but he must have been laughing, too. The three girls were giggling in such an annoying way that I didn't think it was possible to dislike laughter that much, but at that moment, I could think of no worse sound in the world.

I spun around and left quickly to hide my reddening face, holding the book from downstairs tightly against my flat chest.

I could hear their aggravating, booming laughter even when I found a new spot in the library. I decided to give up and head to the lunch spot early.

I got lunch from a restaurant on campus and retreated to the roof of the science building. It was flat and hot, but a decently large garden provided shade and mist. The science classes never came to the roof over lunchtime, and most students didn't go there to eat, so we were usually alone for lunch. We all preferred that.

Alice came bounding up the stairs a little while later, James on her tail. They both looked exactly how they did last year, right down to their clothes. Alice always wore all black, though she was still fashionable, and freckled James only wore flannels. It was a comfort to see they hadn't changed.

"Holly Bear! I totally aced the pop quiz in my class," she said as she rushed over, a bag of take-out in her hand. She sat down at the wooden table across from me and got out her hamburger. "How was your class?"

"Good," I said. "I'm excited to get into my upper-level major classes."

"Yeah, that's so exciting!" said Alice. "Now you can draw all day and night. What an awesome degree. I should've been an art major."

"Do you know which side of the paintbrush to use?" asked James in an even tone, sitting beside Alice and taking out his own lunch.

"Rude!" Alice said, hitting him in the arm.

"You barely knew the difference between acrylic and oil paint by the end of Painting 1. No offense, but you wouldn't survive my degree," I said. James laughed.

"You don't paint in your degree though!" said Alice defensively, but she was smiling. "You just color on a tablet all day."

"You know exactly how to push my buttons, don't you?" I spoke.

"'Push my buttons'? Do people say that anymore?"

She laughed as I attempted to reach across the table and smack her. I couldn't touch her. Curse my short arms.

"Anyway," I said as we calmed down, "I saw River and his friends at the library a little while ago."

James looked down as Alice's eyes lit up.

"Oh, did you?! Was he looking like a whole meal?"

"Okay, ew," I said. "But no, I still don't know what you see in him. Good looks are all he has, and even those aren't so great."

Alice ignored that last part. "And talent, personality, money, a glorious future lined up for him..." she said, listing things off her fingers as though she'd thought about this a hundred times.

Actually, she probably had.

"You know he's super rude to everyone, right?" I said.

"That doesn't bother me. We can fight off his fangirls together," said Alice, raising a fist.

"Whatever you say."

We ate in silence for a bit. I noticed James was pretty quiet, more so than usual. I made a mental note to ask him about it later, because I had an idea.

I decided not to tell Alice about the backpack incident, at least for now. I didn't want to ruin her image of River, as silly as that sounded. Also, the more I thought about it, the more it wasn't a big deal. So what if a group of them moved my stuff? I was probably overreacting.

"So," said Alice after a bit, "are you nervous about moving into your own apartment?"

"Not really," I answered honestly.

"I can't believe you found one so cheaply!" exclaimed Alice. "I can't wait to see it later today when we take your things over."

"It'll be great," said James, smiling at me. "I wish I could help, but I have a class in the evening."

"That's okay, I'll invite you two over after I unpack," I responded.

Alice and I were roommates last year during my second year of school, but this year, Alice went to live with her older sister who lived only 15 minutes from campus. Her sister recently had a baby, so Alice wanted to be there to help and babysit when she could. And James already had some friends that he stayed with on campus, so he was out.

Since this was my last year, I wanted to live off-campus in an apartment like an adult, but I also didn't want to intrude on Alice's sister's place. I had been staying there for a couple of nights as my apartment had been getting cleaned up and ready to move in, but now that it was ready, I was eager to live on my own.

"It'll be an adjustment to live alone," I thought aloud, "but I think I'm ready."

"Definitely."

I was so naïve to think that I was ready for what was about to come next.