Beauty & Her Bruises

Chapter Eight

"I'm proud of you," Dustin told me as I showed him my calculus test that we had received today. He placed a mystery book on the shelf with the others and strolled along to place more upon the shelf. "But you have a lot to improve."

"I know." Of course as I said this, my smile grew bigger since this was the best grade I have ever gotten. Sure a seventy-nine wasn't good to most people but this made it especially easier on me.

Dustin and I have been spending some time together since we both worked at the library. Although we barely talk in school, I know I could count on him if I needed to. Surprisingly, Dustin is still a big thing at the school and all of the girls are hanging over him.

Which is why I even question why he's still friends with me. I understand that while we work in the library together we have to be nice to each other, but I'm always curious to why he willingly talks to me in public where we know people hang out at.

Just as I was about to ask him, the door chimed and I saw a hoard of teenagers walk into our small library. Instantly I checked the faces and in the midst of the crowd was Serenity and Ashton.

They were both holding hands and I knew that they were now dating. It was going to break Meg's heart to find out that she didn't mean anything to Ashton—she was just another pawn.

Wondering what they were doing here, Dustin broke enough courage to ask. Of course, nobody hated him so they all smiled and chimed in with happy responses. I felt my body shrink back to the books and was peeking out around the corner while trying to hear some of the responses that were coming out of their mouths.

"Project."

"I heard we were getting a really big English project that we work on."

"We wanted to get the best books this library had," Serenity said. She looked around and pointed her nose up in the air as she grabbed a book from the shelf. She blew on the dust since it hasn't been touched in a while. Usually it was my job to dust the books and rearrange every once in a while but that was on the shelf in which we recycled the paper from the book because it was too damaged to read.

Usually a couple of pages are missing or it's scribbled on too much to even read what is going on without being distracted by the graffiti that someone just had to draw about—never pertaining to the subject that was being taught.

"How is this one?" she asked as she handed the book to Dustin. He opened it and stared at the title page before flipping to the back cover. I knew that Dustin never read that book before but I wasn't going to save him from the embarrassment of not knowing.

"Hold on let me ask..." He turned around from the group of kids and searched the crowd. I knew he was looking for me since it was basically my life to read everything in the library along with his aunt. When he caught my eye, I froze and breathed deeply getting ready to step out and show everyone where I worked. "I'll be right back."

As he proceeded through the crowd and got his aunt from upstairs, I felt my breath sigh and I calmed when he left when they constantly started asking her the questions. She nodded eagerly and I watched with a smile as she took the book from Serenity's hands and her cheeks blushed as red as a raspberry.

"I don't want to get stuck with any of them," Dustin whispered as he crept up on me. I jumped out of my skin and clutched my chest. Dustin smirked at me as he grew closer but it disappeared. "Any reason you're hiding from them?"

"I'm not hiding," I said as I straightened my back.

"Oh, yeah?" he asked. I nodded my head in response until he pointed toward the group. "Go introduce yourself and say hello to them."

"Your aunt is already doing a fantastic job with working with them though," I said. Dustin just nodded his head and went to the checkout since most of them already found the books they might use for what the English project was supposedly going to be on.

"That Serenity chick," Ruth said scoffing. "She's a piece of work, thinking she's someone big."

"Don't worry nobody likes her," Dustin said as he scanned another book. I looked at him with a confused face and when he caught it, he smiled slyly at me. "She's hot, but I wouldn't date her."

"You don't have to, Ashton is," I whispered. Dustin nodded his head and I could tell that he was already getting the hang of things. "So, who do you like yet?"

Suddenly, Dustin's face turned red as he excused himself to go put the books away. Ruth shook her head and looked at me as my face grew in the most confused expression I could've mustered.

"You."