A Hidden Picture

Twenty one

~ Annalise

"And I was just thinking to myself- holy shit I hate you!," I explain to Ms. V.

She sips her coffee and looks at me as I speak.

"And he was all like you fuckin' slut blah blah blah," I make my voice deeper as I immitate the stupid shit. "Like who the fuck you think you are?"

She leans back in her wheeling char and continues sipping her coffee, nodding her head.

"Ugh! I just wanted to-" I pretend to choke the air and she giggles.

"Well why didn't you?"

"Because I don't wanna go to jail," I respond plainly and let my head fall back against the wheely chair.

She nods. "Good point." After taking another sip of coffee she continues. "Well how'd you get out of it?"

"My friend pretended to be my boyfriend and kinda scared the guy off and pulled me away before I was gonna do something to get me in prison for a long long long time." I push the chair side to side gently with my feet.

As she drinks from the straw I can see a tiny smile forming. "Ro?"

I purse my lips and shake my head. "No"

She lifts her eyebrows and waits for me to continue. "Reed?"

Her eyes widen and so does her smile.

She knows all about Reed. She knows about everyone who has ever annoyed me.

"Mhm..." Her grin is still there.

I scrunch up my face. "Why are you smiling?"

She hums to herself and swivels back to her computer. "Oh no reason. Now go back to work. Books ain't gonna grow some legs and put away themselves now are they?"

I roll my eyes and smile before standing up off the chair and walking around the counter.

A calm smile takes over my face as I go over the cart of books and begin pushing it through the isles.

Hm...I think I'll put the horror books away first since those are the first ones here.

I stare at the books on the cart as I walk. I haven't read a good horror book in a while. Or fantasy. I need to start expanding my reading horizons above romance a bit more.

Suddenly I run into something and stop short. "Hey-" When my eyes look up I'm met with a smirking Reed.

My eyes widen. "Oh look who it is. Carl Gauss!" I fake excitement.

His head tilts to the side confused. I hate to admit that he looks cute confused. The way his eyebrows pull together and his lips open just a little.

"Uh...yeah, totally. Totally Carl...Goose," he nods.

I bring my hand up to my mouth as I snort.

When I meet his eyes again he's smiling.

Some people just have the type of smile that makes it hard for you not to smile. It's like a yawn. Once they do it you can't help but do it too.

His smile has always been like that, even when he was younger. I think it made me dislike him even more as a kid. Someone who annoys you and you want to dislike yet have a hard time not smiling when they lift the corners of their mouth the way they do.

"He was a famous mathematician from the seventeen hundreds," I explain as I begin to start grabbing the books off the cart.

"Speaking of math...," he begins.