Chapter Four

“Thanks”, she mumbled before unfastening her seatbelt.

“Yeah, sure”, Ethan replied. “Thanks for today, too”

Claire gave him a small smile before hopping off his car. She felt intimidated during the short ride, not only because it was her first time a boy dropped her off but also because it would probably take her a lifetime to pay for his Lamborghini if ever she damaged anything in it.

She gave him a small wave, although she wasn’t sure if he was looking out through the tinted window, before turning around and entering the apartment complex, sighing in exhaustion. It has been a long day for her since she was still not used to spending a few extra hours at school.

“Hi, dear”

Claire closed the door behind her and smiled at her mother. “Hi, mom”

“How was school?”

“Fine”, she shrugged. “The usual. Plus, the tutor session”

After that, she went to her bedroom, placed her backpack on her chair, and threw off her shoes before finally collapsing on her bed, face down. Once she closed her eyes, the memory of Ethan’s dimpled smile immediately clicked into her mind. Her forearm throbbed on cue as if reliving the moment the guy held her there.

“Agh”, she groaned, flipping over to face the ceiling. Claire was pretty much inexperienced with boys, so it was fairly easy for Ethan to make her fall for his flirty tricks. She knew it was just how he acted around girls, but she couldn’t help but feel flattered.

Her stomach growled in hunger, snapping her out of her thoughts, so she stood up and headed to the door. When she reached out for the doorknob, she spotted her backpack out of the corner of her eye. Curiosity got the best of her, so she rummaged through her bag’s front pocket until she saw a small piece of scratch paper folded in half. She opened it and as expected, Ethan’s phone number was written there in squiggly lines.

She grabbed her phone and quickly saved his number.

---

It was a great Saturday.

Birds chirped happily, forming somersaults in the air before finally landing on the branches of the trees lining the sidewalk. The sun was bright and warm even though the summer was ending. Claire liked how she was still able to enjoy warm sunny days like this for a while more.

She had a long night last night. After going home from school a few hours later than usual, she still had to work on a few homework due next week to spare herself from more workload during the weekend. She had dark bags under her eyes and her back hurts a little but the weather improved her quite gloomy mood.

Claire rode the bus heading to the city public library. By the time she arrived, fifteen minutes later, she immediately went on to the stack of books and started sorting them. Books were supposed to be returned to the bookshelves as soon as possible so she wasn’t sure if the night shift employees genuinely didn’t have the time to return them or they were simply relying on the next shift’s employees to take care of it.

Either way, she wouldn’t say she was pleased.

“Hey, I got this”

Claire turned around and found Katie walking towards her with her usual friendly smile. Honestly, she couldn’t imagine anybody hating her, Katie was just welcoming towards anybody.

“Oh, no, it’s fine”, she replied, waving her arms and returning her co-worker’s friendly smile with a reassuring one. “We can work on this together, at least”

“I’ll work on this”, Katie argued. “Besides, I love arranging books as much as you like working behind the counter, so…”

She laughed at that. She never explicitly expressed that she loved working behind the counter more and she wasn’t sure if Katie really meant what she said instead of just trying to reassure her. But she stepped aside anyway, giving Katie the space to work on the stack of books.

“Okay”, she replied. “Thanks”

When she arrived by the counter, she found a girl leaning against it, a few books piled on her right. The library just opened less than twenty minutes ago so she wasn’t expecting anybody to be checking out books just yet.

“I’m so sorry”, she breathed out as she jogged to position herself in front of the computer. She then gestured towards the books laid on top of the counter. “Are you checking out these books?”

The girl smiled. Claire caught herself admiring her. The girl was gorgeous. She had long black hair and equally dark eyes, her skin was a perfect tan, and her makeup, rather than being caked on, was natural and accentuated her features perfectly.

“Yes”, she replied, pushing the books in her direction. “But I don’t have an account here yet. I’m new”

Claire took the books. There were three of them— one was an instructional book about drawing portraits and the other two were a compilation of famous artworks. She was suddenly reminded of the art-loving Ethan but she slightly shook her head to dismiss the thought.

“Okay”, she said while typing the command on the computer to make an account for a new borrower. Once set up, she looked up at the girl, “Name?”

“Stephanie”, the girl replied, smiling to reveal a set of perfect teeth. “Stephanie Lopez”

“Got it”

A few moments later, Stephanie finished filling up the forms she needed to register as a new borrower. Internet in public establishments isn’t the best so there was an awkward moment of silence as the two of them waited for the system to update.

Claire was bad at making small talks, but the seconds seemed to drag on due to the growing awkwardness, so she tried anyway.

“So, uhh”, she started before coughing to clear to her throat. “You’re new? I mean, here in Cartersville?”

“Yeah, actually”, Stephanie politely replied. “But my family’s only going to be here for a few months, they had business to take care of”

“Oh”, she nodded and glanced at the progress bar on the computer screen. “I’m sorry, this is taking too long”

“Oh no, it’s fine”, Stephanie chuckled. “Public wifi isn’t the best”

“Tell me about it”, she replied, rolling her eyes playfully.

They both laughed at that.

“You seem nice”, Stephanie started to say. “What time do you get off work? If you don’t mind, maybe we can… hang out?”

Claire was a bit taken aback by this, but she couldn’t see why not. “Yeah, sure. I get off by 4 pm, but maybe we can have lunch together instead?”

“That works, too”

“I remember moving here”, she said. After looking at the computer screen, she realized that the update was finished so she started to check out the books. “I was a child then, but I still remember how it sucked to not know anybody”

She was focused on checking out the books but she saw Stephanie nod in response. When she was done, she stood up and slid the books across the counter.

“Here’s my number”, Stephanie told her as she handed her a card. She thought they were the same age, based on how she looked, but after receiving a business card from her, she was starting to doubt it. “Nice to meet you”

“Nice to meet you, too”, she replied and took the card.

With a wave, Stephanie turned around to leave, pressing the books against her chest.