The Library War

by Cecily Wolfe

  “Let’s go, guys. You two need to get past this, because you’re annoying the heck out of me.”

  She fought the urge to smile, although Steve’s grumbling was amusing. He was like a big kid most of the time, and usually only revealed his adult side when something bothered him. He was also way too much in tune with their relationship after watching them grow up together over the past six years.

  Maybe too much in tune. It was unsettling.

  Conner was at the front door, flipping the sign over to say CLOSED, when Steve turned to face her. Whatever he was about to say was clearly only meant for her, and she nearly stepped back, knowing that it was something she probably wouldn’t want to hear.

  “Why aren’t the two of you going to prom together?”

  It wasn’t what she was expecting him to say, but she hadn’t been sure what would come out of his mouth. She rarely was.

  “We are. Double date.”

  That wasn’t what he meant, and she knew it but hoped she could get away with that answer anyway, especially when she had been caught off guard.

  “Don’t act stupid. You know what I’m talking about, and between that and the job here, you’re going to ruin your friendship, which we both know is more than that.”

  Maya knew her mouth had fallen open but she didn’t close it. Conner was approaching them from behind Steve, and all she could do was hope he couldn’t hear the librarian. Since they were the only people left in the building and every sound echoed into the vacant space above them, her hope was dim, fluttering like a small bird in her chest.

  “More than what? What are you hassling her about now, Steve?”

  She almost smiled at Conner as he spoke, his tone light but with something else in his tone, something that sounded protective to Maya.

  “You’re both too smart to play this game. I know you’re in high school, but I spend enough time with kids your age to know that you’re both more mature than most of them. So quit making each other miserable and talk already.”

  When Steve walked away, Maya waited a moment before falling into step behind him, her eyes on Conner’s just as he watched her. He nodded, and she turned towards the staff area, where they would walk out of the back door, with Steve setting the building alarm and heading to his car, leaving the two of them alone for their walk home.

  This wasn’t awkward at all, Conner thought as he and Maya stood side by side at the end of the sidewalk, where Steve left them to drive off down the street. The librarians didn’t like the two of them to stay on the property after closing, so they had to be technically off it, even by just a foot or two. Something about liability and insurance.

  He didn’t think he would be more comfortable on the property anyway, not with the way Maya was looking away from him, her shoulder turned inward as if she didn’t want to be close to him. Fighting the urge to reach out and take her hand, as he had thousands of times before, he sighed and looked up at the sky.

  It was getting dark later and later now as spring had taken over, and it was that dusky time where the colors on the horizon were all purple and pink, pushing the orange of the sun down so they all blended together in one long rainbow layer.

  “Hey, do you remember when we went to that planetarium in Columbus, the one at COSI?”

  He spoke without thinking, the words tumbling from his lips along with his thoughts.

  Maya stepped in front of him and started to walk away, and Conner worried that she was going to ignore him and his question. It wasn’t a real question, since he knew that she remembered. Of course she remembered. Would she think that he was just trying to appeal to some sense of nostalgia to brush aside this rift that was rising to divide them?

  “We thought that if we were really quiet and didn’t move, no one would notice that we were there, after everyone else had left.”

  She kept walking as she spoke, looking ahead of her instead of walking backwards to face him, bouncing a little on the balls of her feet as she usually did. It was unnerving how he missed those small movements, those reassuring certainties that had become a part of how they interacted.

  He hadn’t considered how much he would miss those things when he left for Ohio State in August; it was just the lack of Maya’s presence as a whole he knew would leave a hole in his everyday life.

  “I knew I wasn’t great at pretending to be asleep, but I was hoping to get away with it.”

  Without checking to see if he was paying attention, she kept talking, and Conner followed along behind her. Just as he caught up and fell into step, she looked up at the sky above the trees that dotted the end of the street, where the blue was following the rainbow of colors and becoming darker, falling silent.

  “I know that neither of us are big fans of camping . . .” he started, only to be interrupted by Maya’s snort. It was true, though. Every time his teammates went camping, which seemed to be more often than not when it wasn’t the dead of winter or high summer, he had turned down their invitations, and Maya had always said that while hiking and swimming were great, she wanted to sleep in a bed and not a tent.

  “Maybe this summer we could just forget that and spent a night outside somewhere, even in our backyards, and just see how the stars look in the middle of the night. We don’t have to sleep, just hang out on the chaise lounges on my patio. Just see how different it all looks at three am, you know?”

  She stopped and turned to him, her eyes wide and unblinking. Was his suggestion weird? Had he ever worried that anything he said to her was strange before?

  “Yeah, okay. That doesn’t sound too bad. We’ll have to get those tiki stakes with the bug repellent candles in them, though. Your backyard is full of bugs.”

  He laughed after she spoke, relieved a little but not entirely. Whatever happened with this library job would affect their summer, not just their plans but how they felt about each other, which didn’t make sense after six years together.

  He hoped, as the two of them continued forward, side by side, that they would get that one night under the stars, just the two of them, awake and watching, together.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Kaylie was itching to go dress shopping. And shoe shopping.

  The four of them were sitting together at lunch again, and while Maya was okay with that, she wondered if Kaylie was taking their plans a little too far. After all, Maya had been into it because she didn’t want to miss whatever the big deal prom was, especially after prompting from her mother, but she wasn’t all that concerned about the shopping part like Kaylie was.

  She and her mom usually went to the thrift store when Maya outgrew her clothes, and rarely did her mother buy anything for herself. After all, her mother said, most of her time was spent in scrubs for work, and jeans and t-shirts or sweatshirts were fine otherwise.

  Maya wondered if her mother ever wanted more time for herself, time to date, maybe, but her mother never mentioned it. What would their lives be like if her mother didn’t have to work so much, and had time for a life of her own, one that wasn’t all about paying the bills and taking care of Maya?

  Those old Peanuts cartoons came to mind, the ones Andrea sometimes showed during holiday programs at the library. The parents were always off-screen, with bizarre noises in place of their own voices, as if they didn’t matter. They kind of didn’t, Maya considered, but those parents took care of the kids, right? Except maybe Pig Pen.

  Last year Conner had to field a question from one of the kindergarteners during a family program over winter break. Conner was taking the DVD from the player and putting it back in its case when a little boy approached him, his mother only a few feet away, standing with a smile on her face. She must have known what her child was about to ask, and was waiting to see how Conner would respond.

  “Don’t they have a bathtub at Pig Pen’s house?”

  Maya had watched Conner stare at the boy for a moment before he smiled, clearly pleased with the answer he had somehow found on the spot.

  “They must hav
e plumbing problems.”

  Stifling a laugh, Maya saw the boy grow still for a moment, then nod sagely, as if he knew exactly what Conner was talking about.

  She was wrapping the power cord from the DVD player around her hand when Conner started to laugh beside her. They had been alone in the room since the boy and his mother left, the other families gone before them.

  “When I was that age, I never would have thought about something like that. It’s scary how smart little kids are now.”

  Maya had laughed then, shaking her head at his words.

  “You sound like an old man. Somehow, I don’t think plumbing is part of the kindergarten curriculum. Yet.”

  Kaylie pulled her from the memory just as Conner and Jason sat down across the table from them, saying something about matching colors.

  “Or maybe we shouldn’t match. Complementary colors and styles would be better, don’t you think?”

  Maya frowned, no idea how to respond. Did it really matter what they wore, as long as they were there and having a good time?

  The having a good time part was a growing concern. It hadn’t been that long since she had pressured Conner into asking Kaylie to go, and now she was wondering why she had been so insistent. She didn’t want to miss out, but she wasn’t sure if the event itself was what she didn’t want to miss.

  She was confusing herself, and Kaylie was staring at her, as was Jason. Conner was looking down at his French fries, as if he was waiting for something to happen before he could begin to eat them. Maya forced herself to do what she usually did, reach across the table and grab a fry, resting her elbow on the table so she could take it with all the nonchalance she could muster.

  Conner looked at her without lifting his head, his eyes hopeful. Even if they had been civil to each other since their walk home last night, there was still something between them that was clearly bothering him as much as it was her.

  “So Kaylie says we should have ties that match your dresses. What color do you think you’ll wear, Maya?”

  The French fry in her mouth was mushy, the salt all too present on her tongue as she held back a less-than-polite response. She didn’t care about the color, or the dress, or the shoes . . . she just wanted things to go back to the way they were between Conner and herself.

  If she was being honest with herself, things had started to change before the prom and library situations had become issues, or whatever they were. Both were supposed to be good: a fun event, an excellent opportunity.

  Her feelings for him had started to create problems before either of them did, though, but it was easier to blame the dance and the job possibility than face the prospect of telling Conner how she felt.

  “Honestly, I don’t have a color preference. I think Kaylie has a better handle on all that fashion stuff.”

  She smiled at the other girl, who was frowning slightly. As always, Kaylie was pretty in that fresh-faced teen model sort of way, but Maya knew that there was more to her than her looks. She had always been nice to Maya, even when it wasn’t cool to be so, but they hadn’t spent what anyone could call quality time with each other.

  Maya wondered what Kaylie’s usual group of friends thought of her spending lunch with the three of them, although hanging out with Conner and Jason would definitely be considered cool.

  Kaylie smiled back at her after a moment and sighed.

  “Well, I do have an interest in it. Actually, I’m going to major in fashion merchandising in college.” she shrugged after she spoke, as if it wasn’t a big deal.

  Maya let her arm fall so her hand rested close to Conner’s lunch tray, as if she was biding her time before taking another fry. Conner hadn’t eaten any, but was quiet and still, as if he was focused entirely on the conversation at hand, but before she could figure a way to encourage him to contribute, he took a deep breath and look at Kaylie, a smile bright on his face as if he had been fully vested the entire time.

  “I had no idea. Where are you headed?”

  Conner wanted to take Maya’s hand in his own, squeeze it, somehow reassure her as well as himself that everything was okay between them. If Steve could tell, then others could too, and he thought that Kaylie and Jason didn’t deserve to be caught up in any unnecessary drama. It was their prom, too, and surely he and Maya could get their act together to make it a good one.

  Their act.

  He didn’t like that way those words sounded in his head.

  “Iowa State. Don’t look at me like that, Jason! Their program is one of the best in the country.”

  Kaylie’s eyes flickered to Jason and she laughed playfully as she chastised him. Conner looked over at the other boy, catching Maya’s eye as he did, noting that she looked tired. Someone else might have thought she was bored, but he knew her well enough to tell the difference. She didn’t seem to mind that Kaylie and Jason were kind of flirting, but then again, they had all been clear that the prom dates were friendship-based, and no romance was expected. At least between the actual dates.

  Or had they been clear?

  Conner flicked his gaze to Jason, who was paying attention to what Kaylie was saying, but he was sitting facing Maya, not turned towards Kaylie at all. All of his time reading had given him a lot of insight into human behavior and body language, and as far as he could tell, even with his eyes on Kaylie, Jason was geared towards Maya.

  He thought of that day in the hall when he had seen the two of them together, when they must have just agreed to go to prom together. Jason was smiling, laughing, happy to be with Maya. Conner couldn’t blame him. But could Maya tell that Jason might be interested in being more than friends?

  Did Maya want to be more than friends with Jason?

  “Hey, man, you look sick. You okay?”

  Jason clapped a hand on Conner’s shoulder and Conner shook his head as if that would derail his train of thought. Maya was sitting up straight now, frowning with concern.

  “Yeah, I’m good. Just too much going on in my head, I guess. Sorry.”

  Kaylie smiled and tilted her head in that way some girls did when they were considering something or someone. A lot of girls did that when they talked to him, as if they were trying to be cute, but it didn’t come across as fake on her.

  “I get the feeling you and Maya are on the same page,” she said, her eyebrows rising as she spoke.

  What did that mean?

  His mouth fell open, but before he could come up with an answer, Jason started laughing, his own gaze tracking Maya’s response. He tapped her arm, which had been resting on the table the whole time, Conner’s fries just within reach. She didn’t seem to notice, but was watching Conner intently instead.

  “You can include me, too, Kaylie. It doesn’t matter to me what color scheme or whatever you want to call it you choose,” Jason said smoothly, his easy smile intact. “I think the two of you will be beautiful no matter what color you wear.”

  Conner had to fight the urge to visibly cringe. Sure enough, though, Kaylie’s smile grew wider, but to his dismay, the corners of Maya’s mouth turned up a little. Jason was a nice guy but that had been a bit much.

  Yeah, he thought. And who suggested that Maya go to the prom with Mr. Suave here?

  He figured he needed to speak up and at least agree with the obvious before Jason charmed both girls into forgetting he was sitting there with them, too.

  “He’s right, I can’t argue with that. I think our best bet is to let Kaylie decide that color stuff, if Maya’s okay with that, and you two can let us know what we can do to match, or complement, or whatever it is you want us to do.”