The Library War

by Cecily Wolfe

  As she slid a Curious George title she remembered reading with her mother when she was a little girl into its spot between two others about the same character, another book slid out of place and ruined the line of spines. It wasn’t something to get upset about, and Maya never had, but she immediately shoved at the book so it fell off the shelf and onto the floor.

  With a hand on her forehead, she took a moment to settle her thoughts as she stared down at the book, knowing that her reaction had been ridiculous. Her sixth grade self would have been horrified to see someone treat a book like that.

  Why did she think about her sixth grade self? Was it because that’s when she met Conner, right here in this building? Was it because the younger version of herself wouldn’t have understood why she would be fighting with the only real friend she had, since she didn’t have friends back then?

  Were they fighting, or was it just an argument?

  She bent down and picked the book up, brushing it off and holding it close to her chest as if offering it an apology. The library was quiet, with a few older patrons, and for she wished it wasn’t.

  She wished there were voices and movement, anything to keep her from thinking about what was going on between her and Conner.

  Shelving picture books wasn’t quite enough of a distraction.

  “Is everything okay?”

  Maya stood up straight but felt sure that she was pretty close to jumping straight up in the air. How had Lindsay crept up on her like that?

  She hugged the book more intensely, and then realized that she probably looked kind of goofy doing so.

  “Dropped it.”

  Shrugging, she turned and slid the book carefully back where it belonged.

  “The Coopers brought a bunch of those back today. I thought Jessica had shelved them all, but she was busy cutting out some things for Andrea, too, so I guess she didn’t finish the cart.” Lindsay’s voice sounded closer than it was because the library was so quiet.

  Maya realized that Lindsay hadn’t pressed her for an answer to her initial question. Maybe finding Maya clutching a Curious George story had been enough of an answer for her.

  “Those kids love anything with monkeys,” she offered, both as a legitimate observation and as a way to get Lindsay’s attention off any further interest in her personally.

  Lindsay sighed, but as always, she seemed completely professional as she did so. Was that another librarian thing?

  No, it couldn’t be. Steve confessed to wearing Avengers boxers after all the hype over Endgame, which was more information than either she or Conner had ever wanted from him. Totally not professional, and gross.

  Conner had plain old boxer shorts his mom bought him, nothing fancy, nothing unique. He didn’t care, he had explained when Maya had teased him once about boring underwear, because who saw him in them? Just his parents and Maya.

  For the first time, she realized that she had seen Conner in his freaking underwear, never thinking that that might explain how close they were. Not that she doubted that they were close, but how many friends saw each other in their underwear?

  “Maya.”

  Memories of how Conner had looked in his underwear, either while he was changing clothes in his bedroom after school while Maya inspected his to-be-read book stack on his desk, or in the morning after she had spent the night at his house in the summer, when the humidity in the middle of the night led him to slip out of his sweatpants, and she teased him about it before he could get them back on when the sun’s rays woke them up.

  “Maya!”

  How many times was Lindsay going to startle her today? Maya blinked and forced herself to stop thinking about Conner in his underwear. Or Conner at all.

  “Sorry, Lindsay. I was remembering how I used to read Curious George with my mom when I was little.”

  She tried to smile but knew that it looked fake. She wasn’t a good liar, either with words or body language.

  Lindsay tilted her head and squinted at her, then nodded slowly.

  “I can see that. I wanted to check in and make sure you’re still interested in the summer job. I have to make a decision by the end of the month and submit it to our board for approval.”

  Oh crap, Maya almost groaned as she thought it. Of course she was acting like a ditz when the person who would cement her summer plans for good was right in front of her. She nodded, but when she felt her ponytail bob and flip around, realized that she was probably more vigorous with her response than necessary.

  “Of course I am. Definitely. You know I’m capable of whatever work you have for me, either now or in the summer.”

  Lindsay was squinting at her, but her head was still, unmoving as she gazed at Maya unnervingly.

  “Good. You and Conner have both been on edge the past few days, and I was worried that this opportunity might be adding some unnecessary pressure, with exams coming up.”

  Maya shook her head, just as she had been nodding only moments ago. She kept herself from frowning. It felt like she was in some sort of comedy routine, unwillingly, of course.

  Conner wasn’t paying the attention he usually did when shelving books, but with fiction, it wasn’t too hard. Every once in a while it got tricky, or took an extra second or two, like with the prolific authors. How did James Patterson write so much, anyway? Did the man sleep at all?

  The library was quiet, which wasn’t unusual for this time of day. Most of the younger kids who stopped by after school had been picked up by parents or sitters by now, and the older patrons were starting to come in. They all knew the best time for them to be in the building, especially the adults who didn’t want to be bothered by the kids, who could get loud sometimes, even if they weren’t causing any trouble.

  He couldn’t count the number of times Lindsay had to talk a patron down from freaking out over children laughing in the play area, or teenagers giggling over something on a cell phone. Libraries were different from when they were young, he knew, and it was hard for some of the older patrons to accept the new environment. If the kids weren’t hurting anyone, he didn’t see why they were a problem.

  There were a couple of small study rooms, so if someone really needed complete silence, they could reserve one, no questions asked.

  One of the boys from school came in to use one all the time for a music podcast he made, which was pretty popular not just among their friends and classmates but online as well.

  It was pretty cool how much was at the library for everyone to use and enjoy, and while he had always loved it as a sanctuary where he could fall into a book without anyone bothering him, he now loved it most for the association it had with Maya.

  With Nora Roberts’ latest hardback in his hand, he took a few steps to the end of the row and peeked around the corner, which was usually Maya’s move. She had a habit of doing it at least once every shift, sometimes surprising him, sometimes not. He often waited, wondering when he would see her smile at the end of the aisle, asking if he was ready for their break, or waving a book in her hand that had some special meaning to them both.

  He saw Maya immediately, a picture book in her arms, held tightly to her chest. She looked stricken as she nodded slowly at Lindsay, who wasn’t smiling as she spoke to Maya. What was going on between the two of them, he wondered.

  His hand went up automatically, but he pulled it back down quickly. Was he going to wave at them? What for?

  They were clearly deep in conversation, if you could call Lindsay’s clipped words and Maya’s frozen expression a conversation. Maya hadn’t done anything wrong, at least that he knew of, so why did it look like Lindsay was telling her something bad?

  Someone cleared their throat loudly, and Conner nearly jumped. Mrs. Curtis was watching him with narrowed eyes, her gaze intense enough for him to see them behind her large glasses. His own eyes flickered back to Maya, but she and Lindsay weren’t paying attention to anyone but each other.

  “Are you and that girl dating?” Mrs. Curtis nearly growled at Con
ner, as he tried to make sense of what she was asking. Did he mean him and Maya? Of course she did, he thought, shaking his head. She sure didn’t mean him and Lindsay.

  Before he could answer her, though, Mrs. Curtis took his head shaking as a response to her question. When she lifted her hand and pointed a finger directly at Maya, who fortunately wasn’t looking their way, he wanted to push it down.

  It felt accusatory, as if he was doing something wrong, although it wasn’t directed at him.

  “Ignoring your elders is very rude.”

  Had Mrs. Curtis been talking? Worse, had Conner been staring at Maya all this time, following the path of Mrs. Curtis’s wobbling finger and looking at the one person who was never far from his thoughts?

  If that didn’t sound like one of those Hallmark Channel movies, he didn’t know what did.

  “I’m sorry, Mrs. Curtis. I’m a little distracted tonight is all.”

  He offered a smile, the same one that made the girls at school follow him around and tug on his arm for attention. The same one that he never used with Maya, because he never had to think about smiling around her. It just happened naturally.

  “I can see that. Young people these days have no focus. I think you and that young lady care for each other, and if I’m not mistaken, there’s a rift of some sort between you.”

  Conner didn’t know if he should feel creeped out that she was so in tune with him and Maya, or worried that others could see what was happening. If nothing else, he and Maya had agreed that they didn’t want anyone else affected by their problems, especially their prom dates.

  If they couldn’t hide it from a cranky old lady who sat in the library with a stack of magazines every night, apparently ignoring everyone around her unless she needed help or to complain, they weren’t doing a very good job of it.

  “I guess you could say that.” he shrugged, figuring that talking with Mrs. Curtis wouldn’t hurt. Making patrons happy was part of his work, and if Lindsay saw him interacting with Mrs. Curtis in a way that didn’t end with the elderly woman screaming at him, that would be a bonus when it came to the summer job.

  Which was why he was answering Mrs. Curtis’s question in the first place. She wouldn’t be asking if there wasn’t a problem between him and Maya, a problem caused by the library job opportunity.

  He couldn’t help glancing over at Maya again, and saw Lindsay walking away from her with a frown, not angry but clearly concerned. Maya was staring down at the book cart, looking at it as if it held some answer she desperately needed.

  Chapter Twenty Five

  When break time finally rolled around, Conner wasn’t sure if he was excited to have a few moments with Maya after two hours apart, during which she avoided him every time there was any chance they might interact, or worried.

  Worried that she was upset over her talk with Lindsay, or that being alone with Maya might make things worse. Maybe she would be ready to talk.

  Mrs. Curtis had offered him some solid and most likely time-tested pieces of advice. The first was that he had to figure out his priorities in life. He had, he assured her, but she shook her head and waved a hand in the air as if to dismiss his words. The second was not to waste time on unnecessary things, including people.

  He had kept his mouth shut at that point, nodding almost imperceptibly. His sister came to mind, and the regrets he always harbored for not spending more time with her, and for taking her for granted. He hadn’t wasted time on her, but rather, he hadn’t realized how worthy of his time she had been.

  The third wasn’t a surprise, but the immediate effect it had on him was.

  Pride prevents happiness.

  He had been thinking of himself and how perfect he was for this job, and how perfect it was for him. It wasn’t like he didn’t believe that Maya would be a good fit for the job, too, but somehow, he was sure he had an edge. Not only that, he felt like he deserved it more than she did, which didn’t make any sense.

  They both had worked hard here for six years, strictly in a volunteer capacity. They loved the job, and well, now he loved Maya as well.

  Of course, he had loved her as a friend all along, but now, he had to accept that his love had taken a definite turn, even if that acceptance meant she was going to hurt him by turning him down.

  When and if he had the courage to tell her, sometime after prom and before summer.

  “Are you paying any attention to me? I don’t go around dispensing my good advice to just anyone.”

  Conner had laughed without a second thought when Mrs. Curtis admonished him, and was rewarded by one of her small, rare smiles. She waved her hand at him again and looked at her Us Weekly magazine.

  It wasn’t only age and experience that made him think that she was right. He knew in his heart that he and Maya belonged together, and even if she wanted to keep their friendship as it was, it was going to change when school was over, when the library job was awarded, and after, when he was at Ohio State.

  If nothing else, he would fight to keep the two of them together, even as friends, in whatever way that relationship had to be to continue.

  He backed away from Mrs. Curtis, who didn’t notice that he was leaving. Her focus was on some photographs of one of the Kardashian sisters, and she was shaking her head in a familiar gesture of disapproval.

  When he turned to head back to the front desk, he found Maya ahead of him, with her back towards him so he couldn’t see her expression. Was she still upset about whatever had happened between her and Lindsay?

  “Break time, huh? Do you have anything good to share?”

  Steve, as always, was on task, catching Conner as he walked by but not without a glance at Maya, who usually made a sarcastic remark about his bottomless pit of a stomach. She had walked by him like he wasn’t there, headed steadily towards the door to the staff area and break room.

  “I’ll go over to the store and grab something,” Conner said, as an idea occurred to him before he mentioned the snacks his mother had stuffed into his backpack.

  Steve sighed, loudly on purpose.

  Conner shifted his gaze to the librarian and found him shaking his head at him.

  “You two are like one of those couples in the books I order,” Steve pointed to the teen fiction shelves as he spoke. “Something stupid comes between them, although they are perfect for each other and everyone knows it.”

  Heat rose in Conner’s cheeks, which he knew had to be bright red and a dead giveaway that even if Maya didn’t think they were perfect for each other, Conner did.

  “Are you up for an ice cream sandwich?” he asked, knowing that Steve would be up for anything that involved sugar. And flour. Or anything that could be considered an edible product.

  Steve sat up straight, his eyebrows arching high. He hadn’t expected his statement to result in such a reward.

  “Can you make a shoe smell?” Steve started to shove a hand in his back pocket, and Conner realized he was going for his wallet. He shook his head.

  “My treat. Also, I think we all know how bad my shoes, especially my basketball ones, smell. I don’t know how many times Maya has taken them and put them outside on her front porch when I’ve been over at her house.”

  Is there ever a time when I’m not thinking about her, even when it comes to my stinky shoes, he wondered, knowing the answer without giving it a second thought.

  “Thanks. I’m guessing your snack choice is inspired by none other than your better half, but I’m happy to take advantage of your offer.”