Chapter Text
The alarm goes off, for the eighth time, and I realize that maybe it's time to get up or else I'll be late for work, again. The sun has come out from the clouds that have obscured it for more than a week, and as I open the window on the streets of the busy Washington, I finally feel that the autumn is in the air. When I gaze upon one of the many clocks I have in my house, I realize I'm too late just to have a coffee. I put on a pair of black office pants, a white shirt and a black jacket to complete the work, which I soon realize to be a big mess as soon as I look in the mirror. "Even today, this is the best that we can do" I say to myself while I put my shirt in the pants. I hasten to the door and I then remember to still be barefoot.
As I get into the car, I realize that this hot weather at eight in the morning in October is pretty strange.
As expected, traffic is not lacking even today and, among a queue and the other, I take the opportunity to make-up and have the appearance of someone’s who really awake, which is absolutely impossible since my mind is already thinking at the moment I’ll get to lay my head on the pillow this afternoon.
After a quarter of an hour of accelerating and braking and an incredible number of red lights, I get to the library, and I park my car in front of the entrance.
Strangely, I can’t seem to see Niah, the director of the library, obviously ready to kill me for being late another time and so I go back to the counter where I usually let down the bag and the various sheets that I always carry with me. As I lift my head I find two eyes focused on me and I already know what awaits me.
“You’re late again! It’s the fourth time in five days, Clarke! I will not see another one, or there will be big problems for you!" Niah screams into my face.
"I won’t happen again, ma’am” is the only phrase that comes out of my mouth every morning after she scolds me, the heart beating so fast and my throat closed from anxiety.
"You said that two days ago, I will not repeat this another time!" she tells me with arrogance before turning away to go to her office.
I roll my eyes and curse myself for not getting up ten minutes earlier every morning.
After thinking about it too much, I head to the boxes full of books that are under the counter and begin to divide them alphabetically and then by genres.
Every day the same procedure, sometimes I wonder how can people have the time to read all these books.
-
"Please tell me that the thing I see on my car isn’t a white slip of paper" I exclaim out loud in my head and almost worry that people may have heard me.
"Oh, great" this time the voice comes out for real when I see a beautiful fine between the car’s wipers. It was the last thing I needed right now, but bad luck has always accompanied me, and so will do again in the future.
Without thinking about it too much, I take it in my hands and put it in my bag before I open the door and sit down.
45 dollars. "And who has all of this money?" I wonder to myself. The salary of the library is so low that I can’t even afford to go out for dinner once in a while, but I still can take a fine. If my parents knew that I would be flying home immediately. I can’t even begin to think about it.
To avoid other problems, I decide to go home. As soon as I get to my front door, I remember that the sky is blue and clean from all the clouds so I decide to go to the local park to enjoy these last days of “hot autumn weather”, before the great cold arrives and freezes my bones as it does every year.
“-Say it out loud- pronounced Edward.
-A vampire-“
“I already knew it” I say softly as turn the page. The bench is oddly comfortable this afternoon and sometimes I wonder why I started reading "Twilight." At the age of 22, one shouldn’t be reading books like "The Notebook" or "The last song"? Or any other book by Nicholas Sparks. I wonder why Nicholas Sparks’ books always seem to be so important, even though it’s always incredibly sad stories and impossible loves that can still win on everything and everyone.
While I’m focused on reading all the stupid things Bella and Edward say to each other, I feel something slamming against my right ankle and I immediately resurface to the reality.
“Aden, watch out!" I hear a woman's voice a few meters away.
As soon as I look up I see a blonde kid in front of me holding a red ball almost bigger than his face. He seems to be four years old, if not less.
“Say sorry to the girl" the same voice as before tells him. I turn around and I finally understand where it comes from. A brunette girl with glasses resting on her nose is sitting on another bench a few meters from where I'm sitting. She looks before at what could be her brother or her nephew, and then glances at me. A smile appears on her face and I immediately reciprocate.
The kid, of whom I didn’t catch the name, is still standing in front of me and staring at me with a smile on his face.
"Hi, what's your name?" I wonder approaching a bit more to him. He escapes to the brunette girl hiding in her arms and she bursts out laughing. A slight laugh, happy and contagious.
"Excuse me, he’s always ashamed with people he doesn’t know" she says turning her eyes toward me.
"No problem, it's a really beautiful boy" I reply, smiling at her.
“Mom, what did she say?" he asks the girl.
"Mom?" I wonder to myself, sure to have misheard what he just said. She looks so young.
"She said that you're beautiful" she tells him, passing one hand through his hair that sparkle in the sun.
He’s still hiding under her arms showing off the sweetest laugh I've ever heard in my life.
“Oh, come on. Go ask her!” I hear her talking to the little kid. He’s too ashamed and ends up sending the girl in his place.
"Aden would like to ask you if you want to play with him with his ball" she asks, laughing.
"Oh, of course! I'm ready for playing with that beautiful red ball!" I say, smiling at him and then instinctively to her.
The child comes down from the bench and approaches me slowly, holding the red ball perhaps really too big for him.
I close the book, put it in my bag and get ready to play with Aden.
And so the hours pass, between laughter and both of us running to go catch the ball before it runs out into the street. It’s been so long since I’ve felt like this, a bit naive, a bit like a child myself too. Too much time.
When the sun is already been down for more than half an hour and the cool weather of the evening is starting to be felt on the skin, the girl, which I still don’t know the name, comes towards us holding a scarf.
“Love, it’s time to go home” she says, turning to the little one while she puts the scarf around his neck.
"But Mom, I want to play again!" Aden says looking at her with pleading eyes.
“Listen to me" I say leaning toward him, "I come here almost every afternoon, we’ll surely get to see each other many more times, I promise you that. Okay?" I ask the little sweaty boy.
"Oh, okay. Okay" he confirms looking down very sadly.
"Perfect, I'll see you one of these days then and we’ll still get to play with the ball" I say again to cheer him up while I voluntarily mess up his hair.
“I should at least pay you for this afternoon, he was so happy” she says slightly laughing.
"It was a pleasure" I reply with a smile.
"I'll see you soon then, have a good evening” she concludes before going to opposite side of mine.
“Oh and I’m Lexa" she suddenly says turning to face me a few meters away from me.
"Clarke" I say smiling.
-
As soon as I open my eyes the sun is already shining into my eyes, which it means that it's late, which it means that I will be dead. I pick up the phone resting on the table beside my bed and look at the time: 8:45 am.
“Oh fuck my life!” I say out loud while I get up and run to the bathroom.
How can’t I ever be on time?
Everytime I forget to set up the right alarm and end up waking up ten minutes before I have to leave for work. What a stressful life.
As I arrive at the library, I try not to get heard nor seen. Niah is at the bar on the left of the entrance drinking her usual morning coffee. As she turns around, I throw myself on the ground hoping that no one notices anything. I creep into the bathroom and luckily no one calls for me, this means that I finally made it.
As soon as I leave the bathroom, I find Niah a few steps from me and when she sees me she rises her brows.
"When did you exactly arrive?" she asks curiously.
“You really didn’t hear me? I’ve even told you “good morning”! It's already half an hour that I'm here" I reply with a smile.
“Please God tell me she will believe this” I keep on repeating in my head.
"Mh, maybe I have to start to worry. I keep on forgetting things" and she returns to the books.
"Thank God" I say softly as I get away from her.
-
When I finally get out from the “palace of books”, the sun is already on the horizon and I feel the tiredness. Although kilometers away from home, I feel it calling me and, as I finally get in the living room, it’s seconds before I collapse on the couch.
I find myself waking up to total darkness in the room and remember that it’s Friday and that normal people usually go out with friends, go drink something, party, but not me.
I get up and prepare myself something to eat, nothing really important since it’s are already 10 pm.
"I've “only” slept four hours. Who’s gonna sleep tonight? Not me" I say out loud laughing at myself.
The insanity is real.
-
How’s it possible that I’m so into “Twilight" that I read 100 pages per day? This story isn't even this beautiful, or maybe it is. Who knows.
I hear a familiar voice coming from far away and, when I look up from the book, I see a blond kid with a big smile on his face running towards me.
"Clarke, Clarke! Hi Clarke!" exclaims Aden while he jumps into my arms.
"Aden, oh my God. I'm so sorry" says another voice sounding pretty embarrassed. Lexa is approaching us watching the entire scene and, when she sees the way her son greets me, her cheeks turn red.
“Oh, no. Don’t worry” I smile at her and then turn to gaze to the blond one.
“Hey sweetie, how are you?" I ask him stroking his hair.
“I’ve taken the ball with me and also look here!" he whirls toward his mother and takes an orange-colored bag from her hands.
He rests it on the bench and, after some research time, he pulls out two small cars.
"One is for you" and gives me the white one.
"And this one is for me" he says as takes a proud look at his little red Ferrari.
"Oh, how kind of you, thank you! So we can do challenges with these" I say with a childish voice. When I raise my eyes I see a sweet and soft look on Lexa’s face, of happiness and pride. I would be proud of a son like him too. Even though he’s little, Aden speaks a lot and is always kind to others. Few children are like this at his age.
After a few hours of games, laughter and few words exchanged here and there with Lexa, I understand that it's time to go. As I get this thought in my mind, she’s already approaching us and hands Aden his autumn coat and the usual scarf that she puts around his neck.
“Baby, it’s time to go home now” Lexa says softly to her son.
"Already mom? Can’t we stay a little more?” he asks her as anyway, even though he already knows the answer.
"It's late Aden and it’s starting to get cold. We also need to prepare dinner” she says.
After this statement I wonder if her husband can’t cook dinner, but these are not my business.
“Can Clarke come to ours and eat with us? Can you eat with us?” he asks before to his mother and then he turns to me.
“Honey, I don’t know if Clarke can" Lexa replies without worrying, but I know that deep down she didn’t expect such a question.
"Cutie I just can’t tonight, I will come another time. I appreciate the invitation” I tell him, trying not to put further embarrassment to his mother.
She looks at me and smiles, as if to thank me. There is something so delicate in her smile.
After the various greetings, I head home shrouded in autumn chill, almost unbearable being used to the heat of a few days before. The sun has already set down and there’s no one in street, this puts me in a hurry to get home. I don’t like to walk alone in the dark even though it’s only eight in the evening. I always feel so helpless.
I finally see the stairs that lead to my door and I already look forward to putting myself in my pajamas and eat something in order to silence my tummy that’s been grumbling for a while now.
But as soon as I put my hand on the door knob I feel someone touching my shoulder. I turn around immediately almost frightened by whose hand might be, but, as I see what’s in front of me, I’m already screaming of happiness.
"What the hell are you two doing here?!" I say to Raven and Octavia before I jump on them.
"We wanted to surprise you!” Raven replies laughing.