I own nothing, except for my OC.
Alex saw her as he was walking by. She was sitting on a stone bench underneath the shade of a tree with leaves that drooped down in long vines; he forgot what they were called. Her hair was braided back but was beginning to loosen. The loose strands of her hair draped over her face much like the leaves did to the tree, bowing her head over her hand he saw her reading. The grey sweatshirt and pants were unflattering, at best, on her he decided while he walked up to her, but the trance like face she wore from the concentration on her thick tome suited her well.
"Hey," he hummed. Her repetitive eye movement, which was almost hypnotic, from one end of the page to the other was broken at the sound of his voice. Her eyes snapped up and her teeth flashed him in the vibrant smile she greeted everyone with. She was so sweet he could almost taste the sugar in the air around her.
"Hi," she beamed. She was chewing her nail again; he didn't mean to make her nervous, honestly. It still intrigued him how she managed that unfaltering smile despite being such a jumble of nerves. He wondered, briefly, how to make such a nervous wreck feel at ease.
"Whacha reading?" he took the seat next to her. One reference toward her book and the chewing stopped and her soft chuckle of trying to hide discomfort morphed to one made by a fond memory.
"It's, um, Jane Eyre." She flipped through the pages while simultaneously marking hers.
"Any good?" He bobbed his head.
"Should be, it's my favorite book."
"What's it about?" She seemed surprised that he was genuinely interested in her novel. She brushed some hair, which began tickling her cheek, behind her ear.
"It's about this woman named Jane who's been abused trying to find her way in life," Irene hesitated as he looked over her shoulder down at the book curiously. She quickly rejoined reality from her reverie and smiled continuing on about her favorite story, going into full detail knowing well that Alex would most probably not read it for himself but still wanted to know what happened. She talked until Charles had called her to go continue his sessions. She got up and before she left she turned to Alex, smiled authentically, which he thought also suited her, and thanked him.
"I was feeling nervous about today," She confessed, "but I feel better now. Thank you."
"No problem," He blinked up at her, "anytime." She began walking toward Charles. Alex called her name suddenly remembering something. She turned to look back at him.
"What is it?"
"Later could you finish telling me what happens to Mr. Rochester after this Bertha lady?"
"Sure," she smiled and continued onto her training session. In the middle of Irene's lecture of Jane Eyre she had handed Alex the book, which he was skimming blindly now, for him to hold as she flipped pages, pointed things out, and showed him pictures. Alex flipped to the page she had marked to see no picture, which he had been hoping for, to help indicate what part of the story Irene herself was up to. He then turned the pages to the front of the book and read the first few lines. Silently, he was hoping for the two of them to continue soon. He thought she suited him.