author's note: hi everyone! i do realise that it's been a while since i've posted anything here on the TID archive, and so here's a short story, probably about 2 chapters long, for you to enjoy. it'll be something like outside the crayon box, but it'll also be something to mark the beginning of my 2k15 summer writing journey.

i'll have more stories up my sleeve, so i'm definitely excited about that!

so without further ado, here's this lil wessa fic. oh, also, thank you my awesome beta reader clara, or embercrown (prev. the iron sister), as you may know her. you're amazing! :D

...

Tessa was a book enthusiast.

The library was her second home. Having frequented the aisles, she didn't think there was a single shelf in the library that she'd not yet visited. Even the ones which were lined with massive dictionaries, or the ones filled head-to-toe with encyclopedias all written in foreign languages.

Today, Tessa found herself wandering among the aisle of classical novels, lost in the rows and rows of book spines. Occasionally she would reach out to get hold of a title that interested her. She'd placed a total of three volumes into her arms when her grey-blue eyes caught sight of another — Wuthering Heights.

Quickly she scanned the back of the book. She'd heard good things of the novel before, but she had yet to see it for herself. Deeming the blurb intriguing, she placed it atop her pile of books and rounded the corner of the aisle. Four's enough for today, she decided, feeling satisfied.

She stopped at the Starbucks, and soon after walked home with a cup of coffee and a bagful of library books. Greeting her brother at the door, she proceeded to then kick off her shoes and flop onto her bed for a mini reading session.

Tessa fished Wuthering Heights from the bag and flipped it open. It opened at a random page, and at that it was where she discovered the little slip of paper, folded in half, sandwiched neatly between the pages.

She recalled one day at school, when she'd opened the door to her locker to see two pieces of folded-up paper tumble out. They were supportive, sweet little messages, scattered around the school at random, but her friends hadn't received any. Because of that, they had then proceeded to snicker over how love-lettery they'd thought the notes were.

Tessa unfolded the piece of paper. It was not a sweet message, nor was it a love note. She imagined the scenario, in which if she was to ever find one enclosed in a random library book. It would be weird, but still it would probably be worth giggling over.

To her bafflement, there was a series of numbers on the piece of paper. A phone number, Tessa quickly decided, as written, in clear print, was the string of phone digits. There was just that, and nothing else.

Tessa contemplated using it as a simple bookmark for this very book so that she wouldn't have much to do with it. Like everybody else, she was wary of the unknown. This person, if they were somebody seeking nothing more than a little bit of fun, was bold to put their phone number in a public library book.

Maybe somebody else had put it in there.

She rolled her eyes. If that was the case, both of those cases, then it was a brilliant choice, placing the number in a book such as Wuthering Heights. She wondered how long it had stayed in there, and why the particular book was the choice.

Shrugging both her thoughts and the slip of paper away, Tessa proceeded to actually read the book. The story was fascinating, really, and from the beginning was already as intriguing as she'd heard.

But still, the nagging thought of the anonymous phone number persisted. And so, after multiple hours, she decided to allow her curiosity to get the best of her. She enabled Unknown ID and began to dial in the number.

Whatever. You only live once.

The person picked up.

"Hello?"

It was a masculine voice, she noted.

"Hello," she dubiously returned his greeting.

"Is this…" he paused at the other end of the line. "I'm guessing that this is either a prank call, or the person who decided to check Wuthering Heights out from the shelves at 3pm this afternoon. You have good taste."

Tessa was taken aback. She was not expecting that. "Are you a stalker?" she blurted out, perplexed and slightly creeped out. She didn't recollect anybody standing near her when she'd picked the book out from the aisle.

"Ah. You are the latter," the person replied, his tone holding a tinge of mischief. "No, I'm not a stalker. I simply lurk on the local library webpage."

Briefly, Tessa remembered making use of the search function on the said library webpage. She'd successfully located a book she'd wanted, and had, in addition to that, also been able to confirm that it hadn't been checked out.

"That may be considered as a more… subtle form of stalking, though," Tessa remarked.

"Perhaps," he replied lightly. Tessa detected amusement in his voice.

Suddenly, there was a flash of an image of a boy in her mind — one who was around her age, with the possibility of being a few years older. Tessa knew she was already imagining what it looked like if she were in his place.

"But you should have seen how surprised I was when I saw, online, that somebody had checked the book out! I was wondering if this phone call would ever come."

"Why'd you even put it in there?" Tessa asked him, curious.

"I wanted to have a chat with somebody, who perhaps would have enjoyed the book as much as I did. Speaking of which…" he began.

"That's a rather eccentric way to make connections," she mused, "Though creative. And unique, but risky."

"Two pros and two cons," he spoke brightly. "Compensates for each other! But really, it is difficult looking for someone who likes the same novels that I do. Not even on Omegle Interests."

Tessa snorted. How desperate was he? "Omegle? Really?"

"Yes," he said solemnly.

Her mouth spread into an amused smile. He was, frankly, hilarious. "Alright, sad library-webpage-stalking loner. I love books. You can talk to me, as I am as passionate about reading as you are, I guess."

She heard him laugh. "Don't pity me."

"I'm not!" Tessa protested, though in her mind she couldn't deny it. "Well, not really. I mean, if you're going on Omegle…"

"You know that feeling?" he interrupted. "When you're in the middle of a good series? And when you've got all your emotions bubbled up inside of you, they have nowhere to go?"

She nodded, even though he wouldn't know.

"Oh, yes, I call them fangirl attacks." Tessa was smiling. She wasn't sure if it would weird him out, but once she reminded herself that he himself was one like her, she shrugged and went along with it. "I might just be able to picture you in my head right now, despite the fact that I do not know how you look like."

"You can?" A hint of playfulness crept into his tone.

"Yes," she responded, the boy in her head wringing his hands in his hair. She wondered what sort of hair a boy like this would have. Ruffled, maybe. Unruly. He wore glasses, perhaps. "You can vent to people who are close to you, even if they don't have a clue what you say."

There was a pause for a moment.

"Alright," he muttered. "In Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff—"

"No spoilers!" Tessa interrupted him.

"I wasn't gonna spoil it," he said. "You should not think that lowly of me."

She rolled her eyes. "Certain people I know are renowned spoiler dispensers."

"I swear, on the Angel, I'm not going to spoil the book," he replied earnestly. "However, there will be bloated, unintelligible speech."

He kept his word. For the next two minutes or so there was a lot of incoherent muttering, words Tessa couldn't make sense of. Instead she sat next to her phone, her back supported by the wall, laughing silently. Withdrawing her hand from her mouth, she turned to fetch Wuthering Heights.

His mumbling stopped.

"Were you listening?"

"Yep!" Tessa responded cheerfully. "But I was reading the book, too."

She imagined the boy with the glasses and ruffled hair, smiling.

"Good. I shall leave you to your reading, then!" His tone matched hers. "Before I leave, though, you must tell me your name."

"I'm Tessa," she said, grinning.

"Will," he said in a way of response. "A pleasure to meet someone like you, bookworm Tessa. How long do you think it will take you to finish Wuthering Heights?"

"You too." Tessa looked up, thinking. "It's a 300 page book, so… one day and a half? Two?"

"Great," Will responded. "Expect a call from me in a day and a half. Perhaps even earlier."

"You don't have my number," Tessa reminded him. She told herself that he was scheduling another call because he had nobody else to talk to. After that came another thought, reminding her that she did not have any idea who he actually was.

"Right," he said.

There was a pause.

Tessa wasn't keen on giving him her personal number, and he seemed to sense it.

"Right," Will chuckled, repeating the word. "I will expect a call from you in a day and a half."

She couldn't help but smile.

"Bye, Will."

"Bye, Tessa."

...

Tessa had just finished both the school day and 263 pages of Wuthering Heights when her eyes darted again to her bedside table. The piece of paper, with the phone number, crowned the top of the remaining stack of her library books.

It had already been around two days since the phone call, she noted.

Tessa hadn't been true to her predictions. It would take her more time — maybe another day — to finish the book, even though she wouldn't be reading it at a snail's pace.

Still, she found her hand wandering towards the slip of paper. She swiped it off the stack of books, but then hesitated when she was halfway to dialing in all the numbers. This Will hadn't proven to be anything but a telephone catfisher, but still it wouldn't hurt to talk to and laugh with somebody who could understand her book problems as much as she, as it seemed. Even if he was a catfisher, or not.

With the Unknown ID preference still switched on, she went ahead and proceeded to call him.

"Piss off, Gabriel," he hissed the moment he picked up.

Tessa frowned, startled. "Um… What?"

"Tessa!" he spoke her name jovially, switching gears right before she was going to hang up. Tessa paused, her thumb hovering over the End Call button. "My apologies for that. I thought this was another prank call. You see, the first one arrived half a day earlier, which was when your call was due, so after that I decided not to still be expecting yours."

She rolled her eyes. "Sorry for being half a day late."

"No worries," he said. "So, how'd you find the book?"

"Oh, I'm not done with it yet," Tessa replied, leaning back against her wall.

"Yet still you decided to phone me," Will said. She could practically hear his grin through the call.

Again she gave a roll of her eyes. "I would have been a full day late. How does that sound?"

He laughed at the other end of the line. "How is it so far?"

She paused, thinking of what she wanted to say. "It's alright, I guess. The book continues to surprise me. I have no idea what to make of Heathcliff."

"Is he not a psychotic bitch right now?"

"Yeah," she replied. "He is. But still we know very well where his anger stems from."

"Love," he announced dramatically, "Drove him insane."

They continued like this for a while, exchanging their thoughts, swapping their opinions. At the end of this particular bonding session, Tessa was pleased to discover that they had much of what they thought in common. They knew a lot of the same books, too — mostly classic — or, well, in this case, classroom works of English literature.

It made sense, she supposed. Who others their age would discuss the characters in Jane Eyre for anything other than English class?

Tessa smiled at the thought.

A good fifteen minutes later, Tessa and Will had gotten to the point where they had moved on from their books to actual introductory conversations. He had friends, she gathered — actual friends, though none shared the same interests as Will himself did.

He specialized at memorising literature and also, absolutely abhorred ducks.

Why? she'd asked him.

He'd told her that they were beastly creatures that were not to be fooled with, and then had continued to tell her of an encounter he'd had with them, on a sunny day in Hyde park.

They'd attacked him with their beaks, apparently. Giggling, Tessa swapped him some of her information — she liked coffee, dance sessions with her brother, and despised chocolate.

He'd gasped at that, clearly horrified, and had proceeded to deem her a monster.

"How old actually are you?" Tessa asked him after the dumb realisation struck her — she didn't actually know how old he was, after all this talk. In her brain, though, Will was not older than twenty. "Truth to be told, you kind of talk like somebody from the nineteenth century, with some exceptions."

Will laughed. "I'm eighteen. And no, it's just that I speak in a simple, sophisticated manner."

Eighteen, Tessa pondered. Not bad. "Great. I'm a year younger."

"I hope it brings you relief that I am not, in fact, one century old."

"You're not? What a pleasant surprise." She smiled. "You're about to graduate?"

"Well, yes," he replied. "I am in the middle of my final year of high school."

"Hmm," she hummed. "Where do you plan to go after that?"

"This topic," he drawled. After another pause, he said, "Brown, I'm planning."

Brown University, Tessa contemplated. She'd began looking at universities lately, planning ahead for herself, and had definitely spotted the prestigious Brown University among the selection. It was an amazing opportunity.

"You seem to be the type of person who would begin thinking about universities when you finish fifth grade. So what of you, Tessa?"

"I've only recently been looking at universities," Tessa responded drily, "And I'm not too sure yet," she admitted. She had a list laid out for herself, given her 4.0 GPA, but she had no choices she was leaning towards.

"Great!" he said cheerfully. "Ultimately you'll choose Brown, and before you know it, we'll be the best of friends."

Tessa hmm'ed. "We're talking about one year and a half later, Will."

"If we're not good friends by then," Will replied.

She grinned. For an unknown reason, even the immediate thoughts of a catfisher did not seem to faze her.

Eventually she had to go, having spoken to him for over an hour. Tessa finished her homework and her dinner before making the decision to complete the book.

The next day, she went ahead and called him. And after that, the next.

They had humorously lengthy chats, Tessa realised four days later, with a content smile. They never seemed to run out of things to say to each other, and already she hoped they never would.

author's note: i really hope you enjoyed that! this isn't the end of this story, since i'll have a chapter 2 coming up. do please give your comments, suggestions & thoughts in that review box below! x

p.s. if you are either eilyx or emmaherondale15, hi guyse !111!