Poetry
Chapter Three: And Yet the Books

-o-

Jason licked his teeth as he looked around the library for Tim. He huffed as he looked at his watch. He was supposed to be here at two and it was almost twenty minutes past. Dio maledetto, why couldn't this kid ever be on time?

He shook his head and rubbed his reddened knuckles absently, sighing as he flicked his eyes around the room again for a familiar face. But his eyes caught sight of another familiar face that made him smirk.

At a table across the room, she sat, hunched over a book with a red pen wedged between her peach painted lips, nibbling on it. He watched as she pulled the pen away from her mouth, standing up and walking towards one of the books shelves, his eyes lingering on her hips.

Licking his lips, he stood up from his table and made his way over to where she stood. Leaning against the shelf, he quietly observed her as she stood on her toes and reached for a book on the top shelf. He stifled a laugh, watching her jump up and struggle for the item.

"Piccola cosa breve…" He whispered to himself, pushing off of the shelf and walking over and getting the book down for her.

For the briefest of moments, their hands touched and a surge electricity raced through his body at blinding speeds that made his head spin. His eyes locked with her deep blue one and he noticed the color of her cheeks turn bright red. He grinned, wondering if she had felt the spark too and handing her the book.

"I could've gotten it down myself, you know," she grumbled at him, taking the book in her hands and turning away from him.

He chuckled, following behind her and digging his hands in his pockets. "You're welcome."

She huffed, shaking her head and picking up another book from the shelf. "I didn't say 'thank you'."

Oh, sassy… He liked sassy.

"You didn't have to," he gave a one shoulder shrug, watching her pouted face with absolute fascination. He bit back another laugh.

Despite all of the black she was wearing and her sort of distant nature, she was actually… cute when she was flustered.

"Call it payment for the advice on the car."

She let out a small grunt as she looked for another book, looking at him from the side of her eye. "Have you seen Tim? He was supposed to meet me here about twenty minutes ago."

His eyebrows crinkled and his head tilted slightly to the side in question. "You guys were supposed to meet twenty minutes ago?"

"Yes," she answered, picking up another book and adding it to the stack in her hands. "We had a studying session today. Same time, same place as the last time. That was about twenty minutes ago."

Jason rolled his tongue as he tried to process the information, the gearing spinning and clicking around in his head. If Tim had a studying session with her at the library at two, why would he…?

Che intrighi figlio di una cagna! Next time he saw that little twerp he was going to pummel him. Always sticking his nose in business that didn't concern him…

Jason rolled his eyes and growled, crossing his arms over his chest. "Well, dolly, it looks like he stood us up."

She turned around to face him with an eyebrow cocked. "First of all, I'm not your 'dolly.' My name is Raven. Use it. Second off, what do you mean by 'us'?"

"Well, Raven," he dragged out in a tease as he leaned against the bookshelf again. "I mean, I was supposed to meet him here at two as well."

"That could be a coincidence," she offered.

He shocked his head, scratching lazily at the light scruff under his jaw. "Trust me, it's not."

"Huh," she trailed, a curious but pensive expression etching on her features as she looked at him.

He narrowed his eyes slightly, wondering what she could possibly be looking at. Following her line of vision, he noticed she was staring at his knuckles and he felt a quick flush of embarrassment, putting his hand back down and away from her sight. She didn't need a full out picture about the sort of life he lived.

"Yeah," he coughed, trying to distract her mind from the condition of his hand. "Kid has a bad habit of meddling in things that don't concern him."

She tapped her fingers against the hard linen of the books in her hand, looking as if she was debating to ask the question that he knew was on the tip of her tongue. But instead, she shook her head and sighed in resignation.

"You, er…" She started, her fingers coming up to brush at her bangs. "You seem to know a lot about Tim."

He laughed, lightly. "That's because I do. He's my little brother, after all."

She blinked in surprise. "He is?"

"Yeah, sort of," he shrugged, looking at the various book titles on the shelves. "It's a long and complicated story."

"I'd like to hear it some time," she said, boldly before her eyes widened at the implication of her sentence. A furious blush covered her face in a matter of seconds, and it took all of Jason's willpower not to laugh at how cute she was.

Smart, sassy, cute and curvy… All of Jason's favorite things all rolled up into one tiny woman.

This… Little Bird…

"If-if that's alright with you…" She finished with an awkward shrug.

He leaned against the shelving structure besides them and grinned widely, taking a few steps towards her. "I would love to tell you the tale one day."

A small moment of silence drifted between them, the air closing in around them and growing thick with nervous yet electrifying tension. His chest swelled with excitement and something that he could not name as he gazed down at her. His fingers twitched in his pocket, suddenly feeling the need to reach out and touch her skin to feel that shockwave run through his body again, making his hair stand on end.

He watched her pearly white teeth slide out to nibble her lip as her arms tightened around her books, growing shy under his gaze. He licked his lips as he absently thought about one day biting that lip.

"So," she coughed, her brows knitting together in question. "If your brother wanted me to meet him here to study and he wanted you to meet him here as well, only to stand us up… Then, what did he ask us here for?"

Jason paused for a moment before he let out a soft and airy chuckle at her. Wasn't the answer obvious? "He's trying to fix us up."

She gasped, surprised by, not only the answer, but the sheer bluntness that accompanied it. Averting her eyes, her blush brightened all the way down her neck and chest before disappearing underneath the hemline of her sweater.

"Oh…" She breathed, her eyes blinking wildly as she tried to process the information inside her head.

Feeling a bit of the awkward tension, he shifted his weight from foot to foot as he tried to gage her reaction to all of this. "I didn't put him up to this, if that's what you're wondering. He just meddles on his own accord."

"No, no…" She answered, distantly, drifting off into some place in her mind that was unknown to him. He stood and watched with fascination her lips twitch and her eyes squint as if she was trying to read an invisible sentence that floated between them. After a few seconds, she blinked, pulling out of her head with a blush still coating her cheeks. She looked up at him and forced a small and awkward smile. "I should really check these books out."

Moving past him, she walked hurriedly back to her table and gathered her things, leaving him to behind to stand amongst the books to wonder what exactly had gone through her head.

A few moments went by and he found himself standing outside the library with a lit cigarette wedged between his lips, waiting for her. He knew he seemed a little weird, possibly stalkerish but there was something about her that pulled him to her. And it wasn't like he didn't try to leave. He did. Thinking about the prospect of clocking in early at the garage and getting a few extra bucks. But his mind kept jumping back to their time with the books, and he couldn't stop wondering if she felt all of the things that he felt, even if it was just a semblance of it.

So there he was… waiting. Come un idiota.

Blowing out a puff of smoke with a sigh, he looked to the door to the library to see her short form walking out with the ever familiar sweet sway of her hips. He grinned, flicking his cigarette away to some forgotten place and followed after her with hurried steps.

"So," he fell into step with her. "Raven."

She jumped a little, lifting her head from the book she was reading but continued on her steady pace. "Oh Jason, you're still here?"

"In the flesh," he answered, his eyes flicking to the one book in her hands and noting the neat handwriting inside. "Off to another class?"

She shook her head. "Er, no… I'm off to work. My bike's down this way."

He nodded, his hands dipping into the pockets of his jeans. "So is my car. Do you mind if I walk with you?"

She shrugged, slightly. "Not at all."

"Good," he smiled as they strolled through the campus together.

It was a sun shiny day in Jump City. The sun yellow and bright and the sweet yet salty air was fairly warm with a delicious breeze floating by. Loose green summer leaves from the trees spiraled and swirled in the air around them until the fluttered their way to the ground around their feet with a low hiss against the cement.

It was one of those sweet and perfect days that lied somewhere between seasons.

"What's that you're reading?" He asked, abruptly, eyeing what appeared to be a journal.

She shook her head, stashing the book away in her messenger bag and pressing her lips in a straight line as if she was trying to hide something behind her stoicism. "Nothing. Just a silly little book."

"For a woman who reads Keats and wears mostly black, I wouldn't imagine you reading something silly."

"Well, didn't we learn the last time we spoke to not to judge a book by it's cover?" she fired at him, reaching the rack that her bike was attached to.

His lips curled slowly into another grin as he stared on at her, watching her bangs cover her face as she took of the lock and chain around it. "Yes, yes we did."

He didn't believe her answer for one second, that it was just some silly book. But she didn't want to talk about it and he was going to respect her wishes… For now.

Just like Tim had a bad habit of meddling, he had a bad habit of giving into his curiosity.

Shaking his head of the thoughts, he coughed. "So I have a question."

"Well, I might have an answer for you," she replied smartly, putting her chain away in the wicker basket on the back of her bike.

"When I told you that Tim was fixing us up, you said 'Oh,'" he started, nerves prickling at him in his chest. "Was that a good 'Oh' or a bad 'Oh?'"

She paused again, her index finger tapping lightly against the handlebars and her tongue rolling in her mouth as she mulled the question over. Jason stood nervously, his eyes quickly scanning her features for an answer. Surely she felt the same static that he did. That electrical spark that ran down his arm and made his hand twitch in the most pleasurable way. Surely she felt her blood rush and her gut twist and her heart pound too?

Pulling her bike free from the rack, she backed away as a slight smile danced around the corners of her peach lips. "It was a… Good to know sort of 'Oh.'"

Good to know? That was good, right? His smile grew as he nodded his head. "Good to know."

Her smile widened, mounting her bike. "Pour un gars comme vous, vous êtes réellement vraiment mignon."

He blinked, unsure of what she just said. It sounded like… French. But only girls from the right side of the tracks spoke French…

He shifted awkwardly and rubbed a hand through his hair. "Yeah, I uh, I don't speak French."

"That was why I said it in French," she smiled, readying herself on her bike. "See you around?"

Generations of voices from the past called out to him in protest but he promptly ignored them as the corner of his lips turned up and his head nod. "Yeah…"

Her smile widened before she turned her head and sped off on her bike down the road, leaving him to yet again to stand in her dust and feeling wonderfully out of place.

"Uccellino…"

Thank you again!