Blue at Midnight by S D Wile, D R Kaulder

this time he was
wearing a long-sleeved navy top outlining his lean muscular physique.  
    “This is Christian.
Christian meet Izzie, my amazing friend.” I stared
hard at Sonia hoping to transfer the words ‘why is he here?’ into her mind but
was unsuccessful as she continued to smile gormlessly at me.
    “Christian’s new and he
wasn’t sure about where the library was so I thought he could come with us and
we could show him the ins and outs.” I was sure he was more than capable of
finding his way around as he seemed to know more than he let on. So far he’d
seen me in a fight with Jenny, heard all the rumours, chatted up the college
staff and eavesdropped on my conversation with the college mentor. He knew more
than Sonia and he’d only been here five minutes. I wondered what he was up to
as I was starting to feel quite over protective of my gullible friend.
    Christian handed me my
coffee and I noticed he’d been carrying the cups, as Sonia’s hands were full
with bags and a cinnamon swirl. I politely accepted it yet couldn’t help but
notice the dark leather jacket draped over his arm. It looked ever so familiar.
Just then Sonia started coughing and asked Christian to kindly bring her a
glass of water from the water cooler which sat at the library entrance.
    Impatiently Sonia
dragged me to a desk.
    “What’s wrong? Do you
know him or something?”
    “No.”
    “Then what’s up with
the face? He’s new; poor thing must feel so alone.”
    “I understand. We’ve
all been there, it’s normal.   Anyway you
never take so kindly to random men, so what’s this?” Just then a smile flashed
and disappeared within seconds on Sonia’s face.
    “You fancy him!”
    “Shush, we are in a
library remember and yes he seems nice so we must
help!”
    “Help him?”
    “Yes, what if that
Jenny Summers sees him and tries to...”
    “Seriously? I’m sure he can handle her.” Any excuse would not have been enough to convince
my generous friend. She was already fond of him and starting to get quite
annoyed.
    “Handle who?” Sonia
shouted when my heart jumped into my mouth as her cinnamon swirl went rolling
like tumbleweed down the aisle towards the main desk.
    “Oh crap!” she
accidently blurted out in a banned volume. With the expression of a serious
hedgehog wearing reading glasses and pierced lips, the middle-aged librarian
that had been behind the main desk came marching towards us sharp.
    “There is strictly no
eating or speaking in this zone. I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to
leave!” She reminded me of an angry school teacher. I’d never felt so
embarrassed in my life and what made it even more humiliating was that
Christian was there to witness this. Aggressively, the librarian picked up the
cinnamon swirl in its paper bag and threw it towards the bin. The pastry
bounced off the wall before landing straight in. Just then someone shouted out
‘shot’ which irritated Sonia even more.
    “How dare she throw my
food away. I spent money on that.” Sonia looked like
she was on the verge of exploding whilst angrily gathering her belongings.   That’s when I locked eyes with Christian; we
both knew what was to come next. Any time now Sonia was going to lose her
temper and start arguing with the lady, which would result in security throwing
us out. Quickly we both grabbed her arms and bags before dragging her out of
the library. Christian apologised to the hedgehog on the way out. I did think
she’d over reacted by throwing away Sonia’s cinnamon swirl; she could’ve just
given it back and told us to leave. Some people forget that they work with
adults and not children.  
    Christian went to class
and I decided to take Sonia outside for some air. Twenty minutes later, she
told me that when she went to buy coffee she noticed her purse wasn’t with her
and was worried she might have dropped it in the old factory. She’d already
cancelled her debit card but was hungry and bought the cinnamon