| 02 |

| 𝐂𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐉𝐀𝐗𝐎𝐍 𝐉𝐀𝐂𝐄 |

My thin-rimmed glasses feel heavy on my nose today.

I'm barely awake, moving throughout the day on autopilot, terribly exhausted. My bones are literally begging me to give them a rest.

My earphones are plugged in but my head's barely registering what song is playing as I try to focus on the textbook in front of me.

The words blur in front of my eyes, and I catch myself dozing off before abruptly jerking awake.

A sigh comes out of my mouth, and I slump further into my chair as if to hide from the dull yellow lights of the library.

I should've slept last night.

But I couldn't.

I could barely catch thirty minutes of sleep before I had to get dressed and make a dash for school, which added to my exhaustion.

There are people around me, some silently reading, others typing away on their laptops. The sounds of pages being turned, or the keyboard keys being pressed sound like a lullaby to my ears.

I try reading the letters again, mumbling the words to myself, not registering the way my head slowly rests on the cool and smooth surface of my book without me even comprehending.

My head feels like it's sinking into a pool of darkness and the way my body starts to relax on the table...

Just one minute wouldn't hurt, right?

My eyes fall shut.

When I open my eyes again, it feels like I'm waking up from a dream. Confusion marks my brain as I raise my head from the table—only to find myself looking at darkness.

Uh, what...?

With a confused frown, I pull out my phone to check the time. My eyebrows shoot up.

1:04 AM.

What the fuck?

I stare at the screen of my phone to double-check the time.

1:05 AM.

My reaction is still the same; what the fuck?

It takes time for my confused, alarmed, brain to catch up. I've been sleeping this whole time?

I look around, frantically.

Was I that invisible sitting in the corner of the library that the teacher didn't see me while locking up?

I pull my hood down and run a shaky hand through my hair.

At least I got to sleep.

A big sigh comes out of my mouth, and I slump in my seat.

It's been a long time since I've allowed myself to sleep for more than five hours.

With whatever's happening right now, I'm surprised I'm still able to function and survive every single day.

A wince comes on my face remembering I had to work tonight.

Guess I'm not gonna get paid.

I'll have to pick up a double shift to cover up for tonight.

I do a mental calculation of my whole schedule for tomorrow, striking off things that I'll have to miss.

No time for lunch. No money to take the bus. Probably will skip dinner. Reach home five hours late. Miss seven hours of my sleep. No time to spend time with mom.

A dull headache comes on, making me wince and close my eyes, but I try shaking it away.

Let's figure out how to get out of this library for now.

I stand up and stretch my cramped muscles, rotating my neck to get it out of its stiffness. I pack everything into my bag and zip it up while scrolling through my contact list, searching for the Librarian's number.

My body tenses when I realize I don't have it.

"God." I silently groan out, looking heavenward.

This day could not get any worse.

I take a step forward and don't realize there's a chair in front of me until I kick it and send it tipping.

Two things make a sound at once.

First, the chair makes a sound after colliding with the ground.

Second, someone in the distance jerks up with a gasp.

Someone's here?

I squint my eyes as I try to look into the darkness.

"Who's there?" I call out.

A yawn fills the silence and with the tone of voice, I can tell it's a female.

"Ugh, my neck." She groans out. "What the—where am I?"

Her voice sounds so familiar, making me frown.

I step forward, trying to detect the person in the dark.

My eyes finally latch onto the outline of a head. She's sitting far across from me.

"Uh, who are you?" I ask, walking in her direction.

Her head snaps in my direction.

"What time is it?" She questions, instead of answering me.

"It's one in the night."

"What?" She gasps. "Oh shit." She groans out. "My dad's gonna be mega-pissed. He's already pissed-pissed with me. But now he's literally gonna fucking blast because of how pissed he's gonna be."

I frown as I finally reach her.

Her head is facing away from me so I can't see her face yet.

Why is her voice so familiar?

She finally turns her head in my direction.

I don't recognize her at once, because of the darkness and how hard it is for me to see. But once I do—my body freezes. Annoyance and slight panic quickly take over me the moment I realize who I'm trapped with.

Shit.

No.

No.

Please no. 

Anything but this. Literally anything. Take my kidney for all I care. 

Seated in front of me, is no other than Holly Versace. She's looking up at me and I can make out the outline of her long lashes fluttering as she blinks.

"Oh, you're that cute guy." A smile spreads across her face. She tilts her head, looking at me up and down.

A frown comes on my face.

"Are you wearing glasses? You weren't wearing them before." She asks.

I turn around and walk away, ignoring her.

It's best to stay as far as possible away from Holly Versace.

I've seen and heard enough to confirm that she's not the kind of person you should mingle with.

Wherever she goes, trouble follows and I sure as hell don't want even the slightest bit of problems when I already have enough of them weighing me down.

Holly Versace spares no one. I heard she picked up a fight with some guy last time, injured him terribly and walked out of it without any trouble. Whereas the guy got a two-week suspension and a broken bone.

"Hey! Where are you going?" She calls after me.

I ignore her, hoping to hide myself between the shelves and avoid any kind of interaction with her. Maybe God will have mercy on me today and finally decide to take my life. At least, I'll get to make Holly look suspicious for probably murdering me in this library after I leave.

The sound of a chair scraping against the floor reaches my ears, followed by the sound of heels clicking on the floor. The sound gets louder, and I know she's trying to follow me.

I quicken my pace and duck between two random shelves, hoping my footsteps don't make any sound as to where I'm hiding.

The sound of her heels stops clicking.

There's silence for a while before she suddenly gasps out. "Are you hiding from me?" Her tone is amused. "Oh damn, whatever did I do to you?" I can feel the grin in her tone.

I remain silent, my jaw locked, tight.

"You can come out, I don't bite." She continues. "Unless you want me to, that is."

She starts walking again. This time, slower, dragging her heels across the floor as if she has the entire time in the world. "You know..." She speaks out, "Most guys would take advantage of this situation and would expect some great sex in the dark."

I roll my eyes. Sure.

"I mean it's not every day you find a girl and a guy locked in the same room in complete darkness where there's no one around." Her voice drops to a sultry whisper.

I'd rather get locked in with rats and snakes instead of her. God, please take me. I'm literally begging you.

She's silent for a moment as if waiting for a response from my side.

I remain quiet and wait for her to give up. There's no way I'm interacting with her.

A frown of confusion comes on my face when I don't hear her speak for a long time. Even her heels stopped clacking. I can't see shit in the dark and can't make out where she is.

I keep my ears peered out, waiting for her next move—warmth radiates behind me.

I feel her mouth near my ear, her warm breath seeping into my skin. "Got you." She whispers.

I almost shriek, jerking away from her. I don't stop moving back. The sensation of her warm breath sends shivers after shivers down my body. I can still feel her lips and have the sudden urge to scratch out my ear.

She laughs. "Are you scared of ghosts or something?"

"You wouldn't be saying that if it was the other way around and a guy was trying to mess around with a girl." I bite out.

She remains silent.

"Why are you quiet?" I demand, still irked by the way my body reacted to her being that close to me.

"Your voice," she says. "It's...satisfying to hear."

I open my mouth but clamp it shut just as quickly. If my voice is satisfactory to her then there's no way in hell I'm giving her more satisfaction.

She must've taken off her heels, that's why I couldn't hear her.

"Why don't you wanna talk to me?" She asks.

I give her no reply, sealing my lips shut and still trying to get as far away as possible from her voice.

"You know you seemed familiar when I saw you first." She says, her voice getting louder, closer, "Have we met before?"

I almost stop in my tracks to give her a look of disbelief.

She can't be fucking serious.

I wait for her to tell me that she's kidding but she doesn't.

What the hell?

"Why don't you answer me?" She prods. "We haven't met before?"

"Are you serious?" I frown in the direction of her voice.

"What?"

"You're seriously telling me you haven't seen me before?"

"We have?" She questions.

I would've glared at her, but it would be no use since she can't see me.

Instead, I scoff.

Well to be fair, she has no reason to notice me or get to know me. Holly Amanda Versace belongs to a completely different world than mine.

A world where she can snap her fingers and get anything delivered to her. A world where she lives off her dad's money. A world where she's popular and can get away with anything with not even a scratch on her image.

Whereas in my world, people struggle to maintain a roof over their heads. They struggle to squeeze in a wink of sleep. They struggle to earn anything that they'll be relieved to have just a dollar in their pocket.

Holly has no reason to get to know me.

And she never did.

"What's your name?" Her question breaks my thoughts.

I remain silent once again, sealing my lips shut.

"You seem more like a Freddie." She guesses.

I raise an eyebrow.

Freddie?

"Nah, not Freddie." Her voice nears me, and I try to move away. "Freddie might be your jumpy personality's name. By your looks, you seem more like a...Levi or Ezra."

I narrow my eyes.

She's not anywhere remotely close to guessing my name.

And how the fuck do even Levi's and Ezra's look like?

In my opinion, then, her name would be Maleficent.

My body bumps into something and an oof comes out of my mouth. My hands reach forward and brace against the wall I bumped into.

Shit. I hit a dead-end.

I look around and I don't see anything. I'm guessing I'm probably trapped between two bookshelves.

If Holly heard my oof then she knows I'm here, and if she comes here then there'll be no way out for me. I'll have to face her before trying to escape.

I swivel back around, holding my breath and trying to remain as quiet as possible. God, I'm still waiting for you to take me. Actually...God, take Holly. You'll have a great time with her deviousness. Yup, take her.

Don't be shy, take at least one of us. 

Maybe if I remain utterly calm and quiet, she'll think I'm not here and move somewhere else.

It's darker here between the bookshelves, making it almost impossible for me to see anything. Even my own hands.

I don't hear a word from Holly's mouth, not even her footsteps.

Where is she?

A minute passes.

I know because I'm counting the seconds in my head.

Another minute passes.

And there goes another.

And another.

Where the fuck is she?

Did she suddenly just decide to go mute or something? Did she faint and go unconscious?

Did God actually take her? 

Fuck, my wish actually came true? Well, at least I'm alive. 

I let out a huge sigh at myself. What the fuck am I saying? This is ridiculous. I'm acting like such a coward. 

I let two more minutes pass before deciding that she probably finally decided to leave me alone and sit down somewhere, minding her own business now that she knows I'm irked by her.

I should probably check if I have someone else's phone number whom I can call to get me out of this library. I walk to go get my bag, and ram straight into a body.

There isn't enough time to regain my balance. My body's tipping forward, thrusting into someone else's, sending us both crashing to the ground.

I land on something soft but whatever the soft thing's there underneath me wasn't long enough to reach my head. My head crashes painfully on the cold floor.

I squeeze my eyes shut as a wave of pain breezes through my head.

It takes me a moment to realize my fingers are splayed across something. Something soft, round and warm. I frown in confusion. Without thinking, I squeeze it and a gasp reaches my ears.

My head jerks up and I look down to see a mess of long hair on the floor that belongs to a body beneath me.

My eyes widen with horror.

Holly's body.

Holly is underneath me.

I'm on top of Holly.

My body is pressing against Holly's.

And my hand—

"That's my stomach." She groans out, shifting underneath me in a way that shoots warmth up my skin, burning the tips of my ears.

Oh shit. She's way too close to me. Way too close to me. Way too close to me—

I realize my hand's still on her bare stomach and that my fingers are feathering her skin, feeling the softness—

No! My fingers can't betray me like this!

I jump up and away from Holly, forcing my body to stop heating up.

Why am I even reacting like this?

Repulsion fills me and I'm glaring hard at Holly who's still on the floor, her hand massaging the back of her head.

"Ugh, whatever happened to arms encircled around me, saving me just in time before I fall to the ground?" Holly groans.

I try glaring harder, wanting actual holes to burn in her skin.

"You sure are no hero, whatever your name is." She picks herself up into a sitting position.

"Why the fuck were you standing right in front of me?" I snap.

"I was gonna scare you." She says and I know she's standing up. "But then you walked straight into me."

I feel annoyed at myself for not detecting her right in front of me. How the fuck can she detect me though? Does she have night vision?

Horror fills me with a realization. Oh my god, I touched her! I touched her with my own fingers. I touched her!

My eyes widen to the size of the moon when I realize something else.

I fell on top of her!

On top of her.

My body on top of hers!

Nope, calm down. Nothing happened. I must be hungry that's why I'm reacting like this. I didn't even have coffee.

Wait, I never drink coffee. I hate coffee.

"Stop messing with me." I grit out.

Another laugh fills the air. "What kind of a man are you? You didn't even offer your hand to help me up."

No, because I was busy calming my body.

"You brought that on yourself," I reply.

"One question?"

"What?"

"Why are we locked in the library?" She asks.

"Hell if I know," I reply.

All I remember was falling asleep and waking up to this!

"Maybe the teacher didn't see us sleeping." She says.

Hang on a second.

She's asking me why are we locked in here now?

Like she didn't think of that question before?

"Why haven't you gotten out yet?" She asks.

"I don't have the teacher's number," I grumble.

"Oh, you should've just asked me. I have it."

My head swivels in her direction. "What? What are you waiting for then? Call her!"

There's silence for a while.

I stare at the empty dark space in front of me. What is she waiting for? Is she looking for her phone?

"Why are you quiet?" I ask.

There's silence for about three more seconds before I hear her speak.

"Don't you know?" She asks and I can feel the wide smile on her face. "I don't do anything for free."

★・・・・・・★

I enjoyed writing Castle so much! I already have like 50 chapters written on my Microsoft docs, and the way he gets jumpier and panicky around Holly is so much fun to write!

Are you people liking the book so far?

Words: 2,990

Date of publishing: 1st March 2023