immure- to shut in; seclude or confine

  The entire week was just how I had imagined, boring. I hadn't found anyone quite yet that was worth talking to for more than a few minutes at a time. I sat with AJ at lunch. He wasn't that bad once I actually talked to him about different things.

He was just very gullible. In fact, I had found that about most people at this school. Everyone seemed to believe anything you told them at any time about anything. And then there was Emy. She was definitely something else. I had tried to speak to her several times, but I was beginning to think there was no way of communicating with her. I was struggling to say the least.

I could see her now, literally. She was sitting in the corner of the lunch room as she always did with a new book in her hand. I hadn't discovered the title of this one yet, but I had decided making fun of her choice of book wouldn't be the best idea if I wanted to be her friend at all. She seemed like the only person at this school who was actually worth getting to know.

"Dude, are you staring at Emy Sutton again?" I heard a chuckle from beside me. I hadn't noticed but I certainly was... "What? No." I cut my eyes away from her, looking somewhere else. "Ah, I see. You're scouting..." I raised an eyebrow. "Scouting?" I questioned.

"Don't act like you're dumb. Scouting, as in like, scouting for a babe. You're looking for them, I believe... Those are the pretty girls." I followed the direction of AJ's nod and found a small table of about 5 girls all sitting together.

I laughed, "I was not scouting. And why do you say "Pretty Girls" like that?" They aren't any prettier than... any other girl." I shrugged, eying them. I don't know why, but I wanted to say that they weren't as pretty as Emy. It's true. They weren't.

"No but they're the pretty girls dude. As in, the easy ones." I scoffed, okay maybe he wasn't that great of a guy. "Jesus, you have a code name for them? That's wrong."

AJ laughed, "Not just me. That's what everyone calls them. That one right there, that's Carlesia Donovan. Easiest one there is, and she's hot." She pointed to a girl with darker skin, and long curly hair. I rolled my eyes.

"Ya know, Emy used to be one of them... I mean, I don't know the full story... but from what I heard, she was insanely hot back in the day." I was partially tired of hearing things about Emy at this lunch table. It seemed to be the only place I could get information though. And all of this was coming from AJ, the sophomore.

"Then she didn't come to school for like, months after her mom went... ya know. Carlesia was her replacement. When she came back she had that weird hair. She was never the same. She was just always pissed at everyone, and no one knew why. She told her friends to never talk to her again, so they just didn't."

My eyes had drifted back over to the lilac haired girl. Her dark eyebrows were pinched together in a manner of worry as she gripped tightly to her book. "Well... wait a minute. I have a girlfriend. I wasn't trying to "scout for babes" at all actually." I shook my head. AJ seemed to ignore me.

She was still mad at me though, she barely answered any of my texts. She never answered my phone calls. I was beginning to feel hopeless. I loved Aria, I did. I just didn't know how we were ever supposed to work if she didn't talk to me. Which she wouldn't.

That afternoon, I decided to visit the town's library. I mean, that's what all teenagers do on Friday night. We go to the library and discuss our feelings. Don't judge me. What was I supposed to do? Go to someone's house? I don't think I would enjoy being at AJ's house at all, I barely deal with speaking to him.

There weren't very many fun things to do around town, I've discovered. There was a bowling alley, but it was closed down. And as I walked through the town, I only found more and more disappointing things.

When I found my way to the library, I questioned if I honestly wanted to go in. It was just a large concrete box, with fencing around it. Scary fencing. I gulped, was this a prison? No, no way. Why would someone turn a jailhouse into library?

I tried to think that maybe it was the wrong place... but there was a large sign in the front that said simply, "Library." You really can't question that. So, I continued on.

"Alright Oli, just a library. It's just a library. Books! There are books! You like those." I was talking to myself again. I do that often.

The door didn't seem scary, it was nice. It looked kinda like it was new, which is good. It was dark wood, easy to push open.

As I walked in, I noticed it wasn't as bad as I was assuming it to be. There were makeshift bookshelves spread across the floor in awkward positions, filling in the space of the open floor.

I could see a second floor that wrapped around the building instead of being fully closed off. I stood, looking around... determining how safe I would be if I started browsing the book collection.

At the very back, in the midst of all the shelves, I could see a desk. Maybe a little old woman sat at it, reading, or sleeping. I decided to investigate.

I slowly navigated my way through the oddly placed bookshelves to find it wasn't a little old lady at all, in fact it was probably the exact opposite.

A man with black, long hair that hung in a low ponytail and tattoos covering his arms sat there, reading. I gulped. "Excuse me sir?" I coughed uncomfortably.

He looked up and grinned widely, showing a few gold teeth, "Yes?" His grin was friendly and his eyes were warm. I smiled back. Hm. Who knew?

"Where could I find, uh, crime novels?" This wasn't really what I wanted to ask him. I honestly didn't want to ask him anything, but for some reason I felt a bit obligated to.

"Well, kid. There's a bit here, and probably over there. Maybe some there. I'm sorry, we aren't real organized if you couldn't tell. We moved just a little while ago, so it's not quite all here yet." I nodded lightly as he pointed to each side of the library.

"Oh that's fine. Thanks for the help anyway." I waved, "No problem, kid. If you really need help, my daughter's in here somewhere. She knows this place like the back of her hand ya know? I'm sure she'd be able to find something for ya."

And so I began my search. It was very quiet. In almost all my searching I hadn't even seen one other person. I went upstairs, just to see what all they had. Then, I turned a corner.

And there she was. The lilac haired girl. Emy. She sat on the floor, her head leaned against a book case. She had in ear buds. Her eyes were stuck to a book, as always. I smirked. She had on her usual dark lipstick with sweats and a sweater. But for some reason, I thought she looked different.

She looked.... safe. She looked like she was comfortable, and she never looked like that when I saw her at school. I decided not to disturb her, I didn't think it would be the best.

But I did sit and look at her. No, it wasn't creepy I promise. For just a second. I just didn't want to stop looking at her. But I did. I eventually tore myself from her and her little world of music and words. Then I left, bookless and a little more curious about this Emy girl.