Pulchritudinous- (puhl-kri-tood-n-uh-s)  physically beautiful

School seemed to drag on a bit slower than usual. With AJ's nagging about how awesome the party was and the constant questions about  what happened to me that night, I was ready to rip my own hair out and scream at everyone I saw. Everyone except for Emy, of course. She acted as though nothing ever happened and resumed her usual cold demeanor. Her dark lipstick and straight face were back in their usual places.

In a way, I was a bit upset that nothing seemed to change with her. She still didn't speak to me, and when I saw her in the hall she would continue to walk past me like I wasn't even there. I kind of missed the Emy without her lipstick. Was that the answer? Was the lipstick really the single obstacle in my way of becoming friends with Emy Sutton? If so, that lipstick needed to go. Soon. Or else I was going to lose my mind.

At the point I had reached in my day, I had nothing to do but watch the clock and hope that Emy hadn't forgotten about meeting me at the library. The library, which she and her father apparently ran. As I was deep in thought about Emy and her lipstick, and her library, the bell rang.

I don't think I had ever stood up and left a class faster than I did. Oh and just as I thought I was home free, a familiar angry face stopped me in my tracks. Zoe was standing before me, arms crossed. "You are a complete and total douche bag. I can't believe you just left. You embarrassed me you know that? You embarrassed me in front of all of my friends, and I don't very much like how that feels." I wanted to care, I really did. I didn't, though. Not one bit.

"Wait a second, you're angry with me because I wouldn't take advantage of you while we were both drunk?" I decided to whisper the last few words in case of any passersby listening. "Take advantage of me? I knew what I was doing Oliver. You, however, were making a huge mistake." She walked away, her hair swooshing back and forth as she walked away.

My mind reeled, trying to understand what
just happened. I just knew that she was going to thank me for being so considerate. Why was everyone in this stupid little place so idiotic? I decided not to dwell on it any longer and get to the bus before it left without me.

For the first time in a while, I sat next to Emy on the bus. She was wearing a white shirt and black jeans. I noticed right then that I payed a bit too much attention to what Emy was wearing all the time. I needed to stop that. "Hey." I adjusted my bag and looked at her. She was looking out the window, no book in her hand. "Hi." Her voice was low and quiet, like she was embarrassed to speak to me. "No book today?" She slowly unzipped her bag to pull out a paperback romance novel. "I finished it earlier."

I wanted to smile, but I didn't. I just nodded even though she wasn't looking at me. "So um, we're still on for the library right? I mean, I was just going to get off with you if you didn't mind," Emy interrupted me. "Look Oliver, you don't have to do this if you don't want. I get it if you've got other things to do." I laughed a little bit and tried to see if she was joking. "Emy, I assure you I have nothing better to do. Come on it'll be fun. You can recommend a book for me, I've been wanting to get into reading more. I used to love to read, like all the time."

Emy looked at me, and the left corner of her mouth seemed to be pulled slightly upward. Bingo. "Yeah, okay." I had done it. Was this the beginning of a non-rat friendship? I hoped so dearly that it was.

We got off of the bus at Emy's house and walked to the library from there. "Oliver, Can I ask you something?" I almost began to laugh hysterically and jump up in the air. Instead I decided to go with the much cooler answer, "Oh yeah, sure." I think I still answered a little too quickly because Emy looked at me with a raised eyebrow for a moment. She then turned her attention back towards the sidewalk in front of her.

"I don't really get it. I mean, why are you so interested in being my friend?" For a minute, I thought about it... just to make sure I wasn't going to screw up. "I don't know." Really Oli? That's the best you could come up with? "Why are you interested in being my friend?" There you go. Emy looked at me for a second and I couldn't help but think about how nice her face was. I mean, she was really pretty. "I don't know, really. You just, you seem different. I haven't been able to talk to someone like this in a while. It's kind of nice."

I grinned at her and she scoffed, looking away, "Stop looking at me like that." She groaned, and for the rest of the walk we were silent. It wasn't uncomfortable or anything. It was just quiet. I kind of enjoyed paying attention to all of the cracks in the sidewalk or trying to count how many light posts we passed. It was nice to not think about anything but getting to the library.

I had forgotten just how frightening the exterior was until we started to approach the building. When we got inside, I noticed that they had organized a little bit more, I wondered if it was Emy or her father who did the organizing. It was probably her. "Hey dad! It's Em." Emy's voice echoed through the empty library. "Okay. We're here. What are you wanting to get into?"

I stood for a second, thinking about what I was going to say. "Do you have any good mysteries?" I questioned and she twisted her mouth up to the side. It was kind of cute. "Upstairs. Come on." I followed her up the stairs, and watched her as she navigated the books. She seemed like a completely different person whenever I saw her here. She seemed so much more comfortable. "So are we talking like Agatha Christie or James Patterson type stuff?" She started to shuffle through a few rows, pulling out a few books at a time.

I almost forgot to answer, "What do you recommend?" She stood, a stack of books almost as tall as her torso in her arms. "Christie is my personal preference." I grabbed some of the books for her as she started to put a few back. "For you, these would probably be good." She tapped the rest of the books that I was holding. My eyes widened, "Wait a second here. I wasn't wanting to take home the entire library, just a couple books." She smiled, like a real smile. "Okay, start out with these then." I couldn't stop looking at her, "Yeah. Okay." I mumbled, helping her put the rest of the books back except for two.

"You know, you have a nice smile." You. Are. An. Idiot. What was that? Emy looked at me for a moment, bewildered. She almost seemed to think I wasn't talking to her. A flush of color rushed to her pale cheeks and she quickly turned away from, pretending to look at another section of books. "Uh, well... these are all good ones too. A bit too advanced for me, but they're still good." She just completely ignored me altogether. I don't know what I expected to be honest, that was about right.

"Too advanced? For you? Yeah, no I won't be touching that section." I laughed lightly and she began to braid a small strand of hair near her face. "So, um... where are you from?" I had started to focus a bit too hard on her fingers and the way she twisted her delicate hair.

"Huh? Oh, where I'm from... Florida! I'm from Florida." Emy was navigating her way through all of the books, stopping every once in a while to touch one or study it. "Ah, Florida. I bet you lived in a beach town there huh? I hate the beach," Well is she a Debby downer or what? "Actually no, it was kind of north Florida." She raised an eyebrow. "Hm. Interesting." I sighed, hoping that she would somehow continue our very bland conversation.

"If you don't mind me asking, why did you leave? It kind of seems like you liked the place a heck of a lot more than here." She laughed so I knew she wasn't being bitter. "Well, it's a little too complicated. It's a really long story, actually." She looked at me, biting lightly on her dark red lip. What a nice lip. She raised an eyebrow, "I hate to be painfully cliche... but we've got time."