Page 66 of Hypothetical Heart
I browse the new releases, seeing ones I’ve read and ones I’ve been eyeing for a few weeks. I pick up a couple different ones before carrying them to the counter, where Mrs. Stevenson is sitting.
“I’ve been waiting for you all week.” She smiles, pulling different books out from under the counter. “I’ve been holding onto these for you.”
It’s the newest release in the series I’ve been reading, along with a few other cartoon-covered romance books. “Awesome!” I set my stack on top of those, letting her ring me up before heading back toward Logan.
“New books?” he asks, narrowing his eyes. “Don’t you have books you still need to read at home?”
I shrug, feigning innocence. “I don’t know how it happened, just that I suddenly had a stack and I was walking toward the register.”
“Ahh,” he drones, like it makes complete sense.
It’s quite a while later when Logan stands from his chair, throwing his arms in the air, with a look of pure relief covering his face.
“Done?”
He nods. “Finally.”
I’m one hundred pages into my book, which is roughly the amount of time it took Logan to write two paragraphs of his college application essay.
“Is it good enough for Harvard?” I joke.
“Yeah, right.” He laughs. “The day I go to Harvard is the day pigs will be able to fly.”
In our friend group, eight out of ten of our parents went to Yale. The other two went to Columbia. That’s where all our allegiances lie in terms of Ivy Leagues. However, I know that Logan is set on NYU.
I thought Logan would be packing up his things to leave now that he finished what he came here to do, but instead, he sits back down.
“What are you doing?” I ask, biting the inside of my cheek.
“Staying with you,” he says as if it’s obvious. He opens his laptop, busying himself with something else.
“If you want to go home, you can.”
He gives me a stern look over his computer screen. “Win, if I wanted to go home, I would.”
I nod, looking back down at my book. The bookstore is perfectly quiet, the only sounds being the whirring of the coffee pots in the cafe and the clicking of Logan typing. The serene feeling the dim lighting gives is the main reason Icome back here so often. Yes, maybe my empty house is quiet, but it’s not the type of cozy quiet you want to curl up with a book to. It’s more of a sterile, creepy silence.
After a while, I look back up, and Logan’s head is still buried in his computer.
“What are you working on now?” I ask.
“The paper for AP Gov.”
“Oh shit,” I gasp, dropping my book on the table. “I completely forgot about that.”
Logan easily senses my panic. “It’s not due until Monday, Win.”
“I haven’t even started it.” I pull my backpack onto the table, already grabbing my laptop.
Logan scoots his chair closer to me, turning his laptop to face me to show me the directions. I rub my hands against my face as I try to remember the details of the assignment that were explained in class.
“I guess I’m going to be here a while,” I sigh. I’m partially tempted to call it a night and avoid the task for as long as possible, but just knowing other people have already started gives me the kick I need to start it now.
“Do you want help?” Logan highlights the key parts of the directions, narrowing down all of the things I need to know. It gives me butterflies, the way he knows just what to do to help ease my anxiety.
“Um…” I lean closer, getting a better look at the topics to choose from. “I’m not sure.”
I take a deep breath, trying to realign my thoughts so I might be able to form usable ideas, but I’m too focused on the boy in front of me. The way his hands move across his keyboard as he researches the different topics, trying his best to help me, and how his hair keeps falling in his eyes to the point where all I want to do is push it back for him.
