Choosing Boys Over School

The library is very quiet today. The only other person here besides me is the Asian male who is here every week. Today he is not studying, he is just smiling while looking at his phone. He has food wrappers spread over the table and doesn’t have his laptop open today. There is a male in khaki pants that wanders in looking for a book, but he is very lost and keeps walking in circles. He finally finds his book, and heads for the exit while two girls walk in. They are wearing matching hoodies and shoes, probably trying to look like “twins.” Twin two hands twin one a notebook and tells her she can copy the notes from it. Sport shorts walks in right after them, except he is wearing what looks like a Nike golfing outfit today. I guess today he will have to be known as Nike man. He is all by himself this time and gets straight to work, like he is actually going to study, instead of playing around on his phone. The twins on my left begin looking on their phones and mumbling things to one another that I cannot understand. Khaki pants is back very briefly, then disappears into the bookshelves as if he is looking for something else. Perhaps he grabbed the wrong book by accident? Nike man puts in his headphones and begins playing on his phone, meaning I was wrong. Nike probably isn’t going to be studying today.

Meanwhile, a man in glasses has entered and begins typing numbers into his calculator and writing in his notebook. He chose to sit as far away from everyone else as possible, and he is hurriedly getting his work done. Two more people enter, a man in a green shirt and a girl with a purple backpack. They walk in very awkwardly because they do not know one another even though they came in at the same time. Purple backpack sits on my left next to the Asian male who is still smiling on his phone, and green shirt sits on my right between glasses and Nike man. In twenty minutes the library has gone from almost empty to pretty busy, but the only two talking to each other are the twins. Twin number one is frustrated about something, and twin two is trying to console her. They begin laughing about the course they are taking and how far behind they are, and go back to writing notes. The reason I am having a hard time understanding what they are saying now is because a girl in patterned leggings has sat between us and opened her bagel she brought with her. The wrappers are very loud in the almost silent room, and leggings cringes as she tries to get to the bagel. I’ve never noticed how loud Einstein Bros Bagel packages are before now.

A man with a longboard enters and looks disappointed to see so many people in the quiet zone of the library and I do not blame him. He eventually decides to pick a seat in the middle of the room. Longboard pulls out a giant laptop and homework packets, and starts to fill out the papers slowly. He looks very reluctant to finish his homework. After Longboard is settled, Asian male puts his phone down and begins to listen to the twins talking about a boy they both have a crush on in their biology class. He seems amused for a moment, and continues listening as he pulls out his laptop to start it. He takes his banana peel to the garbage, fills up his water bottle, then returns and begins typing on his laptop, still listening to the twins and smiling when something they say amuses him. The twins are now talking about some other girl they know and giggling about something she text twin one. Twin two listens intently, like she is enjoying herself. The twins have moved to the floor and it seems they have completely given up on studying now. They continue giggling and looking at twin one’s cell phone while going back to discussing the boy they like. Just as they are talking about which twin should approach him, a well-groomed man in a Volcom shirt sits down and looks around at everyone else while drinking his smoothie. He sneezes, and no one in the room says bless you except me. He can’t hear me with his headphones in, and I wonder for a moment if that’s why hardly anyone says it anymore. His music suddenly gets loud enough that we can all hear it, and others begin looking at him with tired expressions. Twin two has moved up to the table from the floor and is pointing to Volcom for twin one to see. They seem a little boy crazy to me. When they start talking I assume they are talking about Volcom, but once again they are speaking so quietly I can’t hear them over Volcom’s music and striped legging’s wrapper noises. It is time for me to go to class and I am almost sad to leave because of how busy and interesting the library has been today.