Like fallen leaves [English version]

Chapter 3

Laura let out a heavy sigh. She couldn’t find her book and she had searched everywhere. The entire house. She had even gone as far as opening boxes that hadn’t yet been opened. But she couldn’t find it anywhere and it was driving her crazy.

This book meant the world to her. Her grand-mother, Helen, had given it to her five years ago as a birthday present.

Laura had always been very close to her gran-ma, going to her house in California nearly every summer for several weeks. Those weeks spent at her gran-ma’s house had always been precious to the young girl. It had been a relief from the constant fighting between her parents. Like a safe haven for the holidays.

But then, her grand-mother had passed away, leaving a hollow feeling in Laura’s chest. With time, the feeling had lessen, but sometimes, it came back full force, like a wave crashing suddenly over Laura. In those moments, the book was the only thing that could help her to find peace of heart and mind again.

So she needed to find her book.

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The morning was dragging on and on, and Laura wanted nothing more than for the lunch period to finally arrive. It was the second day of school, and the young girl still hadn’t had any kind of connection to any of the students. They all seemed to want to stay with their group of friends from the previous years. That was to be expected in a small town’s school.

The bell rang, and Laura leaped out of her chair as students began to rush out of the classroom. The teacher dismissed them, even though no one was paying attention to him anymore. Lunch period was sacred, for the students and the teachers.

When Laura was finally settled down with her tray, sitting alone, she started picking at her food, letting the buzzes of voices fill her mind. She took her time to eat but she still finished quite quickly. She had no one to talk to, and a feeling of loneliness was slowly settling in.

After putting her tray away, Laura went towards the school’s library. As she walked in the corridors she looked around and suddenly realized that she had been looking for him all morning. She felt a blush creep on her face at the realization and she stopped looking around the corridor. She couldn’t believe that she was letting herself be affected by what had happened the day before.

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Laura had not been into the library the day before because she hadn’t had the time to go look for it. So she was pleased to have time to wander around the room slowly.

It was charming, and cosy. The room mostly silent, apart from the few whispers coming from people working in groups.

There was blue carpet on the floor and the shelves made of light oak tree formed a stark contrast with the floor. However, Laura found the room to look beautiful as a whole. The shelves were all neatly aligned, forming a dozen rows. In front of the rows, there was a big open space with many tables where students were working, books opened in front of them.

At the back of the room, in front a large window, were several sofas, with cushions of thousands of colours thrown on them.

A soft warmth floated throughout the room, and Laura really felt that the library was a great place. She knew that she was going to spend a lot of time there.

Laura went towards the shelves and started roaming through the rows. Her eyes went quickly from one book to the next, searching for something in particular. What was it? Even she didn’t really know… When she chose a book, she never really knew what sparked her interest for this particular one.

Having finally picked one, she went towards a sofa and settled there. Sunlight was flickering through multiple clouds and illuminating the room. She gazed outside of the window for a moment before opening the book she had chosen.

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Laura was absorbed in the book, and the words and letters flew before her eyes. Images flashing in her mind. Her breathing was calm but in her head there was a thunderstorm, loud crashes and lightning everywhere. The book she was reading was captivating.

Then, suddenly, she stopped reading, and the loud crashes halted, and there was no more lightning.

At first Laura didn’t know why, but she couldn’t seem to read anymore. And finally she felt it. The irresistible need to look up. She did. And she saw him.

He was standing a few meters away, staring at her. When he saw her look up he quickly adverted his eyes, and Laura could see that he felt uncomfortable. He turned to some guy that was standing in front of him, and it seemed that they had been having a conversation. Then, he was holding out something to the guy that she couldn’t see, and the guy took it, quite aggressively, before walking away.

Laura was still staring at him when he looked back to her. He seemed surprised to see her still gazing at him. Then, he smiled timidly, before walking towards her. Laura didn’t know what to do. Well, she knew that she couldn’t actually do anything, but she was afraid to mess whatever was going to happen somehow.

And then, he was standing right in front of her, and all of her worries seemed to fade away. He was tall, and had broad shoulders that were accentuated by his tight burgundy jumper. He had dark curly messy hair that couldn’t seem to be tamed, but that still looked incredibly cute on him. He had freckles all over his nose and blue eyes that stood out against his olive tanned skin. As Laura was looking at him intently, she didn’t know what to say. But he seemed adamant to be the one to start speaking anyway:

“Hi! I don’t know if you remember me but… I’m the guy you bumped into”

He chuckled while saying the last part, and the young girl found it endearing. She replied, with a shy smile that crept into her voice:

“Well, I’m still sorry for that. Really.”

The guy was about to answer when he seemed to remember something. He snapped his fingers while saying with an excited voice:

“Oh! I have something for you!”

He dropped his backpack on the floor and started rummaging through it. Laura frowned slightly wondering what a guy she had just met could possibly have for her.

And then, he was holding her book in his hands. He had it. He extended it to her, and she took it eagerly, running her hand on the cover of her cherished book. She sighed with relief:

“Oh! You found it… I can’t believe it. I have been searching for it everywhere. I was so afraid to have lost it and I couldn’t find it. And… Oh. I must have dropped it yesterday… Is that it?”

He smiled again as he watched her speak quickly, the smile brightening his features.

“Yes, it is. I found it after you left and well, I searched for you the entire morning here, but I couldn’t find you…”

Laura blushed as she remembered that she had been searching for him too, but without any apparent reasons. She tried to cover her blush by speaking again:

“Well thank you so much! Really! This book is… It’s… It’s really important for me, so thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” He said with another bright smile, and this time, Laura acknowledged that it made her heart flutter.

Then neither of them spoke, and he seemed to reflect on something before he announced:

“You know… This book, it’s actually my favourite. I have read it more times than I can count. It’s really a great book and well, when I saw that it was this one that you had lost, well… I was kind of surprised because I always thought that I was the only one in my generation to have read it…”

Laura was stunned. Words wanted to spill themselves out of her mouth but she tried to formulate coherent thoughts before speaking:

“It’s your favourite book? Well, it’s mine too. And it has been for a long time, really. It was my… My grandma who gave it to me and I really love it because I find it so meaningful and calming at the same time… It’s like, there’s not really anything happening, but actually there is and you can’t put the book down before you’ve finished it and then you just want to read it all over again.”

“Yeah! Exactly! And then, when you’re re-reading it for the hundredth time, you just keep understanding things differently and discovering new things! It’s really an amazing book!”

They continued to talk, engrossed in their conversation. Neither of them saw the time passing by, and they were both surprised when the bell rang to announce the end of the lunch period. It startled both of them and Laura looked back to the boy to find him smiling sheepishly at her.

“I’m sorry. Maybe you had better things to do than just speak with me for the whole period.”

Laura frowned and quickly dismissed the idea.

“No! It was great speaking with you! And…” She froze and laughed at her own forgetfulness.

“And I still don’t know your name.”

“Oh! Yeah! That’s right. Um… My name’s Oliver. And, so, what’s yours?”

“Well, I’m Laura. And it was really a pleasure to speak with you.”

Laura smiled and when Oliver smiled back she felt a strange warmth spread in her chest. The strident sound of the bell rang again and they both stood up from the comfortable sofa and hastily made their way out of the already empty library.

When they parted ways, Laura was more excited than she had been in a long time. She couldn’t wait to speak to Oliver again.

To be continued…