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Hunter

"Are you kidding man, you cannot miss tonight!" Jack said as we made our way out of the locker room.

"I told you, I have to finish a ten page history paper by tomorrow night or else I am fucked." I reminded him of this fact that he was already very well aware of.

I know what you are thinking, why the hell would you wait this long to start such a big paper, but being the starting quarterback of a nationally ranked football team tends to take up a good amount of time.

Jack and I both got into the front of my Range Rover, as Caleb and Andrew, two other boys from the team, climbed into the back seat. I started up the car and began the short drive back to our frat, Delta Kappa Epsilon, the house where the best of the on-campus athletes lived.

As we pulled up I could already see the guys getting ready for the party tonight. "Jack, just look at it this way, if I'm not here all the girls will be forced to talk to you." I joked receiving a light shove in response.

While it was just a joke, there was some truth to the statement. I always had girls flocking me, due to the me being the quarterback of the football team, being in the most popular frat, and of course my ridiculous good looks. But of course I wasn't complaining, most nights I welcomed the attention and took advantage of it as much as I could.

Once I got inside the house, I ran upstairs to my room to shower quickly and get changed in some comfy sweats. After feeling refreshed from my crazy practice today, I grabbed the books I needed and my laptop and headed toward the library.

As I left the house and walked past the group of guys currently setting up the beer pong table I almost second guessed spending my night studying, but I knew it had to be done so I reluctantly made my way to the library.

By the time I arrived it was already dark outside and the building seemed to be basically empty. Makes sense though, I mean who would be here studying at 9pm on a Saturday night?

I headed toward a study room and got to work on the tedious research paper at hand.

———

After about an hour I was only two pages in and was already losing focus. I clicked back to the email from my professor with the description of the assignment and read over it again to make sure I was on the right track. As I was reading I saw a small note that stated that at least one source had to be a hard copy book.

Well fuck.

How old was this guy? Doesn't he know that literally no one uses actual books anymore? I didn't even know where the history books in this library were.

I rolled my eyes and walked out of the small study room I had reserved to find the library even more vacant than when I first walked in. I made my way to the circulation desk to find a student volunteer sitting on his phone not paying attention to anything. I don't blame him I thought as I reached the desk.

"Hi, where would I find the history books?" I asked.

"Top floor," was the only response I got before the boy went back to whatever game he was playing on his phone.

I groaned as I walked up the stairs to the fourth floor. I had never actually been on this floor before, and was met with rows and rows of large wooden bookshelves. I didn't even know where to begin looking so I decided to just roam hoping I would find them somewhere.

It seemed as if no one was on the floor, so I was quite shocked when a girl turned the corner ramming right into my chest. She stumbled backwards quite clumsily and then straightened herself out and looked up, giving me the first actual glimpse of her face.

She had light brown hair that was messily pulled up into a bun with a few pieces out framing her face. She was look delicate compared to me, and had to be at least a foot shorter than me. She was wearing a grey sweatshirt that seemed to be about two sizes too big, making her look tiny in comparison. One thing that caught my eye was the absence of makeup on her face; not that she needed it at all, she was beautiful, but I had gotten so used to being around girls in little clothing with tons of makeup trying to impress me in some way. This was a nice change.

After a moment I realized I was starring without saying anything.

Smooth Hunter.

"I'm sorry, are you okay?" I apologized, even though she did kind of run into me. She almost looked scared, as she whispered something that I couldn't make out.

That's weird, why is she whispering? Must be shy, explains that timid look on her face. I decided to ask her about the book in an effort to get her to actually speak, "Do you by any chance know where I could find the history books? I know that the guy down there said they were up here but I have never been on this floor so I am a little lost."

This earned me an actual response, "I'm sorry, I actually don't know." Her voice was still quite but at least I could actually hear her, that was progress. "I can help you look though," She added.

Did I really want her help? I mean she was cute and all I guess but she wasn't my type and she seemed awkward. Whatever, the sooner I find the book the sooner I can be done with my stupid paper. It won't kill me to talk to her for a few minutes.

"Yeah if you don't mind, that would be great." I said, smiling down at her.

She turned around and headed back where she came from in the stack of books. What was she doing up here this late at night anyway, I questioned to myself as I followed. I decided to make conversation, figuring she was too shy to start any conversations herself.

"So what is your name?" I asked something simple. She responded without turning around, "I am Melanie. What's your name?"

Wait is this girl serious? Did she just ask my name? Not to sound like a jerk, but I am the starting quarterback for the football team and president of the top fraternity. I was basically a celebrity on this campus, I thought everyone knew me.

After taking too long to answer her simple question, she turned around and looked at me quizzically. "I am Hunter," I finally answered, trying to sound neutral again. Okay so if this girl actually didn't know me then she really wasn't like the girls I am usually around, and I was officially intrigued.

She asked me what kind of book I was looking for, and I realized that I never actually told her what I needed. "Oh right. It is for an American history class. I need a book on the Civil War because apparently my professor is from the 1800's and wants at least one of our sources to be a book."

My joke earned me a small laugh as Melanie looked up at me, causing me to smile back. Her laugh was genuine and innocent, a sound I could get used to.

She turned and continued walking through the bookshelves with me following close behind. We quickly came upon a corner with a large shelf along the wall. Upon looking around I saw a blanket on the cushioned chair in the corner with a backpack perched up next to it.

Is that hers? What exactly is she doing here?

She must have caught me looking at the chair because she spoke up, "Oh um that is mine... I come up here to read and look out over the quad. I call it my little corner of campus." As soon as the words came out of her mouth she looked as if she regretted them. A blush crept up on her cheeks and she looked down at her feet instead of in my eyes.

I was a little taken aback by her response, I mean why would someone want to come here and read? Especially on a Saturday night. It was not something I could ever imagine doing but at the same time it did kind of sound nice, having your own little place that you could escape too. It definitely confirmed my predictions that she was a quiet introvert without many friends or a social life. It also confirmed my predictions that she was different from the girls I was used to, and I kinda liked it.

"Oh cool," I answered lamely because I honestly didn't know what else to say. I was never at a loss for words, this was weird.

"Anyway here along this wall are the history books," she said, still not looking at me.

I walked over to the wall to find countless books on topics in American History. I skimmed the titles until I found one on the Civil War and grabbed it without actually seeing what it covered. I figured it should be good enough.

"Thank you for the help, I think I found what I needed," I said as I turned back around to face her. I found her sitting in the chair wrapped in the fuzzy blanket and a closed book in her hand. She was clearly ready to get back to her reading and get rid of me but I found myself not wanting to leave her just yet.

"No problem," She said with a sweet smile.

"It is so nice and quite up here, maybe I should come work on my paper up here instead," I stated, trying to gauge her reaction. I wanted to work up here so I didn't have to leave, although I couldn't figure out what was making me want to stay.

She seemed to think about what I said for a moment and then a smile returned to her face, "Yeah if you want you can join me up here."

The smile let me know she was being genuine but the timidness was still lurking in her features. Hopefully, by the end of the night I was going to make that go away. "Alright, I will run downstairs and grab my stuff."