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I spent the entire evening in the library just to write down stuff about drugs. Which, as it proved out, was harder than I thought it would be.

Mrs Jones was right; doing this seemed almost impossible without any help. And I had no help. I didn't want to ask Luca, not when I couldn't have stood watching that hatred on his face again.

I kept on searching in the pages of my Biology textbook, the internet, and even those library research books to find something. Anything. But if I did find something, it felt even harder to jot it down on paper.

It was a mess.

"Fuck." I groaned, dropping my head in my hands.

I was going to fail. And Luca was going to flunk it too just because of me.

A thud came from right behind me and I jerked upright. Almost instinctively, I looked around. There were almost three other people apart from me in this library. Two of them were hunched over an encyclopedia. The third one was typing down frantically on the library computer. I didn't see anybody else.

It could've just been the librarian, but I got paranoid at night. I couldn't help it. Pulling my hoodie sleeves over my fists, I clenched them together.

Someone probably just dropped a book, I told myself.

As if on cue, another thud came from the shelf--this time from right behind me. I stood up a little too abruptly and the pencil fell to the floor.

Nobody seemed to have heard it except for me. I stepped away from my table and peeked over at the shelves. The lights were closed at the end of the library where the back door was. And there wasn't anybody there.

"It's no one," I whispered under my breath, bouncing a little on my heels before clearing my throat and going towards my chair again.

Why would anyone harm me in a public library? People were here--not many, but still. I sighed and sat down once again. I was being antsy for no reason.

That's when I heard footsteps. Real footsteps right behind me. And it scared me out real bad, so much so that a small scream escaped my lips as I turned around once more.

This time, there was somebody in front of me. My eyes widened in response as I looked at him.

"What?" Luca asked me with a frown.

My heart was racing wildly and he was the last person I was expecting to find here. "What are you doing here? You can't just...you can't just creep up on me." I nearly grimaced at the obvious urgency in my voice. For one second, I had thought--

The frown didn't leave his face. "I wasn't creeping up on you."

"Yes, you were."

"Why would I creep up on you?" He asked in disbelief. "I just walked in from the backdoor. You, happened to have your back towards it."

No one uses the back door, I wanted to say. No normal person, at least.

I didn't, though. Because the last time I'd seen him, he looked like he didn't want to be anywhere near me. And well, he still looked at me like that. Except that for some reason, he looked worn out; tired, exhausted, and with hair such a dark tousled mess--as dark as the leather jacket he wore.

And I remembered that too. Waking up in the mornings after a sleepover, I'd always wake up a little before him. And I used to stare, wonder why just the sleeping sight of him used to make my heart race.

God, I'd been so stupid.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, blinking out of the sudden rush of thoughts. The sudden adrenaline rush was gone and all that was left was this tired feeling.

I saw his eyes darting to the table behind me. "The assignment. I'm supposed to be your partner." He was already walking towards the chair across from my own by the time I managed to guard the surprise on my face.

He was here to help me with the report?

Luca looked up at me when I didn't make a move to sit back down. And my breath hitched when his eyes met mine. A brown that wasn't as warm as it used to be, but it still managed to hold me still--so so familiar.

"I care about my grades unlike you." He added, and there it was, the distaste in his voice.

I swallowed. "Okay. You can help. I hadn't started anyway." I sat down and opened up a blank new page, picking the pencil from the floor. Then I looked back at him.

No Luca or Gracie. It was just us. Two strangers who were paired up for a normal school assignment. That was fine, wasn't it?

At least he wasn't shutting me out. At least I was allowed to sit in front of him. At least I could talk to him.

"Drugs," I spoke up quietly. "We need ideas."

The next few hours went by with us working on my notebook. I didn't even notice it was past midnight until I had to switch on my phone for the web.

"What does heroin look like?" I asked out loud, aware that we were the only ones left in the library. The librarian was going to come here any moment now and ask us to leave.

"White powder," Luca muttered.

I glanced up, trying not to show the surprise on my face. Surprised at the fact that he'd volunteered to answer so easily, or the fact that he knew so well about drugs, I didn't quite know. His face held that impassiveness as he returned my gaze. "I thought everyone knows that." He said. "Unless you've been living under a rock for two years."

I tried not to show the grimace on my face and looked back down at my phone, scrolling through my options.

"What does it smell like?" I typed on the search bar.

From the corner of my eye, I could see the way he slumped a little on the wooden table, dragging his hands down his face in exhaustion. I knew exhaustion when I saw one. And he looked just that.

"Odorless." I heard him murmur. "But when it does smell, it smells disgusting."

I didn't drop it this time. Switching off my phone, I looked at him. "How do you know so much about this stuff?" Not just these questions, but he almost knew everything about drugs. Which in my opinion, shouldn't be so normal.

Luca looked slightly taken aback by my sudden question. As if he wasn't expecting me to ask that. As if he wasn't expecting me to ask him anything.

His eyes showed surprise, and for once there wasn't any coldness in them. Just those brown eyes that I'd missed so much.

Then almost in an instant, it was gone. He pulled back, his chair scraping against the floor, and ran a hand through his already messed-up curls. "None of your business, Rose."

I stiffened. And his eyes widened almost immediately as if he hadn't meant to call me that.

I think it took us both off guard.

There was just plain silence for the next few seconds. But then he stood up and looked around. Everything but me. "It's getting late. I need to head back."

He didn't wait for me to say anything. He didn't even offer me a ride back home. All he did was turn around and walk away.

And my heart started racing because I couldn't believe he just called me that--something I hadn't heard for so long. I wished, I wished, I wished I could hear it again.

Just one more time.