Between the lines
1068 Words
EPISODE TWO
Jael Morgan believed people revealed themselves in the books they borrowed.
It wasn't a theory she'd ever shared aloud.
It was simply something she'd noticed.
The engineering student who checked out poetry every Thursday.
The retired professor who reread the same mystery novel every autumn.
The freshman who renewed a beginner's cookbook six times before finally returning it with flour still dusted between the pages.
Books carried fingerprints of the people who loved them.
Bent corners.
Coffee stains.
Pressed flowers.
Forgotten receipts that became accidental bookmarks.
People left pieces of themselves behind without ever realizing it.
She liked that.
Maybe because it was easier to understand people through pages than through conversations.
The bell above the library entrance chimed softly as another student walked in.
Jael barely looked up.
Her fingers continued sliding books onto the shelf, arranging their spines until they sat perfectly flush against one another.
"You know," a familiar voice said behind her, "most people stop after the first adjustment."
Jael smiled before she even turned around.
"They're wrong."
Chloe Bennett leaned against the shelf with two paper coffee cups balanced in one hand.
"Morning, J."
"You bribed me with coffee."
"I bribed you with caramel latte."
Jael accepted the cup, warming her cold fingers around it.
"That specific?"
"I pay attention."
"You eavesdrop."
"I observe."
"That's just prettier wording."
"It sounds less illegal."
Jael laughed.
Not loudly.
Never loudly.
Just enough for the corners of her eyes to crinkle.
It was one of the things Chloe loved most about her.
Getting Jael to laugh always felt like earning something.
They'd met on the first day of university.
The campus had been overflowing with nervous freshmen carrying maps they pretended not to need.
Jael had been standing in front of the English building, completely lost despite holding the orientation booklet upside down.
Chloe had walked over without hesitation.
"You look confused."
"I know where I'm going."
"You've been staring at the same tree for five minutes."
"...It's a very nice tree."
Chloe had burst into laughter.
They'd been inseparable ever since.
If Jael was quiet mornings and handwritten notes...
Chloe was midnight karaoke and spontaneous road trips.
Where Jael thought before speaking...
Chloe spoke while thinking.
Sometimes after.
"You've got that face," Chloe said now.
"What face?"
"The one where you're thinking so hard you're practically narrating your own life."
"I do not have a face for thinking."
"You absolutely do."
Jael rolled her eyes.
"You spend too much time watching people."
"I'm a psychology major."
"You're nosy."
"I'm professionally nosy."
"There's no such profession."
"There will be."
The library windows overlooked the center of campus.
Outside, autumn had begun to settle over Redwood University.
Maple leaves drifted across stone walkways.
Students hurried between lectures with scarves wrapped around their necks.
The morning air carried the unmistakable bite of another Minnesota winter waiting just around the corner.
A sudden cheer echoed across the quad.
Both girls turned toward the window.
A crowd had gathered outside the student union.
Someone stood in the middle signing jerseys.
Camera flashes lit up the sidewalk.
"What now?" Jael asked.
Chloe peeked through the glass.
"The hockey team."
Jael nodded once.
"That explains the screaming."
"It specifically explains the screaming girls."
"I thought college students outgrew that."
"They don't when Noah Carter is involved."
Jael looked back at the shelf she was organizing.
"I still don't understand it."
"Understand what?"
"The obsession."
Chloe stared at her.
"You've genuinely never looked him up?"
"No."
"Not even once?"
"I know he's the captain."
"He's also six-foot-three."
Jael blinked.
"That's... oddly specific."
"I have eyes."
"I'm concerned you know his height."
"I'm concerned you don't."
Jael laughed into her coffee.
"I'll survive."
Chloe sighed dramatically.
"One day you're going to meet him."
"I doubt it."
"And he's going to flirt with you."
"He won't."
"And you're going to ignore him."
"I probably will."
Chloe pointed a finger at her.
"When that happens..."
Jael smiled.
"I'll buy you lunch."
Professor Ethan Morgan's office looked exactly like the man himself.
Comfortable.
Unpretentious.
Lived in.
Books leaned against one another in impossible towers.
A faded leather chair sat beside the window with a knitted blanket draped over its arm.
On the desk rested three uncapped fountain pens, half a dozen student essays, and a mug that read:
CAFFEINE FIRST. SHAKESPEARE SECOND.
Though everyone knew it was usually the other way around.
The office door was open.
Jael knocked gently against the frame.
"You wanted to see me?"
Her father looked up from a stack of essays, his glasses slipping halfway down his nose.
"There she is."
"You sound relieved."
"I've just spent two hours reading papers that insist Hamlet is a comedy."
Jael winced.
"I'm so sorry."
"So am I."
She laughed as she stepped inside.
He watched her for a moment, smiling in that quiet, absent-minded way he always did when she reminded him of her mother.
"You've been sleeping enough?" he asked.
She narrowed her eyes.
"That wasn't random."
"It wasn't."
"You can tell?"
"I've been your father for twenty years."
She sighed.
"I've been editing an essay."
"At two in the morning."
"...Maybe."
He shook his head, but there was no judgment in it.
Only concern.
He reached into the drawer of his desk and pulled out a wrapped blueberry muffin.
"I bought this before class."
"You remembered."
"I always remember."
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
There was comfort in the silence.
The kind that only existed between people who didn't need words to prove they cared.
Then Professor Morgan leaned back in his chair.
"The university is looking for volunteers."
Jael smiled knowingly.
"Here it comes."
"A literacy outreach program."
"For local elementary schools."
"With student-athletes."
She raised an eyebrow.
"I know that expression."
"What expression?"
"The one that says you're already planning my answer."
"I would never."
"You absolutely would."
He chuckled.
"They need someone organized."
"You mean someone who can keep hockey players on schedule."
"I didn't say that."
"You implied it."
"I implied nothing."
Jael folded her arms.
"I'll think about it."
"That's all I'm asking."
She stood to leave.
"Oh..."
He looked up again.
"I heard the hockey captain volunteered."
Jael reached for the doorknob.
"Good for him."
Professor Morgan smiled to himself after she left.
Something told him life had a strange sense of timing.
He just didn't know how right he was.
- Writer
