Dane alternated between working inside the library and in the office. Colin watched as his friend tirelessly processed documents, wheeled book carts, and tended to the people coming in and out of the library. He told Dane to take a break a few times but Dane shrugged the offer off. The only break she had was during lunch.

Their shift ended at 8:00 P.M., an hour after the library’s closing hours. They had to check the books and records as part of their routine. Dane bid Vic farewell as they parted ways home. She and Colin take the same route home, diverging only when they reached the junction that separated Dane’s apartment from Colin’s. Once they reached the junction, Dane waved a hand at Colin to say good-bye.

“Hey Dane,” Colin called.

“Yeah?” Dane answered.

“You gonna be okay?”

Dane laughed in disbelief, yet she was warmed at her friend’s concern. “Heck, I’ll be fine.”

Dane turned her heels and walked to the apartment. The place was tidied up like usual, thanks to Tin-tin. She was watching television when Dane arrived, while Franco was typing something on his laptop at the coffee table.

“Hey, Tin,” Dane called. “I got your quesadillas.”

Tin-tin took the paper bag and opened it, breathing in the scent of the freshly-made Mexican delicacy. She turned to Dane with stern eyes.

“Don’t you think you might be forgetting something?” Tin-tin asked.

“What?” Dane countered.

“God, you’re so forgetful. Where’s the girl?”

“What girl?” Dane dumped her bag on the sofa. “There’s no girl, Tin.”

“Okay, okay, I was just messin’ with you. Dinner’s done, it’s covered by the plates on the table. I made lasagne tonight.”

Dane walked over to the dining area and sat at the table to eat.

Tin-tin’s cooking is superb, like always.

Franco went to the dining area to with a glass of water and sat at the table. He asked her about work as she ate.

“Nothing much happened,” Dane replied absently. “I did some paperwork, carted off books, stamped cards, saw the girl from last night, and I almost missed the bus ride home.”

Franco snapped his head at Dane. “Wait, you saw the girl?”

Dane looked up from her plate. “Wait, what?”

“You said you saw the girl!”

Oh hell. “Y-yeah, I did,” Dane said, adjusting her tone. “I did see her at the library. No big deal.”

“Of course it’s a big deal!” Franco stood up. “Yo, Tin-tin! Dane saw the girl from last night...at the city library!”

The sound of metal springs creaking was followed by hurried footsteps, and Tin-tin showed up in the dining area with eyes as wide as saucers.

“No she didn’t!” Tin-tin exclaimed in disbelief. “Really, Dane, you saw her at work?”

Dane put down her fork and sighed. “Look. She was there, okay? She asked me for a ladder, end of story.”

Tin-tin pressed Dane for more, but Dane shoved her off. Once Dane was done with dinner, she washed her plate and stormed up the stairs to her room. Before her knees completely gave in, Dane dropped her satchel and threw herself on the bed.

No big deal. No big deal.

Dane decided it was best to take a shower and spend the rest of her waking hours in front of her laptop instead of thinking about work. She turned off the lights at ten and crawled into bed, thinking about what she should write next according to what she had initially planned. As she slowly crossed the border between consciousness and sleep, she saw the face of the mystery girl.

-+-

The next morning went by as usual, and the girl didn’t show up. Dane felt deflated, and this surprised her because she shouldn’t be feeling that way in the first place. Dane scolded herself, thinking that she should focus on more important things instead of daydreaming about a girl she just saw at a night club.

However, the inner battle resulting from that resolve compelled her to be quiet the whole day. Colin noticed Dane’s sudden silence and figured that she must be trying hard not to think of something.

Or someone, he thought.

Later during lunch, Colin decided to casually ask Dane about what was going on in her head.

“What?” Dane asked blankly. “You were saying something?”

Colin rolled his eyes. “I was asking what the hell is going on with you, noodle-brain.”

Dane realized that she may have acted oddly around Colin. “Nothing. Nothing’s going on. What makes you think otherwise?”

“You were more quiet than usual. Did something happen to you last night on the way home?” 

“Then who was it?”

“What makes you think it’s a ‘who’? I haven’t talked anything about it yet.”

“Lucky guess, maybe?”

Dane scoffed and walked to the door. “Look, I’m perfectly fine. There’re…just a number of things that have been occupying my head lately, and they’re not a cause for alarm.”

Dane closed the door behind her and went on to do her usual work in the library. As she pushed the book cart around, she couldn’t help but peek at the aisles in hopes that she’d see the girl again. Dane scolded herself for doing that and angrily finished her chore before heading to the librarian’s desk.

At the librarian’s desk was Mrs. Quinto, the chief librarian. At first glance one would see her as a terrifying old hag, since she had beady eyes and a scowl on her face. Newcomers would often flinch before approaching her for help with the books and cards, but the mainstays just casually walk up to her and ask whatever it is they need. She is roughly in her late fifties and is nearing retirement, but her tightly-tied hair showed no single gray locks. Dane figured it must be from using gugo as a shampoo or something.

Mrs. Quinto frowned a bit when she saw Dane approaching the counter. “What brings you here, Dane?”

“I just…finished returning the books to their rightful shelves, chief,” Dane answered sheepishly as she leaned on the counter.

“Vic told me all about it.”

Dane suddenly lost her balance and almost fell. Luckily she grabbed the counter’s edge in time. “What? Mang Vic told you what?”

“About the girl you saw at the Arts section.” Mrs. Quinto shifted her thick-rimmed glasses. “You should have told her that we don’t allow reading books by the shelves. What are the tables for, then?”

Dane swallowed and apologized, swearing not to let that happen again.

“Hmph. You better,” Mrs. Quinto said, peering at Dane. “I was told that the girl was—how did Vic say it—goddamn pretty. I assume that’s what let your guard down, hm?”

Dane felt heat rushing to her cheeks. “Um…I can’t say, chief. I mean, she looked pretty, alright, but—“

“It’s all happening again, huh? And this time, the trouble begins at my library. Goodness gracious, Dane, pick some other place to dig your grave, will you?”

For a moment, Dane saw a hint of a smile on the chief librarian’s face. Dane smiled a bit, thinking that she’d been blessed with another rare grin from the snarky old woman.

“You kids end up in some sort of mess, and we oldies get caught up with it,” Mrs. Quinto said. “Once your sweetheart leaves you, you stop being a functional member of the society. Don’t think I forgot about that time you went AWOL on us, Llanera. You left behind a whole month’s worth of work for us.:

Dane scratched the back of her neck as she chuckled nervously. “I haven’t forgotten about that, chief.”

Before Dane left to resume working, Mrs. Quinto called her.

“Watch yourself, Dane, honestly,” she said.

-+-

Tin-tin and Franco were deeply engrossed in the video game they were playing. Franco had just submitted his weekly column entry to the local paper, and Tin-tin was done with the dishes an hour ago. As they played, Tin-tin talked to Franco about Dane.

“She doesn’t seem to be affected by mystery girl’s presence at the library,” Tin-tin said.

“That’s what she wants you to think,” Franco told her. “For all I know, she’s overthinking about it the same way she did with Joey.”

“Do you think she’d play the fool again?”

Franco frowned. “Knowing Dane, she’d put up a wall at first and break them down eventually so yeah, I think she will.”

“And we suckers push her to do it.”

“That’s what we do. But I do hope Dane learned her lessons now. That mystery girl? I get a feeling she’d be making a big impact on Dane.”

“Joey did. And look what happened.”

Tin-tin lost the game soon after and demanded a rematch, but Franco, being the sore winner, shrugged her off and said she was less of an expert than he expected. Tin-tin stormed off to her room, leaving Franco with a threat. Franco shrugged and set the TV to cable to watch some random shows. The series he was tuning into wouldn’t play until eight in the evening. Meanwhile, Tin-tin whiled away the time by tidying up her room.

She began to think of looking for a job within the city. The last one she had at the day-care didn’t end up in a good way. She had to be prohibited from entering the premises for six months to avoid “triggering trauma among the children” after she screamed at them to fall in line. It wasn’t the usual disciplinary scream at all, for she actually told the children to “fucking fall in line”. This act sent her to the higher-ups, and after a long speech about children’s rights, traumas, and use of inappropriate language, she was fired.

Tin-tin continuously thought about what she can do to help her friends financially—she can’t stay around doing chores forever—but her reputation as a foul-mouthed labourer decreased her chances of getting a stable job.

Man, a single slip of the tongue can sure do a lot for one’s reputation.

Once she was finished with her room, Tin-tin proceeded to work on Franco’s. His room never needed a lot of work, just a little sweeping on the floor and wiping his shelves. Franco is a neat person, always managing to keep his surroundings as clean as possible, and this helped Tin-tin with her work in the house. Tin-tin rearranged the books on his shelf and replaced the bed sheets.

The third room to clean was Dane’s. Tin-tin braced herself for another round of Spartan cleaning only to find that Dane’s room was surprisingly tidy.

Now this is strange. Nice, but strange. UFO-sighting strange.

Tin-tin only had to sweep the floor to finish Dane’s room before heading off to the bathroom to scrub the tiles.

-+-

Before Dane took the bus ride home, she stopped by the local pizzeria to buy the four-cheese pizza she promised the two. She took a seat by the window as she waited for her order and began tapping on her phone, thinking about the mystery girl. The bus ride home became lonelier than usual as Dane’s head began to fill up with repeated what-ifs and should haves. She chastised herself, thinking that she shouldn’t be letting her guard down easily.

Dane had committed herself to a life without any romantic pursuits. She buried herself in her job at the library, drank at bars until the sun rose, avoided any interaction from other people except the ones she’s familiar with, and when she has the time, binge-watch every show she could think of. She would look at men and women from time to time, and then she would dismiss them at once to avoid any crushes from developing.

The first few months were hard. The girl she swore she truly loved for three years left her without so much as giving closure. Dane couldn’t bring herself to let go, thinking that there might be a chance that the girl would reconsider. Dane waited, all to no avail. This sent Dane into a state of depression, and if it weren’t for her mother and her friends, Dane would have been in deeper trouble.

Not wanting to experience all of it again, Dane made a vow to herself not to get involved with someone else. It worked so far, and Dane felt peaceful at least.

Until she saw the girl at the night club.

Dane quickly realized that she was about to sink into a new kind of trouble. Dane valued her honor more than anything, and breaking a vow she made to herself was more humiliating than breaking a pact made between two parties.

She got home and served dinner as usual, and then joined her housemates afterwards at the living room to watch TV. All of them were quiet for a while until Tin-tin couldn’t stand it anymore.

“Alright, I am now addressing the elephant in this fucking room,” she said, standing up. “Dane, is something the matter with you?”

Dane looked at Tin-tin confusingly. “Me? Whatever would the matter with me be?” she asked.

Tin-tin breathed in and then exhaled heavily. “First, you’ve been very quiet about the mystery girl.”

“Why shouldn’t I? She isn’t that important.”

“Which now brings us to your room.”

“Why? What’s wrong with my room?”

“It’s clean.”

Dane threw her an incredulous look. “What’s the problem with that? Who on Earth would want to sleep in a dirty room?”

Tin-tin shook her head. “That’s not my point, Llanera. Of all the people in this house, you are the one who’s least expected to tidy things up, more or less your own bedroom!”

“I thought you’d be happy that I cleaned my room for a change, and then I see you here fuming at me for that. I guess I should be the one asking what the matter is with you!”

“Okay, you see, Dane,” Tin-tin said, wagging a finger. “The last time you cleaned your room on your own was when we first moved in here. A week after that, it was all up to me to see that we all have clean sheets to sleep on and tidy rooms to move around in. Now, when I walk up to your bedroom, braced for another hell of a chore, I find that everything was spic-and-span.”

“Wouldn’t it be because I thought it’d be nice to do something better than just slouching?”

Tin-tin slapped a hand on her forehead in exasperation. “You just don’t get it, do you?”

Dane was now infuriated. “Well, if you could just get straight to the point, we wouldn’t be arguing like this.”

Tin-tin paused for a moment and sighed. “Something’s up in your head, Dane. I know it.”

Dane got quiet. Tin-tin was right after all. But as much as Dane wanted to talk about it, she can’t bring herself to speak a word of it.

Franco began to complain about Tin-tin blocking the view, but Tin-tin shut him up with a finger and turned back to Dane.

“Look, Dane, whatever it is that’s going on in your head, you have to talk to us about it. Your mom’s not here with us, so we’re the next ones who’ll listen to your problems. We can’t risk another meltdown anymore.”

Dane scoffed. “Hey, you have to relax, okay? Nothing’s going on with me. I just thought it’d be nice to help out since we’ve all been living together for quite some time now. You can’t always be the one sweeping floors and changing sheets, especially my sheets. If there is someone here who’s overthinking, it’s you."

Tin-tin pursed her lips, not knowing what to say next.

“Okay, Llanera,” she said after a sigh. “I’ll stay chill. But I’ll be watching you. Changes like this can’t just happen overnight.”

“Trust me, Tin. This is nothing to brood over.”

Tin-tin sat back down and huffed, telling Dane that she was surprised at the clean room. Dane laughed, but in her mind, she was thinking that she’d be in more trouble in the days to come.