"Damn!" I grabbed a handful of tissues and soaked up the hot coffee that had spilled across the table. I was sitting, yet again, in Shipley's donuts, wasting the hours that I should have been in lectures. To make it seem I was actually thinking about my degree, I was half-reading a battered textbook I had saved from the library.
"Need a hand with that?"
I looked up and saw Nikki. She was from my lecture class. I blushed. "Umm, yeah, ok, thanks." We mopped up the hot mess and she sat with me.
"Is this you being selective with your lectures again?"
I blushed for the second time in less than a minute. "How did you guess? Economics isn't my strong point... What's your excuse?"
She sat down close to me and sipped on her mocha. "Oh, you know, I'd rather be having some fun than sitting listening to Dr Baker drone on and on..."
I smiled. I'd always thought she was the studious type, but her she was sitting with me in a cheap and nasty coffee house moaning about lectures. We sat talking like that for what seemed like a few minutes, but all too soon the waitresses were asking us to finish our drinks so they could close up. I looked at my watch. It was 8pm.
Nikki turned to me. "Do you fancy coming over to my place? I have wine, chocolate and videos!" she said, grinning.
I felt my stomach flip over on itself. "That would be great, but can we stop into the library first? I need to put this book back."
We strolled along the streets, talking incessantly about the previous weekend's exploits and how we really regretted kissing so-and-so.
We walked into the library, which was uncharacteristically dark. "I thought this place stayed open til 10?" Nikki whispered as she took my hand. I got the feeling she was a bit nervous of the dark, especially a dark old empty library, so I wrapped my fingers around hers. "Don't worry, I'll just put the book back and then we can go."
We walked through one set of double doors, and then another, into the main reception. Suddenly there was a loud "BEEP!" and a buzz, then the sound of a lock clicking. "Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit!" Nikki trembled. I looked at my watch again. It was 9pm. "It must have closed early. Don't worry, we'll just knock at the door and the janitor will let us out." We knocked and knocked. No answer. Nikki thumped the door. Still no answer. Now it was my turn to be nervous. I clamped my fingers tighter around Nikki's, and she responded with a quick squeeze. "It's OK," she said calmly, "We'll just sit it out and wait. Someone will be back."