I walked into the library building and went up to the second floor. When I reached the entrance of the reading hall, I took my earbuds out, stopped the music, then muted my phone. As soon as I stepped inside, I gave the young guy sitting at the staff desk on my right a quick glance. Then, with lazy steps, I headed toward the computers to find where the book I needed was.
The squeak my boots made on the wooden floor interrupted a few people's studying and made them look up at me, curious. I hated drawing attention, but there wasn't much I could do about it. Since there were so few people inside, even the smallest sound had a way of turning into thunder.
Before typing the book's title into the search page, I let my gaze sweep across the nearly empty library. It wasn't that surprising that people visited libraries less often now, thanks to technology.
Still, for someone like me who'd spent years in dorm study rooms, endless fights over seats and constant whispering gossip, this scene felt a little unusual.
I turned back to the screen, typed the title into the search bar, and jotted down the information that popped up on a small piece of paper. Then, without wasting time, I dove between the shelves.
The school library wasn't exactly one of my regular places either. I only needed to read a book I could access only here for an assignment that would count as my elective course exam.
As I scanned the lower shelves, I straightened up for a second and let out an unhappy sigh. From the preliminary research I'd done online, it was obvious the source book the professor had chosen wasn't going to make my life easy.
Of course, the book wasn't the only thing making this hard, the submission deadline was also dangerously close.
But I deserved it. If I hadn't listened to that Hotshot and wasted exam season dealing with things that were none of my business, I would've written this assignment and been done with it ages ago.
The moment I realized what I was doing, I shook my head quickly from side to side. No thinking about him anymore. I'd closed that book for good the night before.
When I focused on the shelves again, it didn't take long to find what I was looking for. I stepped out from between the bookcases and moved to the area with the study tables. Apparently, while I'd been searching for the book, the number of students inside had dropped even more.
In the almost empty library, I sat at one of the large tables by the window and pulled my laptop out of my bag. By the time I finished reading the roughly eighty-page book, full of Ottoman inspired phrasing, I set it down and leaned back with a defeated slump.
That woman definitely had a personal vendetta against me. Otherwise, why would she make me work on a book written right around the time the Latin alphabet was first being used?
With my tired eyes still on the book, I let out an audible breath that basically confessed how hopeless I felt. If I could barely understand what I'd read, how was I supposed to write an essay about it?
I opened the book again and started going over the pages where I'd stuck my little sticky notes. The best plan was to gather my thoughts from the parts I actually understood first. The rest would have to come somehow.
After I pulled my notes together, I dragged my laptop closer. While sentences lined up in my head and my fingers flew over the keys, my eyelids started getting heavy after a while.
As I checked the short notes I'd scribbled on paper, I was also silently cursing Kerem out. I hadn't been able to sleep because of the tension from our fight; I'd spent the whole night tossing and turning in bed.
A yawn that practically split my mouth in half made me pause my typing. This wasn't going to work. I needed to rest my eyes for at least five minutes. I slid the laptop aside, rested my head on my arms folded on the table, and closed my eyes.
When I tried to move my head, pain shot through me and I blinked my eyes open. As I lifted my head off the table, the muscles around my neck started aching. Rubbing my neck lazily, my gaze drifted to the window and when I saw it was dark outside, I panicked and grabbed my phone.
This had to be a joke. There was no way I'd slept for two hours in that ugly position, right? When I turned my head again, my brows furrowed at the soft fabric brushing my cheek. What was that?
I reached back and pulled whatever was on me to the front. A jacket. But whose jacket? Still holding it, I lifted my head and swept my bewildered eyes across the hall. Not only was there no one I recognized, there wasn't a single soul left in the entire room except the staff guy at the desk.
I stood up, still clutching the jacket. Just in case, I checked between all the shelves first, then scanned the corridor outside the reading hall. Nothing.
When I stepped back inside, I walked straight to the staff desk where the boy was reading his notes carefully. When he noticed me waiting in front of him, he took his earbuds off and looked up.
"Sorry to bother you, but someone put this over me while I was asleep. Did you happen to see who it was?"
He adjusted his round, thin metal-framed glasses and examined my face with a cold expression. Considering he looked even worse than Rüzgar, he really must not have appreciated me interrupting his work.
"No. I didn't see."
I murmured a quiet thank you and went back to my table. It felt like the number of sour-faced people at this school was increasing by the day.
When it occurred to me that the owner might've left a note, I shuffled through the papers on the table, but apparently there wasn't one. In this day and age, nobody did something like that for a stranger just to be polite so I was sure I knew whoever it was.
In that case, my mysterious "acquaintance" would probably ask for their jacket back the first time they saw me anyway. With that thought, I folded it neatly and put it in my bag.
The jacket incident had completely shaken off my sleep fog. I quickly gathered the rest of my notes. That way, I managed to finish the first draft within an hour. While I was packing up my things, a chill crawled up the back of my neck and I lifted my head to look around.
For a second, I felt like I was being watched but there weren't any other students in the hall. In fact, even the staff guy wasn't at his desk anymore. I sighed at myself and slung my bag over my shoulder. Lack of sleep really wasn't doing me any favors.
The moment I stepped outside the library, the sharp cold hit me, and I zipped my coat all the way up to my throat and sped up my steps. God, I really hated winter.
Then again, in the mental state I was in, there weren't many things I couldn't hate.
Maybe instead of going home, I should've dropped by one of the girls. Talking with my friends could help distract me, at least a little.