The Diary Project (ASOUE)

22: The Just Friends Project

"Don't make me laugh, this is extremely serious," I tell Klaus, who's giggling like a schoolgirl next to me. I stand up. The chair comes with me. Klaus laughs louder.

"Klaus! You're going to get us thrown out!"

Klaus is still giggling when he replies, "At least I'm not the one who's attached to my chair right now."

It was true. I had filled my blazer pocket with so many odd bits and pieces that it had slipped into the gap where the chair seat meets the metal of the chair legs and was now stuck. Klaus was being far from helpful and everyone else in the library were simply ignoring the situation.

I yanked it out with an "argh!" and Klaus wheezed. I told him off and once he had  finally recovered we both settled back into silence. It was a comfortable silence, both of us relaxed and enjoying some quiet time to read. For once, the library wasn't plagued with many other kids being loud and disruptive. On second thought, I realised that for today we had become those kids. First time for everything, I thought to myself.

I fidgeted around, losing my place and finding it again a million times before focusing on one word in particular: lost. You can say that again.
My thoughts seemed to be getting muddled recently. Nothing was laying itself out completely and it was utterly frustrating.

I slammed the book down as delicately as I could and glanced towards the door as it opened. In stepped Duncan, who glanced around suspiciously. His eyes darted over empty and preoccupied tables alike before settling on my watchful gaze. A small wave from me was invitation enough and he made his way over.

"Ha..." his voice shot out like a cannon and he hurriedly trailed off in order to reel it back and drop it into a whisper. "Have you seen Violet?"

I shook my head and gestured towards Klaus for his answer. When Duncan realised we were both symmetrically clueless, he took that as his cue to leave, giving a quiet "thanks" as he did so. Klaus and I shared a shrug before he went back to his book.

It was worn and old and when Klaus had set it down once about a week ago I managed to get a glance of it. I had no idea what it was about but from what I saw, it seemed complicated. The text was tiny and clumped together, with many words (and sometimes even whole paragraphs) obscured by wear and tear. But despite it looking like a difficult read, Klaus was focused and took the challenge in his stride. I admired that.

* * *

 "Have fun with your little lover boy today?" Duncan chided from his spot on the floor. It was late and I didn't have the energy to deal with him, but when you share a storage cupboard you unfortunately miss out on the luxury of being able to shut everyone else out and have some time alone. So alas, I was stuck having to listen to whatever he was planning on teasing me about this time.

I rolled my eyes. "No idea what you're talking about."

"Klaus-"

"-is a friend," I finished his sentence before he had time to suggest something absurd. But of course, that wasn't enough to keep my dear brother at bay.

"As if! You guys spend all day, everyday together. You're always in the library reading and goodness knows what else!" Duncan teased which a flash of his signature grin.

"We are reading!" 

Duncan scoffed.

"We are! And anyway, it wouldn't be any of your business if we weren't," I said defensively. As much as I knew he was playing around, as he always does, it still got on my nerves that he couldn't see that there was nothing else going on. Klaus and I were friends. Just friends. "And anyway," I continued, "you know I'm only hanging around with him more because of Marlene."

Duncan raised an eyebrow, "Marlene wasn't even in the library today-"

"That's beside the point-" 

"No, that's the entire point. If Marlene wasn't in the library stalking Klaus, where was she?"

I frowned, "I don't know."

Duncan answered his own question, "With Carmelita, of course. I've suspected that Marlene was feeding her information for a while now but today I finally caught her. I was looking for Violet and decided to check the corridor behind Mr Remora's class-"

"The haunted one?"

Duncan nodded, "I mean it's not haunted, it's just filled with broken tables and old papers and- you get the picture. But I thought I would look down there in case Violet had gone looking for inventing materials and instead of finding Violet, I found Marlene. She looked insane, by the way, like she had been up all night. But the important part is that she was discussing something with Carmelita."

"What's so secretive that they would need to meet in an abandoned corridor?"

"No idea, but they split as soon as they saw me," Duncan paused, his tone shifting, "Look, I don't care what is or isn't going on between you and Klaus but you need to be careful. We both know what Carmelita's like when she gets hold of a rumour and now that she's working with Marlene-"

"-it's double the psycho," I finished off, "Okay, I get it."

"I'm not saying you and Klaus shouldn't hang out, I'm just trying to look out for you."

I nodded, "I know. Thank you."

Duncan shot me some finger guns, "So just don't fuel the fire, okay?"

I shot him finger guns in return, "Got it."

I'm gonna fuel the fire, I decided as I climbed under my moth eaten blanket. I had planned to write a diary entry tonight but I figured sleep was more important, and tried to drift off as quickly as possible. I would need as much energy as I could to put my new plan into action. The Diary Project would have to wait.