Page 28 of Just a Footnote

The library is strangelyone of Aiden’s favorite places on campus. He might not be a reader, but he likes the aesthetic, okay? Something about the smell of the library calms his nerves, making it easier to focus on papers that might give him trouble back at the dorm. It helps when the library isn’t busy too, like today.

Sitting at his normal table on the third floor, tucked into the back, with a large window to his right that shows the stretch of campus into the horizon, he sucks on a lollipop. He ran out so he only has grapes left. Not his favorite flavor but it’ll do. He rolls the lollipop around his mouth, letting theclick, click, clicksound against his teeth add another level of comfort to his nerves.

The paper isn’t hard. It’s just…he doesn’t want to do it really. He pushes away from the table slightly, rubbing his temples where a headache is already forming.

“Hiya,” a voice echoes in the silence.

Aiden jumps in his seat. “Jesus Christ.”

Liam at least has the decency to look sheepish. “Sorry, I thought you heard me coming.”

Aiden stares at Liam until he realizes what he said. A vivid red flush spreads across Liam’s cheeks as he takes a seat at the table. Aiden continues to stare at him, because this is his table, and he has to finish this paper before leaving the library. He can’t be distracted and Liam will definitely distract him.

“By all means, make yourself at home,” Aiden announces while Liam pulls his laptop out of his bag, along with a power drink, protein bar, and a notebook.

“I have a paper to finish for one of my classes. Saw you sitting here all alone. Thought I’d keep you company.”

Aiden hums softly. He watches Liam get right to work,typing and doing whatever else he needs to do. Tearing his gaze from Liam, and trying to ignore that stupid orange and honey smell of him, he aims his attention back on his own work. For a while they work in companionable silence, he almost forgets Liam is there truly, until he feels eyes on him.

He looks up to find Liam turning his attention back to his computer, lip caught between his teeth, looking like he almost got caught with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar. Nope. Aiden will not allow Liam to distract him. He rolls the lollipop around in his mouth to distract himself. Thirty minutes later, distraction-free from Liam Walsh, he closes his laptop after emailing his paper to his professor.

“Why the lollipops?” Liam asks, eyes still trained on his own laptop.

“I have an oral fixation.”

Liam’s eyes flick over to him, but at Aiden’s grin, his gaze returns to his laptop. “What’s the real answer?”

Interesting. People rarely call him out on his deflections.

He pulls the lollipop out to inspect it. Super close to the tootsie roll center, nice. “They helped me quit smoking.”

Liam quits typing then, aiming his full attention on Aiden. “You used to smoke?”

“Yep,” Aiden says, popping the p and returning the lollipop to his mouth. “For a few years.”

Liam’s eyebrows furrow. “When did you stop?”

“Two years ago.”

“How long did you smoke?”

“Four years.”

“I’m trying to do the math here but it’s getting really hard. You’re twenty one…you quit two years ago, so you started smoking at fifteen?”

Aiden chuckles around his lollipop. He leans back in hischair, kicking his legs out, enjoying the way Liam’s eyes quickly scan his body. “Fourteen actually.”

“I want to ask, but I’ve learned from Archer that sometimes the answers I’m seeking aren’t always nice.”

Aiden clenches his jaw and looks out the windows to his right. He crunches so hard on the lollipop that it hurts his teeth a little. He pulls the stick out, rolling it around his fingers as he finishes the remainder of the candy in his mouth.

“Smoking was the best habit for me to adopt.”

Liam stares at him so hard that Aiden squirms a little in his seat. Sometimes having Liam’s full attention on him is unnerving. Liam knows things about him he’s not sure he wants Liam knowing, simply because he’s best friends with Archer. That’s why all of this is so…dangerous.

“Well, I’m glad you quit. Nasty habit. Although I’m not sure lollipops are much better for your teeth.”

“Thank you, Dr. Walsh. I get a dental cleaning twice a year at the dental school down the street. My teeth are in perfect shape.”

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