Well. At least you’re not signing your name anymore.
Nellie
Sincerely, Nellie send send message send wait Sunny can you help me send this it’s not working
By the time he walked through the wide doors of the first floor of the library, he was already overwhelmed. He hadn’t really thought this through—midterms were this week, so everyone was in hell. The library was crowded, students gathered in groups across every piece of available furniture and counter space, chattering about group projects or complaining about homework. The air was ripe with the stench of body odor, energy drinks, coffee, and, most likely, tears.
Brennan himself wasn’t in the best shape with classes, that hadn’t been a lie. Even with all the extra hours from not being able to sleep, school felt impossible to focus on in the scheme of things going on in his life.
He didn’t know how to find Cole in this mess, if he even should. Cole probably had his hands full enough on a night like this without Brennan’s own angst. He hovered in the entryway, cracking his knuckles, debating turning around. But he’d come here for a reason.
Right as he thought it, his eyes fell on Cole, who was kneeling next to a baby-faced freshman girl wrapped in a blanket and crying openly. Cole was talking calmly and soothingly to her and offering a steaming mug of something. Brennan’s heart panged with equal parts concern and affection, because here was Cole, the Cute Library Blanket Guy, in action. But he had dark smudges under his eyes. His curly hair looked especially wild, like he’d been running his hands through it, like he did when he was bullshitting his way through a procrastinated essay while Brennan finished shelving as an apology for distracting him.
He entered the library, trying to keep the noise from overwhelminghim as a tight pain started to form in his temple. He needed to focus onsomething,so he focused on Cole. If he let his instincts take over, he could zero in on the conversation from afar.
“—and I know Jane is reasonable, she’s really an old friend, she’ll grant the extension, sweetheart—” Cole was saying, and onlyhecould pull off calling a stranger “sweetheart” as something soothing instead of creepy. It was either the Southern charm or the rainbow pin on his denim jacket.
Brennan lingered a ways back, until the freshman gave a sniffle and a watery smile. Cole turned to leave, visibly deflating as he did, cheery mask slipping. He looked… exhausted.
Brennan went to make his presence known but a girl with blue hair beat him to it, looking frazzled with a pen stuck behind her ear and a stack of books weighing her arms down. Brennan paused and listened.
“Take a break, Cole. Go shelve the three hundreds and then go home. That’s an order.”
“You’re not actually my boss,” Cole said, but he didn’t seem to have much fight in him.
The girl turned to wherever she was lugging those books, gave Brennan a bored once-over, and disappeared.
Cole perked up a little when he saw Brennan, but Brennan didn’t know if it was real excitement or the same polite mask as with the girl earlier.
“God, Brennan, it’s good to see you. Do you mind talking while I shelve?” Cole said, already walking toward the staircase to the stacks. “It’s been so busy, and we’re behind on everything, and I kind of procrastinated on an essay due at midnight, so the sooner I get done shelving, the sooner I can go work on that—”
Cole was talking so fast, Brennan felt winded trying to keep up, following him up the stairs two at a time. Brennan almost tripped over a pair of girls crouched over a laptop together on one of the landings.
“Okay, slow down a sec.”
Brennan reached out against all better judgment and put a hand on Cole’s shoulder to get him to stop for a second, and it worked. Cole paused on the top step and turned toward the touch.
“Just breathe,” Brennan said. “Slow down. Are you alright?”
Cole blinked. His eyes went to Brennan’s hand and then back to Brennan’s face in a slow, sleepy processing of events. If he had to guess, Cole was running on two hours of sleep and an ungodly amount of caffeine.
His mouth took over and blurted, “Cole, you looktired.”
Cole blinked up at him for a beat, dark circles under his eyes. He inhaled one shaky breath, and then his lower lip quivered, and that was the only warning before he burst into tears.
He immediately buried his face in his hands, bowed head and shaking shoulders, and Brennan tried to keep up with the rapidly changing emotions.
“Oh my god,” Cole was saying into his hands, shaking his head, but his shoulders were still trembling. “Oh my god this is so embarrassing, I’mfine.”
Brennan’s hand was still on Cole’s shoulder and his other hand fluttered awkwardly, hovering, uncertain. He wanted to pull Cole in to him, to hug him until he stopped shaking, but he wasn’t sure he was allowed.
He finally gave in to the urge to comfort and wrapped an arm around Cole, which, in practice, didn’t feel that awkward. He tried to rub a hand up and down his shoulder in a way that he hoped was comforting, and he must have been somewhat successful because Cole fell into his chest like he was waiting for the invitation.
“I’m sorry,” Cole said again, sobbing and dripping snot on Brennan’s shirt. “I’m fine, I’m really fine.”
“Yes, I’m seeing all the trademark signs of a person who’s fine,” Brennan said, which was probably not the right thing to say, but Cole snorted a small wet laugh.
Brennan looked around the crowded library. It wasn’t like Cole was the only college kid on the verge of a breakdown during midterms, but he was sure Cole didn’t want to be on display, with the way he kept his face buried in his hands and turned his whole body into Brennan’s side.
