Chapter Three

The open field was a commotion that day. There was a campus fair where booths and university clubs have been set up all over the grounds. Everybody was having fun except Adam, who was running frantically across the busy area and bumped carelessly into anyone who was in his way.

         "Come here, you asshole!" Axel shouted angrily at a near distance. He and his football buddies were running to reach him and were hungry for taking an act of revenge towards him. All the more did the people got out of their way. Who would want to bump into four football athletes running?

         "Never in a million years, bird brain!" Adam cockily shouted back as he jumped across the cart of popcorn crossing along the way. Popcorn flew everywhere like confetti. People tried to get out of his way and tried to lessen the chaos.

          That girl shouldn't have gone to my hiding place. He thought to himself as he kept on running. He thought it was already enough to have spent a wild night with her after the party where she shared a glass of whiskey with him. Was it just a glass? Or maybe two? Or maybe more? I don't know. He thought. All he remembered was he woke up the next day naked with that girl--clinging to him while she slept.

          He took a smoking break earlier that day--during his psychology class--at his usual hiding place. Nobody was supposed to know where that is. But to his surprise, as he was taking a drag from his second pack for that day, he saw that girl standing in front of him--in her cheerleading clothes--smiling giddily at him. He was shocked as his sacred solitude has been violated.

          "What are you doing here? You're not supposed to be here." He told her.

         "I came to see you. Don't you want to recall and replay what we did last Friday night?" She was giggling now, and then she rushed to him and kissed him--more of like sucking him tight--on the lips. It was too intense to resist but it's annoying him at the same time. He's trapped in her grasp and was trying to pull away but the girl was like a leech.

        Then as the girl was trying to make him do things beyond kissing, they heard a shuffling sound drawing closer. Shortly after a man's voice in a short distance resonated. "Kim, I know you're in here!" Axel called out. "If I see you clinging to another guy I swear to god we'll talk."

       When Adam heard the voice, his eyes widened and his thoughts raced to escape tactics that he must do. But Kim's grasp was like iron chains wrapped around his body.

       When he was about to break free from Kim's arms, it was a little too late. Axel was already staring directly at both of them, eyes flaring like sharpened daggers ready to kill. A rush of adrenaline shot up in Adam's body and shoved Kim with much force that the cheerleader shrieked in utter shock. Axel rushed in and grabbed Kim and slapped her hard on the cheek.

        "I told you we're going to have that talk!" Axel shouted at Kim. The girl was already crying because of the pain.

        "Hey, that's enough!" Adam called out. Axel turned to him and his eyes stabbed him with much hate. Adam suddenly thought what he said was not a good idea, and despite wanting to help Kim get up, he took a step back, and another, and then another, and then he suddenly darted off and left his small hiding place and rushed to take cover from the wrath of the brute. Across the hallway, there was a deadlier scene. Axel's teammates were already waiting for him to come out.

        Axel started to step towards him slowly, making him feel that he should not be something who could be taken lightly as a joke. "What did you say, Adam?' He whispered with gritted teeth.

        Adam stayed calm. He faced darker situations than this. This was just some jock who's struggling to maintain his grade point average for his athletic scholarship. Heck, he even noticed one time during their English class that he couldn't even spell the word engineer. "Who in their right mind in college spells E-N-G-E-E-N-I-R?? This is horrendous!" Their professor yelled in horror that day. He was trying to swallow his laughter while sitting at the back, while Axel was sulking in his chair because of failing the long quiz.

        To be honest, he never actually imagined being able to continue his studies up to college. He just plainly thought that he was born stupid. Well, that's what his father had always infused in his mind. You're as dumb as your mother, he kept on saying to Adam every time he tried to show his father his drawings of how he used to perceive things when he was just five years old. All he could recall was the annoying scent of booze in his father's breath every time he sneered about who he believed he was. Later on, he didn't know that it turns out he himself would admit it to be his most favorite thing in the world.

        In his mind, Adam had a list of his favorite things, and it's pretty simple, really. Booze, drag, women. That's his lifelong motto, ever since when he was in high school. Well, he could live without the other two. He would rather marry a shiny bottle of beer for the rest of his life.

        He never tried out drugs. He knows his life was trash already, so why turn it into more trash? Although, his temporary friends in high school did it, sold it to their schoolmates secretly, even to some teachers. Because of that, his pathetic so-called friends were able to march and get their diplomas with dark circles under their eyes and with valedictory speeches.

        He then just wondered about how he was surviving his studies without even studying. He had this personal theory that maybe the teachers know him too well about how miserable his life is that's why they kept on letting him pass their subjects. For what it's worth, he just believed the things that the older college guys used to tell him before, that you could attend drink parties without any rules that you had to break; and there would be chicks handing you the bottles of beer. And they would be handing you some other things that are much more fun.

        That's the reason why he randomly answered the Silverleaf University Admission Test.

        Little did he know, he scored a scholarship.

        The scholarship that he earned was just the beginning. When he received the acceptance letter one morning, groggy from a full night of partying in another city, he was just dumbfounded as to how he was able to get into the top university of the country. All he remembered was shading circles without even reading every question carefully. But when he thought about those college guys and the perks that they were getting, he still decided to try things out. Whatever comes and goes was the thing that's in his mind.

         Passing the examination was just one of the things that Adam had to think about. When he got in, he never really knew what to choose as his major throughout the course of his studies. He could do something related to math, but it bored him and made him sleep during his classes even though it's not a tough subject for him. He knew science, but he might just get busy with hot nurses while doing rounds if ever he became a doctor. And then suddenly, while thinking on his own one lazy afternoon during the last week of his senior year in high school, he was reminded of how his doodling and reading amused him whenever he had got nothing else to do. He went to the library and asked the old librarian about what he could study that was related to reading and art. With a bit more explaining and a bit of shouting because the old man was quite deaf, he decided to take a major related to liberal arts instead.

        And now, he was doing okay so far. Based on his standards, somehow.

       Worried about how long he could run across the entire campus, Adam decided to turn left and head towards the entrance of the main library. Trusting his instincts, which have already gone haywire, he entered the circulation section and paused for a second to look around and find the perfect spot to hide in. He saw one corner with a large box and rushed towards it to see if he could hide in there and find peace.

       As he was stepping into the old box filled with shredded paper--most likely old thesis papers and whatnots, a shadow loomed over him.

      "What are you doing here?" The voice was calm but alert about what he had been doing. 

      It was a girl.

      Trying to drown himself in the paper shreds, he looked up at her and stopped at what he was doing. "Look, please let me hide in here for a bit, some people are chasing me."

      "You've run into mischief again, huh, Adam? What's it about this time?"

       He paused from trying to bury himself in the paper shreds. He looked up again with wonder. "You know me?" Because he was quite sure he doesn't know her.

      "Uhuh. Everybody knows you ever since you and I were freshmen."

       He sighed. "Oh well, since you do, let's say you're my friend and help me out with this one, please? Just this once."

       "And why would I do that?"

      "Because that's what every good person does."

       She lifted her brows with a hint of sarcasm. "And how do you know I am a good person?" Why does this woman keep on asking questions? He frustratingly shouts in his head.

       "Ugh. My life is at risk by the second here. Can you just bury me entirely in this box and then we get along?"

       She stared at him for a few more seconds with a scoff and then said, "Fine. You owe me for this one big time."

      "Deal."

       She came closer and covered the last portion of his head with shreds.

       A few more minutes passed and finally, what Adam had been expecting finally came. He started to hear echoes of agitated voices and hurried footsteps across the entire floor. Some of the students reading in the area hushed them until everything went quiet, which made the scene for Adam more unnerving. However, he had been thinking underneath all the shredded pile of papers as to why he had been hiding like this, where in fact he could have taken them all out when he was into it--since he has a strong build and it wasn't the first time he used his fists to protect himself. But, he was well aware of the difference between random brawling and bar fights from fighting against an angered lover who felt betrayed by his beloved. Much more so in the body of a college football team captain. It's more likely one step closer to setting up your own funeral. You might have won the first encounter, yes, but, unlike usual street fights where your attacker would stop bugging you when they lose, a defeated lover would definitely come back for you and think of more brutal ways to take you down in the near future.

         "Where the hell is he?" Axel sneered under his breath while checking each of the aisles in the circulation section. Seconds ago, he ordered his teammates to divide and conquer--two of them checked the reading areas, one of them inspected the photocopying and computer sections, and he himself surveyed the bookshelves. He couldn't wait to beat the crap out of Adam, as he always knew something was going on between him and his girlfriend Kim the past two weeks. Now that he had seen them both in action earlier today proving his suspicions were true, he all the more felt the need to teach them a lesson--starting with Adam, most especially he has yet to pay for that insulting laugh regarding his spelling during their English class the other day. Everybody makes mistakes, so why couldn't he be forgiven with just one stupid word?

        "He's not in the reading areas," one of them said. "Most of the tables are empty."

        Axel shrugged his head in disgust. "Damn that guy."

        "He's also not in the photocopying and computer areas. And the library assistant threatened me that he will call security if I kept on roaming around over there." Said the other who went alone in those sections minutes ago.

        "Well, he can't just disappear like an old man's fart, could he? We saw him come in here, then he is in here hiding!" Axel sneered angrily at them, even though he knows it's not their fault. His knuckles wanted to hit something, and it lost control. He swiped at one of the stacks of books piled neatly on one of the tables near a counter. The girl behind the counter right across where they were standing looked up from her reading and frowned with disgust at the commotion.

         Axel, despite his wild reflex which messed up the books, realized that the counter had not been checked yet. He took a deep breath and smiled as a way to control his impulses, and then walked slowly towards the counter where the girl is already looking at them annoyingly.

        "Have you seen Adam lurking around here?" Axel said to her over the counter.

        "No, why should I?" She replied with a straight face while looking at him briefly and then at the card catalogues piled up on her counter, to make her look like she was busy. At the corner of his eye, Axel noticed the huge box in the corner where Adam had been hiding. "What's inside that box?" He could feel something was not right.

          The girl turned around and looked at the direction Axel was pointing with his nod. "If you want to take a look at it and destroy it just because you're looking for someone, you might lose your football scholarship for that." She replied while she looked at the box. Adam didn't dare breathe while the other two were talking. Then she turned her head again to look at Axel directly. "Those books are for the archives and only the university's official research team has authorized access to it--which are older than your great grandfather and more expensive than the school's entire budget. Feel free to destroy your future by taking a peek."

         Axel cringed at the idea stuck in his mind. He wouldn't risk his football career by doing something like that. With another sigh, he finally decided. "Eh, I'll think I'll pass. He might be rotting in some kind of hell right now anyway," he replied. "But do me a favor. If ever you get to see the guy, you know who he is, he's everywhere. Just tell me, and I'll give you a free ticket for our game this weekend."

        The girl's eyebrows raised with her mouth slightly open. She scoffed mildly. "Come on, Axel, you can't buy me with your lousy tickets. Your problem is not my problem. Beat it."

        "Whatever." Axel shrugged and he and his black-jacketed goons sluggishly left the area.

        Adam intently listened to the entire scene until the moment came when he heard two knocks on the walls of his box. His head first popped up from the box and his entire body followed, which caused another mess of paper shreds all over the floor.

        "Oh great, now look at the mess you and Axel made!" She frustratingly said while she started to get the broom and swept across the floor to clean the shreds. Adam watched her for a few seconds and still reacted like an ass but then he reluctantly helped her out in fixing the mess, starting with the messed up pile of books left by Axel and his gang.

         This girl is weird. He wondered to himself as he placed a biology book on top of another book called 'How to Make Pierogi and Turn It Into a Business'. Who the hell wants to put up a pierogi business? He curiously opened the first page of the book and checked the photo of a Ruskie Pierogi, according to its caption. The text below it says, Are Pierogies Polish or Ukrainian?

         His stomach then made a rumbling sound at the sight of it. He might actually get a pierogi after this. What time is it anyway?

        He was about to close the book when he suddenly noticed the girl was now inches away from him and took the pile of books that he stacked on the table from him. She wasn't even looking at him.

        "Not even a thank you?" Adam said as the girl headed to the deeper corners of the shelves to place the books back to where they belonged. She replied, "You wouldn't even say 'you're welcome' either. In fact, you should be the one thanking me." She replied without even looking back.

        "Wow." That's all he said. That was his cue to leave.