You Took My Hand

“You are my sunshine… my only sunshine… you make me happy… when skies are gray… you’ll never know dear… how much… I love you.”

I glanced around through the corner of my eyes to make sure no one else was listening to my depressing singing. The coast was clear.

“Can you stop singing that MAJORLY depressing song?!”

Apparently it wasn’t clear. A stack of humongous walking books came from around the corner and jumped onto the counter in front of me. A blonde-haired girl then peered out from behind them. Her green eyes were skeptical.

Quickly defending myself, “It’s not depressing, Annie. It’s about ‘sunshine.’

My fingers formed quotes around the last word. Her head cocked to the side, her eyebrows raised, and her hands found her hips.

“It’s about that Greg character, and you know it.”

I sighed, I couldn’t refuse the truth. An overwhelming urge to just drop to my knees and cry filled me. As usual, I held myself together with a smile on my face
.
“It’s really not, I swear! We’re actually better than ever. Look what he bought me!”

My smile beamed to match the enthusiasm I should’ve had as I lifted my wrist to show her a delicate silver charm bracelet. What I wouldn’t tell her, was that Greg hadn’t bought it. He never bought me anything actually. No, this bracelet was given to me by my best friend. But she didn’t have to know that. I watched as she squealed and swooned like a typical girl. Eventually, she smiled back up at me.

“Alright,” she started. “majorly cute, guess I was wrong.”

I nodded and took a breath, another explanation covered by my amazing ability to fake a smile.

“But!” Her eyes shot to the enormous stack of books I had completely forgotten about. “Those need to be put back in the computer.”

The corner of her mouth slid down as my face dropped. There had to be at least 30 books here. And they had to be put into the head librarian’s computer.

Sandra Tomb was her name. She was about 100 years old and worked at this library for something around 40 years or something. And let me tell you, she took her head librarian job so seriously you would think she’s the President. As if on cue, she came out of her office door, which was next to the front counter, and shot an evil glare at us before walking out the front door. She was probably having a cigarette, or snacking on small innocent children.

I watched as her thin, fragile, distorted frame headed into the sunlight. Her light brown hair was always pulled back into a bun, no piece out of place. There was always a pair of those 80’s style glasses resting on her crooked nose. And there was always some cheap 99cent store pink lipstick covering her snaggle tooth lips.

That was our name for her actually, Snaggle Tooth.. or She-Dragon… or Boss Man. It wasn’t because of her appearance, we weren’t that shallow. Her personality just forced her to hate every person under the age of 40. Like we weren’t allowed to be younger than her or something. But out of all of us ‘youngsters’ in the town, she hated Jake the most. I just couldn’t figure out why.

“Good luck.” Annie whispered, knocking me out of my thoughts. I nodded as she skipped away to do her job. Sighing, I struggled to lift the books off the counter. They had to weigh more than I did. It took all I had just to hold myself up. Slowly, books towering over my head, I waddled my way to Boss Man’s office.

“Can I help?”

A familiar voice startled me from behind, causing me to drop every single book. Dreading to see his face, I turned around.

“No. You can’t help.”

I stepped over the books and around Greg to reach the front door.

“Annie! I’m taking my break!” I screamed back into the empty library before I headed out the door.

Snaggle tooth was, like I expected, standing outside the door with a cigarette hanging out of her mouth. I pushed past her and walked far enough away so she wouldn’t hear us. Greg was there when I turned around.
“What do you want.” I was suddenly not able to look into his eyes.

He took a few steps closer.

“Mel..” His voice was vulnerable and weak, very unlike him. “I love you.”

I was able to look up at him now, his auburn hair, his green eyes were piercing into mine. The intensity and meaning was there and I wanted so badly for everything to be perfect so I could just be with him. But it wasn’t as simple as that. His hands reached down for mine as he came closer, closing the distance between us. The tears came freely now. He took this as winning me over.

“I can’t live without you.” He whispered as he leaned down and kissed me.

The kiss shocked me out of my state. I pushed him away.

“What about her? Did you tell her you loved her too?”

I took a few steps back. It was easier to think when I wasn’t intoxicated by his closeness.
His vulnerable eyes started retracting, I could tell he was becoming more like the Greg I hated.

“She’s not important.”

“To me.” I finished his sentence. “But to you she is. I’m not going to be the girl on the side Greg. And from what I saw last night… she’s giving you a lot more than I am.”

My voice cracked in the middle of the last sentence. I stopped myself from letting my mind wander back to what I saw last night in his room. Those images would haunt me forever.

“Yea well maybe if you gave me more, you wouldn’t be so boring.”

Ouch. Pain stabbed through my chest. It was different than heart break. I’m not too sure if Greg had the power to break my heart. He did have the power though, to rip it out all together. I needed to retreat. He could win, he could win everything I just needed to get away from him.

“Melsi..” He called out as I turned to walk away. “Wait!”

He grabbed my wrist, forcing me to turn around.

“It’s over, Greg.”

I ripped my wrist out of his grip and took a sprint down the sidewalk, praying he wouldn’t come after me. Sure, it hurt like hell to walk away from him. But I knew if I stayed, eventually he’d hurt me in the worst way imaginable. He’d destroy my life.

Snaggle Tooth blocked my path as I headed back into the library. I tried to step around her but she blocked me again.

"What?" I hissed up at her, obviously not in the mood for her meticulous ranting.

"No personal business at work."

Was she being serious right now?

"I'm not at work. I'm outside of work." I stated as I tried again to get around her.

She wouldn't let me.

"Regardless," her hand waved away my statement. "This is not your first offense. Or the first boy from your tragic little life that you've brought with you to work. Maybe it would be more appropriate for you to make your money walking the streets."

She smiled as she said the last sentence. I was devastated... it's not my fault I have more guy friends than girl ones. I just get along with them better. I didn't deserve to be called a prostitute. And I wouldn't stand for it.

"Alright, she-dragon," she cringed at the nickname. "Just because your old and whithering away does not mean you have to go and pick on my life! You think your so important? Who are you? A librarian in this small little town with no family, no friends. You've done absolutely nothing with your life and now you're taking it out on people who want to live theirs. So suck it up and get off my back!"

I didn't mean to go that far, it was just all the anger from Greg mixed with her snide attitude that made me blow up. But for once she had nothing to say. I took it as my cue to turn around and head down the street.

The sun was beaming, causing everything to sparkle around me. It was a beautiful day ironically enough. I screwed up more than one time. I knew Jake would make it better, though, he always did. I threw on a brave face and finished humming my song as I made my way to my best friend.

Please don’t take my sunshine away.