Another Short Fiction Piece.

It was a quiet, almost dreary day at the library, until Asher’s phone rang. He took one look at the caller ID, and excited trepidation flooded his body.

 “Hello??” he stammered nervously.

 “Yes…this is your classmate Samhain,” said a sensual voice on the other end of the line. “Do you by any chance remember our assignment for psychology for next week?”

 “Just give me a second,” replied Asher.

 “Can you please watch my stuff for a quick minute?” he asked the total stranger sitting next to him.

 After the student nodded, Asher almost sprang from his post in the library, eagerly desiring to continue the telephonic conversation with a boy he had quietly lusted over for months now.

 The plan was simple: Asher would wow Samhain, a noted psychology buff, with his expertly researched presentation on the effects of the love hormone oxytocin on the brain and body. Their psychology class met in just a few hours, and, even though Asher did not have his presentation memorized, all the relevant notes were sitting there at the library table where he had been studying all morning.

 The phone conversation went very well, but keeping Asher’s stuff safe did not. As soon as he got back to his seat, not only were all the studiers sitting at his table gone, but his notes had disappeared as well. The delicate Samhain bubble inside him, which had been growing and swelling all morning, suddenly and violently burst.

 What should I do now? Asher asked himself. He did not know who he was more angry at—himself for being careless, or the stranger who had just so rudely violated his trust.

 A few hours later, Asher entered the psychology classroom without a plan to salvage either his crush or his grade. When it came time to stand up in front of the class, he said the first and only thing that came to his mind: “Have any of you ever wondered why people at the library, when something comes up, feel confident trusting the stranger sitting next to them to guard their stuff from the other total strangers sitting nearby?”

 To his surprise, this ended up sparking a lively discussion, and the professor applauded Asher as he eventually took his seat. After class, Samhain approached Asher.

 “I was so impressed by your presentation,” said Samhain.

 Asher blushed. “Would you by any chance want to grab dinner at the dining commons later with me?” he blurted out.

On his way to dinner that evening, wearing his best red blazer, Asher, a very philosophical person, thought to himself: You know, sometimes if life doesn’t give you lemons, just make lemonade anyway, and often your beverage will taste even better than it could have tasted if you had had lemons to use in the first place.