Ugly Book

"What's this?"

Iris screamed so loud she covered her own ears. She was busy playing on her phone and she was nodding off when suddenly Calixto appeared at the foot of her bed.

"What are you doing?" She yelled at him, pulling the blanket to her chin. She did it not because there was something for Calixto to see. She was wearing a baggy shirt and sweatpants. However, every time Calixto would catch her in a situation where she wasn't ready to face him, a feeling of wanting to hide away from him prevailed. His green eyes seemed to be seeing through her that it was so difficult to explain.

"This!"

He threw his new phone in her lap and Iris opened her bedside lamp, pushed herself up the mattress and looked at his phone, yawning.

"Ugh," she coughed and choked on her saliva when she saw what Calixto was complaining about.

"It's a game that I play." She looked at him and she had to control her laughter when she saw the sheer annoyance in his usually blank expression. She was expecting him to be angry at him but she didn't expect the disappointment in his face.

"Game? You're playing this game?" His voice echoed in the quiet library. "You're a girl," confusion laced his voice as his eyebrows knitted tighter. "Why would you play a game about boys courting?"

"That's boys love," she said, clicking her tongue at him. She felt attacked with the tone of his voice. She downloaded the game on his phone as a prank but now that he was questioning her choice of fun, she didn't feel good.

"Remove it," he snapped at her.

Iris quietly opened the app to delete his profile after uninstalling the said app from his phone but she almost dropped the phone. He was now in level fifty-two. Way ahead of her who had been playing the game for about a month now.

"You…"she looked at Calixto then her eyes shifted to her lap. "You," she cleared her throat. "You played it?"

"How would I know if I don't open it?"

Iris kept her mouth shut. There was no way for her to win with Calixto tonight. He had the look in his eyes that would not take a loss.

She quietly uninstalled the app, stopping herself from asking him if she could play it because she hasn't reached the level he was on.

"Here, it's all gone," she said, handing him back his phone. "Please, check if there are other apps in there that you wanted to be deleted.

Iris looked at him, stared at her as if he had something on his mind but changed his mind before saying what it was. He just turned on his heels and left.

She followed him with her gaze but she could swear that she just blinked and Calixto disappeared. The line of bookshelves were a few meters long from her bed, even if he dashed to the end, which he didn't, he wouldn't have reached the end of the aisle in just a blink of an eye.

In such a moment, she would be reminded that he wasn't a normal human being. It was easy to forget because he no longer looked like the emancipated vampire that she first saw. He's handsome and getting more handsome each day.

"How's that even possible," she muttered under her breath before she slid down the blanket, rolling to her left and sighed, turning off her bedside lamp.

She was staring at the books on the shelves in the dark, her eyesight slowly adjusting in the low light when she saw it. There was a book on the shelf in the line of her sight with a strange insignia on its spine.

It was like a lily. And its color was changed into different shades depending on the lights that shone on it. Feeling curious, she threw the blanket off her body and got up from her bed. She slowly stood up and shivered the moment she stepped on the cold floor.

"Shit," she cursed under her breath. Her slippers were on the other side of the bed. She didn't want to go there just to get her slippers. Hence, she gritted her teeth and pushed herself to take another step.

She could just dash and grab the book so as not to suffer the frozen floor but something was stopping her. She took little steps until her face was right on the books on the shelf before she slowly lowered herself to the floor, kneeling.

Her eyes scanned the spine of the books in front of her, gingerly touching each spine. From this distance, they all looked the same, a dark blue cover with silver text on their spine. The insignia that she saw was gone. They all have the same logo which probably was from the company that printed the books.

Her eyes could no longer see the illuminating insignia on the book but her index finger continued to run over each book, softly as she took her time, checking one book after the other.

She was on her fourth book when she felt soft electricity hit the tip of her index finger when she touched the book. She knew without looking that it was the book that she saw from her bed. How did she know? She had no idea.

She carefully pulled the book in between the books and carefully opened it.

"Huh?" She muttered under her breath in the dark. The scent of old pages assaulted her nostril and there was nothing in the book. It was just a book with yellowish pages.

She tilted her head to the side and slowly pulled herself up from the floor. Her knees were frozen and she jumped and ran to her bed, sliding under the cover.

She dropped the book on her pillow and rubbed her knees to warm them up as she buried her feet in her sheets to keep them warm. The floor was too cold and she had no idea why she let herself be cold just from an ugly book.