It was 4:58PM on a Thursday at Lakeview Public Library and he was late...again. Tapping her pencil impatiently against her Biology textbook. This kid was two hours late for a tutoring session his mother scheduled for him. Noelle booked the private study room for only two hours and it was getting close to the end of their 'scheduled' session. She started to pack her books and notebooks into her purple book-bag. There wasn't even a blemish on that backpack. She carefully zipped her bag.

She stared at the clock on the eggshell colored wall and lifted her bag onto her shoulders. Right when the long-hand of the clock hit 5:00, a stocky young man grabs the handle before she does. She jumps back a little.

"Are you Ms. Noelle Cartwright?" The seemingly over-grown boy with boyish features asks. He was sweaty and flushed.

Noelle keeps her hands on her backpack straps and looks up at him. He was just an overall large boy. He could definitely play offense if he wanted to. "This is she." She frowns a bit.

The boy breaks into a smile and holds out his hand for her to shake and she does, "I'm Carson Holt, I'm here for tutoring." He looks around the cramped stale room. She shakes his hand reluctantly. She glances down at her watch.

"You're late." She looks him in his steel grey eyes. Even though the color of his eyes should seem cold, his energy gave them a warmth.

"Yeah, by a couple of minutes." He flashes her a smile. He was expecting her to melt into a puddle for him, considering that's usually what happened when he would flash that dazzling Holt smile. But instead, Noelle looked at him like she couldn't be less amused. Her warm brown eyes held a coldness behind those tortoise shell frames.

Carson's heart was racing out of his chest. If his mom found out that he ditched tutoring to hang with the boys after practice, she was for sure going to kill him. He could practically envision his funeral.

Here lies Carson Jacob Holt, whose mother put her foot so far up his ass, he had toes for teeth.

"More like a couple of hours, Mr. Holt." Said the short girl with the unruly shroud of raven curls surrounding her face. Noelle wasn't a stranger to late clients, it happened more often than you think. She stopped taking them personally a long time ago.

"Can't we just do it now, since I'm here?" He said as he slipped his backpack on the floor and pulled a chair.

She couldn't believe the nerve of this guy. Her schedule didn't revolve around only him and he needed to understand that. "With all due respect, Mr. Holt. I have another client at 5:30 that I can't skip out on. And even if I didn't, you would need to call the scheduling office and arrange an appointment." She replies calmly and she walks towards the door.

"Wait!" Carson scrambles to catch her before she opens the door. She stops and looks back to hear him. "I'm desperate, Noelle. If I don't pass my next exam, I'm gonna be benched for the whole season. I can't let my team down, I gotta take them to Regionals."

Noelle saw that desperation was evident in his irises. She looked at him with sympathy in her eyes. She thought about bending the rules just this once, but she weighed the repercussions of her actions, "I'm really sorry, Mr. Holt. Our next session is next Thursday. We'll send a confirmation email. But, if you need someone sooner, I can give you their contact information." She offered. Her stone cold professionalism voice was turning into a conversational voice and it was less robotic. Carson could tell she was just doing her job.

She opens her bag and pulls out the tutoring contact sheet. He wasn't sure why she kept that with her but, she was just being helpful and he couldn't get mad at her for that. He looked down at her again and recognized her.

"Do you go to my school?" He asked, she nodded and smiled a little.

"Lakeview High. Gooo Lancers." She giggled a bit. He thought she looked familiar. Well, living in a small town, everyone looks familiar. "Sorry, I can't help. But..." Noelle looked at the contact sheet in his hand and pointed to a name on the sheet: Melissa Poindexter. "Melissa does Friday afternoons and if you go to the front desk before you leave and schedule with her, she can help you out. I hope that helps." She gives him a pity smile--the worst kind of smile. Noelle turns to leave the study room but, before she leaves she says, "I won't tell your mom that you skipped if that helps." She closes the door and walks away.

Carson ran a hand through his shaggy dirty blonde hair, "I'm fucking screwed."

***

The next day, Carson was sitting in his friend's minivan when he saw Noelle. While hanging out in the student parking lot before school, he saw her park her car and walk inside. Her hair was pulled into a fluffy pony-tail and she was wearing some indie band on her shirt with cuffed blue jeans. His eyes followed her in.

"Who you making 'Goo-Goo' eyes with, Holt?" Carson's friend and teammate, Tyler asked with a smirk on his face.

"No one." Carson replied with a slight chuckle.

"Uh huh, okay." Tyler said as he jammed more weed into his glass pipe. Tyler has been Carson's best friend since elementary school in Mrs. Hampton's fourth grade class. They bonded over Pokemon cards and football. Tyler was a brunette boy with electric blue eyes but, always red tinged. Tyler was a sweetheart though and he cared a lot about his team and his friends. "Light that shit up, bruh." Carson picked up the lighter and held the glass pipe to his lips and inhaled. The smoke tickled the back of his throat as he tried to hold it.

He finally exhaled which turned into a coughing fit, "Fuck! Holy shit, Tyler!" Clouds of smoke sputtered from his lips as he practically coughed up a lung or two.

"Aw hell yeah, dude." Tyler took the next hit and cranked his radio up, he blew his smoke smoothly, almost gracefully. The heavy bass filled the van as they continued to smoke. It was an old Taylor Swift song they were listening to.

"Staaaandin' out here, waitin' at your backdoor!" Tyler belted out. "All this time, how could you not know baaaaabyyyy. You belong with meeeee-ee. You belong with meee." Tyler and Carson laughed.

"Bro, you like Taylor Swift?" Carson poked fun at Tyler, "That's pretty fucking gay."

"Everyone likes Taylor Swift. And if it was gay, it's 2019 bitch who cares?" Tyler replied and gave him the one-finger salute. They sat for a second listened to the radio when Carson spoke again.

"We can't be smoking every morning like this, dude. Football season is in full swing." Carson closed his eyes and giggled at nothing in particular. Whenever he smoked he felt he was melting into his environment. He was still a novice smoker.

"If I wanna get on coach's good side and eventually back on the team, I gotta be extra holy." Carson chuckled.

"You're not on the bench for weed, you just suck at school, homie." Tyler responded as he nudged his shoulder. "Just do what you gotta do and be done with it. Get them grades, bitch." Tyler grinned stupidly.

"Yeah." Carson replied as he leaned his head back into the seat and sighed.

In the distance, they heard the five-minute warning bell from outside. Both Tyler and Carson, sluggishly got out of Tyler's van and walked inside. They dapped and split into different directions.

"See you at practice, right?" Tyler called out.

"I'll be on the bench." Carson replied. He moved slowly to his first class of the day: Biology.

***

It was 4:00PM and Noelle had just finished her volunteer shift at the library and was getting ready to start her tutoring sessions, when she heard something weird. She was on the third-floor of the library, this floor was usually empty because it was technically used for storing archives and articles. But sometimes, the spare rooms were used for study groups and the occasional book club meeting.

Noelle set down her last book that she was going to shelf to check out the noise. She was sure it was just Ms. Robinson setting up the book club for seniors for the meeting at 5. But, the closer she got to the sound the more nervous she got. It didn't sound like talking--actually, it definitely wasn't talking. Was someone moaning?

Noelle crept up to the nearest room and opened it. There was nothing there but a dark room and tables and chairs. But, she still heard that noise and it seemed to only get louder. She checked the room next door and it was only a dark room. She went to check the last room but, it was locked. Noelle looked down at the floor and could tell the lights were on and the noise was originating from this room. She pulled out her master key from her back pocket and unlocked the door swiftly. When she opened the door, she wished she hadn't.