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She snorts. “Middle school, high school, parts of the last few years before I met Eli? Take your pick.”
“See, this is my point,” I argue. It’s not lost on me that I’m arguing against myself, but I refuse to go into something or consider it without playing the devil’s advocate.
“No, you’re missing it completely,” she says. “Our group could make this work, and now that he’s brought it up, I can see it. Eli’s the outgoing to your introvert, you’re the calm to his crazy, you guys have different things that complement each other and make sense.” We stare at each other in silence and I can see in her eyes that she means it, this isn’t some horrible joke.
If I ever want a shot to love Raven, not just from the sidelines, this is my chance. Putting my overthinking aside for a moment, I scoot closer and tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. Don’t fuck this up, Jayce. My eyes meet hers for a moment before I lean in and brush my lips against hers. A spark of butterflies flutter through me and I have to forcibly stop myself from doing it again, until she pulls me in and kisses me harder, then all bets are off. I kiss her back just as fiercely, both of us are breathing hard when she pulls away, an uncharacteristic giggle escaping her.
“That was just as amazing as I pictured it,” she admits. “I can’t believe this is real. You’re really okay with sharing me?”
“If we set some real boundaries and expectations, then yes,” I admit, the idea is a lot easier to swallow than I would have expected. “You both presented good points, it’d be stupid for me not to consider them. We all almost died, I’m not willing to take life for granted anymore.”
She shakes her head and grins, getting up and going to the balcony door, knocking softly. Eli turns and grins as he takes in her face, finally stepping away from the railing and coming in.
“I take it you figured it out?” he teases, giving me a grin. I have a feeling we’ll always have that playful rivalry we’ve had, but we’ve already settled into a trio fairly easily. We all just danced around it without realizing it.
“We have,” I agree. “And not to be a dick, but I have to go to the library.”
“What? Now?” Raven protests. “Shouldn’t we talk about this some more? We aren’t even cleared to drive.”
“No,” Eli shrugs. “You know Jayce isn’t an ‘in your face’ person and he doesn’t take unnecessary risks. Let him process, let everyone digest. Then we can talk over dinner. You go do your research, I’ll make sure dinner happens. Be here at six.” The way he takes charge is nice, something else I never really considered that he does for us. He has a strong personality and easily directs us when it’s necessary, and right now, it is definitely necessary.
“Thanks,” I nod. “I want to see if I can make sense of all this and maybe some insight into the school. The activity there was strong and yes, the fire was awful. But awful things happen all over the world and don’t result in a haunting this intense. Something else is going on there.” I’d been mulling it over for days and now I know there’s more to this puzzle and the need to figure it out is overwhelming.
“Alright,” she says, leaning up and pressing a kiss to my lips. “I’ll see you at dinner.” A flush takes over my cheeks and I glance at Eli, but he’s smiling like the Grinch back at us. Okay…maybe this can work. Without another word, I change clothes, grab my bag, and rush out of Raven’s apartment. The rest can wait until we have a few answers.
The stack of books in front of me keeps growing as I skim them and toss them back in the pile. I’ve gone through nearly twenty of them from paranormal to psychology texts, nothing has anything that I need. Even the local histories don’t give me much.
Giving up on that route, I put the books in the return cart before heading for the newspaper archive. The school was built in 1891 and the digital records here are kept up fairly well in this library since it was considered an extension of the university, so I knew something should show up about the building or grand opening.
I settle in front of the microfilm viewer and computer and the librarian gets me started on the database, telling me I can search for a name or place and it will tell me the reels of film I need. I type in the name Zaire University and just as I expected, it gets a lot of hits. So, I decide that I need to start at the earliest dates and work my way forward. I quietly make my way to the circle desk where the librarian sits. She clicks away on her computer until I stop her.
“Can I help you?” she asks, taking her eyes off the screen in front of her. I notice this time that she is wearing a name tag. Laura, is printed on it.
“Yes, can I get some help with getting the reels for the microfilm?”
A smile tips across her lips. “It is wonderful that young people are so interested in history. How many reels are you needing?”
When I tell her twenty or so, her jaw drops.
“If we can start with the oldest few, what I’m looking for may be there. I don’t want to put you out too much.”
At my words, her smile returns, she grabs a pen and notepad before leading me back to the microfilm.
“Perfect, let’s get you going. I will show you how to set up the reels. It’s pretty simple. If you’re more hands-on like me, once I show you how, you shouldn’t have an issue moving to the next one. But if you do, there are some printed instructions under the keyboard.”
We reach the microfilm station and she peeks at the monitor and whistles when she counts how many I want.
“What is it you’re looking for?”
“I have a research paper on the history of Zaire University.” I smile at her.
Her face falls into a grimace. “Why teachers want to dredge up that horrendous history is beyond me. How far back are you wanting to go?
“If we can go all the way back to the beginning, that would be an amazing place to start.”
Laura writes down some numbers and heads off to a locked cabinet. She returns after a few moments with three yellow boxes.
“Here we are, most of the history will be here. Let’s start here and if you need more once you are finished with these I can get you some more.”
