Shared Space (Jonah & Lily, M)

[Skylacticon]

Hiya. I wrote another instalment of these two. This one goes back in time a little, to before Jonah and Lily were more closely acquainted. Not sure if I'll add more to this particular chapter, but we'll see. 🖤

-

 

Lily walked up the blue carpeted staircase, going to the library’s second floor. She looked over the railing, at the view of each floor on top of one another. Vast pathways for knowledge, rows of bookshelves evenly spaced. Along the narrower side of the staircase were the study rooms, and one of them would be reserved only for her at ten AM. She looked down at her brown leather boots, admiring the way the carpet absorbed the sound of her footsteps. When she glanced back up at her reserved study room - she saw something rather unnerving.

 

A person sat at the table at the centre of the room, twirling a pen in his long fingers with impressive speed. It seemed almost rhythmic, a quick ceasing of the spinning shortly supporting this theory. The first clue to that thought, of course, would be the sleek, black headphones he was wearing; the band resting in front of a loose, but neatly tied bun. She knew this guy from her program, in her year.

 

When Lily slowly opened the door, he didn’t seem to notice her, despite his chair generally facing in her direction. “Um, hi,” she said, a little louder than her natural speaking voice.

 

The guy glanced up. His other hand flew to the headphone pad over his left ear and pulled it back.

 

“Hi,” he responded, with equal parts spontaneous charisma and awkward, slightly possessive inquiry. His eyes were a captivating brown - warm, and almost sort of green, like leaves on the ground in autumn. They proceeded to stare Lily down, managing to rein in the spiel she was about to go off on about the room being hers.

 

Lily blinked. “Um, I had this room booked at ten o’clock,” she said, nicely but urging. “It’s ten o’clock,” she added, in case he lost track of time.

 

“Uh, no, I did,” he responded, fully taking off his headphones and resting them around his neck. With a calm, friendly tone, he went on. “You can check the signup sheet at the desk. Sorry.” He gave her a little grin of sympathy and raised his hands to headphones again.

 

“Wait, no-“ she blurted out, before he could replace them. He froze. “No, I- I texted Shirley to ask if the room was-“ Lily began, retracing her steps. “I texted Shirley,”

 

“Well, surely, that didn’t work,” the guy teased, with a casual smirk that revealed perfect teeth.

 

Lily felt a swell of annoyance. She inhaled, and- “I-“ she paused, then exhaled the tension. She lifted her pointer finger. “I will be back,” she said, and stalked out of the room, and down the blue carpeted staircase.

 

-

 

Lily stormed back up to the study room and opened the door. The guy was still sitting there, scribbling away notes from a textbook onto lined paper. He glanced up once, then went back to writing.

 

“Told you,” he said calmly, as if he could read her disappointed expression.

 

Lily would’ve been ready to apologize for disturbing him, but was also caught up in her own frustration.

 

“Damn, I-“ she began to mutter aloud. “I really thought I had this room booked,” she sighed. The moment after, it occurred that she was slightly venting, and definitely didn’t want to burden her random classmate with it. “Sorry, I’ll-“ she began, backing up. “That was my mistake.”

 

As she began to turn away, she heard his voice. “Whoa, wait-“

 

Lily turned back to look at him, his big hands resting his headphones. “I don’t mind sharing,” he said, and gestured to the other side of the table. She blinked, considering his offer. “Of course, if you don’t. Again, sorry. I really need to finish this, it’s due tomorrow.”

 

He vented back. Lily felt a dumb pinch of sympathy, and sighed softly. Then-

 

“Lily, right?” he guessed, pointing his pen slightly toward her.

 

“Yeah. …Jonah?”

 

“Jonah,” he nodded. And waited.

 

“Fine,” Lily said, after a bit.

 

Lily sat down at the other side of the table. The table was decently-sized in terms of length, giving them both adequate amounts of surface area to use while studying. She took out her laptop and sketchbook, and opened an image of the Hagia Sophia. Then, she flipped open her sketchbook to the page she was working on.

 

“*ah-Hem, snff!*”

 

Lily’s eyes peeked upward at the dude. As if he could ask her to be quiet in the shared space - his music very slightly audible, bleeding from the headphones. Luckily the bass accompaniment was the HVAC that droned constantly, making it almost strangely ambient.

 

She unzipped her pencil case and pulled out a pencil. She set the pouch down next to her laptop, and began to draw.

 

The guy sniffed again. They were rather sharp, more audible than just any passing sniffle. Lily’s eyes moved up again, to see his lips moving slightly as he read the textbook. His nose, long and slender, seemed to be twitching. 

 

Lily went back to drawing, listening to the white noise, expecting a sneeze. It was flu season, it seemed appropriate.

 

“*ak’hm! ‘hrmm~*” Jonah coughed, sounding caught off guard and trying to settle it down by clearing his throat.

 

Whatever, Lily thought, sketching the lines of pointed turrets. Then, out of nowhere-

 

“hgG’kxXNnn!!!-uhh…”

 

There was the sneeze.

 

“Bless you,” she offered.

 

Jonah let out a heavy breath, and sniffled, this time more wetly. “Thank you,” he breathed.

 

The two didn’t say a word for the next half hour or so. Lily kept detailing the architecture in her drawing, and Jonah kept writing in his notebook. His breathing seemed to become heavier, the sniffling not stopping.

 

He sniffled again, twice, and sighed. Then, came a soft gasp, followed by several smaller, sneezy gasps. Lily’s gaze moved up slightly, seeing his hand raise again. Jonah rubbed hard at his nose, as if willing the urge to sneeze back up his sinuses.

 

She began to wonder if he had a cold, and a selfish part of her pondered leaving the quiet atmosphere to find somewhere else to work. He was kind of endearing, though, to watch. He was wearing a forest green knitted sweater, with a grey snowflake-like design across the chest.  Under that was a god-awful striped dress shirt, in several shades of seventies brown - that, to some degree, actually looked kind of cool on him.

 

He began writing again, one hand lingering by his fussy nose. He coughed lightly, and put down his pen. Lily, adjusting the view and zooming into certain detail of the structure she was drawing, allowed her gaze to sneak over towards him. Slowly, subtly, he turned away fully, and leaned away from the table with two harsh, squelching stifles.

 

“hepPt’kgGTCHh!! -NN'xXGk!!-chiuhh…”

 

“Bless you,” Lily said automatically.

 

“Thank you, *snf!*” Jonah straightened, blinking down at his notes. “Pardon me, sorry. *ahem!*”

 

“No need,” she said softly, as he went back to work.

 

Lily’s sketch of the Hagia Sophia was coming to life - the proportions may have been questionable, but the likeness was there. As long as she had her reference and some good enough detail, it would meet the course criteria. 

 

Another sniffle came from Jonah’s direction, particularly thick. The kind of sniffle that made her want to ask if he was alright - while simultaneously not wanting to make him feel self conscious, but still…

 

“Are you…” she began softly. Realizing he couldn’t hear her, she slowly put a hand forward on the table, and looked at him. He noticed, and pulled back one side of his headphones. It was kind of sweet how he didn’t seem irked to have to do that each time. She began again, with a hint of shyness. “Are you okay?”

 

He paused for a second, as if loading, then- “Yeah. Yeah, sorry, I don’t know what’s come over me… *snrff!*” he responded, leaning back and stretching his long arms. He lowered his arms and raised a curled index finger to rub under his nose. “It might just be dust, or something. Or cold air. Or, um…” he paused again. Lily was nodding vaguely, her eyes wandering back to her sketchbook.

 

In the midst of the white noise, she heard a soft, shallow gasp. Her eyes flickered back up to him- just catching the crumpling of his fine facial features before he turned away to sneeze again.

 

“hhuHdt’JZSSCHHh!!” A half-smothered, powerful sneeze - that left him in the sideways-bent position for a couple more seconds until he straightened, sniffling softly. 

 

“Bless you.”

 

“*snff!* Ohh, *snrff!* Oh my goodness. Pardon me, sorry. Actually-” he said, then paused. He brushed back some dark, unruly strands of hair that had fallen near his face. He said the next few words quietly, stating a fact but cushioning the reveal of the implications. Lily, a somewhat mousy, reserved girl, wasn’t offended by this. “I think it might be your perfume.”

 

Lily watched, her mouth falling open as Jonah stared at his notes.

 

“Oh, I-” she began, slightly guilty. “Ah, then, I can go, I-”

 

“It’s fine,” Jonah said, somewhat gallantly. He closed his leatherbound notebook and began to pack up. “I’m almost done, I can get it finished by tomorrow. I just needed to figure out the body of this essay, it’s been brutal, but, *snf!*” He flashed her a gentle grin, like it was nothing. “Managed to organize most of it today, sort of.”

 

“I’m sorry,” was all Lily could muster, a contrast from when she first saw him sitting in her reserved space.

 

“Lily, don’t worry,” he chuckled. “Besides,” he looked over at her again with those mossy brown eyes, the outer corners crinkling in an adorable sort of way. “You booked the room first, didn’t you?”

 

Lily watched as he slung his grey knapsack over his shoulders. 

 

“Good luck. Tell Shirley I say hey,” he tossed out casually, leaning against the door to push it open. 

 

“Right,” Lily breathed, in confused disappointment.

 

“Also-” Huh. Lily wasn’t aware he could talk this much. “It’s… nice,” he said, his voice lower. “It suits you. Sorry, this, phenomenon of the body’s - airways, is distracting, a bit misleading, unfortunately,” he went on, a bit more gently. It took Lily a second to realize that he was trying to compliment her. After a few seconds, his gaze shifted. “Anyway, uh… See you in class.”

 

“See you,” she replied.

 

As Jonah slipped out and the door clicked shut, Lily stared at the image of the mosque on her computer screen. She glanced up at the empty side of the table, strangely missing the company that occupied it moments ago. She took a slow, gentle breath, rolling her H pencil between her fingers. She would definitely want to speak to Shirley at some point later.

 

Edited December 4, 2023 by Skylacticon

[AceOfSpades]

Oh, wow, this is lovely! I love these two quite a lot, they’re very sweet— glad to see them come back for more!  

[Skylacticon]

@AceOfSpades Thank you! Glad you're liking them so far. 

[rockbell]

cuteeeeeeee

[AntheaHolmes]

Oh, this is so cute.