Oh Boy! (BL)

1 - The Introvert and the Cheerleader (2/3)

Two weeks passed and, as I had expected, I didn't see Holland again. My days returned to the normal routine of sleeping, working, and gaming. My guildmates were quite amused when I told them about what we now referred to as 'The cheerleader incident' when I told them about it the following Friday. One of them was certain, I must've imagined it because he'd never seen a cheerleader cry over a guy.

Two weeks, also meant that there were only five days of summer vacation left and my mom kept telling me not to forget to quit my job at Book Den. I knew she only wanted the best for me, but how could I possibly quit when unpaid were bills piling up on the sideboard in our narrow entrance? My eyes locked on the envelopes while I tied the laces on my old black chucks. Mom was sleeping in her tiny bedroom, exhausted from her fourth night shift in a row. Yet, she'd told me with a tender smile on her pale, slim face that she'd take on another shift when school started so I could quit my job without having to worry about it.

Yeah, well...over my dead body.

So, instead of passing my letter of resignation to Matt on that day, I threw it in the bin at the bus stop next to our apartment complex before rushing to work. The hype about Genesis X had died down after a couple of days and our customers returned to normal, which was why I wasn't surprised that the maximum number of two customers were inside the store on this Wednesday morning. Matt asked me to fill up the free space on the shelves while he went over to the small area at the left side of the store that he'd turned into a cozy café last winter. "Combining coffee and books! Brilliant, just freakin' brilliant!", he'd said, and I was still not one hundred percent certain if he really thought that he'd invented café and book shop combinations or if he was just messing with me. I never knew if Matt was talking nonsense if I was being honest.

Anyway, the day passed by rather quietly and I'd just unpacked my third box of books when Matt crept closer to me with quiet "Psst"-sounds. "Psst, kiddo, psst, psst."

Snorting, I looked up from the list to which I'd just added a copy of the movie edition of Stephanie Meyer's Eclipse. "You're weird, boss."

He wiggled his eyebrows. "I'm weird because I'm the boss."

Yeah, guess that made sense...

"So" Matt glanced back over his shoulder. "You sure you're not friends with that blonde chick?"

"Blonde chick?" I furrowed my brows before I froze right then and there. "H...Holland?"

"Hell, if I know her name." With the thumb on his left hand, he pointed towards Book Den's café while casually leaning against the low bookshelf holding the small DVD collection he offered his customers. "She's been sitting there for 'bout an hour and she does look like she's waiting for someone. You, in case you didn't get it."

I gulped. Why was she here? Matt had got to be wrong! As if Holland Demdike would come here just to speak to me of all people. When I got up, I realized that I hadn't given Matt an answer. "We're classmates. That's it."

"Okay, classmate. Then I'd suggest, you go talk to her, K?" He'd pushed me towards the café before even finishing the sentence.

Passing bookshelves and display tables, I stopped at the barrier separating the café from the bookstore. Mandy, the enthusiastic pink-haired barista, was busy chatting with two customers at the bar and lifted her hand when seeing me standing there. I nodded, but my gaze had already fallen onto the girl sitting alone at one of the tiny round tables, casually sipping at her cappuccino. Nervously, I dried my sweaty hands on my black jeans before approaching her.

Holland's eyes shot upwards - and shot is the correct word because I felt hit by a shower of bullets even before she snarled at me. "You!"

"M...me?" Master of words, that was me.