“Hey, Rae?” I transfer the phone to my other ear and press my shoulder against it, so I can use my hand. I’m currently working at the store, and it’s around closing time. Ryker should be around any minute to pick me up.
“Yeah?” I ask, trying to get a handful of books a customer just bought into a bag without dropping the phone on the floor.
“Mom is making me clean my room… so I won’t be around to pick you up for a little while.” I groan into the phone as I hand the bag of books to the customer. Whenever Ryker has to clean his room it takes hours. It’s like a war zone in there.
“How long?” I ask, and there’s a pause.
“I dunno. You want me to send someone to pick you up?”
I put a hand on my hip as I think this over. I do need a ride home, I really don’t want to be here with nothing to do. I mean, I love reading and all, but it’s a little creepy here all by myself at night. Besides, I think it’s going to storm.
“Yeah, that would be awesome.” I say and walk towards the front of the store, switching the sign from “Open” to “Closed”.
I hear typing in the background, then he says, “Knox is on his way.”
My eyes about bug out of my head. ”What? Why couldn’t you have asked Anthony? Or one of the girls?”
I can almost see him shrug from here. “I dunno.”
Brilliant response.
“Oh, hey, while we’re on the topic of Knox I have a question. Remember back when you flipped out of me in the car and told me to be careful of him and all that? But now you’ve changed your attitude about him. Why?”
He sighs into the phone. “I knew you liked him from the moment I saw you together. I don’t know, I guess I didn’t want to lose you so fast to him. Like, I just wanted you to stay my sister who played with ponies for years and still hates watching scary movies at night. I didn’t want you to grow up, you know? And when I saw you with Anthony, I knew you didn’t really like him, and I had nothing to worry about.”
Tears prickle at the back of my eyelids. That is so freaking sweet! “Thanks, Ryker.”
“Anything for you, sis. Hey, look I gotta go.”
I laugh, “Alright, go tackle those mountains of dirty socks and moldy trash.”
He hung up on me.
As I waited for Knox, I ended up walking between the bookshelves and remembering. I remember my first day here.
“Rae, mommy and daddy are going to give this place to you one day for you to look after.”
I looked around, mesmerized by the shelves full of books, stories waiting to be told, adventures waiting to be opened, lives waiting to be lived between the pages. It was a whole other world in here, one that would soon be mine. I stuck my fat pink thumb in my mouth and the five year old me said, “Love.”
I remember my first day actually working here.
“If you need anything, just call.” My parents said as they walked out the door. I waved my hand at them, just waiting for them to leave and the fun to begin.
I turned around and spread my arms out, the pink of my dress swirling around me. I looked up at the shelves full to bursting with my books and the thirteen year old me said, “Love.”
I sit down now in between the shelves and sit Indian style. I stretch my hands out and touch the adventures, the stories, the lives, the characters, the plots. I touch the words, the lines, the author’s notes, the pictures.
YOU ARE READING
Irised
Teen Fiction"That's Knox Parker, Rae." "Thank you Captain Obvious. I know who he is," I roll my eyes and buckle up. "What's wrong?" "That's the biggest jerk at school. He's popular and he knows it, he's good looking and he knows it, he's funny and he knows it...
