The Innocence Of It

Chapter twenty four

I'm home.

Present.

Stacked neatly on the book shelves are an array of rainbow coloured spines patiently waiting to be read by me or some overzealous avid reader. The page turner book store has always been one of my favorite places and I'm glad I have my two best friends with me; Emily and Louis. Emily is glued to her iPhone scrolling through her instagram feed whereas Louis is leaning against the wall, hands shoved in his pockets, bored out of his mind, impatiently waiting for time to run out. They tagged along to keep me company while I scour the book store in search of new novels to add to my bookshelf.

"Have you found any thing you like?" Emily asks in a bored tone, not bothering to look up from her phone, she's so eager to leave this place.

"I've seen a couple of books I like but I can't make up my mind." I reply absentmindedly as I gaze at Emily Henry's book 'Beach Reads' with desperate longing. I've been wanting to read this book forever. Louis groans, muttering a  string of complaints under his breath but I ignore him. Book stores are my wonderland, my sweet escape, I absolutely adore the smell of new books. As I'm checking out a novel I face Louis' direction and catch him staring at me, but he quickly looks away focusing on the ceiling.

Unfortunately for Emily and Louis, I'm taking my sweet time I keep getting distracted whenever I spot a really interesting read and just when they think we're about to leave, I change my mind and they grumble and groan more. If I had more money, I would have happily left the book store a long time ago, but I'm very picky and books are expensive, If only books were cheap or better yet free.

After coming to terms with the fact that I'm not leaving the store any time soon. Emily and Louis venture out into different aisles of the book store. In typical Emily behavior, she asks a random stranger to take a picture of her and strikes a pose, smiling in front of a shelf filled with young adult novels in her neon pink crop top, black high waisted boyfriend jeans and black doc martins boots. I'm happy for Emily, she looks very happy, she seems to be getting back to her old self meanwhile I'm still indecisive about which books I'm going to buy.

Not finding anything cheap and nice, I let out a frustrated huff, this is going to be harder than I thought, why is it that all the good books I want are available at a time I'm broke. Not wanting to give up, I continue to go through different novels hoping to stumble into something I like.

In the midst of my search, I get distracted and  stare at Louis standing not too far from me, quietly concentrating on a novel in his hands. He should read more often, he looks calm and serene when reading, it's incredibly attractive. The natural lighting shinning through the glass window hits Louis perfectly, the light streaking in showcases the glow in Louis' dark hair and the angle in his chiseled jaw. As his head hangs low, a stray strand of hair falling on his forehead makes this scene all the more perfect, his hair is styled like a 90's heartthrob. Louis looks like the protagonist of a romance movie, he's so gorgeous.

As I gaze at Louis in awe, he suddenly tears his eyes away from the page he is reading and catches me staring at him. Satisfied with himself that he caught me ogling him, Louis smirks and then winks at me.

Embarrassed, I shyly look away.

"I-m I'm gonna look around this other side." I announce awkwardly and quickly walk away from Louis to hide somewhere he can't see me. Far away from Louis' prying eyes, I breath out a sigh of relief glad that the book shelves are doing a great job of hiding me. Grimacing at the thought of what just transpired, I palm myself wishing I could hide in a hole. I can't believe Louis caught me staring at him. He must think I still have a crush on him, which of course I do but still he shouldn't think that. That's not the kind of thing I want him to know.