Passenger | Unedited Version

chapter twenty one | love story

chapter twenty one | love story

"So this is the place that you decided would be a romantic place to have a date at?"

I look over at Indie in the passenger seat of my car, a blatant expression of disbelief and amusement all mixed together in her brown eyes. With her long skirt and her more outspoken nature, the first time she ever sat in my passenger seat feels like it happened a million years ago.

Time is such an odd concept to me now.

"I never actually said that this would be a date; you're the one who said that this would qualify as a date and I just didn't feel like I needed to correct you. But I still think that this could be romantic and if it isn't, too bad because you're stuck with it. Sorry, not sorry, Indie."

Indie pretends to be upset with me, but I happen to know for a fact that she enjoys reading in her free time and that bringing her here to buy a few of the books makes her happy. She can pretend all she wants, but I'll always know what's really up with her.

Deciding to focus on the company logo placed next to the bookstore's rather than the store itself, she tries to strike a one sided deal with me. "Fine, okay. But since there's a Starbucks right next door, you're so going to have to buy me coffee on the way out. There's no backing out of this, okay? You're forced to do it and I'm not talking about some really small cup, but a huge venti with no regrets. Got it?"

Leave it up to Indie to try and shake some money out of me, even though I was nice enough to take her all the way up here and show her that there is more that the state has to offer than my tiny town does. I don't even how I've survived all this long, considering I've had to drive up here to Lexington every time I've wanted to go to the doctors or get anything that isn't a basic necessity. Crazy life living in a small town in the South is, really.

"I'm the one who had to drive all the way out to the city to show you this bookstore and I'm doing you a favor, you really you should be the one to be buying me a drink. Literally it took twenty minutes to drive all the way here, man. That's dedication at it's finest, if you ask me."

"I said do you got it, Nel?" She pretends not to hear a word a say, but her face gives it away that she is because she's smiling her little butt off. Indie would be a terrible poker player, honestly.

I roll my eyes. "Fine, you have a deal."

"Good, good," she nods her head like an evil scientist that's completed with taking over the whole world, with a smile to match the intensity.

"Now that we've established what we'll do after we finish up, can we actually start the adventure and get out of the car? Because I think that's a good place to start, you know. Can we just?" I gesture towards the building, not wanting to sit in the hot car for any longer because the heat is no friend of mine.

Looking as if she forgot about the fact that we haven't left the car and that we still have to get the book shopping out of the way before anything else, her mouth takes the shape of a small o. "We should probably get on that, then."

In unison, we take off our separate seat belts and make our way to the building. I smile, happy for the lack of cars in the parking lot and for this time I get to spend with Indie. I'm usually prone to getting almost ran over when crossing roads and creating a scene out of it, but thankfully that didn't happen at this particular moment and the two of us make it safely to the sidewalk next to the store.

Librairie, the bookstore in question, looks like every other place that sells books. I don't have much experience with bookshops, as this is the only one I've ever been to due to the fact it's the only new one within a thirty mile radius of my house; however, it just looks like what I would expect it to look like, basically, which makes it even better to me.