✓ Cuppa Sugar [HS]

PROLOGUE

Musky, arid, and barren. This was the smell that I woke up to everyday. I worked at this old bookstore, down on the south side of town. It was always so quiet and peaceful, just me and the old books surrounding me. This was my place where I loved and lived every second, every minute of every day for three-hundred and sixty-five days a year. You would find me, sitting behind the chipped, old wooden bookcase we used as a counter, reading any type of novel. Mystery, horror, non-fiction, fiction, science fiction, even romance. I found every type of novel intriguing, like how you would see a young child's eyes light up when he received a gift on Christmas, that's how you would find me.

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It was a bitter, cold Sunday morning in late December, early January. My alarm clock went off at exactly five-thirty a.m. I've been waking up at this time since I do not even remember, that is how long this has been a routine for me. Waking up, making breakfast, then going to the place, I call my heaven. I was practically dragging myself to the bathroom to shower off all sweat that happened over night while I was asleep. When I stepped out of the shower dripping wet, a wave of cold air hit me like a ton of bricks, I remembered I forgot to close the window, I had opened last night because of my room being too hot for my liking. I checked the time and realized if I did not get a move on, I would be late for work and I have never been late for work, I was always twenty or thirty minutes early in the shop before people showed up.

When I stepped out of my apartment complex, I almost slipped and fell on a thick sheet of ice that must of froze over while I was asleep during the night. I lived over on the south-western tip of town, my apartment was rather new, but still old considering I have been living in the same apartment for almost four and a half years now. I do not consider four years a long time but if I had a choice to where I wanted to live, I would live right across the street from the bookstore. The apartment building were built in the eighties, I find it so amazing that one building could stand for that long and not look aged at all. I looked for an apartment for sale there, but I found nothing I could get my hands on, so I opped on this upscale apartment which was about a twenty minute walk from the bookstore. On my way to the bookstore, there was a little cafe on this small road that no one really knew about, so I decided to stop by and grab a hot chocolate with cinnamon and whipped cream. Once I payed for my hot beverage, I continued my bitter walk to the bookstore, and finally be able to start another day where I loved to be.

Working at the bookstore was nothing special to some people, but to me it was my world, my absolute universe around me. I could read and drink hot tea all day and thank my boss for the best job in the world in my eyes. My boss, May, she was an old lady whom I considered my own family over the past 4 years working for her. Her eyes would light up everytime I came into work, but would dull at the sight of the end of my shift of everyday. I would ask if she would like the company, like to make dinner for us two, do her chores since she could barely walk due to her bones weakening. But she would always decline and tell me to head on home for the night. I always had a poor mood when I left work and would have nothing to do or talk to anyone.

I have been on my own since I moved away from my own mother, four years ago. She was your typical 'perfect' mother. She would keep the house spotless, have dinner ready by 7 p.m. sharp every night, and made sure everyone around her was happy. But when I was around, she would always put her mask to the side and show me, who she really was. If I ever had not done what she wanted me to do within a certain time, she would lock me away in my room and take all of my rights away from me. I sometimes missed school, being locked up. But this is how I discovered my true self, I found that I loved to read and write. Nothing in the world, not even my own mother could take this away from me. I wished I knew who my father was, I have never met him nor seen him at that. I tried looking at my mothers old photo albums, but the photos inside were only of me and her. She buried off his profile side of the picture or completely got rid of it and burned it.

I look nothing like my mother, while she has bottle blonde hair and hazel eyes, I have the complete opposite appearence that she has. I have a gut feeling that I am a striking image of my father, brown hair and crystal clear blue eyes. I have been wanting to meet him since the day I figured out that, he was never going to come back. Although I never met him, I knew his name was Ruxin. That was the only thing I got out of my mother while having a heated argument over not doing what I was told to do. I was lost in my own thoughts by the time I found my fingertips had gone numb due to the cold weather out.

By the time I reached my apartment complex, I felt like I was frozen from head to toe. When I reached the door to my apartment, I fumbled in my bag to find my mass of keys. After about two minutes of throwing things out of my bag like my wallet, a mass amount of books, change, and finally my keys. After locking and bolting the door, I could finally get some warmth in my body. I decided that a old movie and a cup of hot chocolate with small marshmallows would be sufficient for the night. While I watched the small masses of clouds melt within the chocolaty warmth of my drink, the sound of my black and white film playing in the background of my thoughts, I realized that the only people I have left in my life was May and the bookstore, I was alone. Alone within my own world that I loved and wished had more inspiration and youth.