Chapter 2

A Chapter by Paige H

CRASH.

“EEP!” I squealed, bolting straight up in my bed. Muffled expletives drifted down the hallway, emanating from the kitchen. Groaning, I rotated my head, cracking my neck and getting the kinks out. I interlaced my fingers and lifted my arms above my head, shifting my shoulders back and forth attempting to work out the stiffness. Swiveling myself sideways, I slowly raised myself out of bed and puttered into the bathroom. The tile was chilly on my bare feet as I gazed into the mirror. My hair was a rat’s nest. I futilely attempted to work my fingers through the snarls before giving up entirely and going to check on the ruckus in the kitchen.

Upon entering the main room, I was partially blinded as the sun streamed its way through the gaps in the blinds. I shuffled over to the coffee maker and poured myself a mug. Molly turned to face me when she heard the cupboard open.

“Did I wake you up?” She asked apologetically. I nodded but waved off her apology. “I’m just excited for tonight and so I couldn’t really sleep and then I just got this overwhelming urge to clean all of these f*****g dishes” Molly said hurriedly, “and, well, some of the stacks were a bit precarious” she stated explaining the commotion.

“That’s fine” I said groggily, “I had to wake up soon for work anyways. Oh and thanks for taking care of the dishes” I said grinning slightly. “I’m going to go get ready for work.”

Molly smiled at me and returned to cleaning the pile of dishes in the sink. I lumbered back towards the bathroom and turned on the shower. Steam filled the room and clouded the mirror, obscuring my reflection. I pulled off my pajama shirt and stepped in to the shower, the heat warming my body as the water quelled the commodious mess that was my hair.

Awhile later, I shut off the water and stepped out of the shower, wrapping a towel around my body and another tightly around my hair. I entered the bedroom and opened the closet door. Clothes were everywhere, some only partially on their hangers, others slung over the bar bisecting the closet. Sorting through the mess, I pulled out a pair of black, stretchy, jeans and my three-quarter sleeve lace blouse. The pants were a bit tight, as they’d just been washed, and therefore required me to jump about idiotically as I pulled them up my legs. After donning the shirt, I shook my hair out of the towel and pulled it up into a high, messy bun. I then tied a black bandana around my head, leaving the ties sticking up in the front. The red numbers on the clock by my bedside alerted me that I should probably leave for work.

Dashing about the flat, I grabbed a rice cake, spread some peanut butter on it and frantically attempted to pull on my boots with one hand. I yelled out a goodbye to Molly and dashed out the door running into the tube station just in time to catch my train. There was no room to sit, so I stood grasping the overhead hand-hold awkwardly as I was much too short for it to do any good.

I arrived at the book store at the same time as the owner.

“Good morning” the older woman said with a soft smile. I responded warmly nodding and followed her through the door. The smell of dust and paper wafted over me. A small smile spread across my face.

“I won’t be here for too long today. I just have to order a new shipment and then I’ll run along. Illona should be in at around 12:30 at which point you can head out” the owner said kindly.

The rest of my morning was spent shelving the books that had just arrived the previous day. The store was quite quiet; it was in a fairly calm area of town, so I had a lot of time to myself; time to think. As the hours wore on, the silence of the store broken every so often by an occasional customer, my mind wandered to the boy I’d seen yesterday. I never really made close friends with people, so I didn’t know what it was about him that made my heartbeats come just a bit faster; what is was that made me wish so furtively to see him again.

***

The door swung open with a creak and I lifted my head from its bent position over the book I’d retrieved from the used book drop. It was aging slightly, the pages yellowed; a slightly outdated, but rousing inquiry into the KGB and spies. Interesting, but not exactly light reading. Illona ambled up to the counter at which I was perched and set her bag behind it.

“The KGB eh?” she inquired.

“Oh it’s from the used book drop. I was just bored; not a lot has been going on here this morning” I replied as I reached to throw it back on the stack.

“Keep it. I won’t tell” Illona chimed with a wink. The book was then thrown into my bag along with the other clutter. Illona waved as I left the store and caught the train back to the flat. Upon arriving home, I threw my stuff down on the counter. I glanced over at the couch. It just looked so incredibly comfortable. I grabbed the book from my bag and proceeded to recline on the sofa, nose buried in the musty pages.

I awoke with a start to the sound of Molly banging the door open, calling my name. I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and mentally slapped myself for acting so goddamn old all of the time. The book careened to the floor as I sat up. Molly then bounced into the main room, gripped my hand, and towed my down the hall to her room to assist her in getting ready for her date.

After roughly an hour of debating between outfit options while Molly did her hair and make-up, we finally decided on what she should wear. Molly stepped out from behind the wardrobe and twirled. She was wearing an orangey-yellow maxi skirt with a loose white tank top tucked into the waist of the skirt. Her hair was pulled up in a ponytail with a few strands framing her face. She glanced to me for approval and I smiled, nodding my head slowly. Happy with my reaction, Molly turned and reached for her phone which had settled between the folds of her comforter. Her calm, contentedness quickly faded when the phone buzzed, alerting her that her date was waiting just outside.

“Bye Piper!” she squealed “Thank you so much for your help.”

“I will expect to hear every detail in return for my service” I said smilingly “Every f*****g one” I emphasized.

“Okay! Ian has to work tomorrow morning, so we can discuss this later tonight! I shouldn’t be back later than like midnight.” She smiled and ran towards the door, blowing me a kiss as she threw it open. I laughed as I watched her frantically scamper out.

Jesus I’m boring. Glancing about the flat, I realized my prospects for the evening were leaning more and more towards eating popcorn on the couch and watching reruns. The idea made me nauseous, so I raked my mind for something to do tonight. My brain scrolled through options before pausing, remembering a flyer I’d seen the other day. This local bar and coffee shop was taking a break from its usual poetry readings to host a gig for this new band I hadn’t heard too much about. Deciding it was a better plan than gorging myself on pita chips, I made my way to my room to get dressed in something more appropriate for the event. I wrestled my blouse over my head and stared into my dresser. Rummaging through the stacks of shirts, I grabbed a soft black t-shirt that I had dip-dyed in bleach. I settled it on my torso and rolled the sleeves to a more flattering length. My hair spilled, voluminous, over my shoulders as the hair tie that had been holding it secure all day was released. I combed my fingers through it and walked into the bathroom. I lined my eyes with the smudgy black pencil and sighed. I really just wanted to go to sleep. Trudging my way through the flat, I forced myself to grab my bag and proceed to the door. Glancing back, I decided suddenly to slip the book into my bag; you never know. I’d never heard of this band. For all I knew, they could suck.

***

These guys are so s****y. I’d made my way to a table at the side of the room, hidden a bit so people wouldn’t see that I’d taken out my book and was reading… in the middle of the concert.

“Reading? Wow, not even going to give these guys a listen?” a deep voice inquired. My eyes stayed focused on the page as I responded.

“Well if we’re being honest, they’re f*****g awful, so…” I looked up from the page, having finished the paragraph, only to be met by the piercing green-grey eyes of the boy I’d been unable to remove from my mind. My hand went up to my hair, slipping my fingers in and fluffing the roots in slight nervousness. The dark haired boy laughed a bit.

“Thank god. I thought I was the only one trying to keep their brains from leaking out of their ears” he responded huskily. As he sat down across from me, my heart was in my throat, beating rapidly and in doing so, making speech quite difficult.

“I’m Haddon,” he said slowly, “and you are?”

“Piper” I replied regaining some of my normalcy.

“Piper” he said musingly. He reaching for my book and slipped a finger between the pages to mark the place at which I’d left off and he perused the back cover. “The KGB, eh? Doing some light reading I see” he said jokingly. He slid the book back to me. I grabbed it, folding a corner of the page down and sliding the text back into my bag.

“It’s just something I picked up. I was bored a lot today, and I guess clandestine affairs are what I turn to for entertainment” I retorted.

Haddon barely grinned, one corner of his mouth turning up, almost unnoticeably as he ran his fingers along his lips. His head turned as he looked over at the band playing to the ever dwindling crowd. I drew my legs up to my torso and wrapped my arms around them as my eyes raked over his torso, the rest of his body hidden beneath the table. Haddon was wearing a long sleeved black shirt with buttons along the v shaped neckline. A tattoo was barely visible, peeking around the seam of the shirt. His sleeves were rolled up, revealing his toned forearms. I looked up at his face; his jawline strong, protruding. He was even more attractive the longer I watched him. A few moments later, he turned to me.

“Well Miss Piper, we know you find this band to be sub-par, but may I inquire as to exactly why you believe this to be the case?” I didn’t need to think before replying. I was very opinionated about music and I’d formed a full list of everything I hated about this band after hearing about two of their “songs” if you could even call them that.

“They’re whiny and unoriginal. They’re trying to be punk. They’re trying to be rock. They’re trying… too much in general really. The music quality got lost somewhere along the way of them trying to portray the image they want to give off and it’s mostly awful because, have you listened to their lyrics?”

“No” he said shaking his head, “I tried to avoid that as much as possible. I thought they might drop my IQ a few points if I had.”

“Well, the last song’s chorus consisted of them singing ‘you’ repeatedly while changing their intonation. It’s like they forgot to write any lyrics and were just like ‘Damn it Billy! Writing lyrics was your job! Looks like we’re going to have to improvise.’”

Haddon laughed out loud at the oddly accented speech I’d just made, garnering us a few glares from neighboring patrons. His hands flew to his mouth, attempting to muffle some of the noise. I buried my head in my arm, trying unsuccessfully to quell the laughter. We both pulled ourselves together a few moments later and I met his intense gaze with mine.

“I don’t know how much more of this s**t I can take” Haddon said, motioning to the band whining away upon the stage. “Would you like to go grab a drink somewhere… not here?”

“Anything is better than this… deal” I responded waving my arm in the general direction of the fumbling musicians. He smiled and watched me grab my bag from the floor and dust off some of the grime. Placing it over my shoulder, we then made our way towards the door. Haddon ushered me through; his hand lightly on the center of my back, guiding my path. My phone began to buzz in my back pocket. I reached for it and clicked the lock button. There was a new message from Molly:

Where are youuuuu? Were you kidnapped??? I have THINGS TO TELL YOUUUU!!!

I checked the time; 12:30. Later than I’d expected. I stopped suddenly and turned to Haddon.

“I just got a text from my roommate I was supposed to meet her like a half hour ago, but I guess I’m just a space when it comes to time” I babbled quickly. He smiled and ran his hand through his dark curls.

“That’s fine Piper. I understand how easy it is to get lost in the inner workings of the KGB” he replied gently sardonic. “I’ll walk you home.”

“You don’t need to do that” I countered quickly, instantly regretting turning down more time with him “I don’t want to inconvenience you.”

“It’s late and there are some questionable people around here. I’m walking you home” he said adamantly, his face growing serious. I smiled, giving in without more of a fight.

The remainder of the short walk was spent admiring the few visible stars, the silence occasionally broken by Haddon asking some question of me. As we walked, our hands occasionally brushed, sending little jolts up my arm. He made me nervous with his self-assurance. It confused me.

“Well, this is my building” I motioned, “Thank you for walking me home and for being apparently the only other person with decent music taste in this entire area.”

“You are very welcome” he responded, smirking. I went to turn to the door, a bit sad the night was ending without any certainty if I’d see Haddon again anytime soon.

“Piper” Haddon said as I turned the key in the lock, “Would you like to go grab that drink sometime? Tomorrow perhaps?”

“Tomorrow sounds great” I said smiling into the door. I heard him unlocking his phone and I turned to face him. He handed me the device, a new contact file open. I typed in my number and handed it back to him. Haddon slid the locked phone back into his pocket as I pushed the door open. He stepped towards me barely smiling and said quietly,

“Goodnight, love.”

He lingered there for a moment and I could hear his breath, close to my ear. My heart was racing. Haddon pulled away slowly, a minute grin on his face. He turned and walked briskly away and I watched as his tall frame, outlined by the glow of the streetlamps, disappeared around a corner. I shut the door and felt my phone buzz again. The message was from an unknown number:

8pm tomorrow. xo

I couldn't stop the smile that spread across my face.

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© 2013 Paige H

Author's Note

Thanks so much to anyone who's read this. I sincerely appreciate it :)
Reviews and comments are much appreciated if you care to write them! I love constructive criticism. Thanks again!