@black-vvolf liked for a starter!
Was it closing time yet? Almost. But almost was never quite enough for Heather. Even after having one of the most traumatic journeys through any hellscape that took over the mall, her favorite bookstore could never let her go. Nor her it.
Still though. Working sucked. Sucked. Harry likely would have preferred she go to college. But right now? Money, sonny. It was a chill, relaxing job that earned her a nice paycheck and allowed her to read new releases without really having to make a purchase.
But again. Working sucked. More specifically, closing sucked. She might as well have been the manager of the damn place, given that she was mostly alone during closing hours and had to count the money in the register. Tonight there was still one patron, one she had been a little suspicious of already.
She didn’t suspect any shoplifting, no, no. There was just something weird about him. The weird kind of weird. The weird kind of weird that was not of this world weird. Heather would do with this guy what she did best with weird shit. Make casual conversation with. Test the waters. Y’know.
“Finding everything alright? I don’t wanna kick you out, just we’re closing soon and I’d hate to lock you up in here all night,” she approached him cordially, offering a freckled smile.
Vincent was sitting on the floor with his legs crisscrossed and a large book open in his lap. He hadn’t noticed that the other bookstore patrons had cleared out hours ago. The cookbooks here had much nicer pictures than the old ones he had found in the library at home.
He glanced up when he was addressed, taking a moment to look around and finding for the first time that the store was vacant. Returning his gaze to the employee, he attempted to return the smile.
“That’s okay, I don’t mind.” He answered. Honestly, staying in the store overnight was more appealing than going back to his tiny cold apartment and a Murphy bed that threatened to fold up with him still in it.
“You might mind; the bathroom is out of order and there’s no food. Well, I guess there’s a vending machine, but no one’s scheduled to come fix the plumbing until the weekend,” whether her attempt at being facetious succeeded or failed, Heather moved to shut and lock the front doors to the store, turning the sign in the window to show the side reading CLOSED before returning to her patron.
“Whenever you wanna leave, just let me know and I’ll unlock the door,” she said, moving to sit next to him on the floor and begin straightening the other books on the shelf in front of her. She noticed the cookbooks that he seemed to take interest in, “Looking for new recipes? I think that one might be on clearance if you’re lookin’ to buy.”
“I won’t stick around if you’ve got to go,” he assured her. She looked familiar somehow, but he knew better than to comment on it. “I don’t know if I’d want to live somewhere with broken plumbing anyway.” He added with a nervous laugh that he hoped would sound casual.
“I’m not much of a cook.” He told her. “I just like to look at the pictures and think about them for a while.”
“Hey, don’t worry about it,” she said, paying him a brief glance while she straightened, “I got plenty shit to get done before I lock you up in here, so I could use the company if you don’t mind paying it forward. Besides, it’s nice to have someone here at night to talk to that isn’t yourself, y’know?” She paused, glancing between him and the book. Still weird. But, a non-threatening kind of weird. A ‘that’s-kinda-cute’ sort of weird. Peaceful-weird.
“I’m not either. Recipes make all the difference though. It’s too bad the real thing doesn’t look like anything in the pictures, right? The photos are nice, though. They’re peaceful in a way,” she said.
She went quiet for a moment--a short while as she went through books, giving them a moment of peace while she took one from the shelf and flipped through it. It was a book on alchemy, and she tilted her head slightly, “Weird, didn’t think we sold this kind of stuff. Unless someone brought it and left it here...”
She looked at the boy, setting the book aside, “By the way, my name is Heather.”
