Lovebirds Since Youth

Chapter 17

Ten minutes later, Dante and Cameron arrive almost at the same time.

"Okay, we're all here!" TJ announces, happily. "Let's gather in groups with the people y'all want to shop with. I'll be with Eden and Blake."

"I'll be with Cameron," Dante says, "then I'll probably join (y/n), is that alright?"

"Yeah, for sure," I say, cheerily. "For now, I'll be together with Laura."

"Aidan and I will be walking around," Jane says. "Then we'll meet you guys at the cinema."

"Alright," Eden starts, looking at her watch, "then let's just all agree to meet again at the cinema at twelve, is that good for everyone?"

We all nod.

"Perfect!" She lets her wrist down. "We have one and a half hours to buy whatever we want and then we'll watch a movie. See you all!"

Laura pulls me to the jewelry shop to take a look at what's in there. Some rings call my attention, but I don't want to spend my money on rings just yet. Meanwhile, Laura looks and looks for a pair of earrings that she thinks will be special and will look pretty on me.

She finally comes up to me. "Here, hold these up to your ear to see how they look like in you," she says, handing me the earrings.

She chose some silver earrings that have a small jewel hanging from it with a tiny bow on top. It looks very pretty, so I grab it and hold it up to my ear.

Laura gasps. "It looks so good on you! We're buying it."

She goes to the register and purchases my earrings and a necklace for herself. Just when she asked for a receipt, the bell from the shop rang. I look over my shoulder and see that Aidan and Jane are just entering.

I quickly turn my head again, waiting for the receipt to print as fast as possible. Laura takes it and we start getting out, that's it before Aidan grabs my arm.

"Wait," he tells me, "I also wanna buy you something as a gift. It's the least I can do for you now."

"Oh," I limit to say, "alright, but Laura and I were going to another shop right now. You can still buy something for me and give it to me later."

"Okay," he smiles and I smile back.

I'm starting to think I might start being a little too rude towards him, so I'll try to be as friendly as possible while keeping my distance.

Laura and I walk around, looking at some other shops and stop by the book shop. I take a look around at the first shelves but none of those books call my attention, so I keep walking towards the back.

"Oh," I say, bumping into someone, "sorry, I was too focused on the book covers."

"Don't worry, me too," a familiar voice replies.

I look up and see Dante, he has a smile on his face.

"Oh," I laugh, "hey Dante. What are you looking for here?"

"Um, a book?" He says, amused.

"I know, but I mean what genre?"

"Well, any adventure book will do," he laughs.

"That's so cool!" I say. "I love good adventure books too."

"Oh," he says, suddenly inspired or something, "would you like me to recommend a book to you?"

"For sure!"

He looks at the books and takes out one titled The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne.

"It looks very interesting," I confess, "have you read it?"

"Have I read it?" He repeats. "I've read it three times!"

We laugh.

"And then tell me," I continue, "what's it about?"

"Well, the book begins during the American Civil War and when five Northern prisoners or war escape during the Siege of Richmond... well I don't know if I should spoil it. You give it a try, then tell me what you think about it."

He tells me, however, that I might need to read a different book before this one, titled Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.

"I'm definitely taking both books," I chuckle, grabbing the book from his hands and searching for the other one to buy both.

"Okay, well while you do that, I don't know which book to take this time," Dante keeps searching in vain. "Any suggestions?"

I think for a while. "I'd suggest you to take this one," I grab a book from the shelf, titled The New Girl by Daniel Silva.

"Oh, and what is it about?" He asks.

"It's about a new little girl that appears to be crazy rich that she calls a teacher's attention at her school. That teacher wonders who is she, because she heard that she's related somehow to the prince of Saudi Arabia, and well, she goes crazy finding out her identity."

"Sounds intriguing, I'll take it to give it a try," he says, taking the book from my hands.

We both walk towards the register to pay for our books. Laura just stays silent behind me, watching these scenes as if all of this is a Mexican novel. Her Mexican novel that she watches every Sunday afternoon next to her grandma on the sofa.

We finish paying and get out of the store. Dante suggests to keep walking around and see if we can find anything. He stays with Laura and me since Cameron went with Blake to look for other stuff and Eden and TJ went to the clothes shop.

Dante decides to enter the shoes shop to look for a pair of new Converse. Laura was looking for a new hat and I just found some rings at a good price and took them with me.

After strolling a little longer, we finally go to the cinema and wait for the others to get here and vote for which movie we'll watch.