He Use To Be A Son Of Anarchy

Chapter Five: Problems, Books and Cougars

When my alarm beeped the following morning to announce that dawn had broken, I was in a particularly groggy mood. I rolled over to shut my phone up and lied in bed staring up at the ceiling.

The whole night I had been tossing around, trying to forget about what had happened over the weekend. I thought about it so much that I even had a dream about running my mother over with my car. It's harsh, I know, but I can't control what I dream about. I've never really been a lucid dreamer.

I eventually got out of bed, slipped on my furry slippers and headed for the kitchen. After starting up the coffee maker (the only luxury I have in my life) I went to the bathroom to take a quick shower.

Instead I just stood there letting the water run over my body while trying to push thoughts of meeting my mother again out of my head. After I towel dried my hair I chugged down a cup of coffee, brushed my teeth and headed out the door.

I hung outside my apartment for a few moments because for some bizarre reason the door refused to lock. After giving it one last hard turn it clicked closed and I nearly broke the damn key. I made a note of speaking to the building manager about it later.

What I saw next completely caught me off guard. A very sweaty Mr Rude-Ass Mechanic was unlocking the door to the opposite apartment. I stood there gaping at him. How could it be possible? Why did it have to be possible? He'd been living across from me this whole time and not once had I run into him.

He looked over his shoulder, quickly glanced at me and opened his door. "Mornin'," he said smiling. I awkwardly nodded and walked as fast as I could towards the stairs. If he was the first face that I saw today it certainly meant that the day was not off to a very good start.

I very noisily made my way down the stairs muttering curse words as I went. I was so distracted by my foul mood I was not paying attention to the sidewalk and the other pedestrians. I slammed into a very tall figure.

"Sorry," I muttered.

"No problem."

I looked up and saw a very disturbed looking face. The man was tall, lanky and honestly just weird-looking. He wore a bright red bowtie and his hair (or what was left of it anyway) was combed backward.

"I'm Terry," he said stretching out his hand.

"Val," I said eyeing his hand suspiciously. I figured that I would be rude not to shake it. His hand was clammy and I had to stop myself from immediately rubbing my hand off against my jeans.

"You're new here, right?" he asked. I nodded.

"Welcome to Georgeville. If you ever need anything I own the hobby shop across from Bertha's down in Dawning Street," he said with a sickly grin.

"Thanks. Sorry, but I have to get to work now," I said quickly and rushed pass him. Everything about him said psychopath. Being near him made my skin crawl.

"Ah, you're on time," a very sarcastic Miss Wayforth said.

"Good morning to you too," I said equally sarcasticly and made my way to my small desk in the back room. I put my bag down and headed back to where Miss Wayforth stood sorting out a pile of books.

"Anything you need me to do?" I asked eyeing the books.

"No, not now. I just need you to add barcodes to the new books which will be arriving later. So that gives you time to occupy one of the computers and do whatever you do when you think I'm not watching you," she said without looking at me.

I flash of heat made its way to my face. She knew I was browsing the web after I finished my work and before she could give me anymore tasks. "Oh, okay," I said slightly embarrassed and strolled off to one of the three computers the library had.

For most of the morning I was looking for inspiration, browsing newspaper articles, current events, trends, anything just to find something to write about. I gave up by late morning and headed back to the information desk where Miss Wayforth was signing something on a clipboard and handing it back to a man in navy blue overalls.

"Valerie," she called when she spotted me, "The new books just arrived." She gestured with her eyes towards a box standing next to one of the tables.

"I'll get on it," I said. I went back into the office to get the barcode stickers and sat down at one of the tables and started. I was busy for half an hour when a familiar face entered the library.

Miss Wayforth, suddenly very alert and cheery, smiled at the man. "Jackson, what brings you to the library?" she asked with an overly sweet smile.

Jackson made his way over to the desk and leaned against it casually. "Sadly I've never been one for reading, Abby," he said returning her smile.

Miss Wayforth looked flustered at the use of her name, which I had not even known up until this point. I watched them out of the corner of my eye.

"I'm actually here to see Valerie," he said. I looked at them just in time to see Miss Wayforth twitch at the sound of my name.

"Oh, I see," she said busying herself with a stack of papers. Jackson walked over towards me. He pulled something out of his pocket and handed it to me. "Your car keys," he said plainly, "Your car is parked in your spot in the apartment parking lot."

"Thanks," I muttered and returned to my work. He stood there for a moment, turned around, waved goodbye to Miss Wayforth and went out the door.

Miss Wayforth proceeded to overwork me for the rest of the day. I suspect that she was mad about the fact that Jackson had come to drop off my keys and not to flirt with her as she so openly did with him.

Luckily the busy day didn't give me much time to ponder over the issue of my mother and I was thankful for the fact that Miss Wayforth was pissed at me.