Reach

Chapter Twenty Eight- Choices

"Hello!" Amanda called.

"I hate Amanda," Roy whispered.

"What?" Dahlia laughed rather loudly and stopped herself.

"She reminds me of someone I knew. Real character."

"Weren't you wearing that shirt yesterday?" Amanda looked at Roy when they opened the door to the front room.

"Is that a problem?" Roy asked and raised an eyebrow. He hadn't gone inside Dade's house to change his clothes.

Dahlia tried to stop herself from laughing.

"Making an observation," Amanda smiled. "I talked to Kevin about having you at the front desk today. He said you should be ready!"

"Oh yeah? Second day on the job and you already trust me dealing with people."

"It's so easy, Roy. You just stamp the books and write the date down. It's so easy. You can totally do it."

"I'm sure."

"Please, if you need anything just holler. I'll be downstairs. Dahlia, what are you doing?"

"I think paperwork needs to be done," Dahlia shrugged.

"Hmm," Amanda replied before disappearing.

"Honestly I think she just sleeps in the basement," Dahlia mentioned to Roy.

"I believe it," he said.

She pulled up a chair next to him and sighed. "You wanna tell me what happened?"

"Last night?"

She nodded.

"Uh...well. Hmm."

"Was it good? Was it bad?"

"Both I guess," Roy sighed.

"Did Whit even see you in the library?"

"I didn't mention it to him. I'm assuming not."

"What did he say, Roy?"

"That I brought this upon myself."

Dahlia chewed the bottom of a pen. "Oh."

"I should...I should go back to California."

"What? Roy, you just got here."

"I'm not wanted here," he shook his head.

"You're needed at the library," Dahlia assured him.

"Yeah, to you."

"Hypothetically speaking, if you were to go back, would you have anyone?"

"I don't know," Roy said.

"Listen, I understand why your family might be angry at you, and they have every reason to be. And they might not know how to cope with your injury, Roy. Not yet, anyway. But you're among friends. You're not alone in this. Not here."

"I appreciate that."

"I hope you believe me," she smiled.

"Possibly."

The rest of the day was relatively slow. Roy was left to himself besides the occasional check up of Amanda and Dahlia running up to replace and grab more papers.

He greeted each customer with a fake smile, and you could tell if you watched him carefully because his eyes didn't crinkle; checked out their books and told them "you have a good day."

Monotonous, heavy, and boring. And it made Roy's thoughts wander.

He found himself staring blankly ahead of him, rarely making eye contact with strangers. The only sounds in the library were that of the ticking of the clock and every so often a sudden hearty laugh downstairs from Amanda.

All of his movements felt mechanical, fake, like he was looking in at himself performing tasks but wasn't actually doing them. He felt hollow, like an old grandfather clock. And he couldn't wait for the hand to land on the six.

"You have a good day, miss," Roy said to a young blonde preparing to leave.

The woman smiled, bending over to Roy's level. "It's so nice that they have work here for people like you."

Roy's blood pressure was through the roof. He bit his tongue to hold back a response likely to get him fired. He couldn't help but think she looked like MacKenzie from the back and he swallowed a sort of pride. He'd have rather swallowed morphine, and he ran his fingers along the bottle kept always in his sweater pocket.

"It's about closing time. Are there people still up there?" Dahlia asked.

"No," Roy replied, and locked the door when the blonde left.

Roy frowned, but he smiled.