The Book Nook

36

"Yeah," she finally cracked a smile, "yeah, I guess it kinda is."

"Willing to divulge any more details before we go in?" I chanced.

"I don't like ruining surprises, you know that."

I nodded. Of course.

After what felt like an eternity, the door buzzed and unlocked to let us in. I noticed the name on the panel where the buttons for each room were. The name beside the one Alexandria pressed read S. Bonaventure. There was an old staircase in front of the doorway, its carpet faded with age. We didn't go up it, rather moving down a few steps to a ground level where Alexandria led me to one of the far doors and knocked. The fluorescents above us buzzed.

"This is Scarlett," Alexandria motioned as soon as the door cracked open.

We were greeted and let in by a slender nymph with blue eyes who beckoned us into an unsuspecting passage into another realm.

That was my first impression of Scarlett and her abode. She appeared like a fairy-girl, a secret domain of magic and supernaturalness looming behind her and catching the eye of the beholder.

Alexandria and Scarlett greeted one another with a normal hug - no mystical ritual greeting whatsoever - before the two turned their attention back at me. Alexandria made motion towards me and the brilliant blue eyes of her friend settled on me, a roguish smile on her face.

"This is the boy?" the girl asked.

"I am a boy, yes. I don't know about the boy..." I tried to sneak in some amount of playfulness to show that I belonged.

Alexandria's friend laughed loudly.

"I like him already. Come in!"

Scarlett swooshed her way back in the door and I followed the two of them inside, wondering just how strange of an experience I was about to have. On a scale of one to ten, it was likely going to be closer to the latter, I guesstimated.

Alexandria's friend Scarlett reminded me of one of those girls I remembered seeing on the covers of books and magazines about the enigma that was fairy fashion. Otherworldly, yet elegantly simple dress that consisted of a lot of floaty dresses and such, emphasizing natural fabrics and hand-made or vintage accessories, often braided hair. All of that sort of thing. That was all only some of my uneducated observances, of course, not that I could claim to be an expert by any stretch.

Scarlett wore a summer dress despite it not quite being summer, though her apartment was warm enough to argue the opposite. Her hair was long, blonde, and free-flowing and it draped over her bare shoulders above the sleeveless tube-top of her dress. The dress itself was like an optical illusion. It was ruffly around the top and seemed to expand in layers; the back of the dress going down to the floor while the front stopped above her knees. It was silken and loose-waisted, a concoction of various pastel colors blending together that changed depending on where she stood in the light.

Her apartment was exactly like what I'd imagine could be akin to walking into the home of a fortune teller. The apartment was on the smaller side but it contained more color than an art museum. Purple heavy-set drapes blotted out the sun save for leaked rays, giving the apartment a mystical setting with its abundance of candles set in various places. The walls were soft pink and littered with everything from framed paintings to taped up drawings of various sizes that Scarlett herself must have done. Indiscernible doo-dads - symbols or artifacts of unknown origin made up the rest of the decor.

The dark room had that kind of special odor you find in older apartment buildings. It is a peculiar mix of smells - dried up poinsettia plants, stale food, old sheets, and unrepaired leaks. Live there long enough and you might finally get used to the smell.