It Started With A Book

Chapter 2

Where was it?

Was the question on both their minds.

Brin's room was a pigsty. Clothes were strewn around the floor. Her bedsheets hadn't seen an iron and one blind was hanging halfway off the window.

The only thing intact was the pink paint on the walls.

And it was all because of a book.

A book which she couldn't find.

Brin slipped on the closest item within arms reach and ran out the door.

_

Elliott came in pretty early.

About 9 o'clock to be exact. He walked in precisely five minutes after Brin had unlocked the door. The sun melted in behind him as he pushed open the glass door.

He scanned everything within eye level, looked under every crevice, and even a teapot.

Perhaps he wasn't the smartest boy in the room.

Finally his brown eyes shot to her, scaring Brin at the quickness to which they moved.

"Did you see a book lying around here between the hours of 5pm and 7pm last night?"

"What are you, a cop?" Brin snuck a bagel from the display case and took a big bite, crumbs flying on the counter.

"No," he snorted then repeated the question, enunciating each syllable.

"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't."

"Whatever your name is, please stop playing around! I need that book!" He brought his arm down towards the table, rattling the sugar and salt shakers she had reorganized before finishing last night's shift.

"Are you going to fix those or...."

"Brin."

It didn't faze her how he knew her name, it wasn't a spacious city. That, and she saw him looking at her nametag.

"Fine, fine." she groaned. "I think I did see a book last night."

"Oh thank goodness--"

"This is a library and bookstore after all. I see plenty of books."

He slid his palms down his face, and sent her a look that made her skin crawl. He didn't stalk up to her as she thought he would. Instead, he grabbed a chair to his left, turned it backwards and sat down.

His fingertips danced on the top of it, awaiting Brin's next dare, awaiting the moment when she would push him too far.

The boy was a ticking time bomb and right now she was the fuse.

"Wait here, I'll go get it."

"You do that."

Brin walked through the saloon styled doors and into a pile of clutter.

She coughed heavily as a cloud of dust courtesy of a messy cabinet, entered her throat.

Struggling, she placed two boxes on the ground, working up quite a sweat when Jeff trailed in.

"Hey Jeff, what happened to the--"

Instead of staring at his face, Brin's focus shifted to a burrito, a large Pepsi bottle in his hand, then the other three burritos tucked under his arm. "What in the world?"

"Oh this," he emptied his breakfast on the only tidy spot in his office. His fingers ran along the brim of his backwards turned baseball cap.

"Yeah, it doesn't seem like me either," he set it onto his desk, looking a little disheartened. "Thought I would try to do something different. On the plus side, the hat was on sale though."

"But I love your Hawaiian shirts even though we don't live anywhere close to Hawaii. And you rotate between the same five," she muttered the last part, scratching the back of her neck.

"Jeff?"

"Yeah, Brin?"

"I was talking about the burritos in your hand."

"Oh, that makes sense," he nodded. "I was hungry."

"Is there a time that you aren't?" she laughed.

"Probably not."

"Where is the white box, the one that was by the corner, you know the one that had the book with the blank torquoise cover?"

Her sneakers slid to another box on the opposite side of the room. "I can't find the book at home and I remember being here."

"That box is long gone," he said, without missing a beat.

"What? What do you mean?"

"Another startup library the next city over was looking for books and I thought what the hey? They need it more than we do."

"When have you ever in the five year history of this place ever gave anything away? Face it, this room is a hoarder's nest!" she barked.

"I decided it was time for a change."

"And you thought now was the best time!" Her head was spinning, and her hands quickly went to her temples, trying to stabilize it.

"Brin? You don't look so good."

"He's gonna kill me," she muttered facing Jeff who began morphing into the grey ceiling.