The ringing of the bell.
That ding was a beaming ray of hope and excitement through Joe's weary day job.
Of course, he loved the book store. It truly was his element, the one place he had control and expertise, no one knew books like he did;except perhaps, mr Mooney himself.
But as much as he loved the store itself, those who visited during opening hours put a real downer on Joe's day. He liked to think he wasn't just being pretentious himself, but it seemed most of the visiting population recently had been illiterate teens working on their instagram feeds.
As if on cue of this thought, the customer responsible for that gorgeous ringing slunk into the horror section. Joe signed, slouching once more against the shelf he was organising, and begun to analyse the intruder.
"Shouldn't take long. Your jeans are ripped, but those boots are Doc Martins, so clearly any distress your clothes show was put there by an enslaved Vietnamese child. Your hair - nice roots by the way - is intentionally messy, but your makeup is pristine and looks practiced a thousand times. This is what you kids are doing now? "I cant afford a comb" chic"
Joe watched, disappointed but not surprised, as the teen touched up her black lipstick and pulled out her phone - "Some band with all the singing ability of the cats that fight behind my apartment at 3am"
Without even skimming it first, the girl held Stephen King's The shining to her chest, phone angled high above her obsidian pout. She did this with a couple more Kings, A short horror novel by an indie author and a copy of a Ted Bundy Biography. Then, without even glancing towards Joe, she left.
A variation of this routine was carried out by most "customers" nowadays - at this point the bell should've been a sign for Joe to find a more interesting task to occupy him while the photoshoot took place. And yet, he remained hopeful.
"You must be out there somewhere, You appreciate good literature for what it is rather than the amount of equally pretentious instagram followers it gives you. You get me"
Joe thought about "you" a lot. The concept of someone who truly understood the way his mind worked, the way he saw the world, someone who appreciated things that actually deserved appreciation - "Not the highly revered instagram account of some generically attractive 'influencer' who's every third post mentions the ill intent of western medicine"
Every ring of that bell was one pretentious teen closer to "You"
And as if triggered by that very hopeful contemplation, there it went
Ding
YOU ARE READING
Adoring YOU
FanfictionA Joe Goldberg X reader fanfic from the show YOU Joe Goldberg loved to people watch...and then people analyse, and then people diagnose. It was his favourite hobby, equal to books in more ways than one. Joe loved reading people almost as much as rea...
