M A I S I E
edited(please lmk if i made any errors)
As the young woman moves around her books, she takes notice of the couples sitting around the store. She smiles, loving the happiness around her.
Maisie is never the one to wallow in self-pity about not having someone to care for her. She cares for herself and that's something to admire.
She steps up on the ladder to place a book back where it belongs. As she climbs down, she hears the quiet ding of the doorbell, notifying her someone is entering the store. A group of teenagers walk in, some holding hands while others laugh quietly with each other. Maisie isn't too much older than them, but she can't help the little smile on her face as she reminisces her high school years.
The group walks towards the lounging area and sit down with each other, the couples closer to each other and the friends still quietly laughing and chatting with each other. This particular bookstore isn't small, nor is it humongous. The lounge area, which always seems to be the most popular, is big enough to fit many people and so are the hallways where the bookshelves are kept nice and clean by the young woman herself.
Maisie looks back at the rack of books that need to be put away and sighs. She loves her job with every single part of her, however, it can get tiring sometimes. Having to keep her store clean and doing extra work around it, she's exhausted. She's twenty-five years old, yes, but that does not mean she can't feel tired.
The best part is that this has always been Maisie's dream as a little girl. To be in her own library, sliding her own books onto the shelves. She visions that the building itself is going to be spherical. There are going to be fairy lights and comfortable, beautiful chairs and couches all around. The whole backside of the library will be glass, also where the lounge will be, so you could outlook all the people walking by in the big city and all the pretty buildings and landscapes. It's as though her exact dreams have come true, because her library does, in fact, look exactly like that. Maisie is proud of herself, especially since the day she bought the place. It was old and dusty, run down, and almost looked abandoned when she stepped foot inside of it for the first time.
As Maisie turned twenty, she really started to renovate it. She tore things apart herself, installed things herself, hung things herself. She even added a whole cafe into the store. She is basically her own handy-man. In this case you could say handy-woman. She runs the whole place by only herself as well, something to take into consideration. Maisie completed the designing and everything on her twenty-third birthday and she couldn't have been happier with that and how the finished bookstore turned out.
Sometimes, the young woman wonders 'what would have happened if I didn't follow my dreams? If I went down the road my parents wanted for me? Would I be as happy as I am now?' She has to tell herself that her parents' gaze at happiness isn't what she thinks of happiness.
The word 'happiness' to Maisie is like a mermaid swimming in the ocean. Sometimes there can be downs, but those downs lead to the ups which cause a person to feel happy. Maybe in the mermaid's situation it would be storms and sunshine. Storms can harm her if she gets too close to the shorelines or the very top of the salty water, but sunshine can bring light down on her.
It might be a childish analogy, yes, but Maisie has always seen it as a beautiful one. Many of the people that Maisie has known or has been friends with have told her they think she was born in the wrong generation. She's basically an old lady in a twenty-five year old's body at this point.
The clothes she wears are none of an old lady and she has her fair share of knowledge on technology, but her mindset is that of an elder. Her views are much different than other people her age, but she labels it as a unique personality trait. Since so many people have come and gone through Maisie's life, she's got the only thought in her head: 'I'm the one driving everyone away from me.'
When, really, it's the others for not accepting her.
On that note of thinking, Maisie sets the last book on the top shelf and climbs down her ladder. She sees that the teens are still in the lounge area. She walks over to them and smiles a friendly smile.
"Would you guys like to order anything from the cafe over there? We've got many delicious food and drink items." She raises her eyebrows and widens her eyes to give the effect for them to get something.
"Ooh! Yes, please." The four girls spring up and only two of them had come with their significant others. Maisie motions for them to follow her and speeds around the corner of the counter to get behind it. The girls order their drinks and whatever they were getting all at once.
"I'll pay, you guys get back to them." One of the girls says, nodding for the other girls to return back to the lounge with their drinks.
"It'll be $29.57." The girl nods once again and hands Maisie her credit card.
"Thank you, enjoy. Have a nice day." Maisie says. The girl smiles in return before sipping on her drink, saying a quiet 'Thank you Miss. Cave,' and walking away. Maisie sighs contently while going back to the front desk of the bookstore. She takes out the book she started reading a day ago and sits comfortably on her swivel chair.
The bell rings from someone opening the beautiful antique door and Maisie looked up to see a girl, looking about sixteen, and smiles.
"Good afternoon, welcome to Cave's." Maisie states. The girl smiles and walks up to the front desk.
"I am supposed to be meeting someone here, have you seen a tall boy with brown hair and blue eyes? He should be wearing jeans and a sweatshirt, I think." She mumbles to herself as she looks around. Maisie looks behind the girl to see a dude smiling as he runs up to the girl and hugs her from behind.
"I think I found him for you." Maisie chuckles at the two as the girl turns around and hugs her boyfriend, Maisie assumes, back.
"Thanks." The girl laughs and they walk away, leaving Maisie to get back to reading her book.
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1180 words
i hope you guys enjoyed the first chapter of The Bookstore
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The Bookstore
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