Bitter Words

Chapter One

The bookshop bell tinkled as Ella pushed open the green-lined door. She smiled nervously at the cute boy standing by the bestsellers table, and gently let the door fall shut behind her.

Ella scurried to the young adult section, pausing by the classics to admire some new cloth-bound editions. Her hand reached for a copy of Sense and Sensibility, but for a book as beautiful as that... She snatched her hand away. "No," she hissed to herself, so quietly it was almost inaudible even to her. "Damn it," she said, as she walked away and headed to the young adult shelves.

Her hands ran over the shelves, practiced eyes searching for titles she had never read. Her fingers hovered over a new Cassandra Clare novel, but her inner bookworm moaned with distaste; all of her other copies were paperback, a hardback would mess up her beautifully lined shelves. First world problems, much? she thought with a rueful smile to herself.

"Something take your fancy?"

"Oh!" She turned in surprise to find the cute boy standing behind her. "Um, well, I want to wait for the paperback."

"Makes sense." The boy, holding a new book of his own, reached above Ella's head and deliberately chose a copy of A Room with a View from the shelf. "This one isn't young adult, so I don't know why it's here, but you should definitely read this. I loved it."

"Thanks." Ella took it from his hand, blushing, and skimmed the blurb. "What's it about?"

"A room. With a view." The boy smirked. Ella rolled her eyes.

"Is this meant to be a cute way of chatting me up?"

He shrugged. "Something like that. I'm Luke."

"Ella."

Luke bit his lip. "Can I cheekily ask you if you want to go and get a coffee?"

Ella sucked in her breath through her teeth. This was the meet-cute of her dreams!... but she had a job interview in 30 minutes and coffee could not be rushed.

"How about I cheekily ask you for your number, and I'll text you?" Luke grinned, and Ella gave him her cracked phone to write in his number. "Ignore how bad it looks - I swear it works." He laughed and stabbed in his digits.

"Well... I hope you'll text me."

"I will." Ella tapped on her phone and smiled up at him. Luke's phone dinged somewhere in his pocket. "See."

He just laughed, and checked it, nodding approvingly. "Well, you did. Text me... later?"

"I will."

Luke inclined his head in her direction, and waved shyly, turning to pay for his book. Ella pretended to look at the novels on the shelf, but her heart was pounding and she couldn't exactly form a sentence in her own mind. Did that... seriously just happen? Was she actually living in literature? She hastily pinched the back of her hand, and it hurt enough to tell her that she probably wasn't dreaming.

Luke waved at her again as he left the shop, and she waved back in her phone in her hand. The cracked screen was almost an embarrassment at this rate: she had to scroll his text up and down to read: Hope you enjoy your room with a view!

Ella turned the book over and looked at the price. She had only popped into the bookshop for some window shopping, but now she really wanted to get the novel to read for Luke. It was £7.99 - not abnormally pricey for a novel, but that could still buy four toilet rolls, a box of ibuprofen, a bar of chocolate, and a few packets of cheap sanitary pads. Her period was due in the next day or so - she had to be prepared, and if that meant putting down a book...

Reluctantly, she returned the novel to the shelf, then took it down again and put it with the other EM Forster novels in the classics section. Someone had clearly just shoved it back in a clear spot.

Ella strode past the cash desk without looking the girl behind it in the eye. She knew everyone who worked here, but not this girl, and the back of her neck prickled. Why hadn't she known there was a job going, and applied?

The discounted, second-hand, and sales books were all crammed together, in no particular order and mostly with broken spines and ripped pages. It was also where Ella spent most of her time in the book shop. Paperbacks were only £1.50 and hardbacks £3. For the price of one new novel, she could get four, and, alright, she couldn't read any of the new ones her friends on Twitter raved about, but it was better than nothing. Occasionally she found a gem, like a brand-new copy of Twilight all those years ago, though now she looked back on it that had been a regrettable purchase.

Ella ran her nail-bitten fingers over the shelves, and paused when she was about twenty books in. There, with a single, long, white crease down its spine was A Room with a View. She snatched it up. The cover had a bend in the bottom left corner, but she flicked through and discovered no missing pages (albeit a few coffee stained ones).

It must be fate. She'd definitely have to arrange a date with Luke now.

Before she got up to pay, Ella rooted through her purse to find enough coins. She'd found a pound on her way home from college the other day, and added to it two twenty pences, a five pence, two two pence coins, and a final one penny to make the £1.50 she needed for the novel. She wiped a bit of dirt from one of the two pences before she stood and made her way to the counter.

"Just that?" the girl asked from behind the desk, putting down her own novel. Ella nodded, reading the title upside down - it was the new Cassandra Clare one she'd had her eye on.

"Any good?" Ella asked, nodding her head at it.

"Yeah, really good. I love getting back into a world I know really well, you know?"

"I know. Wish I could get it."

"Hardbacks are always pricey," the girl replied sympathetically. "I'm just glad I work here so I get a decent discount." Ella handed over the coins almost apologetically. "Perfect!" the girl said. Her name badge said Kirsty.

"Sorry to ask... but are you new here?" Ella asked, taking the proffered paper bag.

"Yeah, I only started last week. Just moved here. Going to the local sixth form."

"Oh, I go there. I'm, um, Ella by the way. Maybe I'll see you around." Ella smiled, and left the shop quickly, a light flush on her cheeks.

"See ya!" Kirsty shouted, as the door slammed shut, the bell tinkling an echo of a goodbye.