The Album of You and I

Maybe We're Perfect Strangers

Are there people in this world who are so confident that they should exist? That the world would be different if they didn't?

'Tell me again why I'm here on a Saturday?' Emma complained to Charlotte as she set up the display for the new shipment of fountain pens that had arrived this morning. The fun colours were meant to attract the pre-teens that would be out shopping this summer. Personally, Emma thought they were cute- but overpriced. Yet the nostalgic hues reminded her of her pre-teen era, where every colour was needed for highlighting nothing. 

'Because you love me and didn't want your best friend to suffer the torture of working with  Aaron. That and you have nothing better to do.' Charlotte replied as she was manning the till. Emma, responded to the insult with a chucking of the now empty box  at Charlottes's head.

'That's not true, Netflix was just calling to me to stay, but no I had to help you out so that you wouldn't come and complain to me about how annoyed you are at Aaron's short temper.' Emma protested, blushing at how accurate her best friend's predictions were.

 In all fairness, out of all her colleagues Aaron was the worst one to work with owing to his short temper and habit of letting out his frustrations on you.

Just as Emma was about to go and restock the staplers, her manager, Mr Elliot, came out, sweat patches on his ill- patterned shirt and ugly salmon coloured tie warning her of his presence. 

'Emma, when you are done with the staplers, put out the new highlighters. The new pastel tones are going to be huge. Sold out. Everywhere. You should know by now that I have a sixth sense for this kinda stuff. Teenagers love anything pastel you know?' He paused, giving her a once over before adding- 'or maybe you wouldn't.'

Her boss ordered as he turned back into his back office, his self importance going with him, not caring if Emma heard him or not, satisfied that he had asserted his authority and praised himself enough.

'Why of course, I would be delighted' Emma sarcastically grumbled under her breath to the closed office door, brushing off the judgmental comment with a roll of her eyes.

Charlotte, catching what Emma had mumbled, replied in a lower octave voice whilst trying to imitate their superior- 'Emma, do you know that I know all the trends and am so on top of my social media trends that I know the youths of today better then themselves. Young people are just so predictable!'

The girls both chuckled at their boss' antics until the bell of 'South West Stationers' jangled, signifying a customer.

Two, probably 13 year old girls, entered, gossiping as they did so,

'Did you hear, 'Catching Flames' may break up because Emmett is thinking of a solo career!' One girl exclaimed to the other. This news was apparently the most devastating thing to have happened on the planet as it warranted a complete frenzy, with the other girl proclaiming that it could never happen as Emmett would never betray his friends like that. He was just too kind of a person to do something so selfish.

Is was at that point that Emma tuned them out and focused on placing new staplers on the shelves, not having any interest in celebrity gossip. The deafening squeals from the girls, however, proved difficult to overcome. 

When you live in a small town in the middle of the country side, where the average age is around 75, you never really develop a sense of wanting to keep updated on the newest celebrity news. 

The ringing of her phone, interrupted her flow of unpacking,

'Well hello, big brother how can I be of service to you on this fine day?' She asked as she received the phone call.

'Well to start off with I want a new little sister who doesn't try to annoy me at the very beginning of every conversation I have with her,' Arthur replied, with false irritation, playing along with the bit. 

'C'mon you know you love me. So, seriously, what's with the call? Are you dying?' Emma asked.

'Is it so wrong to call my darling angel of a little sister? I'm calling because I want to let you know that I'm coming down to visit in a week, I would let mum and dad know but I don't want to get into an hour long conversation when I could much rather relay the information through you. And I know you do everything in your power to try not to work on the weekend so I knew you would take my call.' Arthur stated. It was true, though she loved her parents deeply and would miss them when she goes off to university in September, they had a habit of talking far too much, never getting the hint that when a phone conversation reaches 4 hours, it was time to say goodbye, especially when you would be seeing them the next day. 

'I get you. I get you. You would rather put me through that- what a caring brother. For your information I do have a life and right now I am busy with work.  Why is it that no one thinks that I do anything on my weekends. I could have been skydiving?' With a sigh once again at her predictability, Emma carried on.

'Any specific time frame, so that I can prepare for your annoying presence?' Emma grinned as she placed the last stapler on the shelf and began to retrieve the box filled with the 'fabulous pastel highlighters.' It seemed that the two girls form earlier had left and so she could concentrate on her task and talk to her brother freely.

'I don't know yet, you know me, I tend to just go with the flow.' He responded and Emma nodded along knowing full well how unprepared her brother always was. He was completely the opposite of Emma's always prepared and planned personality.

The two Hardy siblings began to banter back and forth so intensely that Emma didn't even notice the bell ringing and a new customer entering the establishment. 

'Just admit that you missed me at uni and then I will leave you alone and hang up' Emma bargained as she was carrying the heavy box to its destination through the narrow aisles. 

Distracted by the two activities, she missed her footing and tripped over the dodgy wooden floorboards, landing straight on her bottom the box falling with her and highlighters  hitting her head as they descended too.

In the midst of chaos and sore bum and pride, she heard a chuckle, both through her phone and in the store.

'Arthur, I'm going to have to go, I'm currently being attacked by brightly coloured stationary.' With a guffaw her brother hung up. She assessed the situation, internally groaning at the tidying that she now had to do, until she looked up and saw a hand being extended to her, offering to help her up.

Oh great, what else could possibly go wrong? Emma thought to herself as she shyly accepted the hand and got back up on her feet.

She followed the arm up to large broad shoulder, having to strain her neck upwards to get a look at the face that was slightly covered by the green baseball cap. Emma noted that he was tall, and, from the few whips of hair she saw, was a blonde. With a deadly jawline and a killer smile to match. It was then that she realised that she had been caught staring at the person who had just witnessed her clumsiness, grey eyes piercing her own.

'Hey. Are you ok?'

He just had to be a complete god. Course.

Helllloooo! Hi! How's it going? Welcome to my story! I hope you enjoy it. In my head I tried to create a piece that would highlight this world that we live in where everything feels judged and complicated and shown for the world to see. I wanted to create a character that didn't highlight the fact that she was the most wanted, in fact I wanted to create characters that were imperfect- at times unlikable- you know- human? 

Anyway, I hope that even if I don't convey this especially well that it at least entertains you and lets you escape into a world full of adventure.

Sending all the love

xxx