Healing Nova's Heart

six: without words

CHAPTER SIX: WITHOUT WORDS

❝ don't turn it all inside
        I don't like to see you cry ❞

NOVA WALTZED INTO the quaint bookstore, hearing a faint ding of a bell. She had driven down for some peaceful reading, after stopping at Dunkin' Donuts and ordering a hot chocolate. She sipped the burning drink as she entered.

As far as bookstores go, this one was pretty funky. She loved its funkiness. Everyone loved the bookstore. It was a hangout for teens and others, gathering nerds from all around.

It was silent like every other bookstore except for the Harry Potter theme music playing in the background. There were multicolored beanbags lining the floor, and big posters filled with book quotes pasted to the walls.

She loved the small place that was ironically called 'Tiny's Bookstore', and occasionally went over there for some quiet time.

She had went once with Cam, who was such a pain in the ass, following her around the entire time, resting his head on her shoulder as she flicked through a stack of books, whining to go home. He flopped down on the beanbag chairs while she tried to read, and played with her hair as she shushed him. He grinned at her lazily and smirked, kissing her on the lips. She groaned and shoved him off of her lap, hissing, I'm never taking you here again, which he laughed and replied with thank god. She remembered rolling her eyes and walking up to the counter with the book in her hand, where a kind woman with blue eyes and brown hair greeted them. She smiled at the pair warmly with a suggestive smirk in her eyes and bagged her book, saying come again! Nova remembered how Cam muttered not likely as they exited the store.

The bookstore was awesome. It was pretty much a library the way the owner set it up. People would come and read books there on the plush beanbags, and if they wanted to take it home they'd buy it. But you could just chill out and read a newly ordered book.

Nova's eyes flickered through a stack of teen fiction romance books, grabbing If I Stay, then plopping down on a squishy aqua beanbag chair.

The book had made her cry when she first read it, and the sequel, Where She Went... Also made her cry. But the book couldn't help but fool with her emotional strings.

It connected with her so much, and as she tore through the book page by page, her mind unwilling wandered to Cam [that bastard, falling into her thoughts again].

Should she have stayed?

Stayed with Cam, the moronic asshat that had been her best friend since before she could speak? Should she have stayed, and been continuously hit on all sides from every direction, continuously unaware of what curveball he would throw her next?

Or had she made the right decision, leaving with a hole in her heart but no longer being hurt? Without being with the love of her life forever more?

She curled up in the beanbag chair and wrapped her arms around her face, blinking rapidly to minimize the tears that were falling down her face, again. As she sniffles into her sleeves of her baggy sweater, a soft voice sounded beside her.

"Do you need tissues?"

Nova rubbed her puffy eyes and glanced up at a beautiful woman, she looked like she was maybe twenty, with long ringlets of blonde curls and piercing blue eyes. She was incredibly familiar.

"Skylar?" Nova blinked. "You were a bridesmaid in my sister Delilah's wedding, right?"

Nova remembered the woman to be friends with Jackson and Delilah, and was a bridesmaid alongside her. They saw each other occasionally during dress rehearsals and occasionally talked about books. Now that she thought about it, she remembered Skylar saying that her mom owned this bookstore, and she worked at it too. Her mom must've been the lady that checked out her book that day with Cam that gave them the suggestive smirk.