Learning to Love

Chapter Eight

Hunter Black's Point of View

Once we got to the mall, I left everyone to go to my favorite store, Boot Barn. After passing a lot of stores and a lot of people, I stood in front of the store and looked up at the sign. I took a deep breath, breathing in the familiar scent. I walked in and started looking around. Amber's, my sister, birthday was next week and I knew she needed a new pair of boots. She had worn out the last pair we got her so I figured this would be the perfect present. I walked around and looked through the isles of boots. I went to the teen girls and scanned to find her size. I stopped and saw the perfect pair. They were red round-toed boots with all kinds of sunflowers on the upper part. 

I grabbed the box after finding her size and walked up to the counter. I set them down in front of the lady and watched as she picked them up and scanned them. The counter was filled with little knick-knacks and gift cards they people might want to buy on their way out.

"Will these be all for you?" She said putting them into a bag then pushing some buttons on her screen.

"Yes, ma'am." I got my wallet out knowing they would be a lot. I didn't mind the price though, she was my little sister. And I was only going to get the best for her.

"That will be $121.42." She set the bag on the counter and looked at me. I handed her the money and watched as she grabbed a marker and marked the hundred-dollar bill. After making sure it wasn't fake, she opened the register and put the money in it. She gave me my change and stuck the receipt in the bag.

"Have a nice day." She said in a monotone voice as she leaned on the counter.

"Thanks. You too!" I grabbed the bag and made my way out of the store. I weaved past some people and continued to walk. I thought about the money I had spent on these boots and how it didn't really take long to save them. Cause I work on an apple farm, our sales are always good which means more profit. Oh well, it's for my sister. And I just knew that she was going to love them.

"Hunter?" I suddenly heard my name being called so I looked around. And in a sea of people, I see her. Not just the one that's calling my name, but her.

"Rose?" I whispered as she made her way over to me. Her hair was to her shoulders and had rainbow-colored highlights in her blonde hair. Her dress that she wore was black and white. She was carrying a bunch of shopping bags and had heels that were at least four inches tall.

"Hunter! It's so good to see you again! I haven't seen you in forever." She dropped her bags on the floor in front of me before she wrapped her arms around my neck and hugged me. I put my bag down and lightly hugged her back. After a few seconds, she pulled away and picked up her bags again.

I started thinking about how strange it was to see her here. Yeah, she lived in Charleston, but she was usually touring. She was a pop singer and a darn good one at that. We met when we were little though, at a camp. And as we grew up, we slowly started to date. But when she started touring in seventh or eighth grade, we decided it would be best to break up.  And if we hadn't found anybody in high school, we would call each other after and see how that would pan out. Her name wasn't always Rose though. As a singer, she called herself Iris because she liked that Iris was the goddess of rainbows.

"I uh, it's nice to see ya too. What are ya doing here? Are ya done with touring?" I flooded her with questions before I stepped back and picked my bag up off the floor. She scratched the back of her neck as she looked around.

"Uh, you want to catch up? I was just heading to a new coffee shop here." She pointed to her left with her thumb as she looked up at me.

"Um, yeah. Sounds cool. I need to talk to ya about something anyway." She slowly nodded before we started walking over to the coffee shop she was talking about. When we walked in, my nose was flooded with smells of coffee and pastries. I looked around and saw that it was pretty modern. It seemed to have a theme of gold and white. We walked up to a table and she set her bags onto the table. I set my bag on the floor next to a chair because having shoes on the table was just rude. Rose then walked up to the counter and pulled out her wallet.