Courtney
"Bye Andy! You have a good day!" I smiled as the only other person to come into the library, left. Andy is a usual that comes into the library; he's a good guy and always talks when he's in here. I can honestly say he's probably the best part of my Saturday's.
As much as I was happy I had a few people in here, I was so ready to get home and start getting ready for my date tonight.
Prior to Andy coming in, I had already locked the doors, but since I knew him and that he wasn't going to take long, I let him in. So while he was printing off a few papers I turned off the rest of the computers and copiers, making it easier. So when he was finished all I would have to do is turn off his computer and the lights before turning the alarm on and heading out the door.
When he left through the front door, I gathered the few books I had checked out to myself, turned the computer he was using off, and grabbed my keys. With the alarm set, I made my way to the back door. Twisting the door handle a couple times, I made sure that I had locked the door before turning and catching a glimpse of my car. You couldn't miss her even if you tried; and yes, she is a girl.
She's a '16 Ford Focus with a midnight black paint job. I love the car because it was the easiest on gas I have ever seen a car be and also because she was my moms car and she loved it. When she died two years ago my dad gave me the keys and told me she was mine. He wasn't going to drive it because it brought him too much pain so I have taken care of her ever since; almost like she was my baby.
I unlocked the driver's side door before sliding in and then turning her on; mainly to blast the heat. I let the car heat up before carefully maneuvering her out of the snow covered parking lot. She did well in the snow, mainly because of the snow tires I bought earlier this year. It was just turning four when I hit the main road, which also means that my dad is at work and I get the house to myself. My dad works late nights at a manufacturing company but he does maintenance, which means that he oversees the function of the equipment and fixes it so is works properly.
On the occasion that he has a night off is the only time I get to see him. He gets home about two hours before I have to get up and goes to work and he's gone before I get home in the evenings. I don't complain about it, though, because he's always been distant. Don't get me wrong, I love my dad and everything, it's just we've got way too much hot blood in us that when we're together for too long we get on each other's nerves. It may also have a thing or two to do with that we both act the same.
In my young teenage years we were always butting heads. My mom used to be the peace maker but now it's only us to figure out when enough bickering back and forth is enough.
When I pulled up to my house I noticed there were cars parked outside of the neighbor's house. It doesn't sound strange except for the fact that no one has lived in that house for more than ten years.
Everyone claims that it's haunted by a previous owner, who had died in the house. I've never been in the house to verify if it's haunted but I do know that when the older two story house was being built, a construction worker did die while on the job.
As I thought, I put the car in park before cutting the engine and gathering my stuff. I couldn't help but feel eyes on me, but I didn't dare to see who was watching me, it was way to cold for me to even care. Well it was the cold, and the fact that I had a date tonight with my boyfriend Blake tonight.
I had been looking forward to tonight.
We've not been out on a date in a while and he said he wanted to make up the time that we've not spent together. I hadn't heard from him today, so I was hoping that we were still meeting tonight. I was positive that if he needed to cancel he would have called, or answered my few attempts to get ahold of him. The last time we had hung out was last weekend and it was nice to have that intimate time with him just the two of us.
Kicking my shoes off inside my bedroom door, I went straight to my closet and finding something nice to wear tonight.
Ashton
"Michael, your stuff is downstairs." I told him as I walked by his room. He stood in the middle of the almost empty room, taking in the new environment. It was a bit strange for all of us; getting used to everything around, especially the mounds of snow on the ground. We hadn't seen this much snow since we were in London last year and it wasn't nearly as much as was on the ground now.
"Okay, thanks Ashton." He said, his gaze traveling to me. I nodded my head before heading down the stairs.
I had already put my stuff in my new room; if it was still boxed up or not was a different story. I didn't feel the need to actually unbox everything when in just a couple weeks we won't even be here. I wasn't taking the little move/vacation here very well. I would have much rather stayed in Australia for the time being but no one agreed with me, so here I am.
A month, we have one month here to relax and then we move on to touring America. It's not even like we will remember this place. It's some small town in West Virginia. As I walked into the kitchen, still in thought, I noticed Luke was placing things into a few of the cabinets above the stove. I grabbed a glass and filled it with some water. Humming a small tune to myself, I glanced out the small window above the sink.
"Our neighbor has a nice car." I commented upon seeing the midnight black beauty in the driveway beside ours. I loved a black car, it always seemed nicer than any of the other colors.
"Yeah, It is. Calum said he saw a girl getting out of it earlier." I turned to look at Luke.
"Did he say how old she looked? I mean, I thought that this was a little break before we have to go on tour." I mused. That was the point in coming here, though, was to just relax and learn stuff for the upcoming American tour.
"She looked young, maybe around seventeen, and was kind of short. That's all he let on though."
"What did Mrs. Reid say when she was telling us about our neighbor's?" I asked, and then took a sip of the water; the coolness leaving a satisfied feeling in my throat.
Mrs. Reid is the older woman who we bought the house off of, she gave us a little description of our new neighbors but as per usually I wasn't really listening. Instead I was taking videos and checking Twitter. It was no surprise to anyone that I had to ask about everyone around us.
"This is why you should pay more attention, she said that it was a father and daughter that lived there but didn't say how old either of them were or what their names are." Luke scolded me then gave me what I missed out on.
Well that's great, note the sarcasm. Guess we'll have to be social and go over and introduce ourselves.
As I thought about what Luke said about the girl next door, my mind couldn't help but wander to the girl in the library. She seemed shy and timid until I told her about my librarian theory. I didn't really expect her to snap at me like she had. It was almost relieving to see a girl treat us normal but something about her said she wasn't letting up on her true self.
"So Michael said you two went to the library earlier to get a book; did you all find any hot librarians?" Calum laughed as he came into the kitchen, grabbing a can of soda out of the fridge.
"Mate, I told you that the one working was fucking gorgeous!" Michael exclaimed as she came in right behind Calum. I saw Luke give him an odd glance, and knew exactly what he was going to comment on.
"How old was she like sixty? Seventy?" Luke joked. And there it is.
As him and Calum laughed I couldn't help but feel my stomach knot up and before I could stop myself I blurted out,
"She's twenty, actually." That surely shut them up, only long enough for them to grow confused about my sudden outburst about the mystery girl.
"What?" Calum said shocked. I fought the urge to roll my eyes. This must be how the girl felt when I had said the same thing. Now I couldn't blame her for being sassy about my question.
"She's twenty not sixty or seventy." I muttered out. I watched as the two, exchange a crooked smile and a glance of acknowledgement.
"What's her name then? You all had to exchange names." Luke asked as he crossed his arms and leaned back on the counter just as I had.
"Or phone numbers." Calum whispered to Luke. They both laughed finding their questions funny.
I brought my hand up and rubbed the back of my neck. Did she even tell us her name? I don't recall her telling us her name; I do however know she knows ours.
"Okay then, you all didn't get her name, then what does she look like, you know since she's not old." Luke said, only cracking up again at the end.
Joy, you take one trip to a library and it turns into a comedian act to everyone. As I thought about what she looked like, Michael was in front of me listing off her traits. I heard him talk about her outburst at my question today and then decided to drown out their voices. I leaned on the counter and thought about how her dark brown hair fell straight around her face and down her shoulders. And then how her eyes were a bright blue, almost like Luke's. But seemed to shine just a bit brighter.
I began listening to what Michael was saying when I heard him say, "She actually, kind of, looks like her but less sexy." He pointed beside me, making me and the other boys turn and look out the window.
I didn't want to believe him because there was a major difference between the girl in the library and the girl getting into the black car. But the similarities were there also; her hair and her body matched. Although I didn't want to believe it, I knew that it was the same girl.
"That's the same girl Michael."
So here is chapter 2. It has been edited a little bit. I am wanting to add just a bit more to each chapter so it's not choppy or anything of the sorts. Hopefully you all like it and vote or comment. Both are very much appreciated. :)
Edited 5/1/21
-Stay Beautiful
Courtney S