Page 35 of Lilah
He can't still be drunk right? I hope to God he's not.
"Why so frightened?" his worn out voice reaches my ears and I still can't tell if he's drunk or not.
Why such a piece of donkey crap?
I ignore him, wanting to get out of this place as soon as possible. I dart down the stairs and don't stop.
Once I've finally made it outside, I lean up against my car, bending down to rub my slightly throbbing knee.
I suck it up and make my way to the bookstore. Only two hours later than usual.
"Are you under the weather, Azalea?" Mr. Terrip asks first thing as soon as I enter.
"No," I reply, "Why? Do I look it? You can just tell me if I look ugly or not, you don't have to be nice."
"If you were ugly I wouldn't allow you to spend all your time in this store," he places his skinny hand on my forehead, "you would scare away all my customers."
"How darling of you to say," I wrap my arms around his frame, relishing in the feeling of his grandfatherly warmth.
We pull away and he picks up his glasses from his desk, sitting them on the end of his nose. He squints his eyes before grabbing my face ever so gently and tilting it up so that he can see it through his bifocals.
"What onearth?" he sees my busted lips.
My exotic dancing training isn't going well. I hit my mouth on my pole.
If I would say that to him, he'd surely have a heart attack.
Who would I talk to then?
"Here's the deal," I start, "I was laying in bed, my alarm woke me up. It scared me, right? So, I hit my knee on my mouth."
"You need to get out more," he removes his glasses and my mouth drops open.
"I thought you enjoyed my company!" I gasp and he nods after a second of deciding whether to ignore me or answer me.
"Of course I do. I'm just figurin' that maybe you could use a relaxing day at home," he shrugs and just the thought of me spending the day at home makes me uneasy.
"No thanks," I say quietly, making my way to my designated chair.
I plop down in my seat and lean my head up against the chair. The bell above the door jingles and I shoot up.
From my position, I see it's a girl maybe around my age. I let her walk around and look for a while until I'm able to gather up my courage.
"Do you need help finding anything?" I question softly, not wanting to be one of those people who walk up to you and basically corners you into buying something.
If I'm lucky, maybe she and I could be friends.
She looks over at me and she shakes her head. She's super pretty. I give the back of her head an unfortunately saddened smile and walk over to Mr. Terrip's desk.
"Be honest with me," I say as I approach him. He looks up at me.
"Do I look nice? Approachable even?" I take a seat on the end of his desk.
"Of course you do," he replies but it's kind of that thing where he has to say yes because he knows me. He's biased.
The girl approaches us with two books in her hands. Mr. Terrip stands and rings up her books. I keep my eyes downcasted on my black button-down skirt.
The bell to the door sounds once more. I look up to see Grey walking in, gorgeous as always.
