Page 35 of Blade

Lost in my thoughts, I didn’t even realize I was walking toward The Book Store. I swore this town had the most uncreative names: The Book Store, The Diner, Manny’s Supermarket.

Not a pun in sight.

As I stepped into The Book Store, it was like being thrown back in time. While the store looked different, most likely because of Ryder taking over, there were just so many memories that swirled around me.

“Hey, Rach, look at this!” Rachel and I were in the romance section looking over the covers, commonly referred to as ‘bodice rippers’. Fabio was on almost every cover with his long blond hair blowing in the wind.

This was the only chance we had to look at them, knowing Mr. Thomas would never sell one to us and the library would only let adults borrow them. We had to take the opportunity when we had it.

“Oh my God, Beck, this one sounds so hot. Maybe we can get Ryder to sneak it out to us and slip it back in when we’re done.”

“Hell no,” Ryder declared, coming up behind us.

Micah looked over my shoulder, trying to read the back of the book.

Taking it from my hand, he turned it around and looked at the front.

“Becca, you don’t need to read that shit. I can show you anything you want to learn,” Micah boasted, wiggling his eyebrows up and down.

I smacked his chest with the back of my hand, telling him, “In your dreams, buddy.”

We all jumped when Ryder’s dad caught us by surprise.

“What are you kids doing?” he asked, taking the book from Micah. He looked at the cover and gave him a look that said,‘not a chance, young man.’

“Hi, Mr. Thomas, we were just looking around.”

“Well, maybe you kids should look around in the young adult section and leave the adult books to the adults.”

We all headed over to the ‘appropriate’ section.

Little did Mr. Thomas know Ryder let us in after hours to look at all the adult books we wanted.

Lost in my memories, I didn’t notice the two little girls until they crashed into me.

“Woah, hello there.” I looked down at two of the cutest little girls I had ever seen and knew right away they must be Ryder’s girls.

“Who are you?” the older girl, Chrissy, I assumed, asked abruptly.

“My name is Beck. I’m a friend of your dad’s. You must be Chrissy.” Looking at her little sister, I said, “and you must be Tabitha.”

Both girls looked up at me with wide eyes.

“You know who we are?”

“Yup, your dad told me all about you.”

“Are you his girlfriend?”

“No, Beck is not my girlfriend.”

I looked up and saw Ryder walking toward us.

“Hey, Beck, glad you came in.”

He kissed my cheek, and the girls giggled.

“Alright, you two, head over to the couch and we can get started on that book in just a minute.”

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