Page 1 of Screwed

ONE

Iris

This story starts with a theft.

But I don’t know about that yet.

I’m still in my own little world as I smile and make my way down the center aisle of my antique shop. It’s five thirty, almost closing time, and I make sure that the lights are shut off and the back door is locked. It’s my usual routine. I’m a bit neurotic and if I don’t do my closing routine in the same order, I know that I’ll second-guess myself and have to come back to double-check. I make sure that the packages that are ready to be mailed out tomorrow are stacked carefully on the counter before I triple-check the back door and windows. I make my way up to the front, breathing in the scent of my store as I go.

I’ve always loved antiques. Show me anything from decades or centuries ago and I go absolutely gaga. It’s always been like this.

I think, actually, I know that I got it from my grandma. She was my favorite person in the whole world and she practically raised me. My parents were too busy trying to make ends meet to remember that they had a kid most of the time but my grandma always had time for me.

My grandma was a history teacher and loved to tell me about lesson plans that she was working on or chapters that her class was working on that week. Her passion for it lit something inside of me, it inspired me, and I used to hang on her every word.

The first time that I found the history section at the Destiny Falls Library had been a real game changer. Instead of fairy tales, we read history books at bedtime. Forget cartoons on Saturday mornings. I’d rather sit with her and watch the History Channel for hours.

Her and my grandpa were the ones who used to take me to garage sales and flea markets to look for antiques or forgotten treasures. We spent most weekends traveling around the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, looking for finds to add to our collection. We never really found much, but that didn’t matter. Not to us. It was more just the excitement about what we could find and spending time together.

My grandparents were the only ones who really got why I wanted to open up my own antique store and when this prime spot right by the water and in the middle of downtown Destiny Falls became available, they helped me out with the down payment.

My grandma even gave me a few pieces to start my store and I still have them to this day. They’re in a display case right up front even though they’re not even close to the most expensive things in my store. I know that I’ll never be able to part with any of those pieces. They hold way too much sentimental value to me and I’ll never be able to get rid of any of them.

Growing up loving the past wasn’t easy. I liked to wear vintage clothes, partly because it was all that I could really find at the thrift stores in town, and partly because it made me feel closer to the past. It was like I was an antique in my retro clothes. Unfortunately for me, it also made me a weirdo in school where everyone else was wearing the latest fashion.

It didn’t just stop at clothes either. While everyone was excited about the newest iPhone or app, I was more interested in watching reruns of Antiques Roadshow.

Suffice to say that I never had that many friends.

I did have Madelyn though. She’s been my best friend since kindergarten and has always supported my hobbies and interests. Madelyn was always cool, one of the popular kids. She’s beautiful and funny, outgoing and sweet as pie. No one messed with Madelyn and once we became best friends, people stopped picking on me so much too. No one wanted to get on her bad side.

I needed Madelyn for more than protection though. We’re complete opposites and she balances me out. I’m the calm and rational one who tries to let things roll off of my back, and Madelyn, is the wild, spontaneous one who can't help but take things far too personally.

Her parents were workaholics too, so she spent a lot of time with me and my grandma. She never quite found a love for antiques like I did, but she loved being around other people. Plus, her options were either hang out with my grandma and me, or go to the Destiny Falls Market with her parents where I’m sure they would have put her to work.

It wasn’t really much of a hard choice.

My grandma would tell her stories about her college days or some of the trips that she took when she was younger. Madelyn used to love those stories and I know that she was making a list of things that she wanted to do when she was older too.

That’s another difference between Madelyn and me. She’s impulsive and adventurous and I never do anything without looking at it from every angle.

Speaking of every angle…

I spot Arlo as he parks in front of The Fainting Goat, the bar across the street from my antique store. He climbs out and my eyes devour the sight of him greedily.

He’s wearing dark jeans and a black button-down shirt. That seems to be his usual attire when he’s working at the bar. I can make out his sandy-brown hair and it still looks wet like he just got out of the shower. I can’t see his eyes from here, but I know that they’re a bright green that reminds me of sea glass or fresh-cut grass in the summer.

My friend Lyla says that he looks like Captain America and I have to admit that it’s pretty accurate. He’s lean but still muscled from carrying cases of beer and kegs around all day. I’ve never openly agreed with her though. I know that I would never hear the end of it if I did.

I know that if I told my friends that Arlo was hot or that I was into him, that they would be pushing me to ask him out or make a move on him.

The truth is that I want Arlo.

All of my friends say that he wants me too and that I should make a move on him, but I can’t. I want to make sure that we’re compatible, that I won’t mess everything up between us by saying something. Destiny Falls is a small town and I know that if he rejected me that it would spread around town like wildfire.

I’ve never been great with guys. I never dated in high school and I was too busy studying and working in college to go out to parties or find a boyfriend.

I’m also not the type of girl that most guys go for. I’m a wallflower and too mousy for most guys to even notice me. Add on the extra pounds that I gained over the last few years and the fact that I would rather spend my time sifting through dusty old antiques than going out to a party or to the beach and finding someone who’s into me is almost impossible.

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