Waking up was always easy for me. When I needed to get up, sure it was hard, but as long as I stood up, I could start getting ready instantly. I didn’t need to stay in bed to wake up for five minutes, or continuously snooze my alarm. That was always one of my strong points. I am both an early bird and a night owl. I love the night. It's when I’m most productive and at the same time, more comfortable with myself personally. However, even though I am always up till 3 am, I have never been to a club. I would rather read for those extra hours than grind on a random stranger or regret my promiscuous actions the next morning. You could call me an introvert. Well… you would in the past. The more that I’m trapped here, the more I see different sides to myself that I didn't even realize were possible. Am I going crazy? Maybe this house is morphing me into the type of person that he wants me to be. As much as I hated it in the beginning, I kinda like it. He loves me. The least I can do is love him back. I mean after everything I put him through in the beginning, I owe it to him.
2 years earlier…
My name is Clara Bluejay. Yes, I know. Sounds stupid right? Well apparently my last name is descended from royalty somewhere in Europe. Most people call me Birdie. It's my famous nickname. Cue eye roll. I've always hated my name. It's childish, but most people say it suits me. Some even go as far as to call me childish, innocent, or pure. I even look the part. Standing at 5’1’’, with a small figure, I have porcelain skin and almost white hair. The only remotely defining feature of my body is my aqua eyes. I’m the typical protagonist of a book. If you couldn’t tell, I'm a bookworm. I can’t even try to deny that I like books more than people. Books live up to their cliche expectations. Usually the prince saves the princess, or the dog finds his owner. People never live up to expectations. I have experience. When I was 7, my mom died while giving birth to my little sister. My dad couldn’t stand to raise two disgraced girls who killed their mother so he left. That was 15 years ago. I have a job and finally paid off the rest of the mortgage, so right now I am saving up for my sister's first car. Maybe college for her? I never went, for obvious reasons but I still retained my high school education. I get most of my knowledge from books. That's why I work at a bookstore. I am surrounded by thousands of worlds and plots. However they all have the same base, like hallmark movies. Living in a house in a nice neighborhood, I have a lot of bills to pay! I try my hardest to provide nice things for my sister but it doesn’t always work out. My sister, Audrey, may be a little hardheaded, but she knows that I work hard for her and her future. We are sisters in the most absolute sense. While other siblings may be favorites of mom and dad or fight over who gets the last slice of pizza, we don’t do that. Today is the first day of school for Audrey, and she is finally a Sophomore! I can’t drive her to school because I have long hours at the bookstore, so she takes the bus. After I get to the bookstore, I open the door and organize some of the returned books. Usually it is pretty quiet so I mainly just read a lot and help people find certain books. Agnes, a regular customer, walks through the door.
“Hi Agnes! Whatcha lookin’ for today?” Whenever she walks in the door, I can’t help but smile like goofy because she is so nice!
“I’m looking for any Disney books. We are taking my niece who just turned 5, to Disney world and I thought about reading up on some fun facts that could impress her.”
See! She’s just too sweet for the world! As I show her to some Disney books, I hear the bell ring again signalling another customer just came in.
“I'll be right with you!” I yell as I scurry back to the main desk.
Standing there was a man, at least 6’3’’, who had this kind of brooding “I don’t want to talk to you” aura. I take that back. He could be really nice and amazing, and I just assumed that he was mean or part of the mafia. As I stand here gawking at him, he starts to open his mouth and I snap out of it.
“Uh… Do you work here?” he says.
“Oh um yeah, I do. What do you need?”
“I need a book about construction. Where would those be?”
“Come with me.” I lead him over to the right shelf, and start walking back.
He grabs my hand and says, “Thank you, uhhh,” he looks at my name tag, “Clara. Thats a nice name.”
“Oh thank you. You're the first person to say that in a long time.”
“Not a fan of it?”
“Not in particular, no.” I say blushing.
“Well thanks anyways.”
“Yeah, no problem.” I mean it is kinda my job to help people find books, but at least he was nice. As the end of the day rolled around, I started closing up the shop. After I turn off all the lights and lock the door, I feel the hairs raise on the back of my neck. Someone is definitely watching me. When I start walking to the employees lot, I grip the can of pepper spray that I have lodged in my purse. I successfully get in my car and drive away from whoever is watching me. When I get home, Audrey is waiting there for me to order food.
“So whatcha thinking tonight? Pizza? Chipotle? Sushi?”
“Hmmm let's get Chipotle!”
She sounds really hungry so I order food and we eat while we watch the newest Descendents movie. The whole time we were crying about the death of Cameron Boyce. After I tuck Audrey in, I take a much needed bubble bath and go to sleep235Please respect copyright.PENANAKGVwxFKdec