"Sir, this is a prized possession you don't have to pay for it. There shouldn't be a price on memories." I say as I put my hand gently on his hand, giving him the signal to put his wallet away. He picks up what I am getting at and puts his wallet back in his pocket.
"Wow, thank you so much Ms. Worthingshire that Is awfully kind of you." He tips his hat at me and walks out the store. I tell him to have to good afternoon as he tells me the same thing.
Hours go by and the store only has a couple people coming in mostly looking around, one woman bought a frame and a man came in right after her and bought a lamp. I check my wrist to see that it is 6:00.
"Ida it is 6:00 I'm going to leave." I walk to the back of the store and see her hanging up photos of people on the wall. She tells me to be safe I tell her the same thing as I grab my bag and head out to my car. I start it up and head home to grandpa.
My Grandfathers name Is Milo Worthingshire he is 56 years old and a big ole ball of fun. He is a retired Doctor from the army, he served for 20 years basically half his life. That is where he met my grandmother Margrethe, she was a nurse in the army. She taught me to help and love people. She died when I was 9 years old from breast cancer.
My Grandfather was torn from her loss we don't really talk about her that much it brings up too many memories. Ever since then it has always been me and Grandfather "thick as thieves" that's what Lyra calls us. I pull on my block, Madison Street, where I live with Grandfather. I see my house from the distance.
It sits at the end of the street, tall modern house. Since my grandpa is cheap, all the furniture is from the 70's, and the rest of the house from the 80's. I really think he didn't want to change anything because of my grandma. Changing would be like forgetting her.
I pull into the driveway, shut my car off and grab my purse and backpack and head into the house. As I enter inside, I smell pizza and cigars, grandpa must have his friends over.
"GRANDFATHER." I scream as sit I down my bag by the door and take my coat off. I search the house for him. He is not in the living room and the kitchen, where could this man be?
"In here Quinn." My Grandfather screams from the basement. Why Is everyone in the basement today? I walk down the stairs to see my grandfather and his friends sitting around a worn-out table playing poker. A waft of cigar smoke dances its way into my nose I swat it out the way of my face. I walk closer to the table to see chips of all colors on the table along with cards, potato chips and Irish beer. My Grandfather loves that Irish beer.
"Hey grandfather." I say as I plant a kiss on top of his head.
"How was school today?" He said as he lays some cards down.
I rest my hands on his shoulders and my chin on his head. "It was good I guess; Lyra was scared of the rope in P.E today, also some man came into the store today looking for a Christmas album. Also, speaking of Lyra she's coming over in a few hours to eat and watch a movie." I tell him.
"Mhm sounds nice I'm glad you had a good day. I hope you and Lyra have a good time, also tell Lyra not to eat the last slice of my key lime pie or she'll regret it." He says in a serious tone. Him and Lyra both like key lime pie and they always have an argument over it.
I let out a little chuckle and kissed my grandfather on the head. I start making my way towards the stairs I turn around and say, "See you later." I proceed to walk upstairs to get the food ready for me and Lyra.
Suddenly I feel a vibration from my left back pocket. I pull it out my pocket and look at the alert from my phone, it's probably from Lyra. Looking at the caller ID I have no idea who this person is. The text just says 'hey'. Curious to find out who it is I respond back with 'hi, who's this.' I hold my phone waiting patiently for the person to text back. In a matter of seconds, I get a response.
'This is Myers from school'. The text read.
Myers? The red jacket guy who was staring at me in the hall today. I respond back with, 'How did you get my phone number?'
M: Jack gave it to me; I hope this isn't creepy or anything.
I lean up against the counter and continue texting him.
Q: No that's fine. So, what are you doing?
M: Just watching T.V. with my parents. They want me to spend quality time with them, according to the parents' weekly magazine kids who don't spend time with their parents end up on drugs. Right now, the drugs are looking pretty good.
Cute and witty, a whole package deal.
Q: Well, save some for me in a few years my grandpa might end up driving me crazy.
M: You got it.
I start to open the cabinets grabbing out all the movie food like popcorn, licorice and sodas. I insert the popcorn into the microwave and wait. After it's done, I pour the buttery popcorn into the bowl as I was doing that, I heard a knock on the door must be Lyra. I look at my watch to see that it is 6:50, 10 minutes early I'm surprised she always shows up at 7:00 on the dot.
I run to the door and swing it open to see Lyra wearing a baby blue track suit and her red hair in a French braid. In her left hand she has a bag of candy and in the other one some burgers from Burg-oh-wow.
"Ready to get this party started baby." She says as she lifts the food up for me to see with a toothy smile on her face. I let her in and she heads to the kitchen to go ahead and put the burger and fries on a plate.
"So, I say as I lean on the counter and pop a kernel of popcorn in my mouth, what do you want to watch tonight on Netflix?"
"Umm... I was thinking of us watching, "To All the Boys I've Loved Before."
"Cool I'm down I heard it's good." I say as I grab the popcorn and candy while Lyra grabbed the rest and we headed upstairs to my room. I would say my room is rather ordinary, I have a nice balcony where I sit and try to read books. I'm not that much of a reader, I need visuals.
My room décor is kind of random, it's all colors of the rainbow, random pictures and such. We sit on the bed and get relaxed as I grab the remote and turn on the movie.
An Hour and a Half Later...
"Oh my god that was so worth it. The way Lara Jean opened herself to love Peter and they lived happily ever after." Lyra says as she clasped her hands together and rolls her eyes.
I rebuttal Lyra's comment on the movie by saying, "It was a roller-coaster to be honest and If you ask me for my opinion-," I say as Lyra interrupts me.
"I didn't ask for your opinion. "She says in a matter-of-fact tone.
"Oh shush, I tell her while slightly pushing her over I continue on to say, you know that she really loved the guy that was with her sister Margot. That is who she wanted for a boyfriend Peter just happened to come along." I say to Lyra while putting the empty bowl of popcorn on the ground.
As I am reaching for my coke by my bedside Lyra goes on to say, "Speaking of boyfriends... when are you going to get one. "I choke on my soda and wipe my mouth off with my red sweat shirt.
"Um... never in my life. "I say in a plain tone.
"Why not you have never had a boyfriend, better yet you have never had your first kiss you are practically a virgin. You need a boyfriend ASAP." Her head rests against my head board.
"I am a virgin." I respond back to her. "Lyra let me play some knowledge on you in the words of Cher, "Like desert, yeah. A man is absolutely not a necessity."
I can sense her eyes rolling, "Oh, please leave that mumbo gumbo in that barren heart of yours, since It will be like that forever. "While you sit here alone, I'm going to run downstairs and grab an ice cream bar. Can you close your balcony doors it's cold in here."? She says as she runs downstairs to get an Ice cream bar.
"Don't touch the key lime pie!" I scream before she gets halfway down the stairs.
"I do what I want!" She kind of does.
I slug myself off the bed to go close my balcony doors. I start to push the door closed when I see something off in the distance, it looks like a figure. I open my doors and walk fully on the balcony and stick my neck out to look a little further. To my dismay it's a wolf. From what I can see it has piercing green eyes and jet-black fur. Its head moves from side to side as if it's trying to tell me something. I jump in fright as I hear my phone go off.
I run to my bed to see who it is, a message from Myers, gosh I forgot I was texting him. The message read, 'I know we don't know each other that well, but would you want to maybe hang out sometime?'
I freeze for a few seconds trying to figure out my next move. A guy has never asked if I wanted to hang out before, heck no guy as even pegged attention from me. Suddenly, my response comes to me as clear as day.
Q: 'Sure let's go to burg-oh-wow or something.'
M: 'I'm down with that. I'll text you with the details.'
I drop my phone back on the bed to run back to the door. When I enter back onto the balcony the wolf isn't there anymore. Man, I wonder where it went, I shut the doors and lay back on my bed waiting for Lyra to come back.
Me and Lyra spent the rest of the night talking about the movie and Jack of course. Before I knew it, we fell asleep.
4 Hours later...
I wake up in fetal position with the covers draped over my body. I rub my eyes to get a clearer vision of my surrounding which isn't working. Slowly my eyesight clears I look around my room for Ly.
Lyra must have left a few hours ago I wonder why she didn't wake me usually she does. I roll on over to get the dishes and put them in the kitchen when I hear a crackle sound under my elbow.
I pick it up to see a note from Lyra saying, "You looked peaceful sleeping, see you tomorrow at school love you." I smile from the note I put it in my back pocket and stumble on down the stairs. I rub my throat with my hands, it feels dry, I grab some orange juice from the fridge and guzzle It down vastly. I sit the orange juice on the counter to lean over and grab a napkin to wipe my mouth off. I jump in fright as I turn around and see my grandfather with a baseball bat in his hand. He looks like Babe Ruth, ready to strike a home run.
"For the love of life Grandpa what are you doing?" I asked with my hands up in surrender.
"I thought you were a killer or something, child what are you doing up so late."
"No Grandpa. I was bringing the dishes down to the kitchen, and I needed a drink of orange juice because my throat was dry." I lag against the counter, clearly the exhaustion is still hitting me.
"Oh, alright you just scared the life out of me." Grandpa said as he rested the baseball bat against the wall
"Sorry I didn't mean to." My voice falters.
"It's ok Quinneth you know your mother used to come down here every night to get a drink of orange juice." He says as he looks down at his feet.
"Really!" I speak. He doesn't really talk about mom all the time it makes him too sad.
"Yeah... Uh I'm going to go back to bed you go on back up to your room and get a good night's rest." He tells me as his eyes look away from me and focus on the ground.
"OK, Grandpa, I say as I put my hand on his shoulder, I miss her too." I kiss him on his cheek and head on up the stairs to bed.
I close my door and lay on my bed and look up at the ceiling. I miss my mom all the time she was like my best friend and the best mother a daughter could have. I always wonder what my life would be like if my mom and dad didn't die. Would we still be living in St. Helena or in some bigger city? These questions rake my mind over and over again. I look towards my balcony door again to see if the wolf is back, he's not there.
There was something about that wolf I don't know what it was, but it gave me a feeling of. . .something. Curiousness? Intrigue? I don't know.
I lift my butt off the bed to take my pants off and threw them in the hamper next to my closet. I turned over and drifted off with the last thought in my brain, wolf.
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