Firstly hahha 2 parts NOT GONNA WORK this is becoming a longer fic. also I'm sorry this is more episodic than the first chapter but otherwise this would have been a million word novel. Also, a million billion trillion thanks to the amazing Nash who helped me so much with this (I still hate her tho)
Myka felt stupid, but she checked her phone obsessively. When she woke up, she'd had two messages. Her breath had hitched in her throat as her phone, suddenly archaic and painfully slow, loaded her inbox. When her inbox appeared, Myka sighed in disappointment. Two texts from her mother, asking her when she would be home and whether she could buy some tomatoes on the way home.
Myka didn't even like tomatoes.
Pete grinned lewdly at her when she came down for breakfast. "Sleep well?" He asked, wiggling his eyebrows. Myka just glared at him.
"Yes, thank you." Myka poured herself a cup of coffee and rubbed her eyes. She looked up to catch Pete smirking at her again. Disappointment and tiredness (though there was a surprising lack of hang over) made her irritable. "What?" She demanded.
"So, you gave Helena Wells your number…"Pete trailed off. Myka just sat down on the wicker stool heavily and leaned over her coffee cup. "Do you make out with girls in libraries often and then give them your number?" Pete asked, taking his orange juice and sitting down opposite Myka. Myka glared at him. "What?" He asked, spreading his arms. "I think that's a legitimate line of questioning for your best friend!"
"Go away Pete," Myka grumbled again. Pete grinned.
"I sort of can't. You're in my house." Myka just gave Pete the most scathing death glare she could manage. Pete was not frightened. "I assume that our stunning British friend did not text you, then?" he enquired. Myka shook her head sadly.
"It is only 9am," Myka defended Helena, playing with the watch on her wrist. Pete nodded.
"Exactly. And we left the party before her. For all we know, she only went to bed an hour ago." Myka nodded slowly. "She'll text you the second she wakes up, I am sure of it," Pete continued. Myka looked down at her coffee.
"Why do you say that?" She asked, timidly. Pete grinned.
"I saw the way she looked at you." Myka nodded, a small smile pulling at her lips. She loved it when Pete could make her feel better in only a handful of sentences.
"Now tell me, was she a good kisser?" Myka leaned forward to punch Pete. Hard. He just grinned.
Myka left soon after, avoiding most of Pete's questions and leaving him with cryptic hums of agreement whenever he tried to tease her out with rhetorical questions. She cleaned up, made sure the rings under her eyes were more subtle than they were naturally, and drove home, via the grocery store.
The grocery store was always so cold. Myka shivered as she entered, bee-lining for the vegetable section so she could get out of there as fast as possible and show her parents that yes, she could be a responsible adult.
"Why is everything so cheap! I mean, look at these prices!" British accents carried across the grocery store and Myka froze.
"HG, stop touching everything!" Myka gulped as Helena came careening around the corner, arms full of groceries, as a younger man followed her, clearly attempting to catch her.
"I just don't understand!" Helena laughed. "All this produce has to fly in! We're in the middle of nowhere! Still, look at these prices!" She skidded to a halt gesturing at the tropical fruits. Myka shrank into her background, trying desperately to hide on the other side of the vegetable isle. She didn't recognise the boy on whom Helena was currently unloading an armload of food. He sighed in exasperation as she picked up a pineapple.
"I don't think we need more food," he complained.
"Sure we do," Helena disagreed. "They're practically giving it away anyway!"
"It's because you're not paying for it," he grumbled. Helena decided on a pineapple and put it on top of the load the young man was already carrying, balancing it precariously.
"Well, you're the best exchange brother a girl could ask for," she teased. Myka blinked in surprise. Helena was staying with another British person? Myka wasn't even aware there were other nationalities than American in Colorado Springs.
"And you're the worst guest," he grumbled.
"I sure am. Now can we please buy that cordless power drill. Its 100 dollars, Wolly. A hundred dollars." She put separate stresses on the words, dragging, the young man with her as she skipped off.
"Can we at least get a basket?" He demanded, but Helena would have none of it, too engrossed in her excited hurry. They disappeared around the edge of the fresh fruit isle and Myka straightened up slowly, blushing furiously. So Helena was awake…
Awake and running around Myka's supermarket with a young British man who seemed to be her host brother? Myka worried her lip as she picked out the best tomatoes, distractedly trying to estimate their freshness. It just didn't make any sense, she decided, giving up and just taking any bunch of tomatoes.
Why would anyone come to a foreign country and then stay with a person of their own nationality? And why would they bring their brother? And why on earth would they come to Colorado Springs anyway?
Myka got to the end of the fruit and vegetable isle and peeked out carefully. The isles to the checkout were clear of any of excited British teenagers. Myka scampered to the cashier, where the owner's daughter, Rose Soto, was sitting, bored. She was in the same class as Tracy and smiled at Myka, putting down her phone to scan the item.
"Hello Myka!" Myka jumped out of her skin as the excited British call echoed through the supermarket. Both Rose and Myka looked towards the commotion.
"Helena," Myka greeted her, blushing furiously and glancing down at her feet.
"I was going to text you this morning, but Wolly has not given me a second to myself." She grinned, skidding to a halt in front of Myka and dumping an arm load of power tools on the conveyer belt, narrowly missing Myka's tomatoes. "Wolly, meet my new friend, Myka." The young man, who had an even larger armload of items, dumped them too, smiling at Myka as he tried to wipe the sheen of sweat off his forehead with his shoulder.
"Hello, Myka," he smiled, sticking out his hand. Myka shook it: it was a clammy handshake but the young man had a friendly smile.
"Hello," Myka replied, nervous smile playing on her lips. Helena grinned at her and stepped closer to Myka, cutting off her view from Wolly. All too aware that Rose Soto was standing right behind her, Myka stepped back, banging against the conveyor belt. Helena tilted her head in confusion.
"How are you?" Helena asked, brow furrowing.
"Fine, fine, fine," Myka muttered, looking down at the floor again. "I'm fine." Helena laughed.
"Are you sure?" She offered, smirking. Myka swallowed.
"I'm sure I'm fine," Myka repeated again. Helena shrugged.
"Want to do something tomorrow? I know its Sunday but I was thinking perhaps we could -"
"No, no Sunday, I can't do Sunday," Myka interrupted. Helena tilted her head.
"Why?"
"I work at the library up on the hill."
"Isn't Sunday your day off? Isn't Sunday everyone's day off?"
"No, the library is open 24/7. In case, you know, someone needs it." Behind her, Rose Soto guaffed at the idea. Myka and Helena both sent her a glare before Helena's eyes shifted back to Myka. "I usually take the graveyard shift because they pay better."
"So you work on the weekend?" Helena clarified.
"And in the evenings." Myka agreed.
"So when normal people hang out?"
"I work," Myka finished the sentence. It used to work so well for her, because while she worked she could do homework and Pete would sometimes join her and they would study on the library roof under the stars. Now she's lonely: Pete used this new graduated life to sleep all the time and none of Myka's other friends, few other friends that is, wanted to enjoy an empty library at 3am.
It was an acquired taste, she supposed.
Helena just watched Myka carefully. She stepped closer to her again, light smile playing on her lips. "I could come up and join you," she offered, and Myka knew there was seduction in her voice. And all she could think of was Rose Soto on her phone behind her watching Myka be seduced. Rose Soto, with her phone in her hand, who could tell everyone. Rose Soto with her little pea sized brain and small town attitude. Suddenly all Myka could think of was her father, sighing and shaking his head. Myka's breath hitched in her throat. Her father would be so disappointed. She stared at Helena, too close now and she ducked and ran.
Helena blinked after Myka and glanced at Wolly in confusion. Wolly just tactfully hid a smile. "You can come on strong, Helena," He explained. Helena rolled her eyes at him. Rose Soto looked up from her phone.
"Where did she go?" She asked Helena, dumbly. "She forgot her tomatoes."
Myka just spent the whole ride home cursing her own cowardice. And the fact that she didn't have Helena's number.
Dinner at the Bering household consisted of a tomato-less lentil soup. "I just can't believe they ran out of tomatoes!" Jeannie shook her head.
"Did they run out of all tomatoes?" Warren tried to clarify. "I mean, you could have brought back cherry tomatoes if they didn't have any of the normal kind."
"None," Myka squeaked. "There were no tomatoes."
"At Soto's Grocery too," Jeannie muttered, truly aghast.
"Stop stressing about it, Mom."
"I'm not stressing! Just surprised! Maggie always runs such a good shop!" Myka buried her face in her hands.
"Sit up," her father corrected her. Myka snapped up and spent the rest of the meal trying to sort out the feeling of lead in her stomach. She wished that the lie to her mother hadn't been such a big deal: she also wished her own reaction to Helena that morning hadn't been such a big deal. She also wished it wasn't Saturday.
What kind of person ran like that?
Myka did the dishes slowly, forcing herself to try and think of a solution to her problem. She couldn't.
Myka hovered in Tracy's doorway for a full minute before her sister looked up from her sister looked up from her laptop and caught sight of her. "Oh, Hi Myka." She glanced around her room, searching for any of Myka's belongings that Myka could be searching for. Coming up empty, she glanced at her sister who remained silent. "Do you need something? Does Dad want me?" Tracy prompted. Myka worried her lip and shook her head.
"No, it's all fine," she hummed, walking into the centre of the room and standing there awkwardly. Tracy's brow furrowed.
"Can I help you?" Tracy asked again, tilting her head. Myka swallowed and sat down on the edge of her sister's unmade bed.
"Yes," Myka admitted. Tracy watched her sister for half a minute before she sighed, gently closed her old laptop and sat down on the bed next to Myka. "Myka, what is it?" She asked, uncharacteristic sisterly concern evident in her voice. Myka stared at her hands.
"How far, have you, you know, gone on the first date?" Myka asked, mumbling out the question awkwardly.
"With a boy?" Tracy clarified. Myka glanced at the ceiling before she nodded timidly. Tracy grinned.
"I gave Toby Henson a hand job in the cinema," Tracy offered in a conspiratorial giggle. "It was really really exhausting. I had cramps in my hand for like days afterwards." Myka stared at her sister, half scandalized, half relieved that Tracy could be her guide on this matter.
"Do you remember the first time you kissed him? Was it really intense?" Tracy smirked again.
"Of course! But you've kissed someone too! You and Sam went out for like, a year!"
"Nine months," Myka corrected automatically. Tracy rolled her eyes.
"What is this about, Myka?"
"Nothing," Myka brushed off the comment and stood up again. Tracy grabbed her wrist.
"What happened last night?" Tracy narrowed her eyes. Myka shook her off and walked to the door.
"Nothing. Nothing happened."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, of course I'm sure." Myka was getting annoyed at her sister's probing and at herself for feeling so off kilter. Her sister was right. She'd kissed Sam a million times before: there was no good reason that this kiss should have affected her all the more.
"Okay, because you know, if there was anything, I would rather hear it from you than from slutbags like Fannie Reva Camacho." Myka blinked.
"Why would you hear stuff about me from her? Do you gossip about me?!" Tracy laughed.
"Gossip about you isn't exactly blowing up the twitterverse, Myka." Myka just stared in confusion.
"The what?" She asked.
"Twitterverse. As in the social networking site, twitter." Tracy flicked her hair in her usual know-it-all pose. Myka sighed and rolled her eyes.
"I know what twitter is," Myka snapped back.
"You actually need to do things in order for there to be things to gossip about!" Tracy added as Myka walked away.
"Thanks for your help," Myka snapped over her shoulder. Tracy just flicked her hair. Myka stomped into her own room and opened her laptop, exasperated. She would have to scauer the twittersphere herself to see if Rose Soto had said anything. Myka gulped at the idea.
An email from Artie, her boss at the library, caught her attention first.
"Good news and bad news," read the subject. Myka's brow furrowed as the familiar and completely unnecessary sinking feeling of 'what did I do' settled in her stomach. She waited patiently as the slow internet loaded the email.
"Good news is there is a new volunteer in the library. Bad news is that she doesn't understand anything of the nuances of being a librarian and so I am teaming her up with you. She and you will start working together as of tomorrow.
Good luck: she is very annoying. And arrogant. Mainly annoying." Myka chuckled at the email, Artie's annoyance at the situation dissipating the feeling of unease in her stomach. She smirked at the email. She had a pretty good idea who fit the bill of 'annoying' and 'arrogant'.
"I think Helena Wells is working at the library with me," Myka texted to Pete. The reply was instant.
"I hate you." Myka grinned and twirled in her chair. Perhaps she would be able to redeem herself from this morning. And if there was any place better than the library at 3am, then Myka just didn't know.
if ur annoyed this doesn't have library sex yet (legit complaint i feel u bro) check out my story 'Lights Out' bc yes that is also library sex. What? ITS COOL OKAY. (also yes american food DOES seem that cheap to me)