Hey all!
So I started a new job recently and over Christmas Break I was doing a lot of work. Long days, good pay. But I'm back now and really getting an idea of where this story is headed. I hope you're enjoying it, so please review if you've got anything to say! As always thanks for supporting my writing and sticking with me through long hiatuses. ^_^
-Song
Without thinking much about it, Will found himself crawling out of bed on Saturday morning and headed for the bookstore. He didn't know what lead him there, or what was moving his feet, but he couldn't stop himself. Half asleep he plodded through the city in old sneakers and wondered what to do with himself now that he had quit his job.
He'd never quit a job in his life. Now that the light of day was staring him in the face, he realized what a horrible decision it was. Penny was so sick… he didn't know how he would pay for any of the medical expenses without a job.
What about rent?
"You… need something, Will?"
Without realizing it, Will had made it to his destination, and was now looking directly at the bookstore owner, Nate. Nate was holding a set of keys and looked like he was just about to open up before Will had interrupted him.
"Oh, uh…" He hesitated outside the door. "I was just, I mean, I just wanted to go for a walk." A zombie-like walk, as it turned out.
"All the way here? Didn't you say you lived up on 34th?"
"Yeah."
Nate gave him an inquisitive look but shrugged. He wiggled the keys in his hand. "Better come in, then."
"Thank you."
They entered the shop together, which was dark and cool, taking them out of the warm morning air. The weather had finally cleared, and now Jump City was heating back up in the summer sun.
"Rose is usually the only one who shows up this early." Nate commented, heading toward the back room. Quill, the cat, rounded a bookshelf and mewed at Will.
"Is she coming, today?"
Nate didn't hear him.
Will knelt down to the rusty cat and scratched it behind the ears. It pulled away and sniffed Will's had before allowing him to pet it further. As the two of them got better acquainted, Nate began brewing coffee and turned on the lights.
"Did you say something?"
"Oh, um… the cat, does he always live here?"
"Yeah," Nate started the cashier system up. "Tried bringing him home with me once, but he doesn't like my place. So he sleeps here at night."
"That's sweet."
"He keeps me company," Nate smiled. "So."
"So?" Will obeyed when Nate motioned for him to sit by the cracked storefront window.
"So, what are you really doing here?"
Will didn't know what to say. He thought about the place where a rock had hit the window and cracked it, where Rose had once sat. He thought that maybe, if he concentrated hard enough, he'd be able to smell her in the air beyond the dust of the store.
"Will?"
Nothing. Will thought. "I really did just want to walk."
"You quit your job, I remember." Nate said softly.
Will froze up a little. The coffee maker beeped.
Nate sighed and rose from his chair. Will could hear the old man's joints creak a little bit. "I know what it's like to be unemployed, Will."
I don't really want to talk about this now… In the reflection of the window, the young man with dark hair and green eyes staring back at Will felt completely unfamiliar.
"What do you think?"
Will's head snapped up. "Think about what?"
"About what I just said - about working here!" Nate offered Will a cup of coffee and looked both amused and impatient. "What d'you say?"
"Work? Here?"
"What's wrong with that?" Nate frowned.
Will took the mug and shook his head frantically. "No! No, I mean, I want to be a chef…"
"So?"
"What do you mean, SO?" Will was impatient now. "I want to cook, I want to run a kitchen someday."
"We've got a kitchen."
"You have a coffee maker, and there is no we."
Nate put his hands up for a 'time-out'.
"Look," The old man leaned forward in his old chair. "Until you get back on your feet, you'll need money. Work here while you find your passion."
"Why?"
"Why?" Nate scoffed. "Because I own my own business and I can give out jobs to whomever I please, boy."
The two of them stared one another down.
"Can I think about-"
"No." Nate smiled and extended a hand.
Will took it and shook it apprehensively.
Sunday morning was warm and wet. If they'd lived in the country, Rose was sure that cicadas would be chirping from tall grasses and cats would be lounging on front stoops. But Rose lived in Jump City, and when the day was particularly hot and wet, there was usually trouble not far behind.
She rode her bike warily down the hill. Rose remembered reading something about how during heat waves people would get murderous over the littlest of things. Today, she supposed that nearly running over that chihuahua again would be grounds for a killing.
When she finally made it to the bottom of the hill and bent down on the the brakes of her bike she breathed a sigh of relief. No one had cat-called her, threatened her or followed her under the delusion of summer sun. Then she felt and heard a loud snap beneath her and the brakes gave out.
"Oh, no no no!" Rose gasped. Her front wheel hit the curb at the bottom of the hill and then she was thrown sideways off of the bike.
"Hey!" called out a voice, but Rose had already smacked into the concrete as her bike flew into traffic and was hit by a taxi.
"Ah!" She cried out and hissed between her teeth. In summer atire, a blouse and shorts, Rose's soft arms and legs were torn up by the cement. She curled into a defensive fetal position and tried not to cry.
"Hey, hey! Rose!?" The voice came again.
Will rushed over to her but dared not touch her. He'd been sweeping outside the bookstore door when Rose had come racing by on her bike. The man in the taxi jumped out and started screaming angrily, but stopped once he realized that someone was hurt.
"Yo, she okay?" He called out tentatively.
"Rose?" Will called again. He knelt down and brushed hair from her face. Regardless of her efforts, Rose started crying.
The sight of her blood on the ground made Will's stomach turn and he felt his hands shake. "I'll grab help, do you need me to call 911?"
She shook her head, but neither of them knew if she meant "no" or if she meant "I don't know".
"NATE!" Will yelled back at the shop before getting up and running for help.
Rose was surprised at the commanding urgency of the tone, and the concern that it held. Unable to stop crying or bleeding onto the street, she simply laid there, helpless. Somewhere in her hip a loose stone was digging into her.
"I didn't mean anything about the bike." The taxi driver mumbled above her. "Sorry bout' that…"
A second later heavy footsteps were coming toward her.
"What the hell happened?" Nate's voice came from above. "Rose? You doin' okay? Of course not - Will, call someone!"
"No," Rose hissed. "No, I'll be okay, just-ah!" She hissed again when she tried to move. The open wound scraping on stone. "I just need help getting up, please."
"Don't just stand there!" Nate's voice hissed at Will, sounding angry but coming from a place of concern and fear.
Will hesitated briefly, knowing that to move an injured person was a terrible decision, especially if they'd broken anything or hurt their head, but she seemed all-there so he scooped her light frame up and carried her bleeding figure into the bookstore. He felt his stomach doing flip flops to feel the wet blood on his arms and he hated the pained and crying expression on her face.
Rose could feel both their hearts pounding between them.
The three of them left the taxi driver behind with the broken bike.
...
Will lay Rose gingerly on the couch in the back room by the heater and the cat. She whimpered and it made him cringe at the sound.
"Hey, seriously, do I need to call 911? The army? The Teen Titans?" He asked, half-joking. She smiled up at him and his stomach flip-flopped again.
"No," She breathed. "Can you...?"
"What?" He asked.
Nate came into the room. "Brought some rubbing alcohol, some gauze and stuff." The older man awkwardly hovered. "That enough?"
She nodded, "Mhm, thanks. It's just, there's gravel in my leg I think..."
"Oh," Will nodded. "Here, let me get it."
Will took the rubbing alcohol, the gauze and a small washcloth from Nate and gently rubbed at the dirt and rock and blood on the side of Rose's leg. She hissed but he persisted, knowing that it was better to get it cleaned quickly than make allowances for the pain. A nasty bruise was already forming on her shoulder and arm. Nate stood above them and critiqued his methods the whole time.
"Now, come on you need to get that spot, too." Nate snapped. "Look its filthy, you want her to get infected?"
Rose rolled her eyes as the two of them went to work on her. Now only a sore ache after the initial pain of road burn and rocks pressing into her, she was starting to come back to her senses. "Thank you."
"Of course." They both replied in unison.
Even Quill the cat seemed to be concerned about her because he crawled up on her chest and neck to nuzzle her face and smother her in rusty brown fur.
"Thanks, Quill." She 'pfft' some cat hair out of her mouth and smiled. Then she hissed again as Will started on her shoulder which was probably the most torn up part.
"Just had to land on your arm, didn't you?"
"Better than my head." She joked.
Nate didn't find it funny. "I'm getting you a helmet, little girl."
"Hey, the brakes gave out, that's not my fault." She narrowed her eyes, but the grandfather-like bookstore owner only crossed his arms.
"Fine, but I won't wear it in this heat."
After the gauze and bandages were applied with a good layer of anti-bacterial cream, the two of the men left her to lay down for a while and returned to the front of the store. Rose lay there and stared at the space heater, which was thankfully turned off, as she absently scratched the ears of the concerned cat.
That was sweet of them, She thought. Like...really sweet.
She smiled to herself as Quill stretched languidly over her chest. It was nice, she figured, to have people in your life to care about you so much.
Rose was new to Jump City and the city never let her forget it. Everyone she met told her, "Oh, you're a newbie aren't you?" or "You're new, you'll get used to it". While she knew that they were trying to be nice, welcoming even, it still made her feel absolutely alone. She'd moved into her apartment alone. She ate alone every night. She walked the streets still sometimes having to consult maps, and she never went out after dark unless someone like Mike were with her. Jump City was lonely.
Except for this day. Today she felt so not-alone that it made her heart swell with happiness. So happy that it didn't matter that she lay on that old couch feeling like half of her was throbbing and on fire at the same time. So happy that it didn't matter that she was going to miss reading that Sunday morning (she could even hear Nate making apologies on her behalf).
So incredibly happy that she lay back down on the couch and sighed contentedly.
"Today," she whispered to Quill. "Today is an okay day, I think."