Songs destined for us (l.s)

Chapter one

I'm stressed. I had a busy day at my bookstore and some costumers were doing my head in. Apparently it's my fault that a certain author hasn't added a third book to their series yet. The argument took at least 30 minutes. After that I had a lot of paper work to do. That was the downside of owning a bookstore. To tell you, I was exhausted.

I own a bookstore in LA. It isn't big, actually it is rather small, but I couldn't afford a bigger place at the time.

When my ex-girlfriend told me that she was pregnant and that she didn't want to keep the baby, I was shocked. I didn't expect to be a father at 21 but when I heard the news I was excited. Don't get me wrong, I was scared too, it's literally a human being, but the happiness and excitement that I felt were so much stronger.  When I told her that I wanted to keep the baby, we decided that she was going to get through the pregnancy but when the baby was born that she didn't want to be in the baby's life anymore.

So the next day I stopped school and looked for a job. I was wandering around the streets looking for places where I could work. That's when I saw it, a sign in the window from an old bookstore. When I walked in to the place I couldn't believe my eyes. It was everything I wanted. It was a small and cozy place. The first things you see were the old shelves with lots of books. From the looks of it, there were some real old ones but also new books. And in the corner in the back was a red comfy couch where you can read. It was antique just how a bookstore should be. Every person who loves to read books would like it.  So I was sold from the second I walked into the shop. After that I fell more in love with it every single day.

Now back to the present, I was on my way to preschool to pick up my daughter.  Normally Lily was really happy to be there but when I called 20 minutes ago to tell them that I was going to be ten minutes late they told me that Lily wasn't her usual self. That she seemed sad, but they didn't see any fights with other children or anything. And when they asked her what was wrong she said that she was fine.

So I finished up as fast as I could at the bookstore and drove to the preschool.

When I arrived at the school, I went straight to the classroom where I knew my daughter would be. I can't believe that it's already almost a year that Lily goes to school.

I was walking in the hallway when I heard someone crying. It came from the classroom where my daughter is, so I quickened my pace. When I opened the door I saw my own daughter with tears on her cheeks.

"Oh Lily" I said. I ran towards her en took her in my arm.

"Da-ddy" she sobbed. I picked her up and rubbed her back with my hand while I whispered sweet things in her ear. "Sssh, it's okay darling, it's okay. You're fine, I'm here now sweetheart." I tried to comfort her.

Slowly the sobbing calmed down. But her hands grabbed my T-shirt like her life depends on it. She wouldn't let go. I know she was still silently crying. I felt her tears falling on my chest. It kills me to see my daughter like this.

"Hello sweetheart, do you wanna tell me what happened?" I asked. Lily shook her head and hid her face in my neck. I let her be, I know that later she is going to tell it herself what was wrong and if that isn't going to happen than I'm going to ask her again. "That's alright, do you wanna go home?" I felt her nod against my neck. I looked at the teacher and gave her a small smile
"thank you, will see you tomorrow."

I make sure that I had everything and carried Lily to the car. Lily was silently crying in my shoulder. I put her in the car and put her seatbelt on. After that I walked to the driver's seat and looked in the rearview mirror. It's never been this bad.

During the car ride I tried to sheer her up, but she's still crying, and I don't know what to do anymore. I tried to tell jokes with no success and Lily always had to laugh at my jokes. I even asked if she wanted ice cream with no such luck. And that was really weird, she never said no to ice cream.

So now I just don't say anything anymore. I hear her crying and it kills me. Maybe music will help. I turn the radio on and there is some rap song on that I don't know. After a few seconds I change the station because I couldn't stand to listen to it anymore. "Oh the fray, see that's some good music." I whisper to myself. I begin to hum along with the song.

After the song ends, comes a song I've never heard before. It's not the normal pop song that all the radio stations play these days.

I got so lost in my thoughts that I didn't notice till after a minute that Lily has finally stopped crying. I look in the rearview mirror and see her humming along with the song. I feel myself beginning to smile.  "You like that song Lily?" Lily looks at me and gives a shy nod. After that I begin to really listen to the song and my smile widens "Mmh, yeah you're right darling it's a good song, isn't it?" I begin humming along with the song and look at my daughter one more time. Lily is nodding and humming along with a hint of a smile on her face.

Slowly we hear the song come to an end. "This was the new song 'sweet creature' from Harry Styles" the radio host announces. Harry styles, mmmh never heard of him before, but good song and voice too actually.

When we arrive home Lily is her sweet, happy self again. Lily gives me a hug, looks up at me with her beautiful blue eyes and says "Daddy, hungwy". I laugh at that.

"I'm hungry too sweetheart, what do you wanna eat?" I ask her. "Pissa!" She yelled. "You really are my daughter" I laughed.  "Okay I will call for pizza. We have a little time to play before we can eat, so what do you wanna do?"

Lily jumped up and down and smiled "colouw with daddy".  "Do you wanna colour with me?" I confirmed. She nodded enthusiastically.  "Okay go get the pencils. I'll be there in a minute, first I'm gonna call for pizza."

After the call I go to her and I see her colouring in her new princess colour book I gave her not long ago. "Do you like the new book sweetheart?" I ask. She nods and gives me a wide smile that makes her eyes crinkle. She gives me another colour book, this one got a lot of football pictures in. She asks "Daddy colouw football ow pwincess?". "I will colour the football because you're doing a really good job at the princes." I tell her.

After five minutes she looks at me with sad eyes and says "Not play wif Jason.". "Didn't you play with Jason today?" Is ask her. She looks down and shakes her head. "Why not?" She looks back up, and I see tears in her eyes, she whispers "Jason say so.".  "Oh darling, why didn't he want to play with you?" I asked her. "Me giwl, boys play." "Only boys could play with Jason?" I asked her to confirm. She nods her head. "You wanted to play with him, isn't it? Maybe he wanted a boy's day today and tomorrow he wants to play with the girls." I said. I see a little of hope in her sad eyes. "Do you know what, boys aren't even that fun anyway, right." I smiled at her. She giggled and says "You boy, daddy fun." I laughed at her and begin to tickle her.

After lots of laughs and our belly's full of pizza, I put her in bed and read her a story. She falls asleep with a smile on her face. "Goodnight sweetheart, I love you." I whisper to her.  She really is the best thing that happened to me.