Maybe This Christmas ~ Bill Kaulitz

Chapter 2 ~ A better day

Sophie was pinning felt hearts and snowflakes up when I got back into the shop, rubbing my arms to get rid of the goosebumps. 

"And that was?" 

I shrugged, walking to a case of necklaces and rings, looking at them. "I have no clue. Some kid who got lost." I lifted out a necklace with butterflies on it. "Hey Soph, can I have this? I give you a fiver for it." 

She turned and frowned, squinting to see what I was holding. "A fiver for that? Please. It's worth half that." she sniffed, going back to her decorating. "Anyway, that guy was very tall. Did you see how tall he was?" 

I opened the till, placing in some money from my pocket and putting the necklace on. "No. All the while I was talking to him I was too busy looking at what the shop across the road was selling to notice his height." I muttered. 

"Alright, enough of the sarcasm. Thank you very much." 

I sighed, turning to lean against the counter, looking at all the employes of the shop, past and present. Sophie had stuck tinsel between the pictures, giving them a festive spark. 

One picture caught my eye.  It was me, smiling a proper smile for once. Not a fake one. My hair was a mess, mostly covering my face, but I was happy. 'Holly' was written in the corner in big lilac letters, a small heart beside it. 

The next picture along pained me to look at it. The smiling face, the sky blue eyes, the soft brown hair. 

"How are you coping this year?" Sophie asked gently, resting her hand on my shoulder. 

"Coping with what?" 

"Coping with that. I know last year was very hard for you. Are you alright?" she nodded towards the picture. 

I sighed, pulling my sleeves down further to cover my wrists. "I'm fine. Just fine. It's all in the past, yeah. What's done is done." I could feel tears welling up in my eyes. I turned, resting my hands on the cold counter, sniffing. 

"I'll take it down if you want me too." she told me, walking round to look me in the face. 

I clenched my jaw together, shaking my head. "He deserves to stay." I whispered, looking down at the floor. 

There was a silence between us, an uneasy silence that we both understood too well. 

"Go dry your eyes in the back room. I'll make you some coffee and we can chat for a while before we open up." 

"I'm not crying." 

"You are, you want to. Go on. Have a bit if personal space." she nodded towards the door that led trough to the back of the shop where we kept all our junk. 

Over the years we had slowly collected up bits of rubbish, putting them in the room to make it more homely. Currently, we had two big arm chairs, a old sofa, a dark oak coffee table, several laptops and more than enough small electrical contraptions that were supposedly designed to make life better. 

I sat down on my spot on the sofa, curling up into a ball, pressing my hands to my eyes to try and stem the steady flow of silent tears that were dribbling from my eyes.

'Pull yourself together Holly' I thought, trying my hardest to stop the crying. 'This isn't what he would have wanted. Stay strong Holly, stay strong.' 

"Coffee. Coffee. I've got coffee." Sophie came in the room, sitting down heavily beside me and handing me a mug.