Across the Street // Thomas Raggi

0.1 : start begins in the middle.

I can't believe I'm doing this again...

Someone should stop me. Like I mean it. I really ought to be stopped.

But before that. Finally this is our baby Thomas's time to shine.

Enjoy,

Time and date when you start reading the story:

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"I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine." [Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen]

in a pub in Florence, point of view of a girl who hates to be there:

"Should I give you one of the usual?" I asked to the long ,very long, haired boy sitting in the back of the pub. He nodded and I started to prepare his drink. It was an old fashioned. He always drank whiskey.

He put the money on the table once I gave him the drink.

"Is Rosalie not working today?" he asked. He probably knew Rosalie worked today. He always did. But he asked anyway.

"She doesn't want to see you Ethan." I said.

"But she will." he replied, with the cold attitude he always had. I left him alone with his drink to go handle the other customers.

After a while later, I was too tired and I also kind of wondered where Rosalie was. I passed by the loud crowd. I really needed my alone time but this was impossible, if you work at the place where I worked at. Silence was impossible to find. Just like it was impossible for the barely 21 boy who was walking around like a lost dog to find his girlfriend among the crowd. 

I passed them by and arrived to the back room. There were some of the girls changing because they were done with their shifts and new ones had arrived, who were also changing. 

"Your mafia looking ex asked for you. I think he waits for you to talk to him" I told Rosalie when I saw her in the locker's room. She shrugged. "He have to wait longer. For forever, possibly."

I shrugged as well. I didn't really cared about her problems with her ex. Wasn't my business.

My red-brown hair had gotten all messy so I brushed it before I put it into a high pony. I looked at the high heeled boots on my feet. It was a misery to stand in these for the whole night.

Well, it was a misery to be here the whole night. 

"You, once again, look like you are being threatened to be here Medea," I heard Rosalie said. I looked at her. She was wearing the familiar leather bodysuit that we all wore, which barely covered any part of her body with the fishnets. Her long blonde hair was also tied up in a pony tail. Her blue eyes was lined with black eyeshadow and she was wearing red lipstick. Her tattoo covered arm  and back were showing themselves. 

"You could say that," I replied. I wasn't of course threatened but I wasn't pleased to be here either.

"Why don't you find another place to work?" she asked. This was a question I often asked myself as well.

"This place pays well. Besides, it was the only job opportunity when I arrived to Florence."

in a book store across the street, the same day but earlier, point of view of a boy who hates to be there:

"That's why I think it's better that Laurie and Jo didn't end up together-"

I looked at the dirty-blonde haired girl who was talking non-stop as always. She always came to work enthusiastically, to tell me about the book she'd finished the night before. I never actually cared. I didn't like books. Not at all.

"Victoria, can we stop?" I asked her. She curled her lips as if I had just offended her.

"You never listen to the comments about the books." she said.

"Because you always talk about the same things." I said back. "About how everyone was arguing about the ending but you always find the author right. The books you read aren't really different from each other anyways. You only read authors that are praised."

She frowned at me while placing the book in her hand to the shelf. "Authors are always right because they know their books better than we do. Besides, I might be reading authors who are praised but they are praised for a reason. No fame is excrescence."

"I've never heard you say anything more wrong that what you just said."

She looked really offended and she left without saying anything else. I saw her offering help to the curly haired teen who was around our age. 

I started to tidy up the shelf before me and cleaned their dusts. You would think some would get used to the all the dust but no, it always made you uncomfortable. I coughed because of the dust.

After a while, I saw Victoria near me again. "I'm sorry for leaving like that." she said. She always said sorry for things she wasn't supposed to. I didn't like her pettiness. I shrugged.

She was clingy as always. She curled her lips while leaning her shoulder on the bookshelf.

"Thomas," she said my name. "I get that this is your mother's shop and all. But why do you work here if you hate it so much?"

"She pays me well. And she stipulated for me to work here for a year before I leave the city completely."

*

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Hey! This was a short chapter for us to get into the characters a little. I'm not sure what this was but it was a start and I hope we can improve.

I hope you like the book.

Also I think I'll be moving back and forth between point of views. (not in the same chapter like I did  in this one but every once in a while the narrator might change unless it gets confusing)

Yeah, I think that's all for now.

Take care till I figure out the rest of the plot.