Life's Next Chapter

Bookish Love

"I checked my phone one time and I lost her," Albert muttered under his breath as he walked to the next section in the store. They were currently at the mall for a simple date. Well it wasn't considered a date, but it might as well be. They went window shopping and may have bought matching hoodies and some stuff they could decorate it with. Brooklyn's idea, not his. Of course Albert liked the idea and they ended up getting little patches and iron ons that reminded them of their relationship, of the other, and matching his and hers items.

After that, they were on their way to the food court, and by dumb luck they passed the book store, which Brooklyn asked if they could go into. She said she wasn't going to buy anything, just to browse around for the next time she wanted to get a haul. She had a whole process of saving up and making sure she had at least ten to five books she wanted to get before making the purchase. Naturally, Albert said why not. They walked hand in hand, then Brooklyn walked up to the nearest display and started looking around, he got a text from Race about how their trio was no more. Albert knew not to take it seriously. It happened every time he went out with Brooklyn. And when he looked up, the freckled girl was suddenly gone. He should've known she was like a kid in a candy shop. One minute she's in front of him, and then poof, she's lost.

He really needed to get one of those "if lost return to -" shirts. Or something. The only good thing was that Albert knew what Brooklyn's preference in genres were. Mostly anything to do with romance, YA books and occasionally she'd pick up fantasy and or dystopia. Sometimes she'd be lost in the notebook section getting all excited over the cute covers, pens and bookmarks. Now, Brooklyn never said she had a happy place, but Albert knew any book store was indeed her happy place. Well that and when she's with him. Though she's never admitted that out loud either, it was more of an intuition than anything else. She wasn't as reserved or quiet when they were alone. Or at least it wasn't as bad when they were together without any of the other boys in sight. But as soon as someone would show up Brooklyn's gears would switch just like that. And as much as Albert didn't understand it, as long as she was happy, then he was happy.

However right now, the redhead wasn't too happy with trying to find his girlfriend among the millions of book shelves. He probably looked like an idiot carrying around several shopping bags as he looked for a person rather than through the bookshelves like everyone else in that store.

"Brooklyn," he whispered yelled as he peaked his head between the next shelf only to be met by three strangers. Two girls who were on opposite ends looking through the shelf, and one guy who looked as lost and confused as he did.

"Looking for your girlfriend?" the guy asked.

"Yup," Albert replied. "You too?"

"Yeah," the guy nodded. "Good luck."

"Back at ya," Albert nodded before turning around and made his way to the next shelf. Well, at least he knew he wasn't the only guy in the world who lost track of his girl in a sea full of books. Time and time again he peaked between the shelfs, glanced to the side just in case. When he reached the end he let out a heavy sigh and proceeded to turn around to make his way through the store again. But jumped back a bit when he saw Brooklyn was standing a foot away from him with a stack of books in her hands.

"Ok. I'm ready," she said happily.

"I am never comin' in here with you again," Albert replied with a small laugh. He didn't mean it though. They've gotten to the point in their relationship that he could joke around like that. He's made a few remarks like that in the past to her just to test out the waters, and though it is a part of his natural personality, he sort of already knew where to draw the line when it came to joking around her. "What're you gettin' now?" he asked as he picked up a book that was on top of the pile. "This a summer romance?" of course, the question was pointless seeing as he knew Brooklyn's favorite genre is summer romance, especially in the YA section. Or almost any YA romance novel.