What is love?

Chapter 8

"Hey, Scarlette, you okay?" March asked as he wave one of his arm in front of my face. "You look...pale."

"I-I'm fine, really." I plastered a fake smile and quickly shove the letter back into the envelope and slides it back to March.

"Then what happened just now? You suddenly gone all pale and-"

"Oh, it's...uhm...a...my-my palms hurt a bit while holding that...thing." I stumbled as I make an excuse.  Man, I can't even say the word 'letter'.

"Do- do you need an ice pack or something? A massage?" He offered as his face morphed into a level two panic. 

"No, no, no, I'm fine. Thanks." I fake my smile once again while slightly massaging my palm under the table.

"Do you want to visit some other place while we're in town? You know, to ease your mind a little bit?"

I hesitated for a while before answering. "I guess I need to go to the bookshop for some school supplies. Some of mine have already run out or got lost."

"Same, I also need a new drawing pencil."

"Drawing pencil? You draw?!"

"Yeah, I take the arts and crafts field. Did you take music?"

I gave him a quick nod. "Wow, I can't believe you're an artistic person. Cookie?" I offered him an oreo.

"Only if you have at least one of these." He offered me a chocolate chip cookie.

"Deal." 

At the same time, we both leaned in towards each other's cookies and take a bite. If there was any nosy, romance enthusiasts in this place, I bet they'll be screaming their head off and began asking stupid questions like 'how long have you guys been dating?' and make stupid comments like 'OMG, both of you are such a cute couple.' or 'I bet you guys are 100% compatible'. Sorry, romance enthusiasts. We're just friends, alright? We're just friends and we're going to stay that way.  

After both of our desserts are finished and paid, we both headed out from The Dessert Dome to find the nearest local bookshop. Since I can't really hold my phone too well, March volunteered to look up the place on his phone instead. To be honest, I can do pretty well if I'm using both my hands, but of course, March refuse to hear me. Luckily, the bookshop is just at the corner of the road. So, it's not much of a walk. The bookshop is not as huge as The Dessert Dome but it is definitely taller. It's some sort of a multi-floor skyscraper, painted white and green with a glass door entrance.

As soon as we entered, we're greeted with a beautiful waft of air freshener and AC coming from some corner of the building. There's also several neat line of plain, white shelves either filled with books or art or school supplies. March and I decided to split up to find our needs before meeting back at the entrance after 30 minutes. If there's still something we need but haven't find yet, we'll go look for it together.

After bidding goodbye to March, I set off for the school supplies section where there are multicolored cups filled with standard black and blue Faber Castell pencils. I started looking for the right type before searching for a mechanical pencil, the lead filler, a couple of erasers, a couple of sharpeners, a long 30 cm ruler, a compass, a protractor and a grid book for math tomorrow. I also spotted a cute, small, agenda notebook which I can use to jot down home works and important stuffs. I really needed those apparently for this year. 

After my supply needs are done, I decided to fulfil my leisure needs. I've already read the novels I brought from home so I needed some new form of entertainment that is sure to last me a lifetime. I directly headed for the horror section before going to the fiction section. The fiction section doesn't have that much horror books - it's mostly fantasies and fairies and stuff - but it's still worth checking.