little bird // r.keene

xlii. passersby.

The Bookshelf was full of light and colour that night. Brimming with laughter and music.

Mr James's record player was out and filling the room with sweet tunes, he even cracked open a bottle of wine, which the kids thought was a bit fancy but Will didn't object; Robby and Wren just looked at each other and smiled.

Whilst Wren had been out picking up her boys, Mr James closed the shop early and with the help of a young man who had been in the shop as it was shutting and who was feeling generous, they had strung fairy lights across the rafters.

The room glowed, there was no better way of putting it. And as well as that, a small table had been brought forward into the shop floor, four chairs circling it.

Wren, she couldn't stop smiling.

Mr James had been in his arm chair when they returned and immediately pushed himself up, seemingly effortlessly even though he needed help most of the time and hugged each and every one of them for as long as he could.

"William!" He grinned, waving his walking stick about and almost hitting Robby, which only made them all laugh. "
Oh my, haven't you grown." Will hugged the old man back.

"Mr James, is it just me or have you shrunk?" Will asked playfully, making Mr James flip him off, which sent Wren into fits of laughter that she thought might split her sides in two.

Next, Mr James hugged Robby and oh, how they both smiled. "Good to see you again, my boy. Quite the shiner you've got there." Mr James uttered, nodding to the bruise on Robby's cheekbone. No one had mentioned the fight and none of them planned on getting into it tonight.
Tonight wasn't about that. Tonight they were to celebrate.

"Good to see you too Mr James." Robby chuckled, "You should have seen the other guy." Robby threw a knowing look at Will who just smirked, slinging his bruised knuckles in his pockets.

Wren wanted to ask but she didn't, and frankly, at that moment, she didn't care... All that mattered is that they were here. Smiling. And with her again.

Will and Robby had been stripped of their homes. Wren had been unravelling these past few months and Mr James had been forced to watch in close proximity- unknowing of how to help with no one to turn to...

These last few months had been difficult for all of them, and Will a lot longer, and yet, that night marked the first of many that would look just like it they thought.

"I cracked this out..." Mr James wandered over to a shelf on the far side of the room and pulled out a board game. Wren pressed her face into her palms in a mocking embarrassment.

"Seriously?" She asked, gesturing to the game, "You're so old school, Noah." She teased, looking for Robby to back her up because she saw he had a small glint of mischief shining in his eyes.

"I think it will be fun." He smirked and moved to take a seat at the table, Wren's eyes trailed to Will in a way that said 'can you believe this guy', to which he only shrugged- also smiling- and took a seat too.

"You're only groaning because you know you always lose Little Bird, nothing more too it." Mr James quipped, setting up the game on the table. Will and Robby had taken a perch on either side of him.

"Oh, he's calling you out Wren..." Will snickered, resting his arms crossed behind his head as he leans back in his chair. As if this was some sort of show and there was going to be a fight. A habit he had picked up in juvie.

"Oh, is he now?" She taunted playfully, edging closer to the table and placing her hands on the back of the last empty chair. "That true, Noah?" She asked, eyeing down Mr James who was casually placing pieces on the board, paying her no mind.

"I think he is." Robby uttered, trying to muffle his words with his sleeve as he tried to contain his amusement.

"Well," Mr James reached into his pocket, taking out his glasses case. And keeping eye contact with Wren, slid his reading glasses up the bridge of his nose with his forefinger before resting both his hands on the table, mirroring Wren. "If the shoe fits...."

"Oooo, there's going to be blood-" Will offered, leaning forward again in his chair, "Will there be blood Mr James?"

"Don't bleed on my floor, William. It won't end well for you." Mr James told him almost instantly, making Wren chuckle when she saw the small look of alarm plastered on Will's face.

"Yes sir." Will agreed, faking a small salute.

Robby was gone, pieces of laughter chorusing off him as he tried to get his shoulders to stop shaking. "I like scary Mr James..."
"Trust me," Wren said, finally sitting down, "He may seem like a teddy bear but when it comes to games... He is lethal, he somehow manages to trick you into a false sense of security and then when you think you're fine. He strikes. It's so annoying but- yeah, no, it's just annoying."

Wren explained and Mr James fixed her with a glare as he too took his seat, all of them were now huddled around the table. "Wren, you're giving away all my secrets."

"Oh I'm not letting either of these poor souls underestimate you Noah, if anything it's a compliment." Wren said flatly, picking up the dice and just like that: Their game began.

As the sun began to set, the game dragged on, for hours it seemed... Laughter, shouting, venomous banter that stringed time along, making it seem endless and that is how they all wanted it to be.

To anyone passing by the shop it may have seemed like a war game, though pieces were not thrown, everyone was riled up and having fun. But to some people who knew... It was a lot more than that.

And Sam knew it...

Sam had arrived, standing down the street, heading towards the shop when she spotted all four of them through the warm glow of the shop window from afar.

Wren. Robby. Mr James and a boy she didn't recognise.

She knew Robby got out that afternoon, he never replied to any of the emails she sent, but she knew. She was now aware, thanks to her father, that Wren had been hiding Robby so she knew... She knew he would be at The Bookshelf.

But standing there, seeing it with her own eyes, these people, despite all odds and the horrible cards they had been dealt- having fun together...

Sam felt her stomach lie in notts, she couldn't even remember the last time she had played a board game with her family... Not since she was small, they were always rapt in their work and the dealership... Of course, they spent time together; her mom, dad, Anthony... But it never looked like it did in The Bookshelf that night.

Standing there, on the shadowy street, Sam couldn't help feeling like she had made a terrible mistake. Her fingers cupped her upper arm, smoothing over the scar she knew lay under her jacket that Tory had given her at the school fight.

Feeling those indentations engraved in her skin, Sam remembered Tory's face when she gave her that scar, Wren screaming, watching Miguel fall and Robby run... Sam knew nothing could ever be the same.

Sam, like Wren, always tried to do the right thing... And she was going to try and fix it... All of it if she could.
But right now, right then... She was just a passerby. And there was only one person she felt like she could turn to.

Someone who hated Wren as much as she did.