Virtue and Vice

Chapter One

Bluefield, West Virginia

Many years later...

I was beaming like a fool but I didn't care.

Since I was thirteen, I've had a series of odd part-time jobs on weekends and summers and I did my best to enjoy each one of them. The only one I regretted was my stint at a pet grooming store two summers ago where I sneezed my whole way through it. 

The only job I've always wanted to score was one at Books Cabin, my favorite local bookstore where I'd spent many hours and money in. I'm no academic—romance books made up the bulk of my collection. I've always been perfectly happy to slip away into a fictional world where everything ended happily ever after. It's all I ever needed out of a book.

Books Cabin had been hard to get into though. The small staff had worked there for years and turnover barely happened.

With college a few months away, I had to make one last play to get in there before I moved out of Bluefield. 

So this morning, I printed off my resume, walked over there and handed it to to Lorne who owned and managed the place. He always reminded me of old St. Nick with his silvery hair,  rounded flushed cheeks and gruff laughter. We always got along well considering I was one of his regular customers but I amped up the charm today as I begged and coaxed for just a couple of months on the payroll.

It took about an hour and a half before he said yes, reminding me that he was only taking me on because I was one of his favorite customers and that like his youngest daughter Rebecca, who was heading for NYU this fall, I was moving away.

I bounced out of the bookstore with a stupid grin on my face.

The fact that I haven't heard back yet about my scholarship applications didn't dim my excitement. It still felt like things were looking up for me. The financial assistance would be a massive help but if for some reason I can't qualify, Timothy had assured me that my college money was safely set aside to cover my tuition. The money from the bookstore would help pay some of my initial living expenses until I could score another job around campus. I was setting off for college no matter what and I had the entire summer to spend in the company of happily-ever-afters.

"Cassie!" 

I whipped around the sidewalk and saw a yellow Chevy truck swerve past a cyclist and pull over at the curb next to where I stood.

Kathy and Deanna, two of my closest high school friends, stuck their heads out of the side windows and beamed at me. Their boyfriends, Chad and Nolan, pretty much chorused a 'Yo!' my way. High school boys. 

"Where have you been?" Kathy asked with an attempt at a glare. With her sunny blond hair and bright blue eyes, she always failed at looking anything other than an angel. "We thought you were meeting us at the lake."

"We waited and waited but Nolan had to drive back home for Travis's party," Deanna added with a slight arch of her brow as if to remind me of Nolan's brother's birthday barbecue. "You're still coming to that, right?"

I smiled and nodded. "Of course. I went to apply at Books Cabin, that's why I couldn't make it earlier. Sorry. But they hired me! Can you believe it?"

Kathy groaned and rolled her eyes. "Don't tell me you're spending the entire summer in that bookstore. It's our last summer before college. You've got two months left on your high school life and you're going to waste it around moldy books."

I instantly felt sheepish. 

I didn't have many friends in high school because I seemed to prefer books over people but Kathy and Deanna had stuck by me since middle school and there were many times in the past when I skipped out on them to go book-shopping or read at home instead. I liked most people in our year but to be honest, I wasn't always sold on the usual things that interested them. At times, I felt like I was decades older than the people around me but I try not to spoil everyone's fun by acting like it. So when the girls made me promise to spend this summer hitting the lake and attending all the parties we could possibly get into before we parted ways for college, I agreed.