Chapter One
“What do you want for your birthday?” Destiny asks, coming to sit right next to me on the couch in my grandparents’ store. I groan in protest as I’m stolen away from my book, and look up at my dear best friend, Destiny. She folds her long dark legs in front of her and look down at me, sitting on the arm of the couch, chewing on her favorite candy at the store; saltwater taffy.
“I told you, I don’t want anything,” I respond, turning my head back to the book I’m reading. Destiny frowns, and jumps onto the couch, causing me to drop my book, and my glasses to slip down my nose. I glare at her, and she returns the look with a sweet smile.
Destiny is a really nice person, but people are usually nervous around her. Once you get past the odd beauty, the sudden viciousness, and the occasional bitchy-ness, she’s a really good person. I can see that there’s something off about her, but I’m the only person who’s bothered to get close to her without getting nervous.
I shove my glasses onto the bridge of my nose, and pick up my book.
“Oh, come on. You have to want something. Please! Your birthday is tomorrow, and I won’t be able to live with myself if I don’t get you anything,” Destiny says. She’s extremely generous and really nice… y’know, past the bitchy-ness.
“I just want to read, and eat my candy,” I mumble. Our hangout area is in my grandparents’ book and candy store, Yummy Reads, and I’m making it my duty to read all of the books before the end of the summer. I chew on some caramel pieces, and Destiny hisses at me, which isn’t uncommon. I just raise an eyebrow, and continue reading.
“Ugh, is there nothing I can do to make you cave!”
“I’ve seen all your tricks, darling,” I respond. We’ve been friends since the cradle, (five, since I was an extremely small child, I still had to be in my cradle, which is sort of funny, since now I’m like a giant. Almost fourteen and five-ten) and I know that she has some tricks that could make other people do whatever she wanted. Of course, she was pretty, sang well, and was just overall a great person.
“I’ll sing,” she says.
“Hm,” I scoff. She has a great voice. I’ve never sang before, but I know the lyrics to the song she was about to sing, an old song that runs in her family, apparently.
“Everyone has one,” she’d said three years ago. “Mine is a sailor’s call. We call it ‘The Comfort Tear’ in my house. Want to hear it?”
“Do I have one?” I’d asked. Destiny nodded.
“Sure, but you probably won’t know it yet.”
“Why not?”
She didn’t elaborate.
Now I continue to read my book as she begins her family Sailor Call.
“Come to me, my dear sailor boy, it’s getting so lonely up here. Come to me, my dear sailor boy, it’s going to get cold, I fear. I’ll hold you, and warm you, and you’ll be all mine. We’ll lie here forever, until the end of time. Come to me, my dear sailor boy, come give me one tear,” she repeats, and the men in the store cock their heads to the side, slowly getting near her. The attention she brings near us irritates me. I look up, all eyes on her. Except for one. He’s looking at her with a sort of irritated expression on his face. Our eyes connect, and he turns his head, scowling.
“Okay, okay, stop,” I glare. Destiny finishes her line, and smiles at me smugly, and then she looks at the boy who was staring at me earlier, and narrows her eyes.
