5:00 A.M.

Auden

I of all people am perhaps the least opposed to a good adventure, so maybe that's why I accepted the boys offer so quickly. Some may say I'm impulsive and maybe that's true but I like to think of it as being spontaneous and whimsical. Nevertheless, here I am, watching the boy in my peripherals as he sorts books in the kiddie section. It occurs to me that I don't know his name, or even his intentions and if anything my mother has ever taught me rang true, it was stranger danger.

"Hey, what's your name?" He looks up from sorting and smiles in a calculated way, like maybe he'd stood for hours in front of a mirror, deciding how he should curve his lips and exactly how much teeth to show. I smiled back with a calculated smile of my own.

"Shawn, and you?" It didn't occur to me that I was a stranger to him as well, he seemed to just know everything about me, in a non creepy serial killer way of course.

"It's Auden."
I watched his mouth curl up at the corner and his eyes squint until he chuckled. I couldn't place why he was laughing so being me, I got defensive.

"Why are you laughing? I happen to like my name, not that it's any of your business."
He turns to me and drags his teeth across his bottom lip, not seductively, but like he was mulling over what to say, like he was trying to take me all in.

"Auden sounds like Autumn, which was my mothers name. Also you just look like and Autumn, it's hard to explain."
I notice how his posture changes at the mention of his mother. His eyes no longer connect with mine and and I can tell that somethings off. I decide to push further. I figure I have the right, I mean technically I am his boss now. Not to mention the fact that I'm providing him shelter.

"You said was."

"Huh."
He looks up from the books he'd shifted his attention to.

"When you mentioned your mother you said her name was Autumn."
I watch him brush his hands against his thighs again, I wonder if it's a nervous habit. I wonder if he has a lot of nervous habits.

"Uhm...yeah, she passed away about a year ago. Car accident."
He has no tone in his voice, like he's trained himself exactly how to pronounce each syllable monotonously. Despite his lack of emotion, I find myself drenched in pity for him.

There he was, his face smudged with dirt, holes in his jeans but I could tell they didn't come that way. I figured he was homeless and for a moment I felt like the heroin of my own little story, providing him with a place to stay.

"I'm so sorry."
I hate myself for a moment. I did "the thing." I changed my tone of voice, gave the boy a look of pity, and said those three meaningless words. Those words would never bring back his mom and I'd learned the hard way, that they'd never bring back my grandad.

"It'll be okay." He stared intensely at the spine of Black Beauty, instead of meeting my gaze.

I walked back to the shelf I'd been working on before, but I couldn't get what he'd said out of my mind. I'd never heard someone respond to "I'm sorry," that way. He was certainly much stronger than me. "It'll be okay."

It feels like hours pass before somebody, a tall man with a shiny bald head, dressed in a slick suit, walks into the shop.

The man approaches Shawn with his hands in his pockets and an arrogant smug plastered across his face.
"I'm looking for a miss Auden Cael Caverly."

Shawn looks up in trepidation at the man, who is easily a foot taller than him. His mouth lays open but only syllables come out, he starts a word but then repeats it, as if he didn't say it well enough the first time. I can't watch him struggle for long so I step out from behind a book case.

"That's me, what do you need?"
He turns his gaze to me and I see what for a moment looks like abhorrence dance across his eyes, but of course the look is gone so fast I can hardly tell.

"I've been instructed to tell you that your things must be removed from these premises by Wednesday, September 27, two days from now, at precisely 5am." He flashes me a smile that says he adores his job, ruining the lives of others.

"Unless that is you can find a way to pay your six month overdue bill of three million dollars."
Another smile.

I stand there mouth wide open in shock, I try to speak but like Shawn all I can get out is syllables. I watch the man's shiny head walk out of Blanchard's Book Store and tape a yellow eviction notice on the glass door.

Shawn's hand flies up and out of the corner of my eye I watch him flick the man off, whilst he places the last piece of tape. It's almost enough to make me smile after watching my world crash and burn before my eyes.
____________________

Hey look here's a new chapter! I have so many ideas for this book but the hard part is putting them all in order.
We'll see how this goes then.
Also please do not hesitate to correct my mistakes/critique my work/etc.
All criticism is good criticism. This is just a rough draft, of course.
I also have a feeling that I'm terrible with commas. I use too many I think. So help please😂
8-17-16