Wild

Chapter 12

Astrid's POV

"Cam, hurry up! I need to look at this!" I gestured and ran towards a shop in the corner of the street. Cameron was far behind me, casually sipping on his coffee while holding mine in his other hand. I squealed as I entered an antique shop, the bells above me chiming.

I had a weird thing for antiques. Those little clockworks, paintings, peculiar things that are one of a kind, they seem to apply to me. I have a collection of mini antiques under my bed back in my house. I didn't bring them along because I didn't want anyone to know I collected antiques. Not even my parents know. I had a Cheshire cat figure which looked kind of old, a small, fragile tea set, and an hourglass.

"Hi." The boy behind the cashier greeted me as I picked up a stopwatch hanging from a necklace. It was pretty. I was too attracted by the necklace to acknowledge the boy.

"That's a tea time necklace, similar to the rabbit's in Alice in Wonderland." He introduced, still standing behind the counter.

"How much is this? Where is it from?" I asked, anxiously.

"Well, this one is from United Kingdom, neatly carved. The clockwork still works very well. Much better than any other ones I've seen. If I'm not mistaken that tea time necklace is marked for a hundred and twenty dollars. It's truly originated from England so my boss wanted it to be on high price. Really exquisite, don't you agree?" I realized the slight British accent in the cashier's voice. I really want this necklace, but it is way out of my budget which is three dollars. Of course, who am I kidding? No one would ever sell an antique for only three dollars!

"Yes it's extremely delicate and I would love to have it. Unfortunately, I'm a little low right now. Is it possible that I come to retrieve it soon?"

"Seeing that you're the first person that ever noticed this necklace, yes, I would keep it for you until you wish to purchase it." The cashier boy said and carefully kept the necklace in a bag. "May I have your name?"

"Astrid." I said, and he wrote my name on the bag.

"Very well. Thank you for visiting." He said and disappeared to the storage room. I turned to see Cameron standing behind me this whole time, and me not noticing it.

I rolled my eyes at him as he laughed, and grabbed my coffee from him. We wandered the streets, window shopping and entering different stores and trying out different things. Well, mainly me. But we always exit empty handed since I am "broke" and I wouldn't feel comfortable spending Cameron's money. He did offer, but he was still Xander's friend.

We went home around evening, worn out and hungry. Surprisingly, Xander had laid out dinner for us but he was nowhere to be seen. To be frank, I was a little upset that Xander didn't bother to eat with us. After dinner and a shower, I fell asleep on the couch fast, tired from all the walking. I slid the Green Day record in a bag and put it on the desk. Xander would never touch my things so I didn't have to worry about it.

***

The week passed like a blur, everything was flashing in front of my eyes. No, seriously. The people who enter the fast-food restaurant were usually in a hurry so when they ordered their food, I had to act fast and key everything in, get their order and hand them to the right person. Lunch hour is the busiest. I work six hours for fifteen dollars every day so I can't argue. I had to earn enough to get the tea time necklace. It was really beautiful and I wanted it.

This night, I reached home around ten because the boss wanted to throw me a small party for surviving my first week. Usually I would think parties like that are dumb, but since it was for me, I'm grateful for it. Wait, grateful. A word I would never say. Huh. I sat on the couch under a lamp, reading Alice in Wonderland. I met a new friend at the fast-food restaurant, Jayson. He was reading this book the other day and I asked in curiosity if it was interesting. I'm not a book worm, but I didn't tell him that, so he recommended it to me after he finished reading.