The Love of a Foolish Girl (Hemlock Grove Fanfiction)

Chapter 3

After the next few days of packing, I come back to the bookstore and inform Ruth I'm ready to start working, I give her my mother's cell phone number to discuss anything I can't fill in for Ruth and in case of emergencies. We discuss the hours I will be working before school, which is only about two weeks until it starts, but I'm not complaining. Ruth introduces me to her husband, who is a rounded man with little hair, but his facial hair seems to cover more than his head. I discover that the organization to the books is pretty simple, it's not as much hell to find a book here than it is at the library. All the romance books, humor, children books, comics/manga, literature, mystery, thrillers, and some of the greatest books ever written, any book that has a medal on the cover pretty much is on the right side of the store. Pretty much the whole right side is fiction books. And Ruth refers to the left side as the boring side of the store, all the self help books, non-fiction, educational, autobiographies, biographies, geography, sightseeing books, and as well as a few calendars. I'm surprised to find that I didn't notice some of the love seats scattered around the store, along with some vintage lamps and tables, it's lovely really, I must have been distracted by the books if I didn't notice.

The front of the counter has shelves that contain some SAT cards, along with other sorts, and some magazines. And behind the counter are some other books as well, "What genre of books are these, if they have to be placed behind the counter?" I ask out of curiosity.

Ruth laughs, "All the adult books, me and my husband find it amusing to see the look on people's faces when they have to ask us for them."

I laugh in shock of Ruth's playfulness. After the grand tour I meet the kittens and realize a spiral staircase in the right corner of the store, I don't ask because I don't want to be too nosey and I have a feeling if it were part of the store Ruth would've showed me it.

"Well I'll see you tomorrow." Ruth says.

"Yes, indeed you will." I smile and leave the store.

When I arrive back home I make sure to prepare dinner for my mother and I. I put some bowls to cover the food to keep it warm. I walk into my still unpacked and unprepared room that has yet to become my room, I look at the stack of boxes and think of how we've left our real home. It still baffles me why my mother refuses to sell our old house, but I think my mother just isn't ready to let go of the first house she ever moved into, that was the first place for her that she could home with her perfect husband. Where she had an actual complete set of a family.

I put the rest of my clothes into my lovely new closet that I can walk into, which is something that won't take me long to get used to. As I go through my clothes, I realize I still need to go school shopping maybe I can pay for the supplies and clothes myself, I'm worried about all the money my mother has spent. As all the worrying starts to rush through my head, I stop myself and head down to my new escape room. I look at the blank canvas on the easel, it makes me upset to look at something so blank and not know what to put on it, I find my sketchpad on the small table with the paints. I smile as I look through all my pictures, granted they're not all great, but regardless through my aggravations of imperfections on each sketch, my parents were always very supportive especially as I started out. My father always reminded me, "if you want to be a good artist, you can't be a perfectionist, you have to be forgiving of yourself sweetie," which is a practice I often fail and not just as an artist.

At first I just started putting plain lines on the page after a couple of minutes of staring at the page I knew what to do with them. I manipulated each line with the stroke of my hand, it felt nice to finally have something within my control, I could stay lost this way forever.

But that was not to be, upstairs I heard the door close. "Mom?"

As I got closer to the stairs I could hear my mother curse under her breathe as she drops some papers. "Mom are you okay?" I say as I find her still in her lab coat.