Will You Still Love Me? (MAHTW Sequel)

Chapter 7

Chapter 7:

I woke up late to an empty house and two notes on the counter. One from angel and the other from the boys explaining their absence. I've noticed the boys getting a little more attached lately so I had the feeling they were preparing to go on tour again. Whenever they know they're going to leave they start savoring the time they have with us more, holding us just a little bit longer the closer time ticks to the date. They haven't announced a tour or told us yet but Angel and I've talked about the subtle changes recently and have come to the same conclusion.

I was off work for the day and had nothing else to do so I grabbed my lap top and googled GED tests. There was one in the area at a college coming up I could sign up for but I would have to really crack down and study. Luckily they had practice tests and questions to do online also so I spent most of my morning doing those and I discovered I had actually retained a lot from school and I pasted most of them with at least a B average.

The test was a week from now so I got signed up and texted Anna that I couldn't work next Thursday. After that I had nothing to do though so I just kinda laid around and watched TV until the mid-afternoon.

I sighed, checked, doubled checked, and checked again all my social media apps but nothing was happening. Finally I decided to go drive around until I found something to do and ended up at the mall.

I wandered around without a destination in mind and landed at hot topic.

"Hey, Evan." Seth smiled from behind the counter. "Haven't seen you in here in a while."

"Yeah, I've been busy." I sighed. "I'm finally gonna take the test to get my GED, but that doesn't help me find something to do today, I'm just wandering."

"That's great!" He smiled. "Well we've gotten a bunch of new stuff in since you were last here if you wanna look around a bit." He said. I nodded and started to roam around the shelves but nothing held my interest so I eventually wandered back out.

At the end of the mall I found a new coffee shop had settled in. It's front was constructed of wood and the glass painted in elegant, swirling, gold and green letters 'Hideaway'. It peaked my interest and I went inside to find it much larger than it had appeared. Beyond the layers of bookshelves seen from the front window was a large open room set around an inset circle in the middle, a few steps below the level of the rest of the floor. The circle had tables and chairs set about it with a couple sitting at one, drinking coffee and sharing a slice of cake. Off to one side was a bar for ordering and dinning with a few bar stools lined up in front of the back half where a few people ate and read, keeping to themselves. The perimeter had a few tables scattered about it along with a few more bookshelves. I settled myself at a back table shaded from the chandelier hanging over the circle, which lit up the room, and I just watched the world go by.

After people watching for a while I looked over to the corner opposite of me and found a small spiral staircase made of black, woven metal. It interested me so I got up and made my way over to it, looking up into the next floor and catching sight of a cream ceiling with intricate gold edging. Beyond that I couldn't see anything else so I inched up the stairs until my head popped up into another large room. Most of it was covered by bookshelves but at the front by a large window sat few arm chairs and a coffee table clustered around each other on top of a large circular carpet, reminiscent of the circle in the floor down stairs. I couldn't believe this place could exist in a mall, it seemed more fitting for an old historic building in a small town rather than a bustling mall. Because of its hiding place at the end of the mall, on a turn off not often walked due to the fact pretty much everything else down here was closed, it was low key and quiet, just how I liked things. I walked up to the brown, leather arm chairs and ran my hand over the arm of one for a moment before sitting down.