The Way It Happened

The Way He Went On

Changing yourself will make you lose your originality. Don't do it.

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Anna took out all Nicholas Sparks books from the shelf. She was a hopeless romantic, no denying that, but she was also realistic. Romances didn't happen in life and she was fine with it, but she did like getting lost in the world of Nicholas Sparks' cheesy books just as much as she loved getting lost in video games.

"You're going to buy all that?", Mrs. Macoy, the bookstore keeper asked.

Anna nodded and smiled at her. "No offence, but I don't have any plan of coming here anytime soon."

Mrs. Macoy smiled back. "So how is school, dear?", she asked, while slipping out the receipt.

"It's good", Anne replied. "I changed some classes this year."

"Oh really? Why?", she asked then remembered something. "Everbloom High, right? I have a nephew there. He's coming to stay at my house for two weeks. You know, he has some family problems. Oh his older brother is coming, too. But he already graduated. He was in that school. Turned into a young gentleman now, that boy..."

Anna forgot that when Mrs. Macoy finds a topic to speak about, there's no end to it. She just smiled and nodded, pretending she was interested. Fifteen minutes later and when the topic had changed from her nephew to their school to their country then back to her two nephews and was moving towards the topic about life in depth, Anna decided to make some excuse to leave, carrying six thick books in her bag.

Just with her luck, as soon as she went out and closed the bookstore door behind her, the straps of the bag fell apart. Probably due to the heavy weight.

Now what was she to do. The bag was actually tearing apart from before and mom had ordered her a million times to buy a new one, but she didn't like shopping or going to mall where she'd have to see her classmates and talk with them. Emily offered to do it for her but Anna refused to let her friend do her work. She delayed the task and now she has to pay the price.

She lifted up the bag, dusted it and cradled it in her arms like a baby. She stared at it.

Did it look just as awkward to other people as it seemed to her?

Two arms lifted the bag from her hands and she heard a chuckle followed by the warm soothing voice she liked again.

"If there was a superhero called 'Bag-man', I'd probably be him", Caleb said, smiling at her.

"Hey I didn't tell you to carry it for me!", Anna defended but smiled nonetheless. "Even yesterday."

"I'm not a jerk who ignores a damsel-in-distress."

"There's no damsel-in-distress here.", she stated.

Caleb just gave her a half smile before asking,"Do you live around here?"

"Yeah, it's that one over there", she said, pointing to the brown three-storeyed house just a little further away.

Caleb nodded and gazed in appreciation for a second. "So... are you going to a shop right now? For the bag I mean."

Anna hesitated before saying the truth. "Well, there aren't any shops around here that sells handbags..."

Caleb looked at her. "You will have to go further to get a bag", he said and pointed to a crowded shop a few blocks further from them. "Have you gone there? The bags are cool but then, best ones are in the mall."

Anna wasn't claustrophobic near crowds or anything like that. But she just didn't like interacting with people. She went into the bookstore only because Mrs. Macoy knew her well enough. And she told him just that.