Star Struck

3 || The Home of Stories

"Why are you reading?"

I've seated myself on the floor against one of the many bookshelves in the Lost Treasure, a small local bookshop I discovered with Emily when we were 8. The second we had walked in, I instantly fell in love with the rustic shop, but Emily had wrinkled her nose and complained about the smell of old books.

From that day forward, the Lost Treasure became known as our hang out place whenever we were at what we referred to as the Cove, a local spot where many tourists visited.

Without looking up from my book, I rolled my eyes. "Why do you always ask me that?"

She didn't take long to answer. "Because it's unnatural," she answered simply.

"My love for reading?"

"No." From the staccato sound of her voice, I knew she was getting ready for one of her quips. "The fact that you can breeze though a book in less than a day."

Twisting my head to look at her, I laughed. Her perfectly threaded eyebrows furrowed together in confusion. Her fringe fell into her face and she swiped them back behind her ears.

Emily inhaled and slowly relaxed her facial muscles. Ever since she read an article about facial expressions leading to wrinkles, she's done her best to proactively avoid making faces at all costs. Her attempts are in vain, however, because her contagious smile always shines through. As if on cue, there was a small twitch in the corner of her lip that begged to be turned into a smile. "No, but seriously. Why would anyone put themselves through such torture?"

"Because we're in a bookshop?"

Emily narrows her eyes, but I know her well. A second later, she bursts with laughter. Instead of sounding alarming or sudden, she's got one of those pretty bell laughs, that rings through the air. People passing by the isle and those sitting down in the front and back of the store turn to glare at us, despite the delicate sound.

Any noise in a library, regardless of how beautiful it sounds, is unwanted noise.

I immediately shrink away from their scrutiny and eye Emily. She only gives me a smile before addressing the shoppers. "Excuse me. My friend said something funny and I had to laugh. Carry on."

Everybody turns their attention back to what they were preoccupied with before being interrupted by two teenage girls, but not before glaring ar us for another few seconds. I let out a sigh I didn't realize I was holding in. Emily turns and frowns. "Hun, if you're going to be a therapist one day, you should at least get used to being stared at."

I huff out a breath. This isn't the first time we've had this conversation before. "Working on it," I mumble.

She throws me one of her heartbreaker smiles. "Excellent. Now go buy that book and let's get outta here." She glances at the book in my hand and the four forgotten books at my side on the floor. "On second thought, take your time. I saw a cute ice cream parlor back a block that I wanted to try. I'll grab a bowl for you. The usual."

I nod.

Nothing's changed since we were kids.

"Mint Chocolate Chip it is."

I give her my thanks by smiling and turn back to my books. Her foot steps grow quieter as she walks away, and the chime on the bells above the doors signal shes left.

The book in my hand is a fantasy novel, albeit, my favorite genre, while the other three are romance novels. I had been anticipating their arrival but swords and princes always won in the battle against simple happy endings.

But they're all great. Choose one or get them all? Just get them all. Or choose one and come back next week? Agh why am I so indecisive?