The Notes We Write

4.

I woke up still feeling a bit drowsy. I felt like I hadn't slept at all, while I slept for almost twelve hours. It's probably my body adjusting to the different time zone.

As I was just lounging around in my bed, someone stormed in. "Hailey! Are you ready?" Auntie Rita yelled excitedly. I groaned, pulling the covers over my head. "Be quiet, I just woke up" I whined.

"Come on Hails, we're gonna have fun!" She tried pulling the covers off, but I grasped it tightly in my fists. "Why did Mum let you in on this hour?" I said while still trying to keep her from grabbing the sheets.

"Hailey, it's almost twelve. I was going to take you out for lunch" She smiled when she finally managed to take the sheets from me. "Fine" I sighed, sticking my tongue out at her. She shook her head playfully and pulled me out of bed. "Go get changed now" she walked out of my room laughing.

I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and walked over to my closed. I put on a white t-shirt and a ordinary blue denim dungarees. Rita will probably roll her eyes at me, but I'm going to wear it anyway.

I stole a handful of cereal from the new bought box on the kitchen counter, and followed Rita to her car. She raised her brow at me, "what are you eating?" I dropped a couple loops in her hand. "It's good" I said plopping the remaining ones in my mouth. She chuckled, eating her own, and starting the car.

"So where did you wanna go?" I asked her when we arrived at the mall. "So I found this really cute place" she started telling me with a bright smile on her face. "It's a small sandwich shop with a small library inside. So you can read while you eat!"

"That sounds actually amazing" I said getting really excited. Like she said it was, it was a small shop in the back of the mall. You would totally walk past it if you didn't know it was there. It had a really warm and homey feeling to it. We went to sit down at one of the smaller tables with two soft chairs surrounding it.

Two big bookcases stood in the corner, and at every occupied table I saw was someone reading. It made me feel very at place. "So you like it?" Rita asked me with a hopeful smile. I smiled sweetly back at her, "I love it".

She let out a relieved sigh. "Thank goodness, I really wanted to take you somewhere special for your first day here"

Our conversation got interrupted by the waiter. "Can I take your order?" He asked sounding a bit nervous. I looked up at him, and saw a guy who was around my age. He had dark curly hair, and the most beautiful brown warm eyes. At this point I was just staring at him.

Rita pulled me out of my trance by kicking my leg from under the table. I blinked a couple of times and cleared my throat . The guy was still looking at me, waiting for me to answer. "Oh, um sorry. I want an iced tea with a club sandwich, please" he nodded and looked over at my aunt. "Same for me" he smiled politely before walking a way.

I tried avoiding Rita's teasing smirk by looking at everything other than her. "What just happened?" She asked, having that same smirk on her lips. "Shut up" I said trying to keep me from laughing.

"You think he's cute, don't you?" She grabbed my arm and shook it for a little while. When she started to poke my sides, I broke. "Okay, okay." I laughed. "He's not not cute" I told her eventually. Her smile became even wider on her face. "I knew it!" She squealed happily. I rolled my eyes and looked away. She could be a bit annoying sometimes.

The boy came back with our orders and told us, with a big smile on his face, that we could pick a book from one of the shelves. Rita and I stood up at the same time and made our way to the big brown shelves. Rita found one that's she liked almost immediately and went back to our table.

I, on the other hand, wasn't that fast picking a book. I always find it difficult to choose just one. It has to a perfect one, so I usually spend a couple minutes, sometimes even hours, picking one.

As I was browsing through the titles, I felt someone hovering beside me. I turned my head around slowly, trying to seem not too obnoxious. I saw two big brown eyes looking back at me. "Do you need some help?" He asked, smiling with dimples in his cheek I hadn't noticed before.

I tried to grab one of the books, but the boy reached for it as well. Causing our hands to collide. I pulled my hand away, and let the boy grab it. I hoped he didn't see the blush that appeared on my cheeks, as he showed me the book.

"I can assure you, this is a great one." Eyes sparkling in excitement. You could see that he really meant it, how passionate he was about his job. "I also had my eye on it." I told him quietly. I wasn't the best at speaking to strangers. "You must have a very good taste then" he winked, walked back to the counter, leaving me alone with the book and a evident blush on my face.

I started walking back to Rita, trying to get my face to cool down and my heart to stop beating erratically. I already saw the stupid smirk Rita was wearing on her face. "What happened there?" She asked, trying to not sound so excited. "Shh, I'm reading" I said as I turned the first page.

We had spent almost three hours at the little shop, until we decided we really had to go. I grabbed the notebook and pen, which were always in my bag, and wrote a little note. "Thank you for the book recommendation! I've enjoyed it thus far. x H" and put it on the empty plate. I hoped it would get to the boy, and not someone else who might clean the tables.

I actually lent the book he had given me. They told me I had to return it in three weeks. Although I think it's probably going to be sooner, I was a fast reader. It also gave me an excuse to come to the shop again. I was almost sure I would come here regularly.

We decided we'd go buy school supplies next. I honestly didn't really care about what kind of notebooks or what kind of pens I'd get, so we finished that very quickly. I had just bought the absolutely necessary things, I'd come back later if I needed more.

Then we walked around in some clothing stores. I told myself I didn't need new clothes, but I just couldn't resist buying a red sweater. It was almost September, I think it's appropriate.

When both aunt Rita and I got very hungry, we went outside to one of those food trucks. Rita told me that they make the best poutine of Ottawa.

"Isn't this really stereotypical?" I chuckled when we both had our bowl. She shrugged her shoulders, putting three fries at once in her mouth. "It's too delicious to care about such things." She laughed, dipping her fries in the gravy.

We walked back to Rita's car with filled stomachs. The poutine had been very good, but so filling. She drove us back to my house, while we were singing along to the music on the radio. That's another thing aunt Rita and I bonded over, we'd always had little karaoke parties at her place. For my birthday she'd always given me a CD. Even when I told her she didn't need to because of Spotify, she never stopped. I'm actually kind of glad she didn't, it feels like our little tradition.

I picked up the bags from the backseat, and we walked towards the front door. Mum immediately opened the door when I rung the door bell, pulling us in.

"Did you have fun?" She asked kissing my cheek. She wrinkled her nose. "Did you eat poutine again?" She asked looking at Rita teasingly. "Yep" I chuckled.

"Hailey met a boy" aunt Rita said to change the subject. I saw Mum's eyes widen. "I did not meet a boy" I said before she would freak out the same way Rita had done. "The boy gave her a book, and she wrote a note to him" Rita told her with a bright smile on her face. Mum squealed in excitement.

I rolled my eyes at the both of them, and decided I had enough of them for today. "I'm going to bed" I announced. Kissing them both on the cheek, and made my way upstairs.

When I fell asleep the only thing I saw where those big brown eyes.