The Boy with the Peach// Timothee Chalamet

Chapter 1//The Boy and his Books

        Sweat drips down my forehead as my hand flips another page. I set the book down on my lap while wiping off the droplets with the back of my hand. My dress sticking to my body due to the scorching weather.  My eyes slowly lift from the page, and they land on a boy with medium length curly hair. His eyes glued to a page of a book. His eyebrows furrowed and a quick lick of his lips. The grey shirt and blue jeans that he's wearing cling to his body,  just like how my dress is clinging onto mine.  The look of desire on his face catches my interest. 

           A dry cough comes out of my mouth and my eyes slowly look towards his feet. A stack of four books sits next to his feet. The title of the books being unknown since they're turned away from me. Slightly looking down I notice that he has on a pair of classic black vans. The ones with the white stripe. They're clearly a couple of years old. Dirt gathers at the end of the shoelaces causing them to turn a yellowish-brown. Next to his feet lays a bag of maybe ten peaches. My eyebrows furrow in confusion due to the weird book-obsessed boy carrying a bag of peaches.

             My grandmother Lucille dusts off the nearest bookshelf while yelling at me for not cleaning anything. I quickly mumble something back about it being too hot to clean. Which was true. Each summer I spent down here felt like it was getting hotter by the year. We had to keep the bookstore's door open because we couldn't afford to get air condition in the house and the store.

            As I turn to continue listening to my grandmother yell about how lazy her granddaughter is. I notice the boy with the peaches moves to the opposite side of the store. Now looking at the action section rather than romance novels from earlier. A good choice if you asked me. Romance novels were okay but to me, it's one of the worse genres you could pick from. Especially since action novels were an option. The peach boy had a good eye when it came to books. 

           I lean back in the chair and it squeaks just enough for him to look up. I gasp as his greenish-hazel eyes meet mine.  I turn away pretending that the stack of dusty books in the corner caught my attention. I could feel his eyes burning a hole into the side of my head. Who knew a boy carrying a bag of peaches could hold a strong gaze. Shit, I could feel my cheeks getting hot from the levels of intensity. When I no longer feel his eyes watching me, I slowly turn my head towards the action section. A place where he lingered for no more than five minutes. My eyes wander around the corners of the crummy old book store trying to find the odd boy.  Panicking just a bit, I notice that he's no longer looking at the action section but he's right in front of me.  His body leaning on the counter as he stacks the four books from earlier in front of my grandmother.

            He speaks for the first time and I feel my heart beat a little faster. The subtle tone and slight raspiness in his voice made me shiver just a little bit. My grandmother responding with her sweet and mother like tone. 

"This is all for you today?" 

"Yes, Mrs.Lucille, that's all for today. Thank you very much" his mouth curls up into a simple smile and picks up the bag of peaches. Handing them over to my grandmother, she gladly accepts them. My grandmother ties a string around the books while telling him to have a good day and bring back more yummy peaches. He nods while picking up the books by the string that ties them together. His eyes turn to me and they linger as he starts to walk away. I could practically feel another dry cough or a nervous laugh coming along as he walks out of the front door. 

            My fingers start to become numb from how hard I was gripping the sides of the book. I decide to close the book because I was no longer interested in what the book was actually saying. I was more interested in the boy with the peaches and his weird obsession with books. Who was this boy? Why was he trading books for peaches? Questions I needed answers to.