Book lover

Ch.12

We walked outside.
There was a limo waiting for us.

Jack and Thomas were used to the "rich" life: the big houses, the expensive clothes, and the million dollar vacations.

I, on the other hand, am more familiar with the, well, not-so-rich life. After my father went into the army, my mother couldn't pay the bills so we had to move. We moved into apartments, old rental houses, and one time even had to stay on the streets all day and sell lemonade just to share a one room apartment with people we didn't know! I luckily never had to change schools though because each place we went to was local.

The one good thing Bill did for our family was get us our old house back.
Thomas and Jack probably don't know what poor is. They never had to fight for food on a table. They never had to watch their parents cry themselves to sleep knowing that they couldn't fix the hardships of life. They never have to worry about getting abused at home. They'll never have to be scared to come home to find their mother beaten to death.

Come to think of it, they never have been actually scared.
Not the
shivering
body jumping
heavy striking and throbbing of your stomach
heart pounding out of your chest
teeth rattling uncontrollably
burning of your eyes from crying
the sharp deep pain, no, torture
of your mind wanting it to be over scared.

They have never felt that. And they probably won't. I have, more than once, and know if you haven't felt it, you never want it, ever. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy.

"Are you alright, Elizabeth?" Thomas brought me out of my thoughts.

I had just noticed we were still in the limo, but were almost there.

"Uh, yeah," I gave as a response.

The limo came to a halt as we reached our destination. The driver opened the door for us as we all piled out. We stood in awe as we saw Ms. Flash's Christmas lights decorating her house and lighting the street, despite the cold.

I realized I had honestly forgotten about Christmas. After my father was categorized as MIA, we stopped celebrating it. He had loved Christmas, though. He used to take us to church and we would watch the children's Christmas plays. He'd always said church was one of his favorite places to be. But I guess I never understood what he saw.

A loud knock jumbled my thoughts and gave me chills. Jack had already gone to the front door, and knocked on it. Ms. Flash opened it, her face in shock.

"We're here for book club," Jack said loud and awkwardly to fill the silence.

"Oh. Uh. Well. Come in, come in!" Ms. Flash said.

We walked in.

"I didn't expect this many people," she said, more to herself than us, as she walked into the kitchen.

Ms. Flash was probably shocked that Thomas showed up, but even more so that Jack showed up too.

"You can go get started while I finish up in the kitchen!" she yelled out to us.

"We have the club meetings in her basement," I told them as I directed my hand toward the steps.

"Okay. Cool," Jack replied as he started walking down them.

I followed and Thomas followed after me.

Out of nowhere my right leg tripped on my left leg, shooting me forward down the the stairs. I automatically felt an arm around my waist and a soft hand grab my arm.

Thomas had stopped me from falling into Jack and rolling down the stairs.
Obviously proud of himself, he made his ridiculously adorable grin. He helped me as I stood back up.

"Uh, thank you," I said looking down, my face flushed from embarrassment.

"You're welcome. Is your leg alright?" he asked me.

"Yeah, it's fine. I just tripped," I said quickly, still recovering from my fall.

"No, I meant the cut leg," Thomas clarified.

"Oh, yeah, it's going okay," I said.

"Okay good," Thomas said, unsure, but relaxing a little.

I finished walking down the stairs carefully so that I wouldn't have a replay of what just happened.

"Wow, plot twist!" Jack yelled as we reached the basement and opened the door.

One thing you learn from walking in Ms. Flash's house is that she must be very old- fashioned. But when you get down the stairs, it's all 21st century.

There's a ping pong table, a glowing air hockey table, a flat screen t.v., a wall filled with guitars with famous signatures hanging up, and even brand new drums.

"So. There is all of this cool stuff down here... and you sit and read?" Jack said in bewilderment as he looked around.

"Well, it is the book club," I replied.

Jack gave me the "duh" look and went back to admiring everything.

"So do ya guys just read together down here?" Thomas asked

"Well no, usually Ms. Flash is babysitting or working on artwork upstairs," I answered.

"Wait. So you are telling me that you get this whole basement to yourself and you STILL just come here and you READ?" Jack asked, clearly not understanding.

I nodded in response and said "But it might be different this time since you two are here."

Ms. Flash came down the stairs, wiping her hands on her fancy apron.

She looked like she genuinely didn't know what to do. I tried to help avoid the awkwardness as I walked over and sat down on my reading couch. Thomas followed me with Jack after him.

Ms. Flash walked over to to the library part of the room with all of the books.

"I'll be honest. I didn't think anyone was coming tonight," Ms. Flash said.

Her hand wavered over many books before she turned back around and added "I'm looking for an interesting book that all three of you would like."

"Anything is if it's easy," Jack responded.

That made Ms. Flash laugh softly.

She then pulled a few copies of a certain book off the shelf.

"How about these?" she asked as she held them up.

They were thin which would mean we could get through them faster. Ms. Flash handed me the books. I kept one for me and gave the others to Thomas and Jack.

"Just so you know, Lucy will be dropped off at around 9:30. Were you guys going to be staying much longer than that?" Ms. Flash asked.

"I told the driver 10:30," Thomas said, "but is that too late?"

"No, that's fine," Ms. Flash said.

I cleared my throat and asked who would like to read first.

Jack shook his head violently.

I looked at Thomas, and decided I would read first. It didn't bother me. I began.

Ms. Flash took over reading aloud out of her own copy after I was done with 3 chapters.

After she finished reading the 4th chapter, I looked over at Jack and Thomas. Jack's head was in his open book as he'd fallen asleep and Thomas' forehead was scrunched up, like he was confused. I glanced over at his book and saw that he was on page 47, whereas we were on page 63.

Ms. Flash finished reading chapter 5 and asked if anyone wanted to go next.
Thomas scratched the back of his head, then elbowed Jack who had started snoring. Jack woke up but didn't answer.

I decided to defuse the tension off Ms. Flash.

"Actually, I think I've got it from here," I told her.

Relief filled her face. She stood up and put her book back on the shelf.

"You all know where I'll be if you need me," she told us before shutting the door to the basement and walking upstairs.

Once the door clicked shut, Thomas and Jack looked straight at me.