welcometohell (oneshot book and page directory)

freaking romance (oneshot)

The bustling streets of Sleepless City truly live up to their name. I don't think people understand how really and truly unhealthy this is, said the hypocrite. I haven't slept properly in days. Price of raising a child, I suppose. Said little girl was tugging my hand through an entirely too busy street market so that she could find a souvenir. We were only here for a few days so I could record something and then we had to move onto the next sleepless city.

The endless chatter was distracting me from my little girl, so I put in my earbuds and turned the music up loud enough to drown out the voices and the music itself. It made no difference to Hayley, so long as she could find a copy of my latest book in its special edition cover. I didn't have the heart to tell her that we had one in the van. She probably wanted the little stuffie keychain that came with it. Something that I also had in the van. She wanted one of her own. To be fair, I never keep the copies that my publisher send me, I sign them and donate them to used book stores.

When she found what she was looking for, Hayley turned to me with sparkling eyes before glaring at my veryoffensive-earbuds. I smiled and pulled them out to put away and listened to the little girl in front of me.

"I found it."

"I see." We were standing in front of a charity book stand that I'd come back to after I put Hayley to bed.

"Can I get the matching bookend?" We did need another one.

"So long as you get me that snail plushie." I pulled out a fifty-dollar bill and she ran to get her prize. After our trip to the market, we headed back towards the van, stopping for a filling meal of french fries and a malted milkshake. After I put Hayley to bed above the RV's cockpit, I grabbed the post box I'd picked up the evening before, a bottle of what Hayley called 'Firewhiskey' and my purse before stepping out of the van. Making sure to lock the door, I headed out of the parking garage and sipped on my burning drink.

When I made it back to the street market, my ginger drink was gone and my box was replaced with a signed copy of my latest 'Twinkling Lights' book. The best thing about being an anonymous internet sensation was that I didn't get recognized. At all. The market was no calmer than it was an hour before, but the string lights were lit and the smell of chocolate was intoxicatingly strong.

My music switched from Jessy Shelton's 'Our Word' to Zelan Lycas' 'I'm So Sorry,' a depressing song, to say the least. The last song that was released, according to Hayley. The sound of the instruments and his voice mixing together literally sent chills down my spine, I was instantly relaxed. It was only when I bumped into some dude with green hair that I realised that listening songs like that while on the move was a bad idea. I apologised to the man and hurried away, putting the song back to Jessie Shelton, not bothering to listen to the insults that would surely erupt from his mouth.

I reached the bookstand and gave the young boy standing there a wink when he opened the cover to see my signature. He seemed to understand and thanked me quickly before diving to find something. I took the moment to examine him. The boy's hair was untidy and his clothes were old so I got the impression that he was working this job and several others out of necessity. When he went to put a price sticker on the dust cover I stopped him.

"Keep it," I said softly.

The boy's eyes widened. "What?"

I gently took the book from him and pulled out a pen. "You're a fan right?" He nodded shyly. "What's your name?"

"Telson." I smiled and wrote a little note to the sweet boy above my signature on the dedication page and handed it back to him.

"You're a good kid, Telson." He thanked me about a million times before he let me go. I made a note to dedicate the next book to him in the version for this region. As I passed by a pair of girls I heard a small squeal. I intended to ignore it and put my music back on when one of them said: