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 Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2013 10:22 am
She had finally gotten a job. Started on the path to real life. And to be honest…Juniper wasn’t sure she was really ready for this. As shocked as she was that the little bookstore had hired her, she was just as dissatisfied with how…well. How boring it was.
All she really got to do was stock books and ring up customers…when there were customers, at least. Today there had been a total of four people who had come in, and two of them didn’t even count since they walked in and promptly walked back out.
What was it with these people? Did they just not want to read? Was it so boring? The green haired girl had spent the last hour in the back getting a box of books to put on the shelves, and finally emerged, going towards the small row of science fiction books that the store had, putting the box down with a loud thump and jumping into the air.
Someone was there. “Jesus Christ you gave me a heart attack, I didn’t even realize anyone was here. Why didn’t you say hello or something?” She held a hand over her chest and tried to get her damn heart to go back to it’s normal rhythm, but right now it insisted on pitter pattering way out of control.
People should make more noise when they were in her store!
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Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2013 10:26 am
Gabriel didn't necessarily think of himself as stealthy. He hadn't exactly meant to sneak into the store without the girl there noticing, but he had apparently been subtle enough to avoid her detection. All he wanted was to check out the little store's scifi section - it was hard to do that in a bigger bookstore, with people always around. He didn't do well around people.
He turned to look at her, blinking. "Oh, sorry," he said, looking rather embarrassed. "I didn't mean to scare you, I swear!" He was definitely set straight to "apologize mode." And he did feel bad, anyway. "I, uh, didn't realize I'd been so quiet coming in." Whoops.
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Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2013 10:29 am
Juniper gave a scoff, bending down to get a few books out of the box before the boy ad turned around, though when she got back up and got a good look at him, she paused, openly staring for a good ten seconds at least.
Damn. For a guy…he wasn’t bad looking. Not at all. She shook her head a little and cleared her throat, shrugging. “Yeah, well. It’s okay, I guess.” Turning away, Juniper put a few of the books on the shelf, giving the boy a sideways glance. His eyes were really pretty. Maybe she just had a thing for pretty green eyes…
“Um…I’m Juniper, by the way. Sorry for freaking out. I just hadn’t realized that anyone was here and…well. Nobody’s ever here it seems…so seeing you…uh. Scared me I guess…”
Well. Way to sound really dumb. No wonder you were working at a dusty old bookstore.
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Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2013 10:35 am
Gabriel shuffled a little under her stare. Oh god, no, not again. What was it with girls and staring at him? (At least it was his face, not his butt, for once.) He started to give her a very wobbly smile. Oh god this was awkward.
"Uhm, it's fine, I am sorry for sneaking up on you." As it were. "I'm Gabriel," he offered her his hand. "Do you uh, know much about sci fi?" He asked, trying to break the ice a little bit. Maybe if they could at least talk books, things wouldn't be so terribly, horribly awkward. Not that things were ever not awkward with him, he supposed.
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Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2013 10:36 am
She continued stocking the books, thinking about the question for a moment. Did she no about sci fi? Not really, but…was that going to get this conversation going anywhere? She wasn’t really sure. “Not too terribly much, but…You know. I like Star Wars okay, and I guess Star Trek is cool too. And Buffy. If you can count that as Sci Fi. But I’m not really much of a reader of it, not normally. I like Space type video games. Those are always fun.”
Juniper took another glance at him, giving a small smile. Maybe that would count for something? She hoped at least it would be a little something. This guy was nice. Plus, it was great to be able to use her voice again. She was starting to forget how to talk.
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Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2013 10:42 am
"Oh, well, you're missing out on some of the really good stuff," Gabriel said, "but Star Trek and Star Wars are both great, don't get me wrong! Buffy's more fantasy, I'd say, but the two genres share a lot." They were fun, and he certainly enjoyed them, but he preferred the classics. "If you're ever interested, try some of Isaac Asimov's stuff, it's really remarkable." They had to have some Asimov here, right?
"Some stuff gets really political though, so if you're not into politics..." He shrugged. He found it fascinating how authors handled real-world problems in fictional settings. It seemed to make them more palatable, in a way.
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Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2013 10:46 am
Juniper nodded, still shelving the books. “Huh. Isaac Asimov’s stuff? I’ll look into that. I guess I should start reading things or whatever…but thanks. It sounds like something to do on my off day at least.”
She gave him a grin then dove back into the box, placing a few more books on the shelf. “So…if you’re into all of this fancy Sci Fi stuff, what brings you into this little uh. Dump of a store. But please, don’t let my managers know that I said that. And by my managers, I really just mean the owners here.”
Shrugging, Juniper lifted some of the last books from the box, placing them upon the shelf with all the others. Now came the fun part, putting them all in order. The shelving system had been absolutely non-existent until she had gotten the job, or at least that’s what she told herself. She much preferred the books to be in order by author at the very least. If not that, then in groupings by the series…not just thrown everywhere. Nobody had time for that.
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Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2013 10:59 am
"He's worth a looks at least," Gabriel said, his eyes returning to the shelf. Socialization, with him, was usually an accident and this was no different.
"Oh, I don't think it's a dump, but your secret's safe with me," he said, and he was smiling a little bit. "It's actually rather nice. Small stores sometimes actually have better selection than big ones, at least for the more obscure stuff. Big stores tend to stock all the same popular books and then you never find the hidden gems." He turned to her. "I hope me picking books out won't mess you up - I can wait until you're done shelving if it would." He'd hate to inconvenience her any more than he already had.
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Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2013 11:03 am
Juniper waved a hand at him. “Go on, go on. It gives me something to do at the very least, besides. As I said before, it’s great to know that I’m not the only person left alive in the world. But…yeah. It’s not really a dump. And they hired me, so I’m very pleased about that. I don’t know.” She shrugged and looked around the shop rather hopelessly. “This isn’t what I want to do with the rest of my life. But it’s a start, and I guess that’s all you can ask for.”
She looked back at the boy, hesitating for a moment, wondering if she should continue conversation or just let it die and get back to work. Finally though, the temptation really overtook her and she put the last of the books on the shelf. “Are you going to be a Sci Fi writer someday? I think that would be a pretty good life choice…at least it would be something that you knew you wanted to do…or something. I don’t know.”
Why did she always end up sounding so god damn stupid?
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Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2013 11:35 am
"Oh, well, okay then." Given permission, Gabriel selected a few books he'd been eyeing. Titles he didn't recognize, but those were the best ones - the surprises. He rarely even read jacket summaries; mostly he dove in based on title alone. "Experience is experience, right?" He should've looked for a job while he was in high school, damn. Of course, if he'd known he was going to forego college, he would've done a lot of things differently.
"A writer? I'd never thought about it, but I guess," he said. It was a valid career choice, he supposed, and if he got published he could make a little money. Better than mooching for the rest of his life. "I mean, I haven't really picked a path yet other than 'probably not college."
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Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2013 11:41 am
Oh wow she knew those feelings pretty well. “Yeah. I was thinking of college, but I don’t know. I’m a bit burnt out with school…though I might try and get into Sovereign Heights next semester, but you never know.”
Juniper lifted the now empty box into her arms. “I’m going to go put this up, but if you’re ready to check out, I can take you up at the register in just a few minutes. I only need to throw this in the back.”
The girl turned, though paused. “If you did end up being a writer, I’m sure I could convince the owners to sell your books in here. Just saying. And hey. Maybe I’d even read them.” She walked towards the back of the store, rather flabbergasted with how she was acting. This was not how you were supposed to treat boys. Especially when you were already in a sort of relationship with a girl.
Even though this boy kind of looked like a handsome version of the girl in question. Oh life was stupid sometimes. Almost as stupid as she acted when she was around someone attractive. It was just so unfair.
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Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2013 12:05 pm
"I just don't know what more schooling could do for me. I'd end up in some corporate job I hated," he said, shrugging. "I mean, unless I tried to get into teaching, but I'd probably be a really bad teacher." He couldn't see himself helping students, or grading papers. No, he really needed something where he could set his own hours.
Writing was sounding better and better.
He blinked slowly, and then lit up. "Oh, well, thanks," he said, sounding rather pleased with himself. At least there would be one person on his side if he went the writer route! And one place to sell his books!
On her recommendation, while she was in the back, he walked back to the register, setting down his books and fishing for his wallet. He sighed. It was actually looking pretty empty, which sucked. Maybe he should look into some local business to work at for a while.
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Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2013 12:06 pm
Juniper emerged from the back room a few minutes later and grinned at Gabriel. “Is this everything?” Honestly, she kind of hoped that he would come back for more books sometime. He was doing a great job breaking the monotony of the day right now and she appreciated that more than she could really say.
Quickly the girl rang the books up, handing them back to Gabe in a bag. “Here you go, the total is fourteen dollars and fifty seven cents…” So she might have rang the books up with her employee discount. Anything to make him come back, right? And there wasn’t any way she would get caught for it. Besides. The owner had said she could do it for family. So this was just…doing it for family. Sort of. “I do hope you’ll come back and visit the store soon. I’ll try and get a bigger selection of sci fi books for you if that would help!”
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Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2013 12:45 pm
"Yeah, that's it," he said. A slight frown flashed across his face for a moment. That price didn't sound like what he'd mentally calculated - but she was being nice and giving him a discount and he wasn't going to complain when he was bordering on broke. He pulled out a five and a ten, handed them over, and smiled.
"Thanks," he said, "and I'll be sure to come back. It was really nice to meet you!" He said. "Your selection's great, don't worry about that." Plus, the prices were good and there was clearly one really nice employee. This would be a place to shop for a while!
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