Home (A Rocky Lynch fan-fiction) ON HOLD

Ch. 2

6 Months Later

Holding the cardboard tube that contained my paintings in one hand, and my paint-splattered messenger bag in the other, I slipped in the back door of Neverland Books, a bookstore/café that I am working at. After I carefully put away my work and bag, I clocked in and immediately began a new batch of muffins for the café’s bakery window. As I was pouring the mixture into the pans, my boss, Maggie, walked in. Maggie was in her late 70’s and has owned this bookstore since she opened it in the 1950’s. She didn’t add on the café until she married her husband in her late 30’s. He died a little over a year ago due to old age, and with no one left to help her, Maggie had the small business to run by herself. So, when I came looking for a job, the overly happy, plump elderly woman hired me immediately.

 Waddling in, she looked up at me and smiled her denture-perfect smile and made her way over to me. “Good morning, sweetie. I thought you weren’t coming in today?”

 “I wasn’t going to, but my only class today got canceled,” I replied, “So, I figured, why not?”

 She looked at me with tired gratitude and said, “Oh hun, you didn’t have to do that! But I’m glad you did! I’m interviewing a few kids today so that they can help around the bookshop while you work in the café.”

 “Oh, you don’t have to do that! I can handle the extra work, Mags!”

 “I know you can do the work,” she replied, “but I just don’t think it’s healthy for a girl your age to be worried about your schoolwork, your art, and your job all at once! This will make you and me both sleep a little easier.”

 “Aw, thanks Mags, that really means a lot. How many people do you think you’ll hire?”

 She pondered for a second and then said with a chuckle, “I’ll probably hire a girl and a boy both. Just so I know that the heavy lifting and the organization can both are taken care of!”

 “Yeah, that makes sense, I guess,” I replied, “just holler at me when they get here and I will help you out.”

 “Okay, baby, I will,” she said, “I’ll be in the bookshop office if you need me!”

 “Okie dokie!” I yelled back.

 A few hours and more than a few customers later, I had restocked all of the bakery shelves and cleaned up the café portion of the store. I looked at the clock and noticed that it was time for my lunch break, so I told Maggie that I would be back in an hour and grabbed my things out of my locker. I walked down the block until I got to the art gallery that displayed my work. Pushing open the door, I was immediately greeted by the gallery’s owner, Rachel Mauve.

 “Good afternoon doll!! I assume those are your new pieces for me?!” she practically screamed at me.

 I gave her a quick hug and responded, “Of course they are! Do you want to look at them just to be sure you want them here?”

 “No! No! That’s absolutely unnecessary! Just run to the back and set them on my desk and I will grab your checks for the last few paintings that were purchased.”

 After I had put them on her desk, I made my way back to the front and not looking where I was going, nearly knocked over a woman at the front desk.

 “Oh my gosh, I am so sorry!!” I apologized, “I wasn’t looking where I was going at all!”

 She smiled at me kindly and said, “Oh, it’s alright, sweetie! No harm done.”

 I smiled back gratefully and before I could reply, Rachel waltzed back in carrying an envelope with my name on it. “Here you are, babe. The checks for all of your art sold in the last month. Speaking of which,” she looked at the woman I bumped into and said, “Mrs. Lynch here is one of your buyers!”

 Mrs. Lynch looked at me with surprise and said, “That was your art?! But you aren’t a day over 16!!”

 I felt the blush spreading to my cheeks and neck and smiled bashfully saying, “Oh, um…th-thank you. I’m actually 18, though.”

 “Well, that’s wonderful!! Do you think that we could talk sometime about you making me some more pieces?” she said excitedly.

 Getting a little nervous because I had never been asked this before, I stuttered a reply. “Uum..y-yeah sure! I actually work at a café, so we could have coffee there and talk about it.”

 She agreed to meet me there tomorrow, so I gave her my cell number and the address. “Oh, and by the way, I’m Theia.”

 “Well it’s good to have a name,” she said laughing, “You can call me Stormie. I’ll see you tomorrow, Theia!”

 As she walked out, Rachel playfully smirked at me and said, “Well, well, well, look who’s moving up in the world.”

 *************************************************

The entire walk back to work, I couldn’t keep the smile off of my face. I had always known that people liked my work enough to buy it, but I had never had someone personally ask me to make a piece just for them. It filled me with pride knowing that I was doing this well on my own. Sure, for the first few months my parents paid for my expenses until I got a job on my own and started selling my work. And with my scholarship, I had literally nothing to pay for in school except for my books and art supplies. So basically all I pay is rent on my 2-bedroom loft (which included utilities like water and electricity) and other necessities like groceries or supplies. My job at Neverland covered all of this, so the extra $5,000 average that I received every month from Rachel’s gallery was either used as extra spending money or more likely put away for a rainy day.

 Walking back into the café, I realized that I still had 20 minutes of my lunch break left. I walked over to the counter and using my employee discount and some of my cash, I grabbed a deli sandwich from the refrigerated display counter and had it for lunch. By the time I was finished with it, it was time to clock back in. I did so, and walked back to Maggie’s office to tell her that I was back. When I got back there, there was a girl who looked a little younger than me and a guy who looked my age with long-ish brown hair sitting outside of her office.

 I was about to ask them what was going on when the door to Maggie’s office opened and a boy who looked to be about 15 years old walked out and over to where I was standing and where the good looking guy was sitting. “Hey, Rocky. Ready to go?”

 Rocky, I assumed, looked up and said, “Yeah, man, let’s go.” When he stood up, he noticed me and smiled said, “See you around.”

 I just smiled back, dazed, and responded, “Uh, yeah…sure…see ya.” Both of the boys walked out and I turned around, just noticing that Maggie had been smirking at me the whole time. “What?!” I said, knowing exactly what she was thinking.

 “You know what!” she said, reading my mind. “I have to interview Lila here and then we can talk.”

 I smiled and rolled my eyes as I walked back to my post at the café. After about an hour, Lila waved and walked out. Ten minutes later, Maggie walked up and told me that Lila and Ryland, who I assumed was the boy who walked out of her office when I arrived, were going to start working next week. I asked her if that was the boy walking out with his brother and she laughed and replied, “Yeah, I bet you are wanting to know if that was him or not! All you want to know is whether his brother, Rocky will be back or not!”

 I blushed and said back, “Not true!! I don’t even know the guy, I just wanted to know who I will be working with!”

 “Hmpf!! I’m sure you do!!! Well, for your information, Ryland doesn’t have his license yet, so Rocky is going to drive him here until he does,” she said, smiling.

 “Whatever! That doesn’t really matter to me cause I don’t have a crush on Rocky!” I said as she was walking out.

 “Okay, sweetheart, whatever you say!” she said back, “just don’t forget to lock up!”

 I smiled to myself and started turning off the lights and locking up. It was then that I remembered my meeting tomorrow, causing me to get excited all over again. Between that and the small crush on this guy, Rocky, I was bound to get little sleep tonight.