Chapter 4

  My palms sweat against the Gearbreakers novel while I weigh my options. Casey just keeps watching me.

  “You gonna buy some coffee or somethin?” The barista asks from behind me.

  “No. Sorry.” The words stumble out of me like an afterthought.

  Before I know it I’ve managed to steel myself and I confidently walk my happy ass to the counter where the lion waits for its snack. The pressure is on. The pilot is in, the mecha hums to life.

  My heel catches and a bit of uneven carpet just before I reach the register.

  “That spot gets everyone, I won’t ugh too hard.” Casey squeaks out between boisterous giggles. Giggles that just so happen to make me forget to feel the embarrassment of my stumble.

  “Yeah yeah. Laugh it up, stalker.” I emphasize that name with the sp of my book hitting the counter.

  “Gearbreakers” she hums and stares right in my eyes and with a confident harumph she says “that tracks”

  “Oh yeah? I strike you as a sci-fi fan?”

  Her smile deepens before pulling back slightly “Sure. Let me know when you finish this one, I’ll loan you the sequel.”

  “I don’t need to borrow-“ my mouth moves faster than my thoughts. “Yeah, appreciate that. Did you get a chance to listen to Gss Bridges?”

  “Nah, not yet. I did add a bunch of their songs to a new pylist though, I’ll probably listen to them at lunch.” She chats as my book ys forgotten on the counter “I saw you cleaning up that book pile over there, thanks for that.”

  “I was not.” My cheeks feel warm and I gnce back to the four neat stacks of books in front of the shelves. “I was just looking for a new book, let the universe decide for me and stuff.”

  Silence stretches if only for a moment, Casey looks almost thoughtful, like she’s really absorbing my words.

  “You like letting the universe decide things for you, don’t ya?” She asks in an annoyingly pyful tone that warms my gut like coffee.

  “Yeah. I guess I kind of do. But, if I had it my way, I’d be left alone. Not pestered by all these people with too much energy.” I roll my eyes pointedly in Casey’s general direction.

  Casey hums softly while looking at me. My book ys forgotten on the counter. A cough startles me out of my mech suit mindset and I fall back to earth. A sharp gre cast to the elderly woman impatiently standing behind me in line.

  “Hold your horses, I’m paying for my book.” I grumble and take out some cash and hold it out for Casey.

  “Nineteen dolrs, minus the employee discount… you owe me fifteen buckaroos, miss Brooke.” She snatches the twenty from my hand with a fat grin on her face and punches around the cash register until it dings.

  A slow grinding and whirring sound cuts the awkwardness in the air for a few long seconds. I give a curt nod to the elderly jerk behind me and when I turn back around, Casey is hunched over my receipt and writing a long number, big and bold, before stuffing it into the middle of my book with a blush on her face.

  “D-don’t look at it until you’ve read that far. Okay?” She says with a firmness that seems wrong coming from her.

  “Don’t tell me what to do.” Is all I can think to say before I accept my change and skidaddle with a panic back into the harsh sunlight of the afternoon.

  Boots beat against hot asphalt, wind blows through my hair like a hurricane. The door to CrunchBucks rushes to my face faster than what seems like a reasonable pace across the parking lot. I burst into the bean store like an old Clint Eastwood film and snap my fingers at Tara.

  “Tara, break room. Now.”

  Two regur customers in the corner turn their attention to me like I threatened to shoot somebody. Overreacting much? Tara’s sticky hands are no match for mine as I yank her into the break room and hand her the book.

  “Oh this book is so you.” She says with a grin.

  “Bitch, check the receipt and tell me- wait. Have you read it? Is it as good as it looks?”

  “Yeah it’s my favorite book from st year, kinda leans into the young adult stuff but, hey, that’s the genre ya know?”

  “Shut up!” I whisper-yell into her face with a frothy panic “find the receipt, tell me if it’s a phone number but don’t show me. I can’t break the rules.”

  “Rules?” Tara scoffs as she skims through the book until she finds the middle and the receipt, picking it up between two fingers like discarded underwear. “Who the hell gave you this?”

  “That dweeb in the pink! She works at the Folded Corner!”

  “Oh my god. Seriously? Is it her real number?”

  “Fuck if I know, she told me not to look before I get that far into the book. I gotta get home and read it.” I wince “I really want to read the book…everyone says it’s good…”

  “Yeah. That’s the only reason you haven’t stopped shaking since you got back here.”

  “I told her not to tell me what to do and then I left”

  Tara mirrors my own cringe with an audible hiss and a visible scrunch.