Chapter 5 - Love and Literature

“So, what’s a fun thing to do around here?” The brunette asked her cousin, as she placed a photo of herself and Alexa on her nightstand.

“Well, there are tons of places we could go to, we could go anywhere, except shopping,” Alexa stated as she laid down on her stomach on her cousin’s queen-sized bed.

“You never could stand the mall; you know you’re not normal right?”

“Yup.” Alexa stated happily, making a popping noise on the ‘p’. “Not that it would help anyhow, we don’t have a mall here in Black Pines,” she stated smugly.

“No mall?! How could there be no mall?! Just what kind of backward town did I move to?” She exclaimed with exaggerated horror, face twisting in emphasis. Alexa giggled which caused the twisted expression to fall from the older woman’s face as she smiled and shrugged.

“Oh well, guess there has to be something else to do here. Hey, how about you take me on a tour of the town, and maybe pop into a bookstore while we’re there?” Jayden asked as she placed the last of her items on her dresser before she turned to gauge her cousin’s reaction.

“You know, it’s sometimes creepy how well you know me,” the redhead said as she rolled off the dark purple comforter.

“You’ve got to admit it comes in handy,” she smiled down at her cousin, picking up her beige pouch, after placing her purple travel case in the corner, swinging the strap over her head and onto her shoulder.

“I guess so.”

They walked out of the guest room across the hall and into Alexa’s room where she picked up her cell phone and film camera.

“You’re taking that with you?” Jayden asked incredulously.

“Of course, you never know when inspiration might strike,” Alexa stated as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Jayden just nodded her understanding.

They made their way back down the wooden stairs, and into the kitchen so that they could leave a note, in case they lost track of time, so that Alexa’s mom knew how to find them.

When they got there, the whiteboard already had writing on it, two different kinds of handwriting. One note was from Jean:

*Girls, Gone to work, dropped Gabriella at her dance lessons, please pick her up at one. Mom*

The other was from Isaac who had disappeared. Alexa tried not to let it bother her that he had bailed on their birthday, but it was hard to shake that deep hurt that settled in her heart:

*Dorks, At Olivia’s*

‘Well, that explains why the house is so quiet; we must have taken longer than I thought’ Alexa thought to herself as she picked up a marker, writing a quick note on the leftover space.

*Gone into town be back with Gabs later, A.*

After writing the message Alexa left the kitchen for the front door. She took her blue denim jacket from the hanger above a table with a round bowl that held keys. She swung her arms around her head, bringing the jacket around her shoulders, Alexa slipped her arms through the sleeves and flung her hair back and out of the collar of the Denim jacket.

As she settled into her jacket, Alexa couldn’t help but wonder if her twin had liked the leather jacket and the metallic, crimson bike helmet she had gotten him as his gift. The redhead ignored the twinge of pain she felt when she remembered he hadn’t even bothered to thank her after his initial quick reply of gratitude that morning.

The redhead picked up her leather handbag, another gift from her mother for her sixteenth birthday a few years earlier, from the table next to the front door. Alexa fished her keys out from the clear glass bowl, where all the keys were kept.

“Let’s go,” Alexa gestured toward the door with her head, her straightened auburn locks swinging with her. Alexa opened the mahogany door and moved aside to let her cousin walk out before her.

Jayden nodded, straightening her purple jacket, and left the house waiting for the redhead on the brick landing outside. Said woman closed and locked the door behind her. They both walked down the three brick steps and toward the blue convertible standing in the driveway.

The midnight blue Aston Martin Vanquish Volante had two doors, was able to fit four people comfortably, and had an Am29 v12 engine, with a manual transmission. And had belonged to Alexa ever since she had turned sixteen, and the girl cherished it having been the last gift her father had ever given her.

Alexa unlocked her car and slid into the driver’s seat once she had the door open. Jayden herself slid into the leather passenger seat. Both females pulled their seatbelts into place, buckling them in. Alexa started her car, reversing out of the driveway and turning into the road.

They drove down the street listening to the music playing softly in the background. Each lost in their own thoughts. The newly eighteen-year-old continued to drive toward the town.

“I didn’t know you guys lived so close to the forest, it was a huge surprise when I got here and literally saw it was your backyard,” Jayden said as she leaned forward in her seat to stare out of the windscreen at the thick, tall trees.

“Black Pines Forest,” Alexa said as she turned her eyes to gaze out of her own window before quickly returning to the road, a strange feeling of longing filled her stomach and made her uncomfortable.

“So, was it just me, or were things a little frosty between you and Isaac?” Jayden asked.

“Oh, you noticed that huh?”

“It was kind of hard not to notice, I don’t think he spent more than ten minutes in the same room as you this morning. I thought things got better after your…” The brunet trailed off, unable to finish her sentence.

“I thought they did too, but he went right back to it about six months after,” Alexa felt herself grow irritated when she felt the tell-tale signs of tears pushing at her eyes.

“I don’t get it, it has only been two years, but he was acting this way the year before that too,” Jayden observed how her cousin suddenly became very quiet, and how hard she was gripping the steering wheel.

“It feels like the Great Wall of China was just suddenly dumped between us three years ago and there’s nothing I can do about it.” The newly turned eighteen-year-old finally admitted.

Jayden felt that there was nothing she could say that would comfort her so obviously hurting cousin, so she kept her mouth shut after that. However, she could clearly see the pain this separation was causing the female half of the twins. She decided maybe she should discuss things with the other half of the pair.

“It should be about twenty minutes before we reach the bookstore, you’ll love it there,” Alexa said after a few minutes of silence.

“You live a few ways away from the rest of the town.”

“Yeah, mom wanted the privacy after my dad…” The redhead trailed off her throat closing up, and the pain of her loss throbbed in her heart, even after two years.

Jayden said nothing, just placed her hand on her cousin’s thigh in an effort to comfort her. The small family of three moved to the small town after a tragic accident took the girl’s father. Alexa hadn’t really recovered from the incident, being the closest to the patriarch of the family.

It didn’t help that the one person she could relate to from birth had distanced himself the year before for no apparent reason, or the fact that he was determined to keep said distance now.

They finally arrived at their destination having spent the rest of the drive in silence. Alexa pulled into a parking space and switched the car off. The cousins made their way into a bookstore called “Charlene O’Connell’s Bookstore.” A little bell on the top of the door rang with a high-pitched jingle. The rush of warm air made the girl’s cheeks flush.

Alexa took in a deep breath, letting the smell of the leather and, both the old and the new, pages of the books, as well as the freshly brewed coffee, fill her senses with its warm familiar touch. It gave her a type of high that nothing else could and allowed her troubles to just melt away.

Opening her eyes that she didn’t even realize she had closed she made a large gesture toward the tall stacks filled with books. The bookcases were old and almost as tall as the ceiling, each had a ladder attached to it so that a person could get to the books on the higher bookshelves.

“Have fun.” The redhead said and wandered off in a different direction in search of books that interested her. Jayden walked among the bookcases, her eyes reading the titles and the authors of the books.

Alexa had become lost in a world of fantasy, mystery, and (although she would deny it if anyone asked) romance. Her heart yearned for a connection like the ones she would read about, that total completeness that true love brought to its bearer, and it ached at the feeling of emptiness that echoed after that thought.

The girls inside the bookstore remained completely unaware of the sinister presence that gazed upon them from across the empty street. Muddy eyes gleamed in ominous glee as they observed the redhead browsing books.

“Soon my love” he grinned ominously, relishing the innocent smile on his prey’s face, a dark chuckle escaped his pale lips. Yes, soon…