Chapter 1

My clock’s ringing wakes me from a deep sleep. I hit the snooze button and that’s when I realize its 9:51 a.m.

‘Oh crap! I'm late!’  I scramble out of bed, throwing my blanket off of me and run to my closet. I quickly put on a red button up shirt and black dress pants, I then grab my bag. I run to grab the keys to my mini copper and slip into my black flats. I'm living in an apartment in Fairfax, Virginia; this was my sixth time moving. I had been living here around eleven months now.

After going over the speed limit and a red light here and there, I finally make it to Beyond Imagination bookstore. I walk quickly to the door and unlock it.

‘If I wasn't the owner I'd fire myself for being late.’ Once the door is unlock I see a small brown hair girl sitting on the bench by the door.

"Sorry I'm late Susie. Did you wait long?"

"No, I just got here 4 minutes ago." She says quietly.

"Okay, well come on in its chilly out." I hold the door open for her so she can go inside. She grabs her bag and goes in. She's 18, and she's been coming here since I've opened up the store. She comes once she's out of school and early in the morning on weekends. She has shoulder length curly hair. She’s wearing a pink and white striped shirt with some faded blue jeans. 

Its a small two story store. It has four floor to ceiling windows in the main entrance, with a neutral green paint on the the walls. I have six rows of bookshelves on the right when you enter. On the left I have my counter with the cash register and the there are five more rows of bookshelves. The back wall is also covered with bookshelves. I'm remodeling the upstairs hoping someone will rent the place. I walk passed the shelves to the back room, and walk to the bathroom. I place my bag on the sink and stare at myself. I'm a pale twenty-seven year old. My hair is a layer light brown that reaches the middle of my back. I also have green eyes. I'm pretty short as well, last time I was at the doctor they told me I was 5'3. I take a small travel toothbrush out of my bag, which I have for emergencies. I then run my fingers through my hair to make myself look presentable. I walk out of the bathroom and leave my bag on a table I have in here. I then start opening boxes of the new arrivals. I load the books on to my cart and I wheel my way out back onto the floor and start shelving the books.

"I'll like to get this one." Susie says softly.

"Okay." I grab the book and walk to the front. I ring it up.

"That'll be six dollars." She hands me the money and i hand her the book. I don't put it in a bag because I know she's going to go ahead and start reading it. She usually sits on the floor against a wall to read. I go back to shelving. Today is actually a slow day. Most Sunday mornings are. It's one o'clock when I finish shelving.

"Hey Susie it's one, do you want to go grab lunch with me?"

She looks up and smiles, she checks her watch and nods. She folds the page she's on and gets up. I put the 'Out For Lunch' sign on the front door and lock it. We walk to the cafe across the street. We walk in and immediately you can smell the coffee and bread.

"What would you like?" I ask gazing down to Susie.

"Just a sandwich and a peach tea." She says quietly.

"Alright, go pick a table while I order." She nods and walks to a table by a window.

I make our orders. Susie's staring out the window when I walk to the table. She moved her hair to the side so you see the back of her neck. There's a mark peeking out from under her shirt, it looks like a bruise. I place the tray on the table and hand her lunch. She's quieter then usual.

"How's school?" I ask.

"Oh you know it's stressful with all my AP classes."

"How many are you taking now?"

"Four." She shrugs.

"My counserler says I can graduate early. Next month actually" She grins.

"That's great! What are going to do afterwards?"

"I’m going to find a job." She shrugs again, looking down at her plate.

"You're not going to college?" I c**k my head to the side.

"It's a lot of money. I'm going work to save money."

"Well that is a good idea." We eat in silence for a while.

"Well you can work at my store. You know every inch of that place." I say to her. She looks up grinning.

"Do you really mean that?" Her eyes are burning with joy.

"Of course, I can use the help." We finish our food and head to the store. I unlock the door and take the sign down.

As I'm helping some customers I see Susie bending to pick something up and I notice she has two more bruises on her back. Susie isn't the type to get into fights, so something’s wrong.

"Excuse me for second." I say to the customers and head over to Susie.

"Can I talk to you in the back room?" She looks up and has a confused look, but she follows me. I close the door behind us and I turn to her.

"Is everything alright? Is something going on at school or at home?" I ask. Her eyes widen. I can tell she’s trying to stay calm.

"Yes, why do you ask?" She says looking down.

"I noticed you have three bruises two on your back, one on your neck." She stares at me. She looks terrified. Her eye start to turn red and brings her hands to her face.

"Please don’t tell anyone. It’s not all the time." She whispers. I move her hands out of her face. Her big brown eyes looking at mine.  

"Who did this to you?" She stares at me. I let go of her hands. I turn around and I grab a box of tissues I have on the table and pull two out then hand them to her.

"Thank you." She mumbles.

"Susie no one should be hurting you like this. I can help, but you need to tell me who did this to you.” She looks down again. She takes a deep breath and looks up.

“He doesn't do it all the time.”

“Who?” She closes her eyes and takes another deep breath.

“My dad.” She opens her eyes. I can see she’s in pain.

“When did he start hurting you?”

“When my mom died.” She looks down again. I can tell she’s trying not to cry. She wipes her nose with the tissues.

“I didn't know she died. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

F**k. What do I do? How do I help her?

“You can stay with me in my apartment” She looks up. I can tell that made her happy, but then her face looks sad again.

“That’ll make my dad even more mad.”

Crap. I turn around and rip a piece of paper off my notebook and write my number and address. I hand it to her.

“You can come and call anytime. If he tries or does anything again, call me and I’ll be there in a minute.” She looks down at the paper. She looks up and hugs me. I hold her tightly. She steps back and smiles.

“Thank you Alex.” I hand her more tissues and she walks out.

‘Who can do such a thing to a child? Let alone their own child. I could kill that f****r.’ I take a deep breath.

‘No Alex calm down. She’ll call you. Then you can kill the f****r, you need a reason first.’ I walk back out and I look around for the customers.

‘S**t, they must have walked out. Whatever.’ As I’m walking back I see them at the front desk. Susie is ringing them up.

‘How did she know what to do? Damn, she’s good.’ I smile and nod at her when the customers walk out. She smiles back. The rest of the day goes by fast. By the time I look at the clock it’s seven o’clock. I pack up my things and look around to make sure everything is in order. I walk out with Susie and lock up.

“Remember anything, you call me. Don’t hesitate to call.” She nods.

“I don’t have school tomorrow.”

“Alright I’ll make sure I’m here on time.” I smile at her. She giggles and wave’s good-bye then walks away. I stand watching her walk away until she turns the corner.

‘No wonder she’s always here.’ I walk to my car and just sit there staring out the windshield. My phone ringing interrupts my thoughts. It's Fabian; I met him when I hired him for the renovating both floors of my store. He works for his dad's contracting and construction business. We hit it off well so we stayed in touch.

“Hey Fabian.”

“Hello love, I was wondering if you wanted to get a drink.” He somehow thinks that I’m okay with him calling me love. I’m not. I tried to get him to call me Alex but I stopped trying after a while and just got use to him calling me it.

“Yeah, that sounds good.”

                “Good. The usual place?”

"Of course, see you there."

“Alright bye.” He says and I hang up. I put my phone in the cup holder and turn on the car.

‘Yes a drink. I can use a drink.’

Author's Note

Try to ignore errors, I will be fixing them later. Please let me know what you think.

Reviews

[Pinkyleeamy]

There seems to be an interesting story in the making here.. any other chapters?? Only one thing I would say as a word of advice when writing books.. the "I" as you are the writer is never mentioned. All the characters are usually written in third person. Unless of course.. that's the way you choose to write your book.. then just ignore what I said :)