I blinked. Kyle stood in the open doorway of my room. "You ready?" he asked.
I stood and smiled. "Yeah, I'm ready."
We went downstairs and, on our way, out the door Kyle grabbed his car keys. We took turns playing songs we liked on his car radio. While Kyle drove, I found the songs on his music player. We sang along and laughed all the way to Serina's apartment.
I used my phone to text her that we were outside and within minutes she was rushing out the door to join us.
"Hey!" she called happily.
I opened the door. "Hey, Serina!" I called back to her.
Serina jumped into the backseat of the car.
"Hi. Nice to see you." Kyle told her.
"I am excited to go shopping!" Serina exclaimed. "We are going to have fun!"
I laughed, somehow her enthusiasm was infectious. "I am too." And in my own way, I was.
We talked about the stores we wanted to go to. Serina wanted to go to shoe stores, a make up store and popular clothing retailer, I liked vintage stores, bookstores and one-of-a-kind clothing stores. Kyle liked record and music stores, electronics stores and this one movie store that sold older movies on disc, as well as t-shirts, posters and other movie related stuff.
While we drove, we all chatted away, getting caught up on events in each other's lives. Serina was also taking a year to work to save money and try to decide if she wanted to go to college or university. She had graduated at the same time as Kyle.
My phone made a noise, letting me know of an incoming text message. I noticed that it was from my instructor, Mike. He wanted to remind me not to forget to pick up a book at the bookstore. Because Mike was a shifter who was very skilled, my mother and father hired him to teach me. There was a more advanced book he wanted me to obtain a copy of, and there was one reserved under his name at the bookstore.
I thought the bookstore was so cool, because it had a whole back room full of books on white magic, dark magic and shifting. But all I had to do was hand the slip of paper in my pocket to the storeowner, who would put the book on Mike's tab.
"…and stupid Victoria won't stop going on and on about how she found her mate." I heard Serina say as I tuned back into the world around me.
"She is past the point of being annoying. I am happy for her, and all but…"
"But you also feel jealous? You want your mate too?" Kyle said interrupting her.
"Yeah." She said with a sigh.
'She sounds so dejected.' I thought. Then a second later, I realized that Kyle had said that she wanted her mate, not that she wanted to find her mate. 'Was there not a difference? Did she know who her mate was? Did Kyle also know about it? Were they keeping something from me? Or was I just overthinking?'
"I am so lucky shifters don't have mates. All that stuff sounds really complicated!" I sighed.
"Very complicated." Kyle agreed. Serina said nothing. We drove the rest of the way in silence.
It was getting warm in the car and it was making me sleepy, we were only fifteen minutes away, and I was struggling to stay awake. A second later I opened my eyes as the car was parked and Kyle wanted me to get out of the car.
"Huh?"
"I said that you had better get out of the car. We didn't come all this way for you to sleep in here." Kyle spoke with a wry smile on his lips.
"Alright. I am coming with you guys." I got out of my seat and we left the parking lot and entered the mall.
I was equally as bored in the fancy shoe store as I was in the electronics store. But our third stop was for me. It was the bookstore.
I walked in and saw the bookstore owner, Burt, talking to a customer. I stood facing a nearby shelf. There were many books in this shop I would like to read. I picked up a mystery novel set in the age of the Ottoman Empire.
'Well, guess this is another for my endless wish list.' I thought wistfully.
I put the book back and walked over to the glass case of older, more valuable books. Even through the thick glass I could smell the distinct scent of old books wafting up from them. To some people it was a gross smell, but to me it was a smell of history and all things ancient. It was a scent so laced with mystery, and secrets, that I found it alluring.
"Sam!" I heard Burt's voice call to me.
I turned. "Hey, Burt."
"Are you looking for something in particular? Or are you happy just browsing?" He asked with a smile.
"Oh. I don't have a lot of time today. I actually came for a specific item." I reached into my pocket and brought out the small piece of paper. I handed it to him, and he took it from me while adjusting his glasses.
"Ah, yes. I see." He walked back behind the counter.
"Mike said I should ask for you to put it on his tab." I said.
"Of course, I will, he has very good credit here."
Burt handed me a large, thin hard cover book that looked at least 50 years old. I opened it, to better smell the old book smell, closing my eyes as I took a sniff. When I opened them again, I saw some of the contents of the book. They were advanced shifting techniques for shapeshifters.
I handed the book back to Burt to wrap in brown paper.
When he finished the transaction, I turned to walk back to the store entrance. Kyle and Serina would be there waiting for me. I saw a man and a woman walk past them, the man stopped and took a look at something on a shelf near the entrance and the woman rushed past me to the counter.
"Hey, did you get what you needed?" Kyle asked.
I laughed, "Everything I needed and nothing I wanted."
Serina laughed too. "If you got everything you wanted, this store would be out of stock!"
Kyle joined her in her laughter.
I heard raised voices coming from the counter at the back of the store. I turned my head towards the noise. Based on their reactions, Kyle and Serina heard it too.
"You said you would hold the book for me!" the woman's angry voice yelled.
"I told you if you wanted me to reserve the book for you, that you would have to put down a deposit in advance, while you raised the money to pay for it." Burt said patiently. "I follow the same policy for all new customers or those without good credit."
"You are not lying to me, are you?" the woman demanded. "Not hiding the book somewhere in this shop?"
"No, madam. The book was paid for and left the shop earlier today."
I got the gut feeling that something bad was about to go down.
The woman turned and walked away from the counter and made her way towards her companion. He carefully placed the book back on the shelf, looked at her and then gestured to me with a quick flick of his eyes and the smallest inclining of his head. A smile appeared on her face.