Risen (COMPLETE)

Chapter 8

Risen Chapter 8. Isolation

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When Kara arrived at the bookstore, Kelvin was already behind the counter and servicing a customer.

He gave her a side stare, a creepy one, the one he gave people when they were super late. That’s the thing, Kara was forty five minutes late. Her therapy session eat up like five minutes or so of her schedule, then she stopped by the park, to think before work and she lost track of time.

She walked passed them to the locker room, she knew Kelvin was dying to ask what happened and he was never the patient type— the fact that he was loosing his patience with by the customer, he technically eyeing out Kara.

Kara reappeared from the locker room with her green apron around her body. Sadly for her, Kelvin was waiting impatiently like a mother waiting for their child to spill the terrible news.

She grab the returned books from the counter, she was walking away when Kelvin got ahold of her hand. She stopped, her body was frozen, no one had touched her in months, not directly on her skin she felt vulnerable which she was.

He noticed her panic by his little gesture, he immediately let go and spoke. “Why are you so late.” Kara came back to reality, she pressed the books close to her body then looked to the ground, feeling rather vulnerable she spoke. “I got carried away with something’s, it won’t happen again.” her voice was barely even audible.

“What thing’s where these.” Kelvin raised a his eyebrows, if Kara looked up she would have noticed he wasn’t even serious, he was trying to mess with her. “Thera—” She abruptly stopped talking, Kelvin didn’t know she took therapy or she was learning boxing for defence, he didn’t even know what happened to her. She rubbed the back of her neck, trying to think of a suitable lie. “Uh.. Theravada.” great, now am lying that am learning Buddhism. What a great save Kara. She thought then smiled as she saw Kelvin’s confused, it was definitely a good save.

“Uh okay. What ever that is, sounds good?” Kelvin had a hint of doubt and confusion, mostly cause he thought that word was just a make up. So that she wouldn’t open up to him, but he had tried enough to know just to let it go. Kara nodded then smiled genuinely while she disappeared to the books shelves.

She returned the books in their places and placed the books left on the floors in there places. She guessed they where from Saturday, she was off on the weekend, so maybe Kelvin couldn’t check out books and return them in their places.

She around, shelf by shelf checking if every book was in the right place. People were so disorganized when it came to books, Kara was a book maniac. It’s probably the only reason she was still here, for the books just for them.

Kara was walking down the thriller/mystery section, good books where here, there was none of that romance stuff. A girl about twenty or less stood there lost, looking for a book which she wasn’t finding. Her eyes kept scanning the books but she just couldn’t find it.

It’s your job, help. Kara’s thoughts were telling her the opposite of what her legs where doing, running far away, very far. Then the girl turned and met Kara’s eyes. Kara wore a shy smile, so did the girl but she quickly looked away.

She was still lost, the book she was looking for wasn’t being found. Out of the humanity Kara had, she directed her legs to walk up to her and help. “What book are you looking for, I work here. I could help.” She got the girls attention. Her face rang a bell in Kara’s head, but she couldn’t place where she had seen her.

“Murder at midnight.. it’s uh, by—” Kara didn’t need the authors name, she knew the book. She had currently returned it back to its place last week. She reached for the top shelf and got the red-black covered book. “Here, it was within sight.” she handed the girl the book, she started walking away.

“Thanks by the way Kara, it’s nice to see you again too.” she stopped, she now recognised who it was. It was the waiter from Friday, Shyla. “I am in trouble for not recognising you sooner, right Shyla?” Shyla blushed by the way Kara mentioned her name, so much emphasis but it was also sweet.

“Can’t blame you. I could have probably forgotten you too, if not for my poor book spotting.” They both smiled, Kara’s short. What would she talk about now, her mind was blank. They just stood there in awkward silence, Shyla playing with the book and Kara looking everywhere but her direction.

“I should go check out this book, and you to work. See you around?” Kara nodded in agreement as Shyla walked to the counter. She left out the breath she didn’t know she was holding, she walked over to the Erotic section.

After a while of waiting for her lunch break, it finally arrived. She took off her apron and wore her hoodie before heading out of the bookstore, Kelvin was still inside so he would lock up.

Kara walked in silence as always, noticing every little thing around her. The couples walking hand in hand, children playing, the little things.

When she arrived at the dinner, she went to sit on her usual spot, her comfort spot. It took about five minutes before a waitress came to take her order, and lucky for her, it was Shyla. “We need to stop meeting like this.” she gave Kara a friendly smile which she returned, she placed her notepad back in her apron. “The usual right?” Kara agreed with a nod and in less than a second Shyla left.

She looked out the window, spotting a young couple, they would probably be in there late teens. They were laughing, they must have been telling eachother jokes, Kara thought. The young girl’s turned towards the direction of Kara, she was laughing while holding her stomach. An instant memory of Alex laughing came into her mind, she always laughed like that, a maniac. The edge of her lips curled into a slight smile of the memory.

“Here you go.” Shyla placed the plate and drink down. Kara came back to reality, she was so completely sucked up in her thoughts, time must have just slipped by. “Thank you.” Kara brought her plate closer to her.

“I have a question. It’s inappropriate to ask but if you could let me, I would appreciate.” Shyla stood there terrified of what she would say. Kara surprised her by point to the chair, Shyla obeyed and sat down.

“Okay so. Why are you so quiet, you barely speak.” Kara was still eating her lunch, she paused. “I guess am an extreme introvert.” she giggled then continued to eat her lunch.

Shyla was very uncertain of her answer, but she hardly knew this girl, objecting even asking was out of line. “Okay, so why the hoodie with this heat.” she raised her brow questioning her. Kara seemed amused, very amused. “Cold blooded.” she kept eating without looking at the girl across from her.

“Okay you win, whatever this was. I’ll leave you to it.” she left Kara to eat her lunch in peace, what was left of it anyway.

The rest of the afternoon at work was very unproductive, she sat around doing nothing. Kelvin couldn’t even let her leave, “What if someone comes.” he kept saying the same thing, well no one came. Now Kara was walking up to her apartment door, ready to rest.

The dark room welcomed her once the door swung open. She got in then switched on the lights, locking the door before heading to her room to get changed.

She sat on the couch waiting for her pizza, which she ordered twenty minutes ago. This is why she hated changing places to order from, but her usual restaurant couldn’t make it. Finally there was a knock on the door, she hurried off the couch opening it.

There it was, her delicious food. She received it with a happy heart, she went back to the couch and dug into the pizza.