A Demystification: Eve

Day 6: Weaknesses

WORD COUNT: 541

The sound of improperly steamed milk grated on her ears. It was like a mix of nails on a chalkboard and cat in heat, with a dose of hurricane-force winds buffeting a flood wall all screaming its way across the cafe and into what should have been her bibliographical heaven. "Aerate the fucking milk already," Lyn muttered, looking up from the latest Game of Thrones book and staring across the store. She was tucked into an enclave between two bookshelves placed catty-corner to one another, legs crossed and back pressed against the wall for optimum G.R.R. Martin consumption. It had been relatively quiet until whatever moron in the cafe had decided to scald someone's milk and rape her ears in the process.

Lyn spent most of her off time at the bookstore, but not the one that employed her. That would be just too weird, even for her, and Lara had convinced her that spending all of her time in the place she worked was the single most depressing thing anyone could do. So she drove her way across town and settled in the other big box to be found, always hiding in the corner like some sort of page-turning hermit.

"Excuse me," a voice interrupted. "Do you work here?"

Lyn looked up, biting back a sarcastic reply and attempting something related to a smile. The woman was older, perhaps seventy, and clearly without anything in the way of common sense. No, that was unfair, Lyn thought to herself. Lyn was always here and dressed similarly to the employees; it wasn't a huge leap to assume that she worked for the company. Why she would be hanging out in the corner and reading if she worked there was beyond her, but not everyone could be a genius.

"No, ma'am," she replied, mustering up a polite tone. "I don't."

"Oh." She seemed disappointed. Lyn sighed quietly to herself. She could never resist to help people. Lara always said that Lyn "couldn't help but give herself all up to the rest of the world" like it was some sort of bad thing. Maybe it was, Lyn thought. Maybe that was why people pushed her as far as they could, asking for more and more until she couldn't give anything else. And then she would lash out, and any sort of budding friendship would end. It was a never-ending cycle, really, because Lyn could never seem to say no to a person in need and other people could never seem to respect proper boundaries.

In the end, it was simpler to just not have friends. No one seemed to be particularly keen on being friends with the weirdo, anyway, so it worked better to just keep her distance. "I do know the store pretty well, though, so I could probably help you."

The woman's face lit up and she reached into her purse, pulling out a list of books at least twenty long. "I am helping my niece buy her books for school. Thank you so much for helping."

Lyn sighed again and stood, brushing the creases out of her pants and smiling. Of course this woman had a list longer than The Lord of the Rings saga.

So much for her day off.