A Day At the Bookstore [[Artemus]]

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Normally, Brendan would not have been surprised to see that the store was empty. In fact, he kind of enjoyed it. It wasn't a gigantic bookstore and only a handful of people would come in a day. But he started to become a little worried that no one had come at all and it was already two hours until closing time.

"This is... unsettling." He said as he looked over to his pet finch, Nico. She was currently nibbling on some seeds and ignoring Brendan, but he didn't mind. He put his arms behind his head, kicked up his long slender legs and balanced his chair back. “Nah, well, I shouldn’t get worked up by it. It’s not the first time this has happened.”

Though Harper Valley was a small town and his store was one of the only other bookstores people could depend on, Brendan still had to rely on regular customers and sales to keep his business afloat. He knew that maybe displaying the most popular books near the windows would help bring in traffic but he honestly hated what people were writing these days. He had skimmed over some of the tween books that took place in "dark, gothic settings" that dealt with mystical, alluring creatures like vampires and werewolves. Despite hating to admit that his beast-like side was in fact a part of him, he couldn’t lie: he felt offended. Nevertheless, he made sure to keep a fair stock of the new releases on his shelves along with the books that were being turned into blockbusters, though he didn’t remember the last young-adult book-to-film release all too fondly. The store was crowded than ever with teen girls who didn’t understand what “out of stock” meant. Some even went so far as to try and steal a copy. Regardless if their parents had caught them or if they were intimidated by Brendan’s stature, they thankfully decided to return the stolen property seconds before they left the store. Times like those made Brendan wonder if possibly having another employee would help prevent attempts like that from happening. Maybe he’d eventually put up that “Wanted” poster he had bought two years ago. Maybe.

The familiar creaking sound of the wooden steps outside the store made Brendan quickly sweep his legs off the table and scramble to sit up right. He whipped out a pen, calculator and his notebook to look like he was busy and tried to make himself look natural. He was able to get into this position just in time to hear the bell chime and the door swing open with a new body in his peripheral vision. Brendan looked up and forged a surprised yet happy expression to the newcomer, gave an acknowledging nod and went back to his pretend scribbling. He would never greet his customers outright or immediately try to help them. He hated it when employees would do that to him in other stores, so he respected personal space and knew an acknowledging nod would suffice. The only time he'd ever say a word was if they came up to him first. Of course, he was never ready whenever that would actually happen.

MADE BY MINNIE OF BACK TO NEVERLAND