“Nope.” Quoth stepped into the room and came up beside me. Today he wore a black singlet speckled with paint, and a pair of black cargo pants, also paint splattered. On any other guy that would’ve looked scruffy, but Quoth made it appear dark and mysterious. “So what are you doing?”
“I wanted to get the room ready for the Banned Book Club tomorrow. I know Heathcliff doesn’t want it to succeed, but I think we should give it a shot. This bookshop could be a really amazing community space. It’s already brighter with your artwork on the walls. Imagine if we had book clubs and author readings and art shows as well?”
Quoth gave me a sad smile that broke my heart. “I’m sure Heathcliff would just love all that.”
“I’m hoping to convince him.” I grabbed the end of one of the bookshelves. “The first step is to make this book club go off without a hitch. Can you get the other side of this?”
“Only if you tell me why you’rereallyhere.”
“I told you. I want the meeting to—”
“Mina.”
I groaned. “Fine. I wanted to escape my mum.”
Quoth tilted his head to the side. He didn’t ask me to elaborate, but something about the way his silence filled the space between us made me desperate to fill it.
“My mum is…” I tried to think of the words. “You’d have to meet her to understand.”
“I’d like that.”
I shook my head. “Nothappening. I need my home life and my bookshop life to remain separate. Mum is… she’s amazing and so selfless. She did everything for me so I’d have a better life and opportunities she never had. But I think deep down she believes she failed. I think she feels responsible for my eyesight. It’s hard because I want to make her feel better, since it’s not her fault, but also… sometimes it feels like everything is about her. I can’t be upset about it around her because it makes her feel bad, and right now I’m so upset I want to scream all the time.”
Quoth didn’t say anything. We shoved the bookshelf against the wall and started on the other. The silence welled up between us, and more words tumbled out of me before I could stop them. “Mum grew up in Liverpool, in the worst house in the poorest neighborhood. Her father was in and out of jail for aggravated assault and drug dealing. Her mum was a junkie. She stopped going to school at fifteen and got pregnant a year later. Mum decided she didn’t want her parents’ life for us so she ran away, followed my dad to Argleton, and cut her parents off completely. My Dad abandoned her shortly after, but she never went back to them. She said my grandmother came to look for us once, but she told her to piss off.”
“I’m sorry,” Quoth said.
“Don’t be. At least I had a family. I had Mum, and she’s always been there for me and she’s always done the best for me, but… she hasn’t been able to throw off her past. She’s uneducated. She can’t hold down a real job – instead, she reads tarot cards for the rich ladies on the hill, the ones with more money than sense. She’s obsessed with the idea of being wealthy, but she thinks she’s entitled to the perks of being a CEO without the work. She encouraged me to go to fashion school because she believes I’ll make us millionaires, which is the complete opposite of what most parents would’ve done, especially since I also had scholarship offers from Oxford and Cambridge for English.“
“Your mum sounds fascinating,” Quoth laughed.
“She’s got a new get-rich-quick-scheme – selling dictionaries of cat and dog language, can you believe it? They’re completely ridiculous. The dumb thing is, I think she’s chosen it because I work in the bookshop. Like, she thinks these stupid books she gets made at the local printers are the same thing as this.” I held upOf Mice and Men.
Quoth said nothing.
“It’s probably that I’m too old to be living at home, but she’s been winding me up lately. She’s got a bee in her bonnet about my job and you guys. She keeps trying to see you when you drop me off, and asking me hundreds of questions. I bet she’ll start dropping by the shop just because she’s ‘in the neighborhood’.” I used air quotes. “Why can’t she just leave me alone?”
“Do you want me to come inside and meet her?”
“No.” The word came out harsher than I intended. I imagined my three intelligent guys meeting my ditzy, riches-obsessed mother, and an old, deep shame flared on my cheeks. “I mean, thank you for the offer, but there’s no point.”
“Wecouldmeet her, you know. If it would help.”
I snorted. “Yeah right. ‘Hey, Mum, here are my friends, the grumpy antihero, the supervillain, and the bird.’”
Quoth looked away. Regret swelled in my chest.
“Quoth, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that.”
“Yeah, you did.” His voice was small.
I sighed. “Look, it’s not that—”
“Let’s just get this room cleaned up.” Quoth avoided my eyes as he reached for the shelves. As he placed his hand on the top, a white streak darted down his arm, launched itself into midair, performed a perfect series of somersaults before landing on all fours, and disappeared into the stacks.
“Bloody hell.” Quoth leapt back, feathers exploding from his cheeks.
“You haven’t taken care of that mouse yet!” I wailed.
