“This place is cute,” she said as we drove through Main Street.
“Cute?” I asked.
She nodded. “No crowded streets or noisy traffic. People say hi to each other when they pass. Hell, you barely have a single traffic light. It just feels like a place ripped straight from a book.”
“I guess. Have you been out of the city much?”
She shook her head. “We almost never left. When I went to college, I didn’t have the time or money to go out and have any kind of crazy spring break, and then I jumped right into working, so there hasn’t been much time for that.”
I considered her words. It had been a long time since I actually looked at my surroundings, but with Sydney here, it felt like I was seeing it all for the first time. Though I’d only been to the city once, this place was a whole different world compared to that.
I parked along the street, and we got out in front of Trash to Treasure. It was a tall, red-brick building with a large, worn, hand-painted sign with the name over the window. The front windows were full of showpieces Jake managed to arrange in a semi-organized way. It was always a bit chaotic, but he tended to at least make it presentable while big events were going on.
That could not be said for the rest of the store. It was filled to the brim with racks of clothes shoved in so tight that pulling out one usually brought a few more along. The back wall was stacked to the roof with furniture precariously balanced on top of one another. I wondered what he did when someone wanted something from the middle. Maybe they were too intimidated by the pile to even ask.
“Jake!” I called as we walked in.
“Back here,” Jake said. We tried to follow his voice, but it had always been a maze in here.
“One more time,” I said.
“Over here,” he huffed, as if he didn’t know his store wasn’t easy to traverse.
We finally found him amongst the shelves of old stationery. “Hey,” he said. “I’m just unloading some of the new stuff. You have to see these new comics I got in too. I’m going to take them over to Gabe later to see if they’re worth anything.”
“I’m sure he’d love those.”
“Can I see?” Sydney asked.
Jake’s eyes moved to her, as if he hadn’t noticed her at first, and his face instantly changed. He was a racoon shifter, with small black ears and a ringed tail to match. Jake, Gabe, and I had grown up together, and though some people thought Jake could be rude, he was just… fully himself.
“You’re not with the… government, are you?” he asked.
She blinked. “No. I work for an agency that is contracted to provide organic certifications.”
“So you workwiththe government? You’re not actually a spy?”
“I can promise you the only thing she’s spying on is the state of my pesticides,” I replied in her stead. “And she’s cool, don’t worry.”
Sydney’s cheeks pinked in the most delightful way at my words.
Jake shrugged and pushed the box over. Sydney bent down to look at them. I squatted alongside her as she flipped through the box, occasionally pausing before continuing.
“Do you read comics?” I asked.
She shrugged. “I used to when I was younger. My library had a huge collection, and I’ve always loved the art style.”
I hadn’t ever been that into comics. Jake and Gabe had always loved them and traded them back and forth, but sitting down to read something for that long had never been my forte.
Sydney’s gasp had my attention going back to her. “This is Spark Girl! It was one of my favorites. And it looks like there’s a whole collection here.”
“We can get it if you want,” I said without thinking. I think I would get her anything to see her glow like that.
“Just take them,” Jake said.
Sydney looked up. “Are you sure?”
He nodded. “If Brooks approves of you, you’re probably okay.”
