I'm What Time and Consequence Have Made Me

It was late November here in Alaska and the harsh winter weather was already beginning to get to the point where nobody wanted to leave their house at all. Every inch of the outdoors was covered in a thick blanket of show that glistened ever so slightly in the few daylight hours we had. While everyone else was complaining about the snow, the cold air and locking themselves inside, I preferred spending as much time as I possibly could in the winter wonderland. It was freezing – I won’t deny that; I was wrapped up in as many layers of clothing that I could manage but I had always just found some undeniable beauty about Alaska that I wanted to spend as much time as possible outside, unmasking it’s hidden wonders. Today, instead of being cooped up inside like the rest of the city, I decided to take a long walk down to the book store to stock up on books.
The snow made every street look identical but lucky for me, I had walked this route over a thousand times in the short amount of time that I have lived here so within twenty minutes, I had made it to the book store. As soon as I stepped inside the cheery chime of the bell went off and hovered in a space for a moment, allowing the warm, heated air to defrost my frozen body.
“Hey Hazel.” Austin shouted from across the store. As always, he had a goofy grin plastered across his face and he was probably up to no good. This store is always more or less empty and Austin just uses that as an excuse to laze around and I swear, there have been countless times where I’ve walked in and he’s taking gulps out of his whisky flask. By the looks of it, today is one of those days.
“Gibbs.” I smiled as I walked across the store and over to the counter where he was positioned. Since moving here Austin was the only friend I had made and that was probably down to the fact that I don’t really go anywhere other than work and the bookshop and also because he was the only one I had bothered to make an effort to talk to. It’s not that I’m antisocial it’s just that most people bore me. There has to be something interesting that I see in them right away or I just get bored of them.
“You know, with the amount of books you own, you may as well just open a library.”
“But if I did that then people would think that I’m incredibly dorky.” I told him but he just laughed.
“Hazel, you are incredibly dorky.” I stuck my bottom lip out, trying my best to look upset by his comment but he just laughed more. “It’s cute though. You’re my cute, dorky friend.”
I shook my head and wondered over to the shelves of neatly organised books, scanning each row, looking for anything that seemed remotely interesting. After a while, I settled on the floor, surrounded by a pile of books while I read their blurbs. It didn’t take me long before I had a fair amount to take home and by fair amount I mean about twelve books. Somehow, I managed to carry them over to the counter where Austin was still lounging around.
“Let me guess, these will all last you, what, maybe a day?” he sniggered.
“You’re not funny Gibbs.” I retorted, as he started scanning the books and putting them into bags.
“I’m not trying to be funny.” He said. “Are you doing anything tonight? Wait don’t even answer that because I know you’re not.” My mouth dropped open, the cheek this boy had regardless to the fact that his statement was more than true. “So I’m having a small get together tonight. A few friends from an old tour of mine are in town and I invited them round and you should come too. You’ve lived here over a year now and I’m pretty sure I’m still your only friend. You need to meet more people Hazel.”
“Austin, you know I’m not much of a party person.” I sighed as I took the bags of books out of his hands.
“It’s not a party; it’s a get together of friends. Yes, there will be booze but you enjoy booze so that not a problem and there’ll be like six of us - seven if you come. It’ll be fun and you need to have fun and stop being miserable and antisocial.”
“I’m not antisocial!” I said, slightly annoyed with him.
“Yes, yes you are. Again, may I remind you that you only have one friend in this entire city?” Sighing, I knew he was right, I was a social hermit. I either spent time by myself, with Austin or with the company of my dog, Ringo, but for me that was more than enough so even though I knew I should socialise tonight, I awkwardly turned down his invitation.
“Well dork, if you change your mind, be there at seven at my place.” He said with a disappointed wave before I walked out of the store with the heavy bags in each hand.
As soon as I unlocked my front door Ringo came bounding down the stairs to greet me. He’d probably spent the last hour asleep on my bed even though he knows he’s not allowed to do that. I placed the heavy bags down on my kitchen table and crouched down, ruffling the ears of the Husky puppy. “Hey buddy, I missed you.” I said in a babyish voice which caused him to jump up, placing his paws on my shoulders and attempting to lick my face.
“Oh no thank you.” I said, pushing him off me and walking into the living room. I collapsed onto the sofa, exhausted as if I’d just done a ten mile run. Turning the television onto a re-run of House M.D I buried my face in a cushion and dove into a sea of accidental sleep.