With Me Tonight

The familiar sound of the bell jingling as I walked into my store made a slight smile come to my face. I pulled my key out of the door and flipped on all of the light switches as I walked in, causing the store to slowly become lit up, one light at a time. I loved looking at the sight of the store when it lit up, showing off all the beautiful fish and other aquatic animals here like they were a heavenly thing, which to me; they were.

The store was very open and bright, plus, the way it was designed makes it feel like you are near the ocean or beach. This was my dream store and I had made it with my own blood, sweat, and tears... literally. It had been my brothers and my idea to create this store a few years ago and over the years this place has been the only thing that has kept me sane, along with Gus.

I let out a content sigh as I walked down to the back of the store, going into the door that was for employee's only. This door led to a big storage area that held all of our extra supplies and a desk for paper work next to another door that led to the employee's lockers. I made my way to that door and turned on the lights once inside, then went over to my locker. I opened it up, throwing my jacket and bag inside, then took out my name tag and pinned it onto my shirt. I stole a quick glance at my watch after I shut my locker and saw that it was 7:39 a.m., we open at 8.
It was my favorite part of the day when I opened up the store in the morning and it always uplifted my mood. It was quiet and peaceful as I went from tank to tank, feeding all the fish the right type and amount of food.

Once I had all the fish fed and their conditions marked down on the chart, I heard the bells jingle that were on the door and looked up to see Gus, my co-owner/best friend, walk in. "Morning!" He called out to me as he walked into the back. "Morning, Gus." I said before the door shut completely.

When Gus came back out without his bag and jacket, he helped me on the right side of the store that held the tadpoles, frogs, toads, turtles, tortoises, shrimp, and some aquatic snakes. We fed all of our little friends and marked their conditions on the chart with smiley faces in all the boxes. Both Gus and I had memorized every single one of the fishes and other animals names and needs and felt as if they were all our little babies, but of course we had to part with them when they were sold.

I flipped the sign on the door and it now read 'OPEN' in big read letters. Gus was already sitting on the stool behind the check out desk, getting everything ready, so I decided I would feed Xavier and Tippy. Tippy was my tortoise that we let hang out on the counters with us and Xavier was my Burmese Python. Xavier was the friendliest snake in the world and he loved to slither around the store, but unfortunately most of the people that come in here don't want to be greeted by a 15 foot long snake.

Both of their habitats were behind the counter, so I easily went over and fed them as a few other employee's arrived and quickly went into the back to get ready for work. I picked up Tippy and set him down on the counter as I closed the top of his habitat. I watched as he slowly made his way down and stopped at the picture of my brother and I standing on a pier in Scotland.

I remembered the day that picture was taken more vividly than anything in my life; the day before my brother and I were planning to move to New York. I felt the large scar on my right thigh seem to burn as I thought about how the day we were planing to leave got pushed back a couple of months. All in all, I wish that day didn't happen, because if it didn't the large, ugly scar on my leg wouldn't be there and maybe my brother would still be alive..

"Belle." Gus calling my name made me snap out of my thoughts and turn to face him. He pointed at Tippy and I noticed that he was about to walk right off the counter. I quickly grabbed him and set him on the check out desk which was bigger and his favorite place to hang out at. "You thinking about him again?" Gus asked as I grabbed a small bag of carrots sitting on the desk. I simply nodded and pulled out a carrot for Tippy to munch on. "I don't know how many times I will have to tell you that it's not your fault." Gus continued. "It's the asshole drivers fault." He said, looking directly at me.

I sighed, knowing he wouldn't give up until I acknowledged him. "If I didn't get attacked then we could have left the next day and avoided the crash all together." I mumbled.

"Fine, then it's the shark's damn fault... Belle, you didn't purposely get attacked." He reasoned. I knew he was right, but it was always just a reflex to blame things on myself. "I have to go get the paperwork started for the Jefferson's tank. Watch Tippy?" I avoided the subject. Gus nodded and took the bag of carrots from me before I went and grabbed Xavier, letting him slither up onto my shoulders before I walked into the back of the store.

There was a surprisingly annoying amount of paper work that you had to do when ordering new tanks and fish, so I knew I could be back here for a while. I sat down in the chair and watched as Xavier slid down onto the table and curled up into a warm ball of snake. I pulled out the paper work I had to get started on and did my best to not think about my brothers death.

*2 years ago*

"How does your leg feel, Bee?" Camden, my brother, asked me as we walked into the American airport.

"Dandy. Cam, whaddya do with ye voice?" I asked him, my Scottish accent not being held back. He laughed a little as he grabbed our luggage. "We're in America now, Belle, can't go around talking like we're in Scotland anymore, it's disrespectful to the New Yorkers."
I just shrugged and threw my backpack over my shoulders, he kind of had a point. "Have ye seen the buildin yet?" I referred to the empty building that we were going to transform into our own aquatic pet store. "Only the pictures, Bee. Don't get too excited." He teased.

The building was definitely a fixer-upper, but Cam and I were going to transform it into our dream store. "We're going to head to there, but first we have to stop at Gus's and say hi."

"Gus?" I asked him.

"Yeah, my friend from college that moved out here a while ago." He said as he led me through the airport. I wasn't sure how he knew where he was going, but somehow he managed to get us to the exit we needed.

I nodded and we made our way out of the airport and looked at our surroundings. "We're finally here, Cam." I said, taking in the crisp New York air.

"You bet we are, Bee. But, I'm just glad you still have a leg, even though it did push our arrival back by a few months." He teased and put his arm around my shoulder as we walked to the cab that was waiting for us.

We threw all of our bags of luggage into the trunk and then Cam gave the driver directions to Gus's house. "Your leg hurting, Belle?" Cam asked as I awkwardly shifted, trying not to put too much pressure on it. "I already told ye it's fine." I said, not wanting to bring attention to the fact that it was throbbing. The shark attack had only been 2 months ago and I had practically got my leg bit off, but I was too eager to start exploring New York to let it hold me back. "Ye sound silly with that stupid new accent." I changed the subject.

"You're the one that's gona be sounding stupid. And with that accent how do you expect to be wooing any of these big, strong, New York men?" He joked with me.

"Oh shut it." I hit him on the arm playfully.

"I'm just messing with ya, Bee. You know I love your voice." Gus said to me. He always had told me that he loved to hear my voice, but as long as I stopped with the Scottish slang. I rolled my eyes at him and leaned my head against the window, watching in amazement as all the tall buildings dashed by as we drove on.

"What should we name it? The store?" I asked, looking up to my older brother with curious eyes.

He jokingly tapped his finger on his chin and gave me a smile. "I was thinking it should be called B-" He was cut off by the sound of multiple car horns and then in the blink of an eye I watched as a truck came speeding out from the intersection we were in and smashed right into my brothers side, sending the car flipping away along with his life...