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Friday afternoon began just like any other for Brightney, cleaning up the area for book club in the gardenview library. During this time she would show up early to set up before the others arrived, unwinding as she fell into her usual quiet routine. She was dragging bean bags into a circle when she bumped into someone as unexpectedly as they appeared.
“Brightney, my favorite toon!” Glisten smiled smugly at her, earning a sigh from Brightney.
“Not now, Glisten, book club is going to start in a couple minutes.” She recovered from her initial surprise, continuing where she left off in her preparation.
“Who said I wasn't here for book club? Took back that invite from yesterday?” Glisten dropped to the ground, clearly having intended to plop down on a bean bag, missing it by a whole foot.
“In my defense, after over a dozen ignored invites, I wasn't expecting the twelfth time to be the charm.” Brightney offered a hand to him that he took, mildly embarrassed.
“Well look who showed up to grace you all with my presence. You're welcome, by the way.” He crossed his arms, trying to recover his dignity as he watched Brightney finish preparations, “so what do you guys exactly…. Do during club time?”
“Believe it or not, we talk about books. You picked a good day actually, we're gonna pick a new one today.” She held a book up, one of the couple she had laying on the rug the beanbags circled, “I think you'd like this one, but we'll discuss it more when the others arrive.”
Glisten examined the cover in her hand. It almost looked like a Broadway cover, with the simplistic art and title across the front. She put it down before he could read it though, his gaze following her now free hand waving to the twins walking through the library doors.
“(Good afternoon Brightney.)” Dazzle greeted her softly, taking a seat on one of the beanbags. Glisten was almost a little surprised, Razzle tended to speak up before his brother on most occasions, but apparently he took more of a backseat during book club as his greeting was a simple wave up until he spotted Glisten.
“Oh hey Glisten! Are you joining today?” Razzle smiled, catching Dazzle's attention. “(Oh yeah… What are you doing here?)”
“Thought I'd see what the fuss was about.” Glisten shrugged nonchalantly.
“Is it because you had nobody to hang out with today?”
The suddenness of Astro’s voice coming from behind him was enough to make him practically jump about three feet into the air out of his seat.
“Sorry, that came off wrong.” Astro frowned apologetically, taking a seat next to him.
Glisten couldn't help taking it the wrong way regardless, also making a face at that. “I have plenty of people to hang out with, thank you very much.”
“.... Right, let's not waste too much of our library time now, good to see you all made it here on time, and it's always good to have new members join the club.” Brightney piped up before their side convos could progress, shifting into club leader mode. “As all of you know, we just finished our last book, “Gardens”. I know our last session was our final review of it, but does anyone have any last thoughts on it before we get into our new selections?”
“Ah, I was thinking about that a little, actually.” Astro smiled, taking the conversation from there. Glisten listened in as he tried to follow along with their opinions on the book he wasn't there for, which luckily wasn't too hard as they were talking more so about the themes in the book they would like to see in their future club choices. Brightney lead the conversation into their new options, holding one up about a maid working in a haunted mansion.
“Huh, you think Tisha would appreciate that one?” Glisten asked teasingly, supporting himself by propping his head up with his elbow.
“She did actually! That's why she recommended it to me.” She beamed. He supposed he should've seen that one coming.
The following two books didn't grab Glisten’s attention as well, one being a more autobiographical type of book and the other with a love triangle premise that he knew was going to give him a headache. Razzle had already fallen asleep by the time the last book rolled around, the one with the interesting cover that caught his attention earlier. It was very red, like Brightney, he noted.
“This one I've actually read part of a little while ago, never got around to finishing it but it's a good book! It's about these small-town performers producing a movie together.” She offered the book to pass around the group as they examined their last option.
“(They wrote a play based on this book, didn't they?)” Dazzle observed as he took his turn looking at the cover.
“Yes! We could also watch the play after the book, I'm sure we have a filmed copy somewhere!” Brightney smiled at the group's renewed enthusiasm.
“That… Could be fun actually.” If someone told Glisten just an hour ago that he'd be genuinely interested in coming back for a second meeting besides just killing time, he wouldn't have believed it for a second. Yet here he was, his turn to hold the book, intrigued.
“Looks like we've agreed on a book.” Astro smiled gently, leaning to the side of the dozing Razzle as if he could see his dreams.
“Alright then! We'll read the first five chapters and meet up to talk about it next week!” Brightney walked off to pull copies from the back shelf.
“Five? In one week?” Glisten raised an eyebrow.
“The chapters are pretty short, don't worry! You'll have plenty of time to read up.”
Glisten got to keep the copy in his hand as the others were distributed and the club eventually dispersed, Dazzle and Astro saying their goodbyes. He stayed behind to help Brightney return the beanbags back to their original places before preparing to head off too.
“Oh, Glisten?” Brightney called out before he passed the double doors, stopping him in his tracks to look back, “Thanks for giving the club a shot.”
“Of course.” He gave her a smile and a wave before making his exit.