AUGUST IS A FEVER

12

"Jesus, do you not have a belt for me in that backpack of yours, Dora The Explora?" You asked as you hiked up Clay's jeans on your own body. It kept slipping as it didn't hug your hips one bit.

"Bet you'll be happy to hear were at the mall now." Clay replied, his hand lightly grasping your jaw and bringing your gaze that was fixated on the waistband of the jeans to up and at the large shopping mall. "We can get you your own clothes now."

"Woah." You softly sighed as you saw the edges of the roof of the building being overflowed with vegetation.

Leaves were pouring out of some of the doors and windows, hanging by just the vine. It all looked so alive but so dead at the same time. The whole visual was so conflicting. Mother Nature was thriving but there was zero sign of civilization. If every building now looked like this, you could only imagine how ghost town-ish the city would be once you all come across it.

"Yeah." George muttered. "It looks a pretty, huh?"

"It looks dead." You muttered back. "But so-"

"Alive." Clay said. It was as if he read your mind.

"You sure you're not an Orange?" You asked sarcastically. It was your turn to poke fun at his color identity.

"Yeah." The blonde sighed. "Let's go." He said, grabbing your hand and bringing you towards the mall's entrance. His expression traded in it's adoring one of the building, to a smile excited to bring you into the actual inside of it.

You walked into the mall and felt nostalgia hit you in heavy waves. It was the same mall that your parents would bring you to at least once a month when you were younger. Either that be just to wander and enjoy the energy and sight of people passing like a school of fish in the sea or to actually buy goods. The mall looked so unrecognizable from the exterior alone. Or maybe your attention was just so enraptured by the plants oozing from it.

"I haven't been here in years." You sighed. It was the same but it felt so different. Where were the people? "It's so empty."

"Get used to it." George replied, you humming in response.

Your eyes scanned the balcony from above, the memory of you and your father going into the music store up there played through your memory as if it were a movie scene. You wanted to recreate that movie scene.

Immediately and without much thought put into it, you began to run forwards with an eager smile spread across your face towards the broken escalators.

"(Y/n), wait - " You heard Clay's voice call. You ignored him and continued to run towards the steps even after you heard his footsteps chase for yours.

With each step you took up the escalator, the more you became excited. Once you reached the top, you ran in the direction of the music store. The amount of Deja Vu that was running in your mind was the most you had ever felt in your entire life, it was almost overwhelming. Eventually you found the front of the store and you excitedly laughed, giddy.

You looked at the logo of the store in awe. It hadn't changed one bit from your memory. You walked in and felt under your boots the brown carpeting below. The lighting was dark, but with the snap of your fingers you lit a small fire so you could see where you were stepping. You looked all around the small room, trying to recapture every inch of it in your mind. You didn't know when the next time it would be before you would see this shop again, you wanted to savor every moment of it.

The store contained old vintage records of classic artists of the past as well as CDs that had those old beloved music artists but also newer ones up to the early 2010s. The selection was just as diverse as you remembered.

The tips of your fingers from your hand that was free of fire grazed the spines of the vinyls. You loved listening to music on records especially if they were old songs from around the 50s to 70s. It always added the crackling sound when played on a record player and you always enjoyed that sound. It would feel so nice to hear, satisfying the itch in the bottom left corner of your mind.

Record players aren't exactly the most portable way of listening to music so you decided on checking out the CD section of the store to see what albums and EPs they had available. By the time you walked over to the CD selection, you had noticed Clay leaning on the entrance of the store watching you examine the music options silently.

"Hey." Clay said, lifting himself off of the large doorframe of the shop and walked towards you.

"Hi." You replied to him as you went back to looking at the CDs. "Where's pipsqueak?" You asked mindlessly.

"He's looking for a store for us to stay the night in." Clay told you as his eyes followed your finger that brushed against the CD covers, reading the titles of the soundtracks along with you. You hummed at Clay in response.

Eventually you grabbed a few albums. Among them contained Abbey Road by The Beatles, Pearl by Janis Joplin, Blue by Joni Mitchell, Greatest Hits of Queen, The Velvet Rope by Janet Jackson, and Hozier by Hozier just to name a few.

You happily jumped and smiled when you saw the store had 1989 by Taylor Swift available, grabbing it to add to your collection you had gathered. It was one of your favorite albums, her being your favorite artist when you were eleven. You remembered enjoying her songs before everything happened.

"That's a lot of CDs. Taylor Swift, huh?" Clay commented, you shot a lighthearted glare at him.

"I like music." You said simply with a blunt edge. Clay softly chuckled.

"I can see that." He began. "I can go get you your own backpack so you can hold your music if you'd like." Clay offered kindly. You felt a strange feeling in your stomach from how soft and sweet his tone was when he talked to you. It was fluttery feeling that tickled the warm insides of your stomach. He seemed so gentle in this moment.

"Yeah," You replied. "I'd like that."

"On it." Clay replied, saluting you with his index and middle finger jokingly before he left. You smiled and huffed a small laugh at his little gesture as he began to walk off to find you a backpack.

You turned back to look at the CDs on the shelf in front of you but something caught your eye. A CD Walkman with earbuds, it was exactly what you needed. Perfect.

"Oh!" You softly exclaimed at the find, you couldn't wait to listen to your own music for the first time in six years. Hopefully you'd still remember the lyrics to at least some of the songs.