The best memories come from the most insane ideas

Record Player

She stared at me like she'd never seen me before. And maybe she hadn't. Not till right now. Not really.

"Whaat?" she asked confused.

"I'm thinking about skipping town" I say shrugging my shoulders.

"You mean you're running away?" She asked to make sure that I'm not bullshitting her.

"Yeah, and I'm asking you to come with me."

"I'm not... I don't und..." She starts saying but I cut her off.

"I'm inviting you on the craziest journey ever, you can say no of course, I don't want to pressure into anything, the choice is yours but I really hope for a yes" I say confidently. Maybe for the first time in my life. 

"But I don't even know you. We've just met and you're asking me to run way with you?!" She says a bit apprehensively.

"Well, it's not like we're complete strangers. We've gone to the same school for four years now. We have English and History together. I know that you eat chips and orange juice for lunch every day, except for Friday for some reason, on Friday you eat an apple that you bring with you."

"How do you ... You really do watch me more than occasionally, don't you?" She says with a hint of a smile, she's still apprehensive though about the whole idea, I can tell.

"It's hard not to. I mean look at you, any sane person would look at you at every presented opportunity."

"Why are you running away? But most importantly from what? Or from whom?" Her voice is a bit edgy now. "Dixie, do you need help with something or with someone? I don't know lot about you but I can help if you talk to me, I'll listen and we'll see what we can do. Together." She reaches out and touches my arm and gave it light squeeze.

"I'm not running away from anything or from anyone. Okay, that's actually a lie. If we're being honest, I'm running from myself. I'm tired of everything that is me in this town, but I know there is more to me and it is eager to break through. Don't you ever just feel like you're drowning but not in a very dramatic, I want-to-die kind of a way but just in a really tiring way. To meet everybody's expectations and play the role that've been written for you. I just want to escape that for a couple of days. For two or three days. Is it too much to ask? We'll be back before you know it." I'm pleading but trying not to sound too desperate, I still have some leftovers of my dignity to preserve.

"I'm not usually the one to be a Debbie Downer and to back away from a venture but what about our parents? They're definitely going to notice we're missing for a weekend. I'm just not really understanding your motives. I get that sometimes things get shitty and you want to just get away from here but it's hard to trust a girl, who supposedly has been looking at me for quite some time and comes into a store, where I work, pretend to buy a record and asks to run away with her. What if you're a serial killer?" She says only half-jokingly.

"First of all, I totally understand your apprehension, I would be, too, a bit hesitant but I planned everything. The school is taking a couple of kids from our History club out of town to see some extremely historical monuments, we can say that we're going with them. Secondly, my main motive is to finally do something that will matter in the long run, like in ten or twenty years, we will look back and think that is was stupid but it was also genius and what on Earth possessed us to do that, don't you think it's worth the risk. And lastly, even if I wanted to kill you, you're taller than me and probably stronger, I barely can lift a can of Cola, so even if I hypothetically tried to kill you, which I would never do, because it would be a shame to rob the world from such a treasure, you would totally beat my ass." I wink at her.

"Flirting won't help you but for some reason I believe you." She's contemplating, I can see that.

"Listen... Oh! Listen! Of course! We need to listen to the record you'll understand as soon as you'll listen to the record. Can we put it on now? Do you have a record player?" And as soon as I ask I know how stupid I sound but she smiles, so it was worth it.

"You're asking if we have a record player, here, in a record store?" She asks amused and raising an eyebrow. "Yeah, we have a record player but you have yet to pay for it, soooo... And I cannot lose this job, I like it, even if I skip on my boss for a couple of days for the sake of following a cute girl to god-knows-where, I don't want to lose it. So pay up, runaway, if you want to listen a Runaway record in a record store."

My first thought is that she's just called me cute and my cheeks flush in an instant, my second thought though was that she said about following me, so she must be really considering this. Okay, Dixie, don't panic, play it cool. I've never actually expected for her to agree. That's nerve-wracking.

"Here, is it enough?" I ask and hang her twenty bucks as she goes back behind the register to give me change.

"Yeah, not really a high price for a high-quality music, is it?" She gives me the change and goes to unwrap the record and put it on.

And in a couple of heartbeats the music floods in and words of a song fill the small space of a record store.

IT SEEMS NO ONE CAN HELP ME NOOOOW

I'M IN TOO DEEP, THERE'S NO WAY OOOOUT

THIS TIME I HAVE REALLY LED MYSELF ASTRAY

RUNAWAY TRAIN NEVER GOING BACK

WRONG WAY ON A ONE-WAY TRACK

SEEMS LIKE I SHOULD BE GETTING SOMEWHERE

SOMEWHERE I'M NEITHER HERE NOR THERE

And now I wait for the words that I want her to hear, I want her to listen AND hear. So I look at her and lip-sync. Our eyes lock in on each other. And so I sing.

CAN YOU HELP ME REMEMBER HOW TO SMILE?

MAKE IT SOMEHOW ALL SEEM WORTHWHILE

I quietly take her hand and put it on my shoulder, she's hesitant and stiff at first but then she lets me pull her closer, we stand in mere inches from each other. And I hook my arm around her shoulder and we start to dance. First, it's very awkward but then, as music goes on, we fall in its rhythm and just follow it. Her other hand slips to my back and down to my waist but at a very respectful place and so I'm comfortable with that and I relax and exhale. She seems to relax as well so I put my other hand on the small of her back, I'm not brave enough to slip down her waist but I want to. God, I want so badly to touch her waist and to brush her shiny hair with my hand, to feel the silk of it on my skin. These goddamn hormones make a freak out of me, I hope she cannot hear my thoughts, otherwise she'll definitely think that I'm a creep and won't even bother packing up my record before sending me flying out of this store and getting a restraining order. But then she inches forward... I ... Is... Is she... Is she going to do what I think she's going to do? Is she going to kiss me? I close my eyes and my lips part involuntarily. Our lips brush and... the door opens and chimes in and we jump out of each other's arms in an instant. A hipster guy comes in and asks "Sorry, did I interrupt something, are you working? I need a record."

I look at Baz and can't read her expression. I think that's it. The end. The end of something that hasn't even properly started yet. My shoulders slump in defeat. I'm turning to pick up my bag and going for the door, when I hear "Sorry, we're closed. Can't help you. We're actually on our way to run away and you kinda holding us up."

I open my mouth in disbelief, I surely could not have heard that. There has to be some kind of a mistake. I need to check my hearing at the doctor's. But Baz takes my hand I follow her out of the store. We're outside the record store on a lane, people passing us by, completely oblivious that the course of our lives has changed drastically but I'm reminded of the fact that I hadn't really counted on succeeding of my plan when Baz asks "Okay, where we're off to?"