𝙹𝚄𝚂𝚃 𝚆𝙷𝙰𝚃 𝙸 𝙽𝙴𝙴𝙳𝙴𝙳

𝙲𝙷𝙰𝙿𝚃𝙴𝚁 𝙾𝙽𝙴

September 6th, 1983

Click click click, went the bike chain as the young boy sped down the neighborhood road. It was another fall day in Ridley Park. Colorful leaves fell, everyone dressed in sweaters and flannel, thanksgiving was coming up. Everything was good and well.
Taylor Williams was the boy's name, a tall 14 year old with a skinny frame and black hair, dressed in Jeans and a dark brown sweater, paired with black high-topped Chuck Taylor's he's had since about 6th grade. He was biking towards the nearby gas station, Wawa. Though nearby was an understatement, the little gas station covered basically every single road in town. There was at least one or two in each every town.

Taylor road his bike around the side of the store, dropping it in the wet morning grass. He pulled the bike back up, using his bike lock to secure the bike safely to a nearby fence. He learned his lesson the first two times his bike got stolen, oh how he missed those bikes. But they were gone now, and he had a better bike. It was a nice red and white Redline bike, with black handle bars. It wasn't the fanciest bike but it was all he could afford. Taylor didn't come from a lower class family, but after the two times he lost his bike, his parents made him save up for a new one. So he settled on something with a middle price.

The bike lock clicked, telling the boy that it was locked tight. He let go of the bike and it stayed just there. Not rolling away. He smiled and made his way up to the store front, his hands in his big pockets. As he walked in the store there was a big brown bulletin board filled with advertisements and news. One of the papers were a little larger, the word "missing" placed at the top of the page in big bold letters. Taylor's mood dropped instantly as he saw it, walking over to it to see which one of the kids went missing now.
There was a picture of a happy looking boy on the paper, he smiled a toothy grin as his large glasses sat gently on the bridge of his nose. It was Steven Park, a kid around his age. Taylor knew that boy, he remembered him vividly. He remembered seeing him being chased down the hallways, only to get beaten in the bathroom by the kids at his school. Steven was a good kid, a great kid. Though he never knew him, Taylor felt sad to know another poor kid went missing.

The boy shook his head before making his way to the back of the shop, heading straight for the slushie machine. He basically lived and breathed slushies, he was there almost every day getting one, never getting tired of them. Taylor took a medium sized cup from the cup rack, holding it up before deciding the size was good another for today.
He stuck the cup underneath the dispenser that read "Wild Cherry" on the top with a little picture of a cherry with a face. Though everyone knew it was just a fancier way of just saying "cherry", there was no wild taste behind it. It didn't matter to Taylor though, he loved cherry. Just as much as he loved the slushies himself.

The store lights above flickered, making a weird buzzing sound like always. Taylor hated it, but he was able to ignore it. He would only be in the store for 10 minutes at most usually, so it didn't matter much to him. He grabbed one of the lids and one of the straws from the side, using his teeth to pull the paper off the straw as he used his other hand the place the lid all the way on the cup. He knew he probably should have put the lid on first, but it was too late now. He stuck the straw in the cup, making his way over to the register.

It was the same guy as usual, wearing the same uniform and name tag that read "Chuck" on it. He looked like every other typical gas station cashier, he was about in his late teens, 20 at most. It was so obvious that Chuck hated his job, he didn't even try to hide it. "Hello. How are you?.." The cashier asked almost robotically, he said the same thing every time. Every. Single. Time. "Hi." Was all Taylor said, knowing that Chuck didn't want to start a conversation either. He placed the red slushie cup on the counter, looking at the cashier in the eyes. "This all?" He said tiredly, knowing that the kid got the same thing every day.
Taylor nodded, fake smiling as he fished $1.50 out of his pocket. They didn't even have to talk, Taylor knew the exact price, Chuck knew he knew, so it was easy. The boy placed the money in the guys hand, picking the slushie cup off the counter before making his way out the store.

He made his way around the side to the wet grass where his bike was, the grass making squishing noises with each step. As he came up to the fence where his bike was sat, he sat down next to it. He pulled the Song Walkman that was clipped to the belt of his jeans underneath his sweater to him, rewinding it to almost the beginning. He hit play and the song Just What I Needed By The Cars started playing. He settled down, sipping on his cherry slushie. Taylor took a long sip from his slushie, watching the people and cars around him, not caring how weird he looked, the music blasting in his ears.

A/N: HELLO!! Thank you for reading Chapter One of Just What I Needed. I will be releasing a chapter weekly. If there's any delay or something of the like of a new chapter I will make a post to let y'all know! I hope you enjoyed chapter one, comments are appreciated.