Jayden & Astrid [On Hold]

CHAPTER NINE PART I - FRIENDS AND ENEMIES

Astrid was about to slip her earpiece in and set out for her morning jog when her ears picked up what seemed to be a jumble of whirring sounds and muffled singing. Curious as to what someone else was doing awake at five in the morning, she let her ears lead her toward the source of the song. The whirring sound was coming from the electronic mixer beside Jayden and the singing was coming from a light pink record player perched on the kitchen counter. Jayden paused his humming and looked up from the Martha Stewart cookbook he had been reading. He flicked off the mixer.

"It's five in the morning. Why are you awake?" Astrid asked with her hands on her hips.

"I'm making cookies." He replied, tapping the mixer. "Why are you awake?" If he was being honest with himself, he was more surprised that she had on actual pants going down to her ankles and everything than that she was awake by five. Dressed in navy blue leggings, a bright pink sweatshirt, and sneakers, she looked wide awake and ready for the day. A contrast to his tousled hair and wrinkled Beatles hoodie.

"Routine morning jog."

"Routine morning jog?" Jayden repeated with a confused frown. Routine meant she had been doing it consistently. This was their third week together. How had he not noticed that she had been going for routine morning jogs?

"Yeah. I've been going since the first day I got here. Except for last Tuesday, when this frog eyeballed me. It completely freaked me out." She explained, shuddering at the memory. She had barely spent a minute out when she spotted the frog. It was green and warty and glared into her very soul with its blazing red eyes. It had croaked, and she shrieked and ran back inside for dear life.

Chop the tree, bompa bom. Skip the rope, bompa bom. Look at me.

Astrid obeyed the lyrics and turned toward the record player. The song sounded familiar, but she couldn't quite put her finger on the title or singers. And the record player? She could have sworn she had seen it somewhere before.

"It's a record player." Jayden offered.

"I know what it is." Astrid muttered in a tone that Jayden thought sounded mildly irritated. "It has to be déjà vu, but I just... I just can't get it out of my mind that this is familiar. The record player and the song. What song is this?"

At that moment, Jayden knew where the conversation was heading. And as much as he knew it would be awkward for him to have the conversation, he reasoned that it would even be more awkward-and not to mention painful-for Astrid. He had to choose his words carefully. "All Together Now. It's by The Beatles."

Astrid knew The Beatles as well as some of their songs. But she hadn't heard of All Together Now. But still, there was something oddly familiar about it. Perhaps a classmate had it as their ringtone or she had heard it in passing on the radio.

"Your mum gave me the record player." He blurted out after an uncomfortable silence stretched out for ages. "And that vinyl. Along with a bunch of other vinyls. They're in my room. Would you like to see them? Listen to them?"

Astrid remained silent. That was why the feeling of déjà ju had been almost overwhelming. It hadn't been déjà ju, it had been something she had actually lived through. She remembered the pink record player had been kept somewhere high so that it was out of her reach. She remembered that almost every day, songs-mostly the ones by The Beatles, as her mum had been partial to them-would waft from the record player and fill their home. She remembered not knowing the exact lyrics to any of the songs but singing along anyway.

"Would you like them back?" Jayden asked after another uncomfortable silence.

Astrid spun around and cocked her head to the side. "Why would I want them back? Things that you'd want back are things that were previously yours. And they were never mine."