HEART FLAYER | b. hargrove

CHAPTER 021.

May 30th, 1985

"Arwen, what the hell are you doing here?!" 

Arwen paused to look at Eddie quizzically as she entered the record store to start her shift today. She slowly set down her bag behind the register counter.

"Uh... I work here?"

Eddie rolled his eyes and slapped his magazine down on the counter, swiveling to fully face her in his little chair he kept at the register. 

"Yeah, smartass, I'm aware of that." He sassed. "I'm saying that you almost died yesterday, so why would you come into work today? Let me make up for almost killing you by covering your shift. Go home!" 

Arwen laughed and waved him off, beginning to walk off to go start reorganizing records that had been put back into the wrong places by customers. Sure, she felt a little sore from thrashing around and her throat hurt from coughing up water, but she mostly felt fine. In her mind, the near death experience wasn't excuse enough to miss out on money in her paycheck. I mean, hell, she had at least four or five close calls with death once a year for the last two years. 

"You don't have to 'make up' for anything, Edward. I'm alive, thriving, and ready to deal with music elitists all day."

"I'll succeed in killing you next time if you call me Edward again!" Eddie called from where he still sat.

Arwen just chuckled to herself and started to run her fingers through the rows and rows of records. She eyed them carefully to make sure they were all in the right spots and plucking out the ones that weren't so she could return them to their rightful place. In the next ten minutes, she'd managed to find around twelve of them that needed reorganized and she had them tucked underneath her arm. She started to hum along to the music playing inside of the store and sticking the stray records into their correct locations. Fortunately, it seemed like a pretty dead day with very little customers inside the mall, let alone the record store. 

So when she heard a voice come from directly behind her, she jumped and almost dropped all of the records in her hands.

"You seem to have recovered fast."

Arwen spun around with wide eyes at the familiar low tone and was met with the same blue gaze she'd seen yesterday after her little incident. Billy had his casual, easy-going look about him and a confident smile resting on his lips as he looked her up and down.

She scoffed and turned her attention back to her job. "Going from ignoring me for three months to stalking me now? That's quite the turn of events, Hargrove."

He'd sighed loudly. "I wasn't trying to ignore you," he said gently as he leaned against the record stand and watched her. "You told me to stay away." 

"Yeah, I was hoping that you'd take some time to yourself - maybe a week or two - then apologize." Arwen responded with a quick glare at him before putting a record in its spot with a little more force than earlier. "But clearly I was a dumbass." 

"Well... can I apologize now?"

Arwen exhaled through her nose and paused for a moment. She put back her final record and faced him to give him her full attention. She motioned for him to 'go on' and crossed her arms with a deadpan expression on her face. Billy cleared his throat and stood up straight, keeping steady eye contact with her.

"I'm sorry, Ari."

"I don't forgive you." She gave a fake smile before walking past him back towards the register.

Billy huffed as he followed right behind her, leaning forward onto the counter as he gazed at her across it. "So me saving your life yesterday didn't help my case at all?"

Arwen laughed a bit at that, giving him a hesitant look for a moment and resting her crossed arms on the other side of the counter. 

"Okay, fine. Yeah, that helps a little." She admitted with a smile she tried to fight off unsuccessfully. "But you were still an asshole for three months." 

The door to the backroom swung open then and Eddie clambered out of it loudly while carrying a box of vinyl. Their heads snapped to look at him and he paused, his brown eyes darting between Arwen and Billy in surprise.

"Uh..." Eddie broke out of his awkward moment to look at his coworker with a goofy smile. "Arwen, can I get some help with these when you, uh... finish... whatever this is?" 

Arwen snorted at him and nodded. "Yeah, yeah. Just give me one minute." With that, Eddie walked off with the box. She turned back to Billy to see his annoyed gaze following her friend and she reached across the counter to smack his arm. His eyes switched back to her and softened instantly. 

"Is that guy ever not around?" He asked while running his tongue over his teeth. 

"For fuck sake," Arwen grumbled. "He's my friend. We got jobs together to make it more fun." 

"Still just friends then, huh?" Billy's mouth quirked into a smirk.

"Oh my god, Billy. Yes. For the millionth time. Guys and girls can be friends. Not everyone is trying to get into each other's pants all the time like... some people." She eyed him up and down pointedly. 

"For the record, I wasn't trying to get in your pants." Billy said proudly as if that was some sort of great accomplishment for him. Arwen rolled her eyes at it. "So... can you and I be friends?"

She chewed on the inside of her cheek as she pondered his question.

"Maybe."

"That's better than a no."

"If you can prove that you're not a psychotic douchebag that's not gonna beat up my friends anymore or scream at me, then sure. But you've got a long way to go."

Billy smiled and those blue eyes practically glistened. That stupid funny feeling in her stomach was back once more. "Challenge accepted." 

"Now get the hell outta here so I can do my job." Arwen made a 'shooing' motion with her hands.

"Alright. See you soon, Firecracker." Billy winked and backed away from the counter with a big grin before turning and walking out of the store. 

She couldn't stop smiling when she approached Eddie to start helping him restock. He was looking at her with a huge, dorky smug expression which she noticed and quirked a brow at. He asked her what Billy had wanted, so she went on to explain everything that had happened. He started laughing at the fact that Billy was so jealous about him.

"I'm the one who threw you in a pool because I didn't know you couldn't swim. But he knew. Clearly, you care about him and trust him. He should understand that."

"Trusted him." Arwen corrected with a stern glance as she started to restock some Queen vinyl. "As of right now, I don't. But he gets one more chance. One."

"So invite him to Steve's party tomorrow." Eddie proposed. 

She paused in what she was doing to stare at him blankly. It was potentially the worst idea she'd ever heard come out of his mouth... but she kind of wanted to do it. 

"Steve would kill me." She countered.

"It's Steve. He'll get over it." Eddie chuckled. "It'll give Billy his first real chance to prove that he can be cool. Just do it."

Arwen smiled a little and nodded slowly. She'd call Steve tonight after work and bring up the idea and if he agreed to it, then... I guess they'd see what happens tomorrow.