Kill My Mind || DOLLHOUSE Spin-off

61. Alejandro

The door jingles when we walk in, one of those tiny bells strung up above the frame that probably hasn't been dusted since the 70s. The air inside smells like pressed cardboard sleeves, old wood, and vinyl. I've always liked this place—it's quiet in the kind of way you feel, not just hear.

"I swear this shop gets smaller every time," Gray mutters behind me, brushing past my shoulder. His hand grazes my arm for half a second too long before he steps ahead. I tell myself it didn't mean anything. Probably didn't.

"I think you're just getting taller," I shoot back, falling in beside him.

He scoffs, flipping a record around to check the back. "Pretty sure I stopped growing at nineteen, Ale."

I scoff, then chuckle. Gray told me he found this record store when he was nineteen after coming home from a night out full of drinking with Enzo and Enzo's friends. He told me he just waited for the group to walk ahead of him and stumbled in here looking for nothing, but he ended up loving the place. He loved the old records, the decorative walls, and the quiet.  He tried to buy it a few months later, but the owner wouldn't sell, and he loved it too much to take it forcefully. 

That was when I knew we were meant to end up together. When Bella and I were about 7 and 13, we passed this place on our walk home from school, and she begged me all the time to come in. I never said yes because I knew our dad would punish us for being late, but on her 8th birthday, I finally said yes. She and I both fell in love with the place, but I stopped coming when my life suddenly felt dark, when I started working for my father. That was only about a year before Gray found this place. 

If it weren't for my dad, we could have crossed paths much earlier, maybe it would have saved us the heartache.

A few months into our relationship, Gray brought me back here. He told me he had this amazing place he wanted to show me that no one ever goes to. I let him think I had no idea what this place was, so he could get excited about it. I acted like it was pure coincidence when Bella had mentioned it, and they bonded over it.

Back when he used to drag me here and we'd spend hours combing through old jazz records and weird imports I always pretended not to care about, even though I secretly loved it. Back when I used to hold his hand between the aisles. 

I trail behind him now, eyes scanning the shelves, but my mind is stuck somewhere, a little too sentimental.

I shake it off. Bella's birthday. That's why we're here. Gray tagged along because he needed to get her something, too, but he didn't need to come with me. He chose to.

And that? I've been holding onto that all day.

We kept making our way deeper into the store. "Jazz section's still in the back?" I ask as we move past a display of new releases.

"Obviously," Gray replies. "They probably know no one under fifty listens to it."

"Except you," I grin.

"Exactly. I'm a dying breed."

He says it with that smirk I used to love—sharp, but not mean. Confident, in a way that always made me feel like I could lean on him without asking.

He stops short in front of a shelf, and I nearly walk right into him. Reflexively, he steps aside and holds his arm out slightly. He opens the door for me without thinking when we move into the back room. Just like he used to. Both of us pause, then he faces the ground, and I step past him. 

It's nothing. Just muscle memory. But it makes something ache in my chest.

I scan the shelves aimlessly, trying not to stare at how simple Gray looks here. Calm. Focused. Like, he's not silently unraveling me by simply existing three feet away.