5sos Shorts

"Video Girl" a.i.

Ashton was drumming a beat with a pen in one hand and a pencil in the other as he walked down the aisle of the video store. He was on the clock, and he'd been told a thousand times to cut it out, but he could hardly stop something that ran in his blood.

"Ashton, I swear I will fire you if you don't stop hitting the merchandise and get back to work!" Ashton fought the urge to vocalize his growing irritation with his boss. In Greg's defense, Ashton wasn't acting like a very good employee.

"I'm on it, Greg!" Ashton called out, then started skimming the shelves to check for movies put in the wrong spots. It was a tedious, time consuming task, but for Ashton it was also easy and mindless and kept him looking busy enough to please his boss.

"He's not kidding, you know. He's fired the last two people that held your job." Gwen, the gorgeous girl who worked at the check out counter, let him know, leaning on her forearms to see past the displays on the counter.

"Yeah, I know." Ashton sighed, nodding his understanding, then added more to himself. "I need this job."

"You don't need this." Gwen disagreed out loud. Ashton turned to face the girl at the counter, startled at her words. They'd been working together almost a month and had never held a conversation beyond saying a handful of words to each other. She looked startled as well, almost as though she hadn't meant to say what she had out loud.

"Care to tell me what you mean by that?" He prompted, leaving the shelves to stand behind the counter and talk to her. She turned sideways to face him, looking serious.

"You've got serious talent and you're passionate about your music. I hear you drumming anything and everything all day and, please don't think I'm creepy, I saw you break a sharpie drumming on the bathroom sink once." She admit. Ashton laughed loudly at her confession.

"I know for a fact I was in the men's room when that happened." Ashton spoke through laughs. "I'd love to hear you explain yourself."

"The store was empty and I was going to clean the bathrooms!" Gwen exclaimed. "I didn't know you'd be in there!"

"I was drumming so hard I broke a sharpie, Gwen. You expect me to believe that you didn't hear me?" Ashton pressed, his laughing had died down and he was now looking forward to hearing the girl's explanation.

"I'm not playing this game with you, Ashton." She shook her head, but had a small smile on her face. "Get back to work so you don't get fired."

"Aye, aye, captain." Ashton murmured with a smirk, leaving the counter to go back to facing the videos. Gwen had been so quiet in the first month they'd worked together that Ashton had never paid her much attention. Now that he'd seen her, he was admittedly finding it hard to look away.

Her hair was golden and fell over her shoulder and down her front on one side. Her eyes were a jade green and her skin kissed by the sun and she was tall. Only a bit shorter than himself, and he stood six feet tall. He wracked his brain as he faced the videos, trying to remember something about her besides her physical appearance, but came up empty.

How could he have worked an entire month with the goddess at the video counter and not have learned anything about her even by accident? He heard the bell above the entrance jingle and turned his focus to the entryway. The customer was pretty. Petite, dark hazel eyes, brunette with only one headphone in, the cord connected to the phone poking out of her back pocket.

"Gwen!" The customer exclaimed in excitement, rushing to his coworker and leaning over the counter to give her a hug.

"Maisie, hi!" Gwen spoke in happy surprise. "What're you doing here?"