November // n.h

ii

               T W O

Every small town has its own music store. No matter how big it is or where it’s placed or even what you could buy in there. But it’s always there and somehow, people walk in and out almost as if it was a superstore; a supermarket with things that they might need on a daily basis.

I’m rather lucky, I could say. The corner music shop, belongs to my best friends father and I buy things a little cheaper. Not too much, because everyone knows each other here and it would be rude for me to get half price off when they wouldn’t, but just enough.

I walk inside the shop and the quiet yet a little rocky music hits me. A familiar head is turned backwards to me, so the girl doesn’t notice who actually walked inside. She trusts everyone and everyone else trusts her. It always works like that, here in Old Grimsby.

“Hey, Nina!” I call walking further inside the shop, just to look at the vinyl CD’s. I have collected a couple of them and right now, I am focusing on an Ed Sheeran one. I heard his songs on the radio and I admit, that ginger bloke has a talent.

From behind me, I catch a fading ‘hi’ that was probably said by my friend. I smile to myself. That’s what she does, during our holidays or even half-terms. She works in her family shop and from what I can notice, she likes it very much. I don’t blame her, though. Working at a music shop is the most calming job, well, except at a book store.

My eyes scan the boxes, looking for an orange vinyl disc. When I find it, my smile grows bigger and I walk up to the box as quickly as possible. I take the box and take out the actual vinyl CD in the same time as someone else. Oh, no. I look up just to meet a pair of blue eyes already looking at me.

“Sorry, I took it first.” I tell the bloke as calmly as possible. It’s not that easy for me. I have been planning on buying this CD for a month or two now and I wasn’t going to give up because some bloke also wanted it. Further more, he wasn’t even from here! I could see it by his clothes, they were too expensive for this island. And when I look at his face, I am not the only one shocked.

“But I’m sure they’ll deliver more, soon.” Not giving up, the blond chap held onto the CD.

It’s funny, how one sentence can change someone’s mood. That is what happened to me right now, even though the bloke wasn’t being rude. He said it like I was the one that is meant to wait for the delivery when surely he isn’t from Old Grimsby. He could get the vinyl from where he is, not from my home town. Plus the fact of what he did at the beach, this little sentence made everything worse.

See, the thing here is, that Blondie is pretending not to know me. He is pretending that nothing happened this morning; like he didn’t ‘question’ me at the beach, just because I seemed pale to him. It’s like nothing has actually happened and for some reason, to me it seems like he’s trying to deny the fact that he knows me. And that frustrates me.

“Well then, you’re not from here. You can get it in London or some other place. Can’t you?” I ask rising my eyebrows not giving up. I am not going to look away either.

“I can’t.” He says and breaks the eye contact. I grin to myself, proud that I could hold it for long enough and then my sight takes clearer notice of who he is.

“You’re one of those famous Boybanders, aren’t you?” I ask still looking at him, although the blond prefers to look at the CD. Suddenly, his eyes meet mine again and I notice a small fear in them. He looks like a puppy that just ran away and didn’t want to be issued to the owner. “Oh, don’t worry, I am not going to scream. I don’t even listen to your band.”