Forever & Always

Chapter 38

What we all thought would happen, happened: Annie got expelled. The news spread like mono at a summer camp. Everyone you talked to would eventually ask you, "Did you hear about Annie?" Now, I had no idea what this meant for her future, like college and getting a job, but I knew it was going to end up on her permanent record, and guaranteed her parents weren't going to be able to talk her out of this one. 

As for me? Well, now quite literally, there was nothing standing in between me and graduating (besides finals, but we already talked about that). I kept working at the diner and studying when I could, doing my best to get through the rest of my high school education in as normal of a fashion as I possibly could. 

Shane and I spent almost every free minute together, mostly and shockingly, instigated by yours truly. I wanted to spend this time with him while we had it. Maybe Liam was rubbing off on me a little, but I found myself thinking more and more about what college was going to be like and realistically, after your sophomore year, internships were the goal, which meant time would be tight. Right now, when the big decisions had been made about where I was going next year and my list of responsibilities started with school and ended with work, I wanted to spend that time with him. After all, we did have ten years worth of time to catch up on.

One night on the pier, we decided to stop by the infamous record store where I sang. The hippy man who we met that night wasn't working. Instead it was some guy that so closely resembled Ozzy Osbourne that both Shane and I took double takes we walked past him into the store. 

"Did you see..." Shane started to ask me, and I nodded.

"Uncanny," I replied, shaking my head. 

We wandered around and I ended up buying Amy Winehouse's Back To Black vinyl while we shopped. As we exited, I heard a guitar strumming and someone singing off in the distance. 

"Do you hear that?" I asked Shane, who joined me at looking for the source of the music over the traffic of heads moving up and down the boardwalk. 

"There," he pointed, where a small crowd had gathered underneath a lamppost. 

There was a guy, probably about 25 or so, strumming away on his guitar, singing a John Mayer song that I didn't know the title of, but recognized from somewhere. When he finished the song, everyone clapped, and a couple of people tossed some change into his open guitar case sitting open in front of him. Shane put his arm on my shoulder. 

"I'm going to grab a hot dog, I'll be right back," he said. I nodded and turned back to the guy again as he geared up for another song. A couple more people joined the crowd as he did. 

"Now, I'm going to need some assistance with this next one," he said to the crowd, his guitar pick jutting out of the side of his mouth. "This one is a duet and I'm going to need a lovely lady to duet with." 

There was murmuring in the crowd, as everyone was trying to convince the person they were with to go up and sing, just to be a pain in the ass. Then, someone spoke up. 

"Hey, you're that girl from the record store," the voice said. 

It was a teen guy about my age in a brown wide brim hat and small round glasses. The crowd parted so all eyes were on me. I felt my breath catch in my throat and a chill run down my back. I didn't think people would recognize me from that. 

"Oh yeah, she can sing," someone else said. Thank you?

Eventually, others were joining in, causing people to start nudging me forward. My instincts were telling me to push back. Plant your feet firmly and don't fucking move unless it's to run away. That is acceptable.