Background Noise [HS]

TWENTY

Always one to yearn for time to herself, Violet was left confused by the longing that came with Harry's leaving. The exchanged glances shared between them moments earlier overwhelmed her, so much so that his presence weighed heavy as she watched him go, Range Rover moving out of the lot and onto the street. The sudden absence following such a monumental moment left her feeling oddly out of place, like she was meant to be somewhere else.

Longed to be somewhere else.

Violet didn't tear her eyes away from the door until she was joined on the floor by her coworker Nate, who immediately recognized the shift in her persona. He emerged from behind a row of shelves on the far side of the room, previously blind to the events that occurred outside the music shop walls. She was blind to Nate, too. That was, before he approached her.

"What are you staring at?"

Violet abruptly shifted her focus. The unexpected reality check had her stumbling for words. "Um, I—" Nate's coworker turned back to the window as if some sort of explanation would present itself through the tinted glass. "—I don't know. I thought I saw something."

He wasn't convinced. "Saw something, huh?"

The question prompted a second wave of heat in her cheeks. Flustered at the reminder of what had her feeling so light, Violet looked to Nate with a smile and a shrug. Her mind reeled, recent memories presenting themselves in a picture show: her looking back at Harry to find him already staring at her. The moment was like something out of a movie or book. A feeling she had only read about, heard of, never felt herself.

There was something there.

Still trying to put together a puzzle without the vital pieces, Nate shrugged it off, walking away with a bewildered expression followed by a shake of the head. In the time he had known Violet, the boy was accustomed to seeing a solemn side of her. This was normal for those at work, but not in the way she presented herself. Mellow only when walking in and out of the store—somehow temporarily uplifted in-between—Violet was an oddity to uphold.

He would not assume the necessary pieces to this puzzle until her closing behavior took a complete turn. Humming along to several songs and even smiling throughout the chores, Violet seemed quite delighted to be heading home. This would sound entirely normal for anyone else, but this was Violet, the girl who entered and left with the weight of the world on her shoulders.

They closed down the store as they always would—lights out, Nate holding the door open while Violet stepped out of the store, waiting just outside. That night, the journey was taken not in a sullen walk but with an enormous smile on her face. Confounded, he jingled the keys into the lock and sealed the music store for the night. Routinely yet impatiently stood beside her coworker, Violet could barely contain herself.

Her eyes were focused not on the boy stood beside her but the one waiting for her in the lot a short distance away. Once finished with his task, Nate turned, catching onto her gaze and trailing it all the way to the sleek Range Rover parked just beside his own vehicle, headlights blinding.

He couldn't believe it.

Head tilted back and jaw cocked, Nate practically escorted Violet across the tarmac and toward the man that awaited her. Behind the wall of tint, Harry watched with a hooded stare. He observed and worked to decode every aspect of Violet and Nate's relationship, from the way they walked together to the territorial stride the latter carried. Nate was protective as a means of looking out for someone he considered a friend. Knowing little of the man that seemed in high pursuit of her made things a bit more complicated, however.

As if trying to figure each other out, the two men practically sized one another up as Harry climbed out of the vehicle. Unaware of the silent showdown, Violet bid Nate goodbye before breaking away to join the unwelcomed visitor, who looped one arm around her back while the other opened the passenger door for her. Shortly after securing her inside and sealing her off within the dark tint, Harry made a point to turn his head toward Nate, who watched with an annoyed look on his face.