One Night // a.i. (c.s.)

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(Ashton's p.o.v.)

A normal day at Frankie's Music Bar usually goes as so: I show up at 3pm after school, take inventory, wait around for the few customers that rarely stop by, go on an unnecessary break, sing along to whatever music is playing throughout the store, maybe take a nap, do the inventory again, and finally lock up with another co-worker if I'm lucky, and leave for home around 11 maybe even 10:30 at best. But that schedule was so gracefully broken one evening in late May.

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The sunny Floridian Wednesday had abruptly turned gloomy when I clocked in for work that afternoon. Swamped with past due classwork and a current issues paper quickly approaching, I sat myself down at a high table in the corner of the room near the bar counter, knowing that the day's rate of customers would be even lower due to the crappy weather. As the minutes ticked by, the afternoon's sorrow progressed to a light rain and the once busy street, filled with tourists, became desolate. with the exception of the occasional taxi cab that towed sightseers inexperienced with the orange state's ever-changing climate.

Passerby's weren't the only ones dissipating and seeking the comfort of a better shelter than this mediocre music store/coffee shop lounge/bar. By 5pm myself and a new co-worker I still had yet to learn the name of- I think it's Lindsey?- were they only employees who hadn't called off or not even bother to show up, although her shift was coming to an end soon.

"Ashton, right?" she had come over to where I lodged myself in-between multiple science and math assignments. I nodded in reply. "Okay, um, are you sure you don't want me to stay a little while longer? You seem pretty occupied with all of that," her hands gestured to the organized mess of my jumbled up lessons. "I could help you close up if you want?" she offered.

"No, that's alright. Thank you though. . . Lindsey?" I tested and she nodded her head. "Besides, I don't think anybody will be coming in anytime soon," I said, referring to the rain that has been steadily beating harder by the hour.

"Okay, I'm off then." I watched her spin on her heels and clock out before I let out a sigh of relief, but also stress. Now, I could finally switch off the crappy radio station she had playing and turn on something to help me clear my mind and focus on my studies. While I was up, I decided to make myself a coffee, I was going to need to be as awake as much as I could if I was going to finish all of my work by the end of the week. As I returned to my make-shift study cove, I heard bells at the front of the store chime, signaling that somebody was coming throughout the door. I turned my head to see who had stuck through the, now pounding, rain outside and very clumsily miscalculated how close I was to my table and ran into it, spilling the contents of my drink all over my papers that I had worked so hard on all afternoon.

"Fuck!" I shouted and groaned a little too loudly, stretching out the word. Not caring that the person in the store heard me, a slew of curses fell out of my mouth. I couldn't help but laugh in agony, "Well isn't this just great," I chuckled to myself, picking up the coffee soaked papers and watching them fall apart in my palms. "I slave over this shit all goddamn afternoon and this is what I get?" I laughed while whining and snap a quick picture to send to twitter, captioning it with 'this is what i get for actually trying to do schoolwork.'

"Are you okay?" I heard a girl call from behind me.

"Oh yeah, just great," I grimaced, "this isn't exactly what I had in mind when I wanted to clear my head, but hey, what the hell?" I chortled, giving up on trying to salvage any surviving work. I turned around, more steadily this time, and caught a glance at a, very pretty, unfamiliar girl who looked about my age. "Um, did you- uh. Did you need help finding anything?" I questioned, trying to catch another glance of the unknown girl.

"Um, yeah, actually. I, uh- I was wondering if you guys sell vinyl records here?" Vinyls? It's not everyday somebody come's in looking for a record? The girl stepped out from the maze of racks and I could now see that she had brown-blonde hair, was of average height, and had an abnormally pretty face.

"Yeah, along the back wall, to your left," I directed her. She nodded and made her way to the, not very well-endowed, section of vinyls. "So, you're into records?" I attempted to make small talk. "You don't find that many people who are anymore. Personally, I think almost everything sounds better on vinyl," I stood behind the bar counter, simultaneously looking for something to clean up my mess and hoping that she would reply to my statement.

"Really? Me too," She turned around and smiled a wonderful smile at me. "I've been collecting records with my dad since I was about 10-years-old," finding a cloth that will wipe away my clumsiness, I searched for a way to keep the conversation going.

"Out of all the records you own, which would you say is your favorite?" I asked, cleaning up the coffee that gravity brought to the floor.

"Oh!" she sang, "that's tough, there's so many! Um, probably gonna have to say Blink-182's Enema Of The State. Only because it's the first one I ever bought with my own money," the girl admitted.

"I love blink!" I laughed, walking over to where she was inspecting a record. "The Shins," I pointed out absent-mindfully once I recognized the title, 'Wincing the Night Away.'

"What?" I pointed to the album. "Oh, yeah. My original copy broke earlier today, along with a few others, when we were taking boxes out of the moving van. I'm just looking to replace them."

"I thought your voice was a bit different!" I laughed, "Where ya from?"

She smiled, "I used to live in Pennsylvania."

"Pennsylvania? Wow. That's a hell of a drive."

"Yeah, it really is. Especially with my sister, two lizards, and a cat!" the girl laughed and I smiled down at her. There was an awkward lull in the conversation, thankfully her cell phone rang and broke the rain-filled silence. "Um," she gave me a 'will-you-give-me-a-couple-minutes?' kind of look. I took the hint and raised my hands and slowly backed away, giving her her privacy; although, I could still hear everything due to the emptiness of the store. Figuring that it was nearly 8 p.m. and this girl had been the only customer that had come in since the weather turned for the worse, I decided to start closing up the shop early. I tried my hardest not to listen to the girl's- who's name I still do not know because of my lack of formality when meeting new people- conversation, but with the absence of the loud music that is normally played throughout the store it was kind of unavoidable.

"Mikey, what's up?" she spoke softly. "Okay?...So, what does that have to do with me? I came out of the house to have a good time and I honestly feel so attacked right now," the girl joked. "No, why?...Well you can tell Katy that it's her fault that they're broken anyways...Well, maybe if you guys weren't messing around th-... I don't care! I haven't seen you in ages either and you don't see me jumping about...oh shut up...Yeah, yeah, yeah... Alright, I'll be back at the house in a couple minutes then... Michael, you can barely even drive a golf cart!" she laughed again, "You're such a derp... Oh whatever, just stay where you are," the girl hung up with a loud sigh.

"I should probably pay for these and then get going," she called from the opposite side of the room.

"Alright, I'll ring you up in just a second," I said, still cleaning up behind the counter. I smiled at her as I scanned her vinyls, "I'm Ashton by the way."

"Oh god, I'm so terrible with introductions," she laughed. "I'm Delaney."

"Well, Delaney, you have great taste in music," I complimented as I surveyed her purchase of four records- Wincing the Night Away by The Shins, Insomniac and American Idiot both by Green Day, and The 1975's self-titled record.

"Thanks," Delaney smiled widely as I handed her the bag.

"I guess I'll see you around then?" I called after her before she exited the doorway. She turned around and smiled once again, nodding her head before jogging out to a car parked in front of the shop to dodge the rain.

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This is kinda my first story on here so feedback is very much welcomed. xx (: also I think the second chapter will be up in about a week, if I have enough time??