DING! The bells on the front door ring as i walk into the store. Heads swivel toward me but quickly turn back to whatever they were looking at after seeing that i was of no interest. I fall into my usual routine and walk up to the front counter where Kyle, an employee who i had become friends with after coming here almost every day, nods knowing exactly why i was there.
He brought me to the back room and i sat down on a stool near the back corner. He hands me the bass guitar that I've been saving up to buy for forever now. It was a PJ bass in a really pretty seafoam color, my dream bass. I thanked Kyle and he walked out of the room.
I put my headphones in and began to play. I started to play "Love the One You're With" by Crosby, Stills & Nash, one of my all time favorites. I was so into the song that i didn't even notice when someone walked into the room.
"Wow that's really good." I hear a voice over the music playing in my headphones.
"Oh, thank you" I said startled, looking up to see who the owner of the voice was.
I expect to see the usual older man, coming here to memorialize the "good ol' days" of his "rockstar" youth, but what I saw instead made me almost fall off the stool. My heart began to beat dangerously fast as i look into the eyes of Sam Kiszka, one of my bass heroes.
I sit there stunned with no idea what to say next. Luckily Sam broke the silence.
"I'm Sam" he said smiling as he pushes back his shoulder length brown hair.
I bite my tongue before saying 'I know' so that I didn't sound creepy, and instead reply with, "I'm Zara."
"Wow, that is a really cool name!" I smile at him sheepishly as he continues, "You like Crosby, Stills and Nash?" he asks, my heart still beating a mile a minute.
"Yeah, how could you not?" I say trying to keep my cool. He is wearing a denim shirt with black jeans and green polka dot socks along with some Birkenstock's. I smile looking at his socks.
"That's awesome!" he sits on a stool next to me steering my gaze from his socks, "You sound great too."
"Ah well thanks," I reply sheepishly, "but i can't seem to figure out this one part."
"Let me see." he says gesturing for me to start playing.
I start playing nervously. It wasn't a hard song to play but I keep slipping up on one riff. I get to the part where i usually mess up and I do just that. My finger couldn't get to the next chord fast enough and it slipped.
"See??" I said sighing in exasperation.
"Oh that's not even bad, and there's an easy fix." he said as he stands up. "May I?"
I nod and he moves his stool so he is sitting behind me. He tells me to play the riff and as I do he reaches around me and guides my fingers to where they should go. I feel like I'm in some cliche movie.
"You see," he begins, "it makes it a lot easier to transition between chords if you use different fingers" I watch his hand guide my own. My mind wanders. This is seriously a scene from a movie. This isn't a actually happening right now
The song continues, "She's a girl and you're a boy, get it together make it nice. Ain't gonna need any more advice."
His hand stops on mine in that moment and he turns to look at me. I stare into his deep brown eyes, never before realizing how beautiful brown eyes are, or maybe it was just his. We stay like that for what felt like ages.
A loud bang breaks my trance and Sam and I hurriedly move apart, remembering that we aren't the only ones here.
"Well that's just terrific... Daniel, it's a good thing you play the drums and not me. I better just stick to screaming."
