Until It Sleeps

4

Cleo and James arrived in less time than anticipated, but the store was still out of the reach of convenience from El Cerrito or Oakland. There was still soft rain falling from the grey sky, but nothing ridiculous. The record store was called Match and Flame Music. It wasn't very big, but it didn't look very big either.

    James got out of the car first and was able to scramble to the store's door fast enough to hold the door open for Cleo.

    "I do have arms, ya' know" Cleo smiled and poked James in the side.

    "Shut up, I'm practicing chivalry" He replied sarcastically.

    "You're such an idiot" Cleo mumbled as she entered the building. James smirked.

    The store's interior was a bit unorganized, and the assumably teenaged boy sitting bored at the counter looked less than qualified to be running the store unsupervised. Cleo wandered through the cluttered aisles and browsed the shelves of stacks of records and cassettes. James stayed close to the door. He wasn't really paying attention to the music. He normally would have, but he knew that between himself, Cliff, Kirk, and Lars, the record collection was extensive. He also found Cleo to be alarmingly distracting. He studied her from head to toe. Her long, dark hair was almost always parted down the center and was naturally straight, though her bangs did curl up around the sides of her face a bit. Her almond shaped hazel eyes were more green than brown. She liked to wear eyeliner and red lipstick, sometimes eyeshadow. Today it was just eyeliner. Her waitress uniform, though rather hideous, was still somehow flattering.

    "Hey, you still alive over there" Cleo said, breaking James's trance. She waved her hand to gain his attention..

    "Yeah, I just zoned out there. I didn't get much sleep" He replied quickly. He walked over and joined Cleo in rummaging through the bin of cassettes. There wasn't much, but most of what the store advertised as new releases involved teased hair or synthesizers, not particularly attractive to Cleo or James in most circumstances. Cleo had a small pile of cassettes and a single record sitting on the floor beside her. James was about to investigate what she had selected, but Cleo spoke first.

    "I think I'm good, I don't have that much money on me right now" She said and turned around to face him, "Are you gonna' buy anything?"

    "Um, yeah" James began and grabbed the closest 45' record he saw, "I'll try this out"

    Cleo looked at the record and then back at James.

    "Is that a Bee Gees record?" She asked and cocked her brow.

    "That's not what I meant to grab" James replied and blushed, "But, I'm a man of my word and now I'm gonna buy it".

    "You're actually an idiot" She smiled and poked his abdomen once again. She gathered her pile of music and brought it to the counter. James followed closely behind. The teenager working at the counter didn't say anything and immediately began to enter the prices listed on each item into the cash register. There were a few more moments of complete awkward silence until he was finally finished with Cleo's purchases.

    "Your total is $17.75" The boy spoke.

    "Actually, can you put this on there too?" James asked, pushing his Bee Gees Nights on Broadway 45 toward the cash register, the boy nodded and proceeded to add the . Cleo gave him a rather confused look, but James reassured her.

    "Okay, then your total is now $21.90" He said. James pulled his wallet out of his pocket and removed a twenty and a five dollar bill. The boy took an alarming amount of time to count James's change, but gave them a plastic bag for their music and they were on their way.

    "Have a nice day" The boy said.

    "Yeah, you too" James replied.

    "You didn't have to pay for me" Cleo said to James as the pair left.

"Hey, don't worry about it, It's on me" James replied. Cleo smiled.

When the pair exited the building, they saw the rain had picked up quite a bit It was pouring and the sky was dark. Thunder rumbled in the distance. Cleo ducked her head down to avoid getting raindrops in her eyes and James retrieved his keys from his pocket. Unfortunately, the pouring rain made his grip rather futile and he dropped the keys.

    "Oh shit" He yelled.

    "What happened?" Cleo asked, standing at by the passenger's door.

    "I dropped the goddamn fucking keys" He said before crouching down to see where the key chain had fallen. Cleo walked to the opposite side of the car to assist him.

    "Well, where the hell could they have gone?" Cleo said.

    "I don't fucking know" James said, a bit stressed.

    "Hey calm down, we'll find them" She reassured him and began looking along the street. James knelt down on the street and reached through a puddle, but from his face, it was seemingly ineffective. He sighed and hit his head on the car door in frustration.

    "Dude, it's fine" Cleo helped him up and he was facing her. The raindrops were falling harder and faster. James didn't respond, but was instead starting at her lips. He looked away and stared blankly into the distance. He took a quick breath to build his confidence.

    "Hello?" She tried to get a word out of him, but quickly realized his intentions, though not in enough time to prepare herself for quite possibly the best kiss she'd ever received. He went in quickly, and she responded with a convenient open mouth. He wrapped his hands around her waist and pulled her smaller body closer to his. She melted into the kiss, standing on her toes to match James's height, but he was still bent down a bit. Cleo broke away after about thirty seconds, though not nearly enough time for James.

"What was that?" Cleo asked, pleasantly surprised.

"I've been kinda meaning to do that for, um how long have I known you?" He began.

"Like two years" She answered.

"Yeah, so two years" He replied. Cleo leaned in to close to his face again, before abruptly pulling away.

"What about your keys?" Cleo asked, visually concerned. James just smirked and pulled the keys out of his pocket.

"These? I found them in the puddle by the car" He replied smugly.

"You're such an asshole" She replied before grabbing the back of his head and kissed him regardless.