big man in town | sabriel

10 | the start of something

gabe.

i decided to take sam to the aquarium in my personal car. it was a black mercedes benz and i was pretty fond of her. the sun was pretty bright, but it wasn't excruciatingly hot outside. i set off using sam's shared location to find my way.

i was dressed rather casual, in an old slayer t shirt and skinny-ish blue jeans with black converse. it wasn't supposed to be a formal date, and i made sure to let sam know that. i wondered what he would wear.

i didn't have to wonder for long because sooner than i realized, i was pulling up to his run down apartment complex. i feared getting out of my car in case it was keyed or stolen or something, so i decided to text him to let him know i was here.

soon he stepped out of one of the doors clumsily, almost tripping. he blushed and looked around for my car, blushing even harder when he spotted it. he was wearing a plain white shirt with light blue overalls and a yellow and blue striped flannel, unbuttoned and sleeves rolled up. as he descended the steps i noticed he was wearing black converse, exactly like me.

he opened the car door and sat in the seat, buckling himself up shyly.

"hi." he squeaked out. i had to struggle to maintain my cool composure because fuck, that was adorable.

"hey cutie." i said nonchalantly and i looked in the rearview mirror to back out of the small gravel 'parking lot'. "we're wearing the same shoes." i punctuated the last sentence with a smirk thrown his way and he furrowed his eyebrows before peering over at my shoes and laughing when he realized i was right.

"wow. did you stalk me?" he asked jokingly. my smile faltered at the rhetorical question because yes, i did totally stalk you at one point and it was ridiculously easy, you should really be more careful on the internet. but i kept my mouth shut and he didn't seem to notice my fake halfhearted laugh.

i handed the auxiliary chord over to him without really meeting his glance, the san francisco traffic was making me anxious so i tried to focus on the road. "play whatever you want, kiddo." i said as he took it.

pretty soon, an unfamiliar song started playing softly through the speakers. the first part was very ambient and then a bass drum came in, matching the soft vibe and hitting on every downbeat. then the guitar came in, a simple phrase repeated three or four times before the lyrics started.

she had a face straight out a magazine
god only knows but you'll never leave her

"what is this?" i asked over the sound, and he looked at me startled like he was very entranced in the music. maybe he was.

"it's uh, robbers by a band called the 1975. i can change it if you don't—"

"i like it." i cut off his rambling. it was soothing and the lead singer's voice was somehow both breathy and rough.

i'll give him one more time
we'll give you one more fight
said one more lie
will i know you?

i enjoyed the rest of the song as i made my way to the aquarium. the key change that came with the bridge gave the song a whole different vibe and the vocalist sounded like he was almost crying.

to find out that everything's gone wrong, wrong, wrong

the mood had shifted so drastically that i thought we were listening to an entirely different song. the singer, he was broken now. something had fallen terribly out of place in his story.

you look so cold

the last words rang out in the silence and i was in awe.

"what a beautiful song. show me more."