Melted by You

6

"Bye!"
I wave to Willow, and then turn around and walk to the bus stop. Right before my bus usually arrives, a car pulls up in front of me, and the car door is opened.
"Hi mom!" I say, getting in the car.
"Hey sweetie" she says, with a warm smile. "How was school?"
"It was fine" I say, setting my heavy backpack by my feet on the car floor. "But a lot of people were talking about Maggie".
"Maggie?"
There's a slight tone of disgust in my mom's tone. She really doesn't like Maggie, even though she's only met her a few times and was very polite all those times. When Maggie and I just broke up, I wasn't as happy as I usually am, and my mom, as the caring, protective woman she is, instantly saw her as an evil Witch from that moment on.

"Yeah, there'd been this whole article on her about the entire blackmailing situation..."
"Blackmail?"
"Oh, you didn't know yet? Well, basically, Maggie kind of forced Logan to confirm that James was actually gay and then she made this whole article about how James was gay and why that was bad and such" I explain. My mom shakes her head.
"How did she force him?"
"I think it had something to do with a dog" I mumble. I know the whole story, but I don't want my mom to hate Maggie even more. I don't know why exactly, but it makes me feel uncomfortable when everybody is talking shit about her.

"Well, how did she take it?" my mom asks.
"Oh, she wasn't at school, so I don't really know. But I don't really talk to her, so I wouldn't know anyway".
"Hmm" my mom says. "Oh, we're here!"
She parks into a narrow parking spot, and we get out. She pays for the parking fee and we walk into the city. I look around me for a music store, but I don't see anything that looks interesting. There's a lot of clothes stores... And some shoe stores... Here and there a cafe... But nothing even having to do with music, except for a guy on the street corner playing his guitar, but something tells me he's not going to sell that to me.

"Here" my mom says abruptly, and she pulls me into a store.
"What?"
"You need shoes Lanny!" she says. I frown.
"I don't want shoes" I say. "I hate trying them on, it takes so much work".
"Too bad young man, these shoes are withering away at your feet as we speak".
I squint my eyes. Withering?
"That means shriveling Landon" my mom says. "There's already a hole by your toe. Now go and look if you see a nice pair".

After a full hour of fitting and walking around in millions of new pairs of shoes, we finally leave the shop with some way too expensive sneakers.
"Otherwise they'll end up just like these" my mom says, gesturing towards my old shoes that I'm still wearing.
"If I didn't have to spray them with this leather spray first, I'd have you put them on right now".
I look at my old shoes, and sigh. I really like these shoes, they've been with me for so long I feel a little guilty for letting them be thrown out. Just like when you only put one of your stuffed animals on your bed as a kid. You know they're not alive, but you still feel guilty for them.

"Do you know any music stores?" my mom asks. "Your teacher recommended the one where he bought his guitar, but I don't know where to find it..."
"We can ask someone" I offer.
"Maybe. What was the name again? Something with Hannah..."
"Hannigan" I say. That was the name of the owner, Owen said. I think he said it was next to the McDonald's".
"Ah, yeah. Because there's only one of those" my mom says.

After a while, we find the store. We enter, and I look around in amazement. There's millions of instruments everywhere around us. Well, millions is probably a bit much, but I'd say I see at least ten keyboards, twenty different trumpets and around fifty guitars, acoustic and electric.
"Hello" my mom says to the man behind the counter. "We want a guitar".
The man smiles at us.
"Alright, straight to the point. For which one of you?"
"Me!" I say, excited. "I'm going to learn to play guitar!"
He grins at me, and walks around the counter.

"Are you mister Hannigan?" I ask. He nods.
"Yep, that's me".
"Did you start this business?"
He shakes his head.
"My granddad did. It's a family thing. Sadly, my son doesn't seem too interested in music. Then again, he's two, so maybe that'll come later".
I laugh, and follow him as he walks to the back of the store with all the guitars.
"Do you have any experience playing instruments?" he asks.
"I can play ukulele" I say. "But it's my sister's, so I can't use it all the time. At first I wanted my own, but then I thought, why not get a guitar? So I found someone who will teach me for only ten dollars and we're starting when I get my guitar" I ramble. Mister Hannigan laughs, and shakes his head.
"Well, I can see you're excited to start".

We test a few shapes of guitars, and I think of a few different colours.
"I want a blue one" I say. "No, a green one".
"Or a pink one" my mom suggests.
"No, pink doesn't really go with the rest of my room".
"I'm afraid we don't have a green guitar in stock right now, unless you want an electric one" mister Hannigan says.
"No thanks" I say. "Which ones do you have?"
"Let's see..."
He opens a door, and walks in.
"Come in!" he says. I follow him quickly. We enter a room with even more guitars, all hung up sorted by colour, size and prize.

"See anything you like?" he asks. I look around, and walk over to the brightly colored ones. After a bit of thinking, I decide I don't want a bright one anymore, so I walk back to the brown tinted ones.
"I like this one" my mom says. She's pointing at a guitar that's black on the sides, and fades into a light colour of wood in the center. The light wood has a strange, green-ish hue to it.
"The colour reminds me of your eyes".
I walk over to it, and stare at it.
"I like it too" I say. Mister Hannigan comes over.
"Excellent choice. It costs a bit more than the other guitars, because it's more damage resistant, and it's suitable for left handed people".
"Ah, I'm sold!" my mom exclaims, staring at my shoes again. "Landon's left handed, and he isn't the most careful person on earth".
"Hey!" I pout.
"Don't be mad at me, I'm buying you a guitar" my mom interrupts me. "Are you sure you like this one?"
"Yes! It's so cool!" I say, and I hop up and down a little. Mister Hannigan takes the guitar off the rack, and takes it with him to the counter. About an hour later, I'm at home, looking at my brand new guitar, excited for my first lesson this sunday.

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