Sodium 16 // michael clifford au

1. Scott Pilgrim

Sodium 16

1. Scott Pilgrim

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Chloe decided that it would be a brilliant idea to wake me up before noon, and force me to go shopping with her. So when she showed up at my house at 11:45 I had no choice but to get up and let her drag me to all of her favorite prep stores including J Crew and the newest installment in the mall, Lilly Pulitzer.

After watching Chloe for two hours and pretending to give my honest opinion on everything she tried on, I convinced her to come with me to what she calls "The Nerd Corner" which consisted of Game Stop and my favorite comic book store, Sodium 16.

"Why do I have to come?" Chloe whined as she struggled to catch up with me, her large bags weighing her down.

"You forced me to come to the mall with you, the least you can do is come with me for five minutes to buy one novel." I replied and continued walking in the direction of the store.

"But it's full of nerds; don't you feel depressed around them? They have no fun."

Chloe and I are exact opposites; honestly I don't know why we're even friends. I like comics and video games, instantly gaining the label of a nerd by Chloe. While she is preppy and loves partying. She's tried to drag be to them plenty of times, but I could honestly care less. They aren't fun, the one I was actually convinced to go to, I was babysitting my best friend the whole time, as she decided to get wasted.

"Why's it even called 'Sodium 16' anyway? I don't get it, is it a nerd joke?" Chloe questioned, lifting her hand to fix her already perfect hair for the millionth time today.

"You know the Batman theme song, with all the na nas? Well, 'na' is said 16 times, and Sodium is Na on the periodic table, therefore it's 'Sodium 16', get it?" I absolutely loved the name of the store, and the store in general. It never fails to make me happy and excited, especially when I can finally get the new volume of something, or if I have somehow gotten the money to buy the physical copy instead of reading it online.

Chloe rolled her eyes and groaned, "I hate your nerd talk, you need to make some nerd friends so I don't have to hear it anymore."

I shrugged and smiled as we entered the store, Chloe's eyes wandered curiously and her face poorly concealed her disgusted expression as she looked around the unknown territory. I immediately walked to the alphabetical section, knowing exactly what I was looking for. Chloe realized that I had started walking ahead of her and jogged behind me to catch up. But one of her huge bags knocked over the "Best Sellers" display.

I turned my head at the ruckus to see what caused it, to see Chloe standing over a huge mess of graphic novels, and employee with pale skin and platinum hair also looked up to see what had happened. When he saw the large pile, he quickly got from behind the counter and came over.

Once the boy reached us, Chloe started stuttering, "I'm so sorry, I didn't see them there and I was just here with my friend. I don't even like comics." And glanced back at me. I gave him a small embarrassed smile.

The boy chuckled and shook his head, looking at me, then to Chloe then to the books on the floor and said, "No, it's fine, things happen."

"Here, let me help." I offered as he got to the ground to pick them up, Chloe nodded and started to clean up what she had knocked down.

She picked up a book and looked at it, making a face, "Ugh, why would anyone want to read about zombies? And since when was this also a comic?"

"The Walking Dead?" The guy and I asked at the same time. I looked at him with a smile and he muttered jinx, probably out of habit.