ghost of you | a.i.

Chapter Two

Two Years Ago...

The driver looked back at me as we rode around downtown Charlotte. Calum and I were looking for a place to eat. We couldn't decide on anything. Nothing stood out until we were heading back to the hotel to just order a pizza from whatever chain would deliver to us. That's when I spotted a long blue building and hit Calum's arm.

Calum narrowed his eyes at me. "What?"

"Look at that," I said, pointing at the building as we passed. "I want to go in. 'Lunchbox Records'."

Calum grinned. "That place looks cool," he said and leaned forward to speak to our driver. "Could you turn around? We want to go into that blue building back there."

"Sure thing, boys," the driver spoke in his American accent.

The car turned around and we parked in the parking lot. There were only two cars in the lot, not including ours. Calum and I glanced at each other and got out simultaneously. The building was brightly painted in sky blue paint and a white robot was painted over the entrance. A "NOW OPEN" sign hung between two windows. The street side of the building was surrounded by a flower bed with weeds growing in it. Calum reached the door first and opened it. I followed him inside. My eyes adjusted to the dim lights of the record store. Searching the area, there were two girls with their heads together and a worker who had some headphone on and was invested in his laptop. There were so many records. This. Was. Heaven. From red wall to red wall, the entire store was decorated with records, band posters, and even cassette tapes of different bands. It was organized chaos. The shop had a bit of a musty scent to it but also the stench of something that had been collecting dust for a few years. It was beautiful.

We meandered into the shop both going on opposite sides of the isles. Calum stopped and picked up an album. I ran my hand along the albums taking in the record store. There were so many records it made my heart happy. I stopped and started leafing through a stack absentmindedly searching for a record. I could hear the girls talking on the opposite side of the room. The music from the speakers was on a low volume which seemed strange to me having been in a music store.

"I need a new record to listen to," the blonde girl said to her friend. "And it needs to be something different than my typical stuff."

She was wondering away from her friend. I had to do a double glance at the girl. She was beautiful. My breath caught in my chest. She wasn't the model type of beautiful, but the relaxed, comfortable in her own skin type of beautiful. If there was make up on her face, it was there to bring out the features of her face. This girl wouldn't be interested in me. She was wearing an iron on white t-shirt. The words I couldn't read from where I was, but a small smile pulled across my lips.

"So no pop bullshit," her friend asked, grinning at her.

Her friend was okay looking. Definitely not my type of beautiful, but she had good features in her face. Her dark hair hung in sheets like a curtain. The friend's make up was done. I could see her pours from across the room signaling the pile of make up on her skin. Her lips were even tented a shade of pink that did not appeal to me.

The blonde rolled her eyes. "You're so nice to me sometimes, Eliza," she said and dropped her eyes back to the records. "I just need something different than my typical bullshit. Like no One Direction type shit. Or Taylor Swift."

The brunette shook her head. "I thought you don't like Taylor Swift anyways," she mused, picking up a record from the stacks and flipping it over.

I quickly grabbed one and did the same trying to seem distracted and not that I was listening to their conversation. She liked One Direction? Maybe she was going to the concert tonight.