Xoe pushes a record off the shelf, it hits the floor with a bang and a cloud of dust floats up above. The new girl's voice echos through the shop with a shriek. Xoe n I burst out laughing. Being dead may suck but pranking the living almost makes it worth it. New girl stares at The Beatles record before dusting it off and gently sliding it back onto the shelf with the rest of the records. She continues dusting and unpacking the new shipped in records, CDs and cassette tapes into the different categories and genres. I walk over to the front desk, I glance over at Xoe, she's grinning as she nods rapidly, I smirk at her and look back at the desk and push the metal pencil cup full of pens n sharpies off, she's on the other side of the room but the bang, it's more of a clank actually, is so loud she flinches anyway. She hesitantly walks around looking for what fell.I point at the record player behind Xoe and she looks behind her and immediately knows what I'm thinking. She grabs a record off the shelf, slides it out of the cover before gently setting it on the spindle. New girl crouches down next to me and scoops all the pens n such into the cup before carefully placing it back in its proper place. Just as she does so, Xoe places the arm of the record player onto the record and suddenly Tiptoe Through The Tulips by Tiny Tim blasts through the shop.
"Tiptoe, through the window. By the window, that is where I'll be. Come tiptoe through the tulips with me."
It's so loud that I know if I still had a body my ears would be ringing right now. New girl flinches before rushing towards the record player and lifting the arm. She puts the record back and continues cleaning. She seems fairly shaken up. Xoe n I plop down onto the 'retro' leather couch, she cuddles up to me so I drape my arm over her shoulders, she swings her legs over my lap, I put my hand just above her knee. I say plopped but Xoe floats, she loves floating and going through things. For me it was cool at first but it just reminds me I'm dead and it drives me crazy, I know if I still had a body I'd feel sick at the thought. So I never float or go through things like her, I walk and make as much contact with items as possible. Xoe's not happy she's dead, but she has a lot of fun with it. I only prank with her. Sometimes, I save up my energy so I can make the customers see me and I talk to them and they don't know I'm dead, although I get a few odd looks since no one has clothes or hair really like mine anymore. When we were alive Xoe always made the excuse 'I'm cold', but we don't have bodies anymore so I know she's just being cuddly.
"What else should we do ?" Xoe smirks.
"I don't know, she seems more coward-ish then the others." I glance over at new girl. Her hair is more tangled, her eyes are teary, and she's all sweaty.
Xoe hits my arm. "Leon ! Don't call her a coward !" she laughs a lil.
"Well what else would you call her ?!"
"I'd call her,,,delicate."
"'Delicate' is just a nice way of saying coward !"
"Is not !"
"Is to ! But do you think this one will quit too ?"
"I don't know. I think she's not a quitter."
"Coming from the one that just called her 'delicate'."
"Shut up ! You can be delicate and strong at the same time !"
"Can not ! They're literal opposites, do you even know the definitions ?"
"Whatever. I like her and think she'll stick around."
"If you like her so much then why're we traumatizing the delicate coward ?" I laugh.
"Well, pranking is still fun. And we've pranked every employee on their first closing night, so we shouldn't treat her any differently."
"Fair, but you're still weird."
We watched new girl clean up more and shut the remaining lights off before locking up, packing up her things and leaving.
~Next Morning~
I miss dreaming. And the sensation of being tired, but mainly dreaming. Time will never end for Xoe and I, and I mean I'm happy that I get to spend all of eternity with her, that's what I wanted when we were alive, but I wish we could have peace. Anyway, three staff have come to work at the shop. New girl, emo, and baby. Emo's pretty much cleaning up or fixing anything new girl or baby did wrong or forgot, since one has been here for just a lil while and baby's about fifteen years old. Xoe n I stopped trying to learn names a long time ago, since it's sometime in the 2000s and we died in 1976, that's a lot of names, so we stopped trying, we only keep track of who the manager and boss are.
"I think I might quit." new girl blurts out.
"Ha ! I told you ! Coward !" I tease Xoe.
"Shut up ! We don't know for certain."
Emo and baby look at eachother knowingly, because they know we've done this to every employee on their first closing shift since 1976.
"What ?" new girl asks, slightly irritated.
Emo and baby look between new girl and each other. After a moment baby says, "Record fell off the shelf ?" she questions "Something fell off the front desk ?" emo continued, "Old creepy music started playing ?" baby went again. New girl looked at the two skeptically.
"Y,,Yeah ?" new girl answers.
"That's just Leon and Xoe messin with ya, they mean no harm, don't worry about it." Emo smiles, baby nods in agreement.
"Leon and Xoe ?? What're you talking about ?" New girl questions.
"Leon and Xoe ! They're just two rock n roll spirits with nothing better to do. They died in a shooting here in nineteen seventy-six, I heard Xoe was stupid and yelled at the shooter so he fired but Leon jumped in the way and got shot then Xoe got shot after." baby enthusiastically rants.
"Well I heard he shot Xoe then Leon got pissed and attacked the shooter and got shot." Emo claims.
"They,,died here ?" New girl questions, a shiver going up her spine, she continues "No matter, ghosts aren't real."
"Leon no-" Xoe starts.
"Leon yes." I cut her off. I get all of my energy. I walk up to the front desk and push off the cup of pens n such just like I had the night before. The clanky sound of the cup falling and everything spilling out echoed threw the shop. All of their heads turn towards me.
"Boo." I smirk at them.
Emo and baby look a mix of horrified and excited, as they've only seen me about twice, new girl looks confused.
"Sir, how'd you get in ? We're not open yet." New girl questions.
"Sarah I BEG you PLEASE get a brain." baby whines. Huh, guess that's her name haha.
"What ?! It's a valid question !" new girl exclaims.
"Validly stupid, maybe !"
I slowly walk up to new girl, or "Sarah" , for dramatic effect. I take her hand in my own and I notice as I do so she gets goosebumps, I must have made her cold.
"I'm Leon, and I'm very much real dear." I bring her hand up to my face and kiss it and as I do so I wink and just then I make sure to go invisible. I know I'm gonna hear a ear full bout that one from Xoe later, but messing with the living is just so damn fun. The rest of the day they just talked about us when there were no customers and read the super old newspapers the manager has about us. The newspapers are cool n all but it's also pretty off putting to read about your death. We just listen to rumors for the rest of the day, and the rest of our afterlife.
