"If Lost Return To _______"

|| One ||

I get lost shuffling through record after record, I slip a Beatles vinyl out of its sleeve and put it on the record player in front of me. Hey Jude begins to play throughout the vintage record shop I work at. I've been working here for the past 4 summers.

The owner is a family friend. I've know him and his wife since I was like 8. It's in downtown LA which isn't far from where I live so I can ride my bike here. Usually girls my age would want to work at places in the mall. But I love music and the vibe of this place it's old and cool. We get pretty good business lots of grunge hipster kids.

It's not busy at the moment most of the kids that come in are probably out at the beach or hanging out with friends. I would love to do that but I need this job so I can buy a car and start saving for college.

Yay responsibilities sound fun.

It sucks being the middle child my older brother sucked all the money out of my parents. My sister Elena is only a year younger than me so that's another college fund they need to pay for and it's coming up fast. So I need to help as much as I can.

My brother moved to Nevada with his fiancé to become a lawyer. Maybe he'll help me pay for school, my brother Ethan and I used to be really close then he wanted to drop out of school to be a artist and my parents were not allowing that after they payed a shit load of money for him to go to college.

He finished school met his girlfriend and left without a second glance. He still calls on birthdays and holidays to say hi but he doesn't come around. I blame my parents for being so hard on him and pushing him away.

At least I have my sister she understands me, she's like my best friend. She gets my love for music and how I want to make a career out of it. Which my parents do not understand at all. They would probably disown me or push me away like Ethan.

They want all of us to have solid careers not stupid ones like music or art. I remember when I was 10 and I first got into The Beatles I wanted to learn how to play guitar like John Lennon. My parents said no and gave me a lecture about putting my time into something more productive. I cried and stayed in my room for 3 days straight.

A week later Ethan (who was 17 at the time) knocks on my door holding something behind his back. Without a word he hands me a beautiful acoustic guitar and leaves. To this day I don't know how he got it, but I thank him. Without him going behind my parents back and getting me that guitar I would have never found what I love most in life, music.

My parents have learned to tolerate my choice to play guitar and sing but they don't approve. They say it's only for hippies and low life's. And they sure as heck don't know that every Saturday I go to the coffee shop by my work and play at the open mic night. Elena comes with me when she can to support me.

Hiding that part of my life is difficult because it's such a big part of it.

The bell above the door rings which pulls me out of my thoughts. The owner Frank walks in holding a big cardboard box.

"Riley I don't pay you to listen to music. I pay you to run the shop when I'm gone and organize records and CDs." Frank huffs out as he sets the box down on the counter.

"I know sorry, it's just my favorite song and I got distracted." I say dancing to the music and singing along.

He rolls his eyes at me and starts opening the box with a knife. "Can you put these in the stock room?"

I peer into the box and see a bunch of CDs and cool band pins. "Aye aye boss!" I pick up the box and to my surprise it's not that heavy. I give Frank a quick salute which makes him laugh.