Part 5
As Nick dropped me off in front of the record store I looked around to see if there was any sign of Julian. Nope. No sign of him even though it had now been nearly half an hour since we should have met up. I slowly trudged towards to the record shop hoping Julian would be here soon. As I pushed the large glass door open a little bell rang alerting the girl at the front desk that someone had entered the shop. She didn’t look much older than me so I thought I had a good chance of getting this job.
“How are you?” she asked me cheerfully as I put the envelope on the counter.
“Good.” I lied. I really didn’t feel all that good but I was trying, and failing, to look on the bright side of my situation. I mean, Julian said we would meet at the café right next door of this record shop but he wasn’t there. I had resisted the urge to call him to see if was coming because I thought that would seem clingy and desperate but right now I was just about ready to try anything.
“Are you sure?” the shop attendant’s voice snapped me back into reality. She seemed kind of curious, maybe even concerned, so I decided to tell her the whole story. It took me nearly half an hour to explain the whole thing to Izzi, I had found out what her name was, who was actually a really nice and kind girl. Throughout my explaining I was constantly looking out the massive windows of the record store checking if Julian had arrived yet.
It was a little over an hour since we were supposed to meet now and I had nearly given up any hope of Jules actually arriving at all.
“So what do you think I should do?” I asked Izzi as I pulled up a stool, towards the front bench, that I found. I wish had seen it earlier because my feet were killing me even though I was just wearing converse.
“Well…” she began. “I don’t want to crush your hopes or anything,” Too late for that I thought to myself. “, but I don’t think Julian is coming. But you can still wait in here if you want.”
“Yes. That would be good. But I think I’ll go to the café just to get us something to drink. Iced chocolate?”
“Yes please.” Izzi said as her eyes lit up. I could already tell that she loved chocolate.
I walked out of the record shop trying to hold myself together. I could tell when I got home I would need to get a tub of ice cream and some movies to watch to try and forget what had happened today. But for now I would have to stick with a nice cold iced chocolate. Who knows? Maybe it would help.
When I walked back into the record store, with two large iced chocolates in my hands, I saw that Izzi was serving a customer. I just walked up to my stool and plopped myself onto it as I took a sip of my iced chocolate and placed Izzi’s next to what I presumed was her bag.
After about ten minutes Izzi was still serving her customer. I wanted to leave so I nudged her on the shoulder as I walked pass.
“Hey Izzi?” I said.
“Yeah. What’s up?” she said, excusing herself from the customer.
“I’m gonna go now. I’ve got to get home soon,” I said. “See you again soon.”
“Oh ok. See you around.” She said waving goodbye as I exited the shop. I waved back to her “And be happy!” I was trying to be happy but it wasn’t really working all that well. At least I had gained a new friend though.
I called Nick and asked him to come and pick me up. I couldn’t face taking a bus. There was a very high chance that I would see someone from school and I didn’t feel like talking to anyone. I hoped Nick wouldn’t ask too many questions when he got here. I knew I would eventually tell Ty but at the moment I just felt like eating ice cream and watching movies and she knew that.
Nick pulled into a parking spot in front of a park across the road from the record store. I slowly made my way across the road to his car.
“I haven’t got all year!” Nick yelled popping his head out the window. Jeez. I didn’t think I was going that slowly. I opened the passenger door and was surprised that that Nick didn’t tell me to go and sit in the back seat.
“So…” he said with a cheeky grin on his face. “How’d it go?”
“Jules stood me up.” I said glumly. As soon as the words left my lips I felt a tear running down my cheek. Julian Casablancas stood me up. I felt so bad inside. He said he’d be there and he wasn’t. I was glad Nick’s eyes were on the road because I really didn’t want him to see me crying about his best friend.
“He what?!?” Nick said surprising me with the anger in his voice. I didn’t think he would care about my stupid problems. Turns out he does. Nick just kept surprising me today.
“You heard me.” I said. I really didn’t want to say it again.
We had arrived at home but our parents weren’t anywhere to be seen.
“Where are the ‘rents?” I asked Nick. I opened the freezer to get my tub of ice cream and made my way to the DVD rack to get a load of movies.
“They went on a holiday remember?” he answered. I didn’t really remember but I nodded all the same.
“Oh.” I said. At least it meant I could cry in peace without my mother coming into my room and wondering what the hell was wrong with me.
I slowly walked up to my room with Nick trailing behind me. I stopped at my door to see why Nick was following me but it turned out he was just going into his room to play guitar. I plopped myself onto my shaggy purple carpet and grabbed a teddy off my bed. His name was Zebie and as you can probably tell by the name he was a little zebra beany kid and I had had Zebie since I was really young. I cuddled him tightly. So tight in fact that if he was a real animal he would’ve probably died right there in my arms. By this time my body was shuddering because I was sobbing so hard.
Nick must have heard me crying from his bedroom just down the hallway because I heard a soft knocking at my door. When I looked up I saw my brother walking entering my bedroom through my watery eyes. Nick came and sat next to me where I was huddled, with my chin resting on my knees, on the floor. He put his arms around me surprising me with his gentle act of kindness. He whispered kind things in my ear even when I was sniffling and tears were streaming down my face.
“So you do know how to be my brother?” I said when I had finally finished sobbing. He planted a light kiss on my forehead. I didn’t really think that Nick, of all people, would be able to help me through this but somehow he did which gave me even more respect for him.
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