𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗩𝗼𝗶𝗰𝗲 (𝙵𝚞𝚛𝚛𝚢 𝙱𝚡𝙱)

Track 23 | 𝗕𝗼𝗱𝘆𝘀

"Wow, so this must be seriously exciting for you," Ari smirked, happy that I was happy. "I bet they're gonna be really happy for you."

"It's funny, the only reason I started having a crush on her was because of a lie," I laughed, recalling sophomore year. Ari looked back at me, a little put off by my comment. "I was hanging out with the boys one day, getting high and shit, and we were going around, confessing our crushes, and I didn't have one, but I didn't want to feel left out, so I made it up that I liked Eden... and it slowly developed into an actual crush."

"...Is that true?" Ari asked with gentle hesitation, the smile on his face, while still present, beginning to lack enthusiasm.

"...Okay, I know it sounds kind of bad, but I do really like her. And I'm really excited for our date."

"Ooo, date?" Ari reverted back to his flirtatious and attentive manner, leaning his arm against one of the shelves and balancing his chin on his fist. "Where you takin' her, loverboy?" 

"We're going to our theater. To see one last movie before it gets shut down."

"Aw, it's shutting down? That's a shame," Ari frowned, turning back to the shelves and reaching into the crate for the records, filing them in alphabetically. "When's the date?"

"We were thinking, possibly, the night of our talent show performance on Monday."

"Wow, this Monday's gonna be exciting for you," Ari scoffed, making his way to another shelf as I followed closely behind. "Eden never texted me anything, though. She usually tells me everything."

"Well, don't you have that technology on your phone that prevents people from texting you at certain times?"

"Yeah, but it's a few minutes past eleven and the block stops at eleven," Ari told me, checking his phone one-handedly as he used his other arm to carry the crate of records. "If she did try to text me last night, I would've gotten it now."

"Maybe she just isn't awake yet. Or maybe she wants to keep it a secret, you never know."

"Unlike her, but I'll accept it," Ari shrugged it off, scrolling through his phone one last time to double-check.

Suddenly, a deep, more mature-sounding voice called out from behind me: "Hey, I'm not paying you to stare at your phone and sneak your friends into the store," Vic, the burly, tall moose who owned the shop, reprimanded as he emerged from the back of the store.

"I'm doing it, Jesus," Ari groaned, shoving his phone back into his pocket and continuing his job.

"Quit bitching and moaning, I gave you a home here," Vic stated as if he were serious, but from Ari's facial expressions, it must've been just a game to them. "You're disrespecting the house of Robert Plant," he teased, pointing up at a large poster of the Led Zeppelin lead singer behind him on the wall. 

Ari chuckled as Vic tossed a small, light, plastic sign across the room like a frisbee, Ari catching it with one hand while simultaneously restocking. "If your friend's gonna be here, he has to either buy something or help out, I can't have you bringing people in just to hang around."

"That's my man, Harvey. He's harmless," Ari nodded to me, handing me the sign. "Could you put that on the door?"

Staring down at the tiny, rectangle-shaped, orange plastic sign, I could read the large print, stating: "OPEN". I nodded and quickly did what he asked as Vic stood back, watching me spiffily adhere to the request.

"Is 'Harvey' good at manual labor?" Vic questioned Ari.

"Depends on if he cares or not."

"Hey, Harvey," Vic called out to me. I spun around and faced him head-on from across the room, respectfully. "You think you can help restock some CDs? One of our workers is off today, we're gonna need an extra hand."