Pacifier

"I'm Lily... From Bristol."

"Lily," he repeated the letter L rolling off the top of his tongue. "You don't sound like you're from Bristol."

The small girl rolled onto her tummy resting her head in her hands. The angles had changed. She was looking down at him now.

"Yeah." She smirked the singular word forming an unspoken rhetoric question. His eyes were as blue as they come.

"How old are you Lily from Bristol?" The way he repeatedly said her simplistic name held so much more meaning to her. As if his deep voice was finally recognizing her existence.

"How old do you need me to be?" She whispered.

The older man did not answer he just focused in on the David Bowie record silently playing in the background. The irony of the situation bringing a small smile to his lips.

God knows I'm good
God knows I'm good
God may look the other way today

"You really like this song don't you?" She questioned and he nodded.

"And you really like me too?" Again he nodded bringing her in for a passionate kiss. Their two contrasting scents being permanently intertwined.

***

Bring Bring

Mel's alarm woke her up from a deep and unexpected slumber. It was time for her to go to work at the record store. Sighing she turned on her side, the romance novel she was previously reading before she fell asleep falling to the floor and making a loud thump noise. Mel jumped a little at the sound before reaching over to turn her alarm clock off.

Throwing her legs over the edge of her small bed she stuffed her feet inside of the pink slippers that her mom gave her for her birthday. Her mom was never good at giving gifts. Picking herself out of the twin sized bed she got at a second hand furniture store off of the highway, she walked over to her mediocre closet and threw on a pair of grey trousers and a white jumper. It was cold this morning so she made a mental note to put on her big mustard yellow corduroy jacket before she left the house. Once Mel finished getting dressed, feeding her fish Daisy, and watering her potted plants she headed out of her small flat and started her short walk to work.

She walked at a steady pace enjoying the scenery around her even though she'd seen it more times than she could count. She liked to walk in the road, dangerously close to the middle of the street, and let her mind wander. She'd daydream about anything but mostly about falling in love.

21 and never been kissed. 21 and never had a boyfriend. Sometimes it felt like her dreams of love were the only real love she'd ever have. And even though her mother thought that her daughters obsession with romance novels was holding her back from ever finding true love, Mel could never let them go. She ate, slept, and breathed romance novels, and the more heart wrenching the better.

Working at the record store was not the ideal plan Mel had for her life. Her plan had always been to finish A levels and get into a good university so that she could study English, but her plans fell through after her dad got sick during his unplanned visit to South Africa for the loss of his father, Mel's Grandfather, whom she had never met. Almost simultaneously, the equally bad news about her own fathers condition was expressed to Mel and her Mother a day before her father was scheduled to return.

When Mel's father ultimately decided not to make the trip back to England but instead stay with his family in Gauteng, Mel decided she needed extra help paying his medical bills so that he could seek the best private care. Especially since her mother refused to speak with him at all after his choice to not return to Birmingham. Ever since then Mel had been working full time at the small little record shop along side her best friend Thomas, and sending whatever money she could to her father. The way Mel looked at it though was in a positive light. Although she ultimately lost her dad in the end, she gained a best friend through the process.