In Which
He wants to buy her guitar.
or
In which
Her guitar brings them together.
°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･
In a forgotten corner of the city sits a little record shop, filled with dusty shelves, the scent of coffee, and the girl who keeps it alive. She's twenty-tw...
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🎙️
Gabriela -
₊˚⊹ ᰔ"You could have anyone else you wanted to, I'm begging you (hey) Hands off, Gabriela, Gabriela"⋆˚꩜｡
⚡︎⚡︎⚡︎
The bell over the door jingled, and my stomach did the now-familiar swoop that only seemed to happen when he walked in.
Jay didn't just walk into a room — he sort of... entered it, like he owned the air everyone was breathing. Today he was wearing this soft-looking cream sweater under a tailored coat, hair perfectly in place despite the damp weather outside. He could have stepped straight out of a fashion campaign, and there he was, standing in my dusty little record shop.
I ducked my head and pretended to be very busy reorganizing the vinyl display.
"Good morning, Blue," he said smoothly, like we'd been doing this forever.
"It's noon," I muttered, not looking up.
"Still counts as morning if I haven't had lunch," he replied, sauntering past the counter and straight to where I was.
I gave him a side-eye. "You know most people just say hello like normal human beings, right?"
Jay grinned. "Normal's boring. Besides, you secretly love it."
"I don't," I said quickly, but my voice cracked in the middle, which only made his grin widen.
He didn't push it — thankfully — but he didn't go away, either. Instead, he leaned against the end of the display shelf, watching me sort through records like it was the most fascinating thing he'd ever seen.
I tried to ignore him.
"You're really bad at pretending I'm not here," he said after a minute.
"I'm not pretending," I lied, sliding an album back into its sleeve with a little more force than necessary.
"You are," he said casually, crouching down so he was at eye level with me. "Your ears turn pink when you're lying."
"My ears are always pink," I shot back.
"Not that pink."
I nearly dropped the album in my hands. "Do you seriously just stand around memorizing the shade of my ears?"
Jay smirked. "Maybe."
I groaned and stood up, abandoning the display altogether. "Don't you have rich-people errands to run or something?"
"Not today," he said cheerfully, following me back to the counter. "Lucky you."
"Lucky me," I echoed flatly, pulling open the register drawer just to have something to do.
For the next hour, Jay hovered around the store — sometimes flipping through records, sometimes asking me ridiculous questions ("If you could only listen to one album for the rest of your life, what would it be?"), sometimes just... standing there.
It was annoying. And distracting. And — if I was being brutally honest — kind of nice.
I hated that it was kind of nice.
Nari showed up halfway through the afternoon, just as I was finally starting to relax.
She was wearing a fitted black sweater I didn't recognize, ripped jeans, and eyeliner that was darker than her usual soft brown. She looked... different. Not bad different, just... different.
"Hey!" I said, smiling at her.
"Hi," she said, glancing past me toward Jay, who was currently thumbing through the bargain bin like it contained state secrets.
"Didn't know you'd be here," Nari said, almost too casually.
"Didn't know you'd be here," I said with a little laugh. "You okay? You've been coming by a lot lately."
She shrugged, giving me a vague smile. "Just bored, I guess."
"Mm."
We talked for a bit — well, I talked — until Jay appeared at the counter holding a record with the most smug expression I'd ever seen.
"Do you have any idea how rare this pressing is?" he asked, waving the record.
"Yes," I said flatly, "because I put it in that bin. It's not that rare."
Jay ignored me and turned to Nari instead. "Hi. I'm Jay."
I don't know why my stomach twisted at the way she smiled back.
"Hi," Nari said softly. "I've heard about you."
"Hopefully good things," Jay said with that easy charm that made everyone instantly like him.
"She mostly complains," Nari said, giggling.
I glared at her. "Don't encourage him."
Jay just looked delighted. "Complains, huh? Good to know I'm living rent-free in your head."
"You're not," I said quickly.
Jay leaned an elbow on the counter, grinning at me. "Sure I'm not."
I could feel my ears heating up again, and judging by Jay's expression, he definitely noticed.
By the time Nari left — after lingering a little too long near Jay for my liking — I felt weirdly off-balance.
She'd been quieter than usual with me, but whenever Jay was nearby, she seemed more animated. And maybe I was imagining it, but her style was shifting lately — ripped jeans, darker makeup, asking me a million questions about music gear...
I told myself I was overthinking it.
Nari was my friend.
She wouldn't... whatever.
Jay finally left near closing time, after teasing me one last time about selling him the guitar.
"Nope," I said firmly, locking the case.
"One day," he promised, pointing at me as he headed for the door. "One day you'll let me play it."
"Not if you're the last person on earth," I called after him.
He just laughed, and the sound followed me around the store long after the bell stopped jingling.
