Broken Strings

Chapter 4

It wasn't a long walk to Main Street. Main Street was literally the main street in this particular college town. It had all of the cute boutiques and coffee shops and records stores apparently. I'm a sophomore and I've been up and down this street about a million times and it shocks me that I've never made my way into the record store. Much to my consternation, our arms became unlinked at some point during our walk. I have such mixed feelings toward him. On the walk, I couldn't focus on anything other than him; his smile, his accent, his eyes, his sense of humor, his everything. When we arrived he immediately ran to the classic rock section. The store was quaint. It basically belonged on Tumblr. I laughed at Michael and went to him as he starting sifting through records.

"Favorite band, go," I say as we go through the thick stacks of vinyls.

"My own. Other than that, I love All Time Low and the Sex Pistols," Michael says, nonchalantly.

"Assuming by your favorite bands, I assume your own band is punk rock?" I reply. I probably sound like I'm trying too hard...

He just laughs, "We like to think we are." I smile and he continues the trend, "Favorite band, go."

I think on it for a minute. He looks over after a seconds and looks intensely into my eyes which impedes my thought process. "You know, I'm still a huge fan of the Backstreet Boys. I mean my dorm is COVERED in posters of them," I say sarcastically and give a nervous laugh. He just smiles at me.

"The Backstreet Boys are awesome but they could never measure up to NSYNC." He rebuttals. I gasp.

"NSYNC COULD NEVER MEASURE UP TO THE BACKSTREET BOYS!" I say passionately. The small crowd in the store look over to me subtly and give a little chuckle. Michael laughs with me and I feel a little better.

"No, really, favorite bands." He picks up a record and looks at the tracklist and puts it back.

I smile and say seriously, "I like all kinds of music so my favorite bands range from One Direction to the Neighbourhood to Sleeping with Sirens." He smiles a little bit and doesn't comment.

I start to weed through the records with him. I pick up a few bands I recognize and look at the songs they chose to put on each side. Side B always has the best songs, Side A always has the most popular songs. I see Michael collecting some albums under his arm, slowly adding more. I quietly move behind him and grab the records from under his arms and run to the other side of the table. "Hey!" Michael yells at me and laughs. I turn my back to him and go through the records; looking at the artists and their songs. Michael comes over and bends down to lean his chin on my shoulder. I don't let it phase me and continue reading through their songs.

"Are you going to buy these?" I turn around quickly and find his face very close to mine. I take a deep breath and clutch the vinyls close to my chest. I wiggle my purse back to my elbow.

He stands up straight, "I think so, I have a record player back at my dorm and I'm getting a little bored of the records I have." He extends his hands and cocks an eyebrow.

"I will give you the records back only if you add this one to your future collection," I grab a The Who record and add it to the four still clutched to my chest. He laughs and nods and I delicately place the stack of five in his still extended hands. He returns them to their previous spot under his arm.

"It's about 6:15," Michael starts. I checked my phone. Sure enough, and I have about 20 text messages... oops. "Would you be interested in grabbing some fast food and going back to my dorm to listen to these fancy new records?" he sounds almost nervous asking.

"There's nothing I would like more," I smile big and giggle a little bit. He smiles and beckons me to the checkout counter. I stand next to him while he pays for the vinyls. Just now do I notice the height difference between us. He's the perfect height; probably 4 inches taller than me. He checks out quickly and holds the door for me on our way to the local McDonald's. We run in and out. I guess we were both anxious to go to his dorm. He ordered a cheeseburger and fries while I ordered a large amount of chicken nuggets.

His dorm was only a block away; you could call it a perk of a cramped campus. I followed him into the building and up to his room. When I walked in I could definitely tell he lived there. I could see dirty laundry peeking out from under the beds and 2 guitars were positioned at the end of one of the two twin beds in the room. He sits on the bed on the right side of the room and I presume it's his bed. I take a seat next to him on his dark red comforter and divvy out the food inside the bag. We both dig in and we catch our eyes about halfway through our meals and laugh for no reason. I've never been on such a low-key date, it's a nice change. I finish slightly before he does and I grab an acoustic guitar from the stand at the end of his bed. I pluck stupidly at it. He finishes it and grabs it gently from me and starts playing. He plays an upbeat tune and I sit cross-legged to face him. I smile at him and a minute later one of the strings breaks. "Fuck..." he whispers. I laugh. "Do you know how to fix it? My roommate usually fixes it for me since he plays too."

This is where my classes come in handy, "Fortunately for you, I do. Do you have spare strings?" He nods and grabs a box from inside his bedside dresser which also acts as the stand for his record player. He hands me the box and I choose the right string before returning the boc to him. He put it back into the drawer and takes up watching me. I unwind half of the broken string from it's little peg and pop out the pin holding the other half at the bottom of the guitar. I hand him the broken parts and he just smiles a bright smile at me. I can't screw this up. I take one end of the pre-cut string and place it under the pin before putting the pin back into place. I stretch the string to the head of the guitar and wind it around and through the peg accordingly. I bend the string to keep it in place. "That's all I can do for you. You're also very lucky that we didn't need to cut the excess off," I hand the guitar back over to him. "You'll need to retune it but other than that you should be good."

"You never cease to amaze me, Florence Bennett." He smiles at me and begins to tune the guitar. I smile and watch him easily tune it back to its original pitch. He hands the guitar back to me and says, "Can you put it down before I break it again?" I laugh and comply. He grabs the record I chose from the stack he just bought. He removes the vinyl from it's decorative cover and places it on top of his Crosley. He move the needle to the beginning and the Who starts filling the apartment. He sits back down and by that time I was serenading him. He laughed and I smiled. I turned around and laid down. I placed my head on his leg and continued singing the melodies I grew up on.

A few songs later the album requested to be flipped and I laughed and bowed awkwardly. "How do you know all of those songs?" Michael chuckled and place his hand on mine which was placed across my chest.

I intertwine my fingers with his and reply, "My dad is a huge classic rock buff. The Who was one of his favorite bands so I've probably memorized every single one of their songs." I tilt my chin up to see Michael's face. He's staring down at me and I bite my lip. He catches the hint and leans down to kiss me. He gives a slow passionate kiss upside down and pulls away. I let go of his hand and sit up and turn to face him. I place my hand on his cheek and kiss him softly. He kisses back a little harder and before I know it he's on top of me. One of his hands rests on my waist and the other is placed beside my head. My hands are intertwined in his hair and my chin is tilted up in order for my lips to meet his. Not soon after we started, I hear the door open. I stop the kiss and look over in the direction of the door. The tall blond guy walks in and immediately starts staring at us. I pull my arm back and place it on Michael's chest. He looks up to his roommate and proceeds to get off of me. I swing my legs over the edge of the bed and check to make sure I have everything. I get my huge purse and check to make sure my everything binder and my phone are inside; they are. I sigh and grab it and turn to say goodbye to Michael.

"I had a great time Michael, thank you," I quickly peck his lips goodbye and I turn and awkwardly wave goodbye to his strangely familiar roommate.

Just before I'm out the door, I heard Michael whisper frantically to his roommate, "Luke, what the fuck was that?"

"Well, when I saw that I was too shocked to pretend like I didn't see anything and..." I heard Luke respond but I didn't stick around long enough to hear him finish. I let the door close softly behind me and I take a quick breath. Did that just happen?