Strings

Chapter Two

"June, could you..." says Emma pointing at the syrup with her finger. "Thanks." she smiles at me when I give it to her. 

"What are both of you going to do today?" asks Grams.

"I'm going to the movies at 6pm with Jonathan." Emma says. Jonathan is Emma's boyfriend, they've been together for a year. He's a pretty nice guy, actually. You'd think that my big sister's boyfriend is a "bad boy" or something, but he really isn't. He stops by sometimes and they binge watch series together, sometimes they go to the mall, they once took me to watch The Lion King on Broadway (in conclusion, he's a great guy). 

"I'm going to Link's." I say after swallowing a piece of pancake.

"Say hi to Link from me." says Emma. Link was one of my father's most close friends. His real name is Ian, but my dad and his friends started to call him Link, when they were young, because he loved all the Zelda games. He then opened a record shop (because he also loved music) named Link's.

"Give him my congratulations on the award." says Grams. Link's apparently won Best Record Shop in New York City, so he's all happy about it and so is my family.

"I will." I say to Grams and to Emma. "Grams... Did you really cook these pancakes?!" 

"Of course I did! Delicious, right?" Grams responds happily.

"Mmm, yes." Emma and I say at the same time. We all laugh.

...

While walking over to Link's, I take out my cellphone, from my galaxy themed backpack, along with my black headphones. I connect the headphones to the jack and open my music app. Then I press SHUFFLE and the first song that comes up is Complicated by Avril Lavigne.

Chill out, what you yellin' for?
Lay back, it's all been done before
And if you could only let it be
You will see

I lip-sync the song while walking. People passed me by on the sidewalk, New York is a busy city after all. Cars and taxis are driving by, shops are now open, but I just keep lip-syncing and concentrating on the lyrics of the song.

Somebody else 'round everyone else
You're watching your back like you can't relax
You're tryin' to be cool
You look like a fool to me
Tell me

Then I get pushed. My headphones slide off of my head and hit the floor. I almost got hit too, but I managed to grab a post before falling. "Sorry!" I hear while tilting my head up and seeing a skater boy with a guitar case on his back. He turns his head around for a second to make sure if I died or something, but he doesn't stop.

I just stay quiet, pick up my headphones and my phone and check if they aren't broken: my phone is okay, but my headphones bumped into the floor hard and one slider separated from the headband. Urgh. I say to myself. I'm used to bullies and everything, but I mean... It's summer vacation, I am supposed to take a rest from them. Instead, I bump into one of them and break my headphones.

For a moment I want to kill the skater boy, but I remember he did actually say sorry. He isn't a bully, we just bumped into each other. I think. But he still broke my headphones. I continue. Anyway, I just keep walking (now without any music on) and finally get to Link's. I open the door, and a little bell rings.

"Hey June." says Link. He's standing at the cashier right next to the door. Link's looks small from the outside, but it's huge on the inside. Rows of stands full of CD's, vinyls and some full of posters and magazines cover the entire shop. Well, maybe not the entire shop, but most of it. The shop also plays background music all the time. On the far left corner of the shop, the cafe is placed. Tables and chairs cover the area, except for the counter. The cafe, also has this coffee machine that at the right side says "100% COLOMBIAN COFFEE" with yellow, blue and red.