Amberian (Gods of California I)

Chapter 22: Music

Posters hanging like holy portraits in a chapel adorned the walls of Spinnerman's Music Shack in downtown Dayvale next to the discount movie theater that only showed hand-me-downs.

Rows and rows of vinyl records and CD sleeves lined the aisles of the modestly sized shop, and Ally wondered how long it had taken to organize everything into such a satisfying display. 

She knew most of the bands that filled her periphery. Audioslave, Rage Against the Machine, Linkin Park. It was difficult to decide where to begin, so for a while she simply wandered.

A black and white poster of Bob Dylan smoking in sunglasses caught her attention on the wall. Amber would've liked it if she was still into that sort of music. 

Fucking Amber...

She decided to start with the vinyl. There wasn't a record player at the house, and the only one being sold by the door she'd only able to afford if she won the lottery, but she liked the way the albums felt in the sleeves and ran her hands along the artwork, feeling the grooves.

The song being played over the store's sound system changed from reggae hippie shit to a bassline that didn't really catch her ear at first. She peered towards the front desk trying to find the origin of the sound, and saw a long-haired cashier frantically hide a massive bong behind the counter while innocently smiling and waving.

They seemed to be the only ones in the store. Everyone else was at work or school where she should have technically been. Earlier that morning, she'd walked right past the front gates of Dayvale Middle and never looked back. Her only regret was wearing the black hoodie, as the chill of the morning had quickly evanesced into a sweltering heat.

When the bassline ended a ring of distortion resounded and then the heaviest guitar riff she'd ever heard in her life rattled her teeth and shook the walls. The volume kept climbing higher and higher, and she saw the cashier was turning the dial slowly with a satisfied smirk on his face. She suddenly felt like she was on a journey without drugs.

The thunderous drums gave voice to her anger and rage, and when she could no longer resist the urge to move, she stomped her feet and rocked her head forward and back. Others walked into the shop, but she didn't stop. When she saw the cashier moving like she was, she smiled and felt less alone. The primal energy was coursing through the veins of another, too.

When she inched towards the counter it was obvious the blond dude had snuck at least an inhale from the bong and was vibing to its sweet euphoria. She called to him as loud as she could over the bass, desperate to know who had composed such magnificent sounds.

"What is this?!"

He held up a CD cover.

Black Sabbath- Paranoid

"It's fuckin' heavy metal biiiitch!"

He turned the dial all the way up with such vigor she worried it might break, then returned to his religiously sacrilegious dance and she joined him in the reveling.

__

Theo made living in an RV seem cool.

He was his own master and Ally thought he had it made. There were no bills. No lawn to toil over just to make it look slightly better than a neighbor's you barely knew. He did what he wanted and didn't give a fuck about anyone or anything.

She knew she never wanted a family in the traditional sense. The idea of getting married in a big chapel with flowers and frilly dresses made her skin crawl. There was no fucking chance she'd stare at the same person for the rest of her life growing old and decrepit, gradually hating the conceptual bastard until one of them just fucking croaked.