SIX ;
fancy shoes
real life !
It was safe to say Evelyn had been having a pretty crappy few days. Her neighbors were in the middle of getting a divorce and their fighting had kept her up for the past three days. The endless amount of homework and the beginnings of a cold didn't seem to be helping the situation in the slightest.
So when Sal called her and asked her if she could cover for him today, she very nearly wanted to say she couldn't.
But she didn't. And her pounding head and heavy eyes hated her for it.
"aww, someone's sleepy," a familiar voice cooed softly.
Evelyns head shot up, eyes widening when she realized she had dozed off on the counter.
After a few seconds of blankly staring at the grinning boy in front of her, her mind finally processed that she knew him and she really got lucky that it was Wilbur that caught her sleeping on the job and not a random customer.
"long night?"
Evelyn shrugged, moving to rest her hand on her fist. "something like that. I didn't expect to see you here again, Wil."
He mirrored her stance, resting his chin on the palm of his hand. "what can I say? I enjoy your company."
She playfully narrowed her eyes at him, earning her a goofy grin in return.
"I was in the area," he offered, shrugging lazily. "but my previous statement still stands. How have you been?"
"eh, been better. My neighbors are fighting a shit ton so I haven't been sleeping very good. I also think i'm getting a cold, but I think that's just the universes way of telling me that hate me. How have you been?"
"Bored. Just been creating a country and fighting for independence and also writing music."
"that doesn't sound boring to me," she laughed, raising a brow at him. "I didn't know you wrote music."
He nodded, "yup! I sing, too!"
"how could gogy not tell me that? That's so rude, oh my god. I'm going to have words with him later, I can promise you that."
Wilbur only smiled at her, "I find it funny you didn't ask about the whole country and independence thing."
Evelyn waved him off. "i'm more worried about the fact that you write music and sing and I didn't know."
"to be fair, this is only the third time we've ever talked, and the other two times weren't exactly us getting to know each other. It's not a big deal that you didn't know."
"it is," she insisted. "Gogy should have told me that I was meeting a famous musician! I would have worn my fancy shoes!"
Wilbur then pressed his cheek against the glass of the counter, arms folding over his head.
"you're embarrassing," he said, voice muffled.
"no, I think the word you're looking for is supportive."
He propped his head up again after she poked his forehead. "fancy shoes is equivalent to support?"
Evelyn nodded, looking serious. "Well, yeah. I'm not going to support you in my five year old vans. That's not very classy."
"I wasn't aware you needed to be classy to show your support."
"clearly you're not aware of a lot of well known things, Wil. That's okay, i'll teach you everything you need to know," she patted his hand softly before adding, "just make sure you don't let George in on it. He doesn't deserve to be up to date when he didn't even tell me you sang. What am I going to learn next? Are you, like, part of the royal family or something?"
Wilbur scoffed, "not even close."
She frowned in response, "you ever know. I wasn't aware you were a famous musician so who says you being royalty was out of the picture?"
"those aren't even close to the same thing, Evelyn."
"close enough," she shrugged.
Wilbur sighed dramatically before his eyes lit up and he started banging on the counter lightly. "what are you doing today?"
"you mean after the afternoon rush?" she asked, gesturing towards the empty store. When he rolled his eyes and nodded, she continued. "well, i'll probably call George and yell at him for keeping something so big away from me, and then i'll hang up and listen to your music and then i'll call george back and make myself cry so he feels guilty and then i'll probably finish watching this whale documentary my roommate made me watch and now i'm very curious as to how it ends. And then i'll probably get into a fight with my other roommate and...why are you looking at me like that?"
Wilbur was staring at her, eyes holding an unfamiliar emotion in them.
He shook his head softly, curls falling in front of his eyes. "I just wasn't expecting such a detailed answer."
"oh. I can be more vague and mysterious if you want?"
"that's okay, I like it. Anyways, what time are you done here?"
Evelyn shrugged, "whenever. Sal doesn't usually care."
"Alright, cool! That means we can go hang out properly."
"Sounds good to me. As long as you don't spring anything crazy on me like you being immortal or something, because after finding out you're a big shot musician I don't think my poor little heart can take it."
Wilbur laughed in response and lightly patted her head. "Don't worry, you basically know all the interesting things about me now."
"i'm just not sure I believe you."
He shrugged, a goofy smile on his face. "Guess you're going to have to find out for yourself."
"Guess so," she replied with a grin, "I'll give it another hour and if the shops still dead then I suppose i'll close up early."
"Great! Is it...do you mind if I hang out until then?"
Evelyn wrinkled her nose at him and frowned, "why would I mind?"
"I dunno," he shrugged, "just making sure you didn't hate me or something."
"Will, I just agreed to hang out with you like five seconds ago. I don't hate you, I promise."
He grinned in response, "good to know. For the record, I don't hate you either."
"well I didn't think you did but now i'm starting to second guess myself..."
He sighed and stuck his pinky out, "promise."
Evelyn sighed and wrapped her pinky around his. "If you say so. Now if you're gonna stick around, go put these in their homes, please and thank you."
She pushed a stack of vinyls towards him and he carefully picked them up, saluted her, and proceeded to search for their designated spots.
Evelyn watched him with a fond smile, "you're a lot more helpful than George is, by the way. Keep it up and I might have to keep you around."
Wil shrugged, looking smug, "who said you had a choice? Personally, I think my spirit animal has become a leech or something because i'm quite attached already."
"Oh. That is not where I thought you were going when you said leech."
"what did you think I meant?"
"Dunno, thought you just exposed yourself to being a vampire or something."
"ah, you caught me," he deadpanned, "whatever will I do now?"
"...hopefully not suck my blood? I don't know what you want me to say, Wil."
"Nothing. You're distracting me from doing free labor and at this rate we'll never be done here."
Evelyn rolled her eyes at him and sighed, "you don't have to stay, you know."
"Sorry, can't hear you. Too busy trying to find your Bowie section."
"It's in the front of the shop."
"Thanks for telling me five seconds after I already found it. Very much appreciated, Miss Hart. Now if you don't mind, as much as I love talking to you I would much rather do it while we're out and about, not while i'm trying to speed run putting these away so we can leave faster."
Evelyn held up her hands in surrender, "My bad. I didn't realize that was why you're moving so fast."
"Well, of course. The faster we're done here, the faster you get to know the most interesting thing about me."
"...you already told me you're a singer."
"Bigger than that."
Evelyn narrowed her eyes at him, making him grin. "alright, alright! I'm just joking. I'm just excited to get to know you, Evelyn. That's all."
"Well I can tell you now that i'm not vampire musician, so don't get your hopes up."
"Sorry! Too busy doing your job to hear your self deprecating thoughts!"
"It wasnt—,"
"lalala! Cant hear you!"
And despite pretending to be annoyed with his antics, Evelyn couldn't help the fond smile on her face.
It wasn't hard to admit she was excited to get to know him, too.