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The brunette shut the door firmly behind her, closing it against her mother's furious aura. She had barely been able to grab her jacket and headphones before she finally left their little apartment. Drew huffed and pushed a hand through her hair. She waited several moments, listening for any sound indicating her mother broke a plate or something before she stuffed her headphones in and stalked to the staircase at the end of the hallway.
She half expected her mother to burst from the apartment and continue the argument they'd had but she was the only one in the hallway. Drew stuffed her hands into the pockets of her leather jacket as she reached the street, the wind blowing her hair back. At four in the afternoon the Brooklyn street was littered with people. Leaving the safety of her building, Drew chose a random direction to walk and went with it.
Her music drowned out the sounds of the people surrounding her, and soon she was lost in the sea of people. Normally a claustrophobic person, Drew didn't feel that way in crowds. She actually loved the idea of being a faceless person in a crowd. Of no one knowing her and her story, of no one knowing anything deeper than just her appearance.
As she continued walking, her phone vibrated in her back pocket. Drew pulled the device out, saw who had texted her, and immediately stuffed her phone back into her jeans. She did not want to hear her mom's attempts to get her to come back and sort out their problems. They could do that after she cleared her mind and maybe got a wrap from a little restaurant a few blocks away.
Drew hadn't realized, but she had started to walk across a street just as a taxi driver pulled forward to make a right turn. She yelped, slapping her hands down on the hood of the taxi to steady herself. Luckily the driver had managed to stop the car before he actually hit the frightened girl. She stared at him with wide eyes, realizing her utter stupidity right then and unsure what to do with that knowledge. The driver honked his horn and yelled some obscenities Drew couldn't hear though it somehow got her moving again and she raced across the street.
In her flustered state, Drew pulled open a door to what she had thought was the restaurant that had her favorite wraps, but was not greeted by the familiar scent of lemon and green peppers. Rather, the first thing she noticed was the musty smell and then she focused on the interior of the little shop.
Guitars hung on the wall opposite her, accoustic, electric, bass, beautiful instruments. A shiny red drumkit sat in one corner. Saxophones and clarinets and oboes and other various instruments Drew didn't have a name for resided on stands. Massive amounts of sheet music seemed to overflow as they rested in the shelves. What really struck her, though, were the stacks of vinyl records beside where the CDs were, closer to the small cash register.
She released a breath just as the door she had thrown open shut behind her, a little bell jingling. A boy she just realized was standing behind a counter, flipping through a magazine looked up. His dark hair hung over his forehead and his eyes seemed to scrutinize her very existence.
She flushed under his gaze and forced her feet to carry her to the vinyl. She thought she would feel his gaze on her, but she didn't. When Drew glanced back towards the boy, she found his attention was back on his magazine, so she focused back on the records. She flipped through the records, her eyes shifting over and reading the album names. A thrill of excitement ran up her spine as she pulled a Nirvana and Pat Benatar album, holding one in each hand. Her smile was wide as she slid them back in, making a mental note of where those specific albums were located. She found a wide variety of artists from vastly different eras, and felt a little prideful that she knew at least one song from every artist or album.
Drew was a little surprised to see that the majority of the album covers were obviously used. Some of the corners were worn, the artwork not as vibrant as others. She found herself gravitating towards those ones, the used and discarded ones that people obviously sold or gave to this little music store.
With the Nirvana and Pat Benatar albums in her arms, she sidestepped to the shelves with the CDs. She thumbed through them, her thoughts shifting to the vinyl rather than the CDs that were directly in front of her, and she assumed it was because they were vinyl records. With another CD resting atop her records, Drew turned to the counter and stepped forward, her smile small and relaxed, a huge contrast from the angry and anxious feeling she had when she first burst through the doors.
The boy looked up as she set her items on the counter, a forced smile on his face. "Is this everything for you today?" he asked her, and she was fairly surprised by the raspiness in his voice. Though, when Drew studied him through occasional peeks through hair that had fallen over her face, she decided his voice suited him.
She paused, her gaze narrowed at him. Standing at the door, she hadn't realized how familiar he was to her. Drew didn't know where she knew him from, but knew that she did. He might have gone to her school, but she didn't think they had any classes together. He was cute, so she would have notice him, right?
She nodded in reply, her mind racing with confused thoughts as she tried to place where she knew this tall, lanky boy from. Not knowing where she knew him was making her flustered, so as he punched in the prices for her purchases, her gaze shifted to his nametag pinned onto the breast of his black long sleeved shirt. Aaron it read, and she decided then that he looked like an Aaron and held himself like an Aaron. She had hoped that learning his name would clear the befuddled thoughts in her mind, but she had never met an Aaron, and so it only frustrated Drew more.
"Alright, your total is $47.84," he said, finally, lifting his blue, blue gaze to meet Drew's grey one. His expression was open, welcoming. She immediately recognized it as the "helping a customer" face, because she wore it for hours on end as she waitressed at a small diner a few blocks from the store. His eyes, though a striking blue, held a look of contempt that clearly illustrated his desire to be anywhere but there.
She grimaced and ran a hand through her hair as she reached into her bag for her worn leather wallet. She paid, holding her breath as it processed, hoping she had enough money in her account to pay for everything. "Would you like to sign up for the Note Worthy newsletter?" he asked, his hand reaching for a paper.
"Newsletter?" Drew asked, a quizzical expression crossing her features, "What would that entail?"
Aaron seemed to sigh and then suck in a huge breath before he launched into a speech that he had probably said thousands of times. At the end of his monologue, he slid a paper towards her. Of course she wanted to know when new shipments of vinyl and CDs came and so she wrote her name, phone number, and e-mail address on one of the lines toward the bottom.
He stuffed her receipt into the bag and slid it across the counter. "Is that everything for you?" he asked politely.
Drew nodded and turned to go, hesitating when her back was facing him. She had to know where she knew him from, or else she wouldn't be able to sleep, and she already had a hard enough time with that. She whirled to face Aaron again, his expression confused and a little wary. "I know you from somewhere, don't I?" she asked, taking a half a step towards the counter.
"No," he replied with a firm shake of his head. She didn't know why, but she knew he was lying.
"No, I do. Are you from my school?" Drew said.
Aaron raised his eyebrows at her, and could guess that he was questioning her intelligence. She could tell he wanted to say something, but he didn't say whatever it was he wanted to. Instead he asked, "What school do you go to?"
"Jefferson," Drew said, knowing she sounded a bit too enthusiastic for this Aaron guy.
His eyebrows furrowed and a thoughtful look crossed his face. "Maybe you've seen me in the halls," he acquiesced.
Drew took several more steps forward until she was in front of the counter again. "Are you a senior there?" she asked, purposefully ignoring his exasperated glare. "Because I am." She grinned.
"Why are you so curious?"
Drew felt her cheeks flush and instantly scolded herself. It was rare that she felt ashamed or uncomfortable because of her actions, but right then, she couldn't imagine anything worse than being under this Aaron guy's scrutinizing gaze. "I like meeting people," Drew said. She never understood when people explained themselves people when they didn't need to. To her it was like proving that the reasons behind your actions were reasonable, when more than half the time they were anything but reasonable.
"Is this everything?" Aaron said. This time she knew he wasn't talking about her purchase. He was talking about her standing there, talking to him.
Drew hesitated and ran her free hand through her hair, glancing over her shoulder. She half expected someone to be recording her blunders as she tried to talk to this guy, who obviously wasn't wanting to. Even though this was New York City, this wasn't Gossip Girl and she wasn't a celebrity. "Yeah," she said, backing up to the door, "I guess I might see you in school, then."
Her hand fumbled for the doorknob and managed to pull it open. Drew grimaced as the bell jingled above her head and she stepped out into the street, which had somehow gotten even more crowded with the fifteen minutes she'd been inside NoteWorthy. She stuffed her headphones back into her ears and pushed her way through the crowds. She glanced down at her phone and quickly stuffed the device away again. She had about three texts from her mom, each one getting more and more desperate to know where Drew was.
She would regret not sending even a short affirmative reply, but being grounded was worth a clear head. Drew's phone vibrated again and she stopped walking as she stepped close to the building beside her. She expected another call from her mom and was going to power off her phonr, but she heaved a relieved sigh when she saw it was just Emery, her best friend calling.
"Speak," Drew said into the speaker attatched to her earbuds.
"You, me, and that cute barista at The Market," Emery said in her rough voice. The Market was the pair's favorite coffee shop. Drew could never understand why the owners called the shop The Market. It was like false advertising the selling of tubes of pizza flavored Pringles. The first time Emery had invited her along Drew had even brought along a shopping list, thinking they were headed to Wal-Mart.
"On my way," Drew replied, grinning, as she adjusted her course to head for the coffee shop instead of the second-hand book store, though she made a mental note to stop.by there after coffee.
Emery was leaning against the counter, chatting with the cute barista named Conner. Whenever she saw him, Drew couldn't help but think he looked like a Superman reincarnate. There were five people in The Market, including Drew, Emery, and Conner, so standing in front of the counter didn't pose a problem. She stepped up beside Emery and smiled, her expression unwittingly cheeky.
"I took the liberty of ordering you a chai tea," Emery said, sparing her best friend not only a glance, but a smile, too. Usually when Emery was chatting with a cute boy she was interested in with Drew in close proximity, Emery hardly looked at Drew, so she was surprised.
"You owe me four bucks," Emery said, angling her body to face Drew's.
Drew grimaced and was about to protest, but decided to oblige her friend and fork over four dollars. Luckily she had four ones and passed the money to Emery under the table. "You drive a hard bargain, Em," Drew teased, right as Conner set Emery's hot chocolate in front of her.
Emery lifted a shoulder halfheartedly and glanced over her shoulder as the bell above the door rang. "Damn," she muttered as Drew watched her gaze flit from the door to Conner, "looks like we've gotta sit at a booth, Apple," she said, taking her drink in both hands and sliding onto the red pleather bench. Drew glanced to the door, where a woman in her early forties seemed to be finishing up an exciting converstion.
Drew accepted her chai tea from Conner, her expression twisted up in bewilderment. Her best friend was erratic, to say the least. Drew loved the girl and considered her to be like a sister, but that also meant they fought like sisters too. Whenever they did fight, it was never as dramatic as one of them stealing the other's boyfriend. It was usually about who's handwriting is better or who should get to marry the hot actor or tv character. Drew could only think of one instance in which their friendship almost fell to pieces, and that had been a year ago.
Drew slid onto the bench opposite of Emery ad sighed. "So I'm an idiot," Drew said, deciding she had better tell Emery about her blunder with Aaron earlier.
"You didn't just figure that out did you?" Emery asked, a teasing grin tugging at her lips.
Drew ignored her and pushed on through her slightly humiliating experience, only briefly mentioning the argument she'd had with her mom. She ignored Emery's occasional amused laughter.
After she was done talking and was lifting her tea to her lips, Emery said, "So was he like cute hot or like hot hot?"
Drew was expecting a similar question, but one that included comparing Aaron to a beautiful animal, like a peacock for example. "He was hot hot, but more like a 'father's-worst-nightmare' hot," Drew said, her expression turning thoughtful.
"Ooh. Go for him, please," she said, "I will pay you." She actully started to reach for her bag to grab money.
Drew's brows furrowed together as her mind worked through what she thought could possibly be going through her best friend's head that she could pay her to flirt with Aaron, who she was pretty sure would rather do anything but talk to Drew again. Which made her want to know why he wouldn't want to at least just talk. She figured that his inevitable avoidance was probably a way for Aaron to get people to not like him, but just the fact that he didn't want people to like him made zero sense to her. But all that seemed to only push her to decide she had to get to know Aaron a little better.