Chapter Text
BEEP, BEEP BE-
A groan leaves my lips while I press the button on my phone to stop my alarm. The morning sun peaks through the window, spreading heat onto my body while the sheets slip off me. I walk into my bathroom to wash the smudged eyeliner off my face, the black streaks left trails down my face. I cringed when I remembered last night... come on, you're better than this, I thought to myself. There was no reason for me to be crying over a guy who only wanted a "fun time". The look on his face when he found out I wanted an actual relationship made my heart drop a bit, but I picked it back up and told myself that he didn't deserve me anyway. I quickly washed my face and got dressed. Putting on a white tank top, a navy-blue crop top leather jacket with the sleeves rolled up to my elbows. White shorts paired with studded belts, and a pair of knee-high Harley boots, the boots had spikes on the ankle that reminded me of cowboys. The leather jacket had holes in the back so my wings could be free. Once I got dressed, I did my makeup and added on my rings and studded cuffs before walking out the door.
Just as I stepped out of my apartment, I got a call from my employee Austin. He better have a good excuse this time , I thought to myself while my face scrunched a little. I started walking down my apartment's stairs. I let out a sigh before I answered the call, "Good morning, Austin, what can I do for you?" I already knew something was up due to his tone, "Yeah, yeah, I'm not able to come in today." Not even a simple good morning back, how lovely, "Oh no, why is that?" He paused for a long moment, making me realize what's going on. "Austin, is there a person in the bed with you?" I let out an irritated sigh, "Look I swear I'll be in tomorrow I just-" I spoke with him in sync, "need a day to myself, I know, but you need to start showing up to work. Y'know if you have something going on-" He quickly cut me off, "Look, I'm sorry for not showing up, and just because you are my boss does not mean I want to open up to you about my personal life!" He raised his voice over the phone, making my feathers ruffle and my steps quicken in pace as I made my way to the street. "Austin, I'm just trying to make sure you're ok-" he cuts me off again "I don't need YOU to check up on me!" I took a deep breath, he's ok, he's not my responsibility , I thought to myself while I tried to calm down. My body stumbled a little when I crashed into something soft, then I realized it was feathers. "Hey! What the fuck!?" the man said while his wings ripped away from my face. Damn it, I thought to myself while quickly apologizing and walking off. I heard a string of cursing leave his mouth while I got further and further away, but I ignored it. I had better things to do than begging to be forgiven. I spit out a feather before trying to speak to Austin again, "Kid, please-" interrupts me for the third time, my wings flap once angrily. "Get off my back alright, you're not my guardian so stop bothering me with MY personal life!" He hung up the phone before I could say anything.
That kid is going to be the death of me, I thought before opening the doors to my store . Just deep breaths. April, my other employee, greeted me when I entered the store. "Good morning boss, how was your morning" I let out a sigh before answering, "It could be better." She gave me a knowing look, "Austin is out again?" I nodded my head "I'm just worried about him, and I know It's not my job, but I want to make sure he is doing okay." April's eyes seemed to be focused on something else. "What, is there something on me?" She let out a giggle while reaching to grab something on the top of my head, she pulled out a golden feather and gave me a childlike smile before tossing away the golden feather. "Why are you covered in feathers ma'am?" My cheeks flushed out of embarrassment, "oh...I wasn't watching where I was going and walked into someone. Not one of my proudest moments'' I said while running my fingers through my hair nervously. Another voice joined our conversation, "And I thought I was bad about not paying attention." I quickly gave Oliver a greeting, before speaking "Oh ha ho, no, you DEFINITELY have the worst attention span." I flipped the 'closed' sign to open while walking around the store to make sure everything was in place. "WHAT!? I do not!" He protested before April gave him multiple receipts, "The camping trip in '09?" He let out an exaggerated gasp before speaking up "oh come on!" I told them to take their bickering to the CD and records section and organize them, they quickly moved without breaking concentration on each other. "Yeah! You almost fell into the water because you were paying attention to the, and I quote, 'chubby wittle squirrel' who was minding its own business." He crossed his arms while bending down to her level "That was one time, and the wittle guy was so cute, I couldn't help myself!" I let out a soft chuckle while I watched the two continue their conversation and sanitized the instruments on the shelves.
Some time passed, customers were coming and going with their preferred instruments. I grabbed the phone that controlled the speakers and put on a nu-metal playlist, I started to spin in my chair absentmindedly before a loud bang almost knocked me out of my chair. "WHATS UP FUCKAAAAAAAAHHHSSS'' I clutched my heart for a second before getting the man's attention. "Sir, please refrain from using profanities in my stores." My voice was shaking while still recovering from the mini factory reset he gave me. Once I calmed down, I spoke with a smoother voice. "How can I help you?" He turned his attention towards me, and then it hit me. Holy. Sweet baby Jessus! It's Adam. "Yeah, I'm gonna need you to fix my guitar." He brought out a pretty mangled guitar and set it on the counter in front of me. "Was it attacked by a mountain lion or something?" Adam looked proud of himself while he explained what happened to the instrument, "Ha, no sugar tits, I was rocking out, playing my awesome shit at a concert. And I slammed it on the stage." He was demonstrating every second of his story and made sure to do the exact swing he did to show me what happened before crossing his arms and wearing a smug smile. "Wow, that's...uh" he cut me off and made devil signs with his fingers "I know, I fucking rock." "Not how I would put it but yeah." I said while a small smile formed on my lips. "So, how long is this shit going to take? '' I pursed my lips and grabbed the guitar before turning around and placing it on my workbench. "It shouldn't be that long; I'd say about 4 hours if I start right now." I handed him the papers he needed to fill out and got to work on his guitar.
I took off the strings and started to patch a giant crack, from behind me I heard some shuffling. Once I finished patching the base together, I turned around to see Adam playing an imaginary guitar to a song playing on the speakers. "You Havin' fun over there?" I asked with an eyebrow raised and fought a laugh. He stopped for a second and met my gaze "Of course I am, nu-metal fucking rocks" I nodded my head. "I agree with you there, nu-metal is one of my favorite genres." We continued to talk about the type of music we listen to for about an hour, we surprisingly had similar music tastes. Once our conversation got quiet, I noticed that he was staring at me. One finger on his chin, and his other hand on his hip, like he was deep in thought. "What, are you admiring me or something?" I asked once in a teasing tone. "Shut up, I'm trying to think." I rolled my eyes. I used the ball of my foot to turn around to make sure the glue had set right and didn't mess up his guitar base. Adam snapped his fingers, causing me to turn my head to look at him. "You're the bitch who knocked into me this morning!" My eyes quickly went wide, of course I had to knock into THE Adam. "Is that so?" I asked, trying to hide my embarrassment. "Yeah, I knew your hot rack looked familiar." He talked about my "rack" like it was nothing! My face went cherry red, "My what!?" My posture went as straight as a ruler, and my facial expression was shocked. Adam let out a loud laugh, "You should see your fucking face!" He laughed at me again. I quickly got into my chair and continued to work on his guitar, "You're so immature!" I said while trying to focus on fixing his guitar. Which only made him laugh harder.
Once his guitar was finished, I placed it on the counter. "There she is," I gave it a little slide towards him, right as he went to grab it. Our fingers brushed for a split second; I felt my heart thump in my chest. I went to look at him, but he was already looking at me, and our faces were not that far apart either. Suddenly being this close to him made me feel dizzy. I backed away, avoiding his gaze for a brief second. One of his eyebrows rose while he grabbed his guitar, "the fucks got your panties in a twist?" I calmed my beating heart down before I changed the subject. "You should give her a play to make sure everything is perfect." That seemed to work since he immediately started playing a riff. He began to hum lyrics while shaking his head side to side. The music had me sway my hips side to side to the beat, soon my head moved with my hips, nodding side to side. "What's the song you're playing" I asked, still swaying my hips. A smirk plastered on his face before he answered. "Now that is real fucking music, made by me, the first man." I stopped my dance to roll my eyes, "of course it is. What's it called." Adam made the guitar disappear with a quick flash of gold before speaking, "Stick it to the man," I couldn't say anything about the fact his guitar DISAPPEARED before his phone buzzed. "Nice talking with you babe, but I gotta go before my boss busts my balls about being late." A giant gold ring opened in front of him, and he walked into it. "Seeya bitch" was all he said as the ring closed into a small sect of dust. I didn't have time to say anything before he was gone. That sure isn't going to keep me up at night, I thought to myself before looking at the time. We close in about three hours, great.
Once the time got to 9:30, I closed the shop and sent April and Oliver home. I did one final sweep of the place before heading home. I pulled out my headphones and my phone and searched up 'Stick it to the Man' and pressed play. I was bobbing my head and walking in beat to the song on my way home.
I opened my door and went straight to my room; I took off most of my clothes except for my underwear and my white tank top. I quickly washed my face and plopped myself down on the cold awaiting sheets. It didn't take long for me to fall asleep, the night sky seemed to shut off my brain and make me fall asleep. There was one thing on my mind, how the hell did he disappear into thin air!?