Begin Again

Chapter Seven

"Wow" I gasp as we walk inside. The exterior did no justice to the inside. There was no wallpaper or paint on the walls, there was just records, layered over each other over every single wall. The floor was a classic black and white check, like an old diner. At one side of the room there were instruments, so many classic guitars hanging off the wall, a large piano in the corner, several violins, trombones, you name it, there was at least one of it. The rest of the room was full of shelves, overflowing with classic records, modern records, records by people I guess no ones ever heard off.

"Impressive right?" Austin smiles at me, chuckling to himself about the expression on my face.

"Hey Austin" shouts a voice. I turn around to see a guy sat at the counter, he was a guy with huge muscles, dark skin and black hair. He was dressed in a red baseball jacket and had some gold chains around his neck. His eyes were covered with large thick rimmed sunglasses.

"Hey Shiny. How you been?"

"Good man, good. Was wondering when you'd finally come back"

"I cant stay away from this place for too long" Austin laughs, looking around. Even though I knew he'd been here a lot, I could sense him taking it all in, as if it was as new to him as it was to me.

"Who's your friend?" Shiny asks, pointing towards me. I stand there nervously, I had never really been good at meeting new people, I always felt so awkward.

"This is Ally"

"Hi" I smile awkwardly. "Nice to meet you"

"You two darling. So, are you new around here? Cause I gotta tell you, Austin's a good tour guide, he'll show you the best places around, don't you worry"

"Yeah" Austin laughs awkwardly. "We're going to check out the instruments" he says, trying to direct us away from Shiny.

"Okay guys, I'm gonna get a drink, you want anything?"

"No thanks" Austin replies immediately.

"Um, no thanks, I'm good" I smile. Shiny climbs out of his chair and leaves through the door behind the desk, shutting the door behind him.

"Sorry about Shiny. He likes to ask a lot of questions"

"He's just being friendly. Why is he called Shiny anyway?"

"Shiny? Have you ever heard of Shiny Money?"

"Sounds familiar" I reply, wracking my brains since I had heard the name before but couldn't put my finger on where I'd heard it. Austin walks over to one of the shelves in the middle of the room, flipping through the records before grabbing one and bringing it over. On the cover is a picture of the guy behind the counter, apparent from on the cover he looks a bit younger, and is surrounded by some girls in very little clothing.

"Oh my god" I say in shock, remembering that my dad used to listen to this music, before my mom made him stop because she thought it was too inappropriate for me and my sister to hear.

"He was a famous rapper. Was everywhere, one of the most popular artists around"

"What's he doing here then?"

"He gave it up. Didn't enjoy it anymore. He just disappeared from the public and eventually, people just forgot about him"

"So he bought the record store?"

"Yep. He loves it, more then anything."

"I cant believe he hasn't been spotted though"

"Not many people know. Often you'll get people coming in and either they haven't heard of him, or they just don't recognize him anymore. I knew it was him the moment I walked in and saw him. I almost passed out, I couldn't believe it was him. I got to know him and he's just a normal, cool guy"

"That's insane" I smile, thinking about how I could tell my dad that I'd met him, but thinking that clearly Shiny wanted his privacy, so maybe it wasn't a good idea.

I hand the record back to Austin before I walk over to the piano in the corner. I run my hand against it, the mahogany wood is smooth and cool. Its started to gather some dust.

"It's so sad" I whisper to myself.

"What do you mean?" Austin asks, close enough behind me to hear what I had said.

"Just look at it. Its such a grand piano. I could be played in operas, Broadway shows, but instead its just sat hear, forgotten, gathering dust."

"Well, maybe we could put on a show. Do you know how to play?"

"Yeah, I bit" I say, intrigued as to what he was thinking.

"I've been writing some songs for a while" he says, wandering away and grabbing an acoustic guitar from the wall and pulling a stool over from the corner of the room. "You'll probably end up laughing, but it's a bit of fun right?"
"Okay" I laugh, getting comfortable on the piano stool. "You start and, I'll make it up as I go along"

"Um…" he says, sitting down and putting the guitar on his lap.

"There you are, standing with all your friends

So I wait, till your alone again

And the minutes feel, like eternity"

He says, strumming the guitar. I listen to the chords and try to get a feel of which piano keys would fit.

"All these words, buried inside my heart

Every step, feels like the hardest part"

I place my fingers on the delicate ivory keys as start to play. The sound is so beautiful and perfect, even Austin stops playing for a second. He smiles at me before returning to his guitar.

"But the last 6 feet, are gonna kill me

So just take this chance

I've got it all planned

I'll pick you up at 6 and we can drive around

Take you to the beach and we can head down town

I love that your hear with me

We'll park and lay down on the hood of my car

It'll be perfect, we can watch the stars

Tonight I'll be your man

And someday we'll do this again"

He says, strumming the guitar one last time before the room descends into silence. We just sit there for a second, smiling at each other.

"What do you think?" he asks, referring to the song.

"I like it, I really do. But…"

"What?"

"I'd make a few changes to the chorus"

"Go ahead"

"I think it should be a bit more like…" I say, finding the right key.

"I'll pick you up at 8 and we can drive around

Take you to the beach and we can head down town

Um…. While you, hold my hand?"

"I like it" he says, smiling at me. "Carry on"

"we'll park and lay down on the hood of my car

Listen to the airplanes as we count the stars

Tonight I'll be your man

And tomorrow we can do it again"

"What do you think? You don't have to change it, its your song."

"No, no, I really like it. It sounds amazing. Your… your really talented"

"Okay guys!" shouts a voice. We both turn to see Shiny stood at the door behind the counter. "I need to shut up shop, had a call from my girl, she needs me home immediately"

"Okay" Austin says, rushing over and putting the guitar back on the wall. "I'll see you later" he smiles as we walk over to the door.

"It was nice meeting you" I smile to Shiny.

"You too darling" he smiles back.

"So, do you write a lot of songs?" I ask Austin as we walk back to his car.

"A few. I have a lot of free time." he laughs. "Not many people our age live around here, and there's only so many times I can let Mrs Suzy beat me at scrabble"

"Wow" I laugh. "You've got Dez though. He seems cool"

"Yeah, he's a cool guy. We've been friends since elementary school, but he doesn't live around here. Plus, Dez doesn't give me much inspiration for songs, if it were up to him, each song would be about a zebra going into a cheese factory or something"

"I'd listen to that" I joke.


"Thank you, for today" I smile as we pull up outside my house.

"No problem, I had fun"

"Me too. I mean it though, thank you, I really needed a distraction"

"I'm glad I could help"

"Bye" I smile before opening the car door and climbing out.

"Ally" Austin says suddenly as I'm about to shut the door. "Do you maybe, want to do this again sometime?"

"What?"

"This, go out with me, spend the day together?"

"Oh… yeah, sure. Why not"

"Okay… great" he says with a childish smile on his face, I couldn't help but smile back which makes him laugh. "Okay then. I'll see you later"

"Yeah" I reply before closing the car door.

"Ally!" Zoe shouts as I walk through the front door. She runs up to me and hugs me, but changes her mind a second later, pulling away and crossing her arms. Her smile changes into a sweet little pout. "You promised you'd come meet us"

"I know" I sigh, trying not to smile at her cute little face. " I'm sorry"

"Where did you go off to?" my mom asks as she walking into the room carrying a plate of food for Zoe.

"I went for a drive"

"With who?" she says, knowing full well that I had no license and definitely didn't use our car.

"Austin" I saw, walking towards the stairs, knowing I would get questions thrown at me about today.

"Wait… Austin? But I though that you…"

"It's a really long story, can I explain it to you later?" I ask, walking up the stairs so she didn't really have time to answer or ask any more questions.

When I reach my room I can feel its presence. I don't want to see it, I want to avoid it at all costs, but I know I can't forever. I walk over to my bedside table and I can feel all the naïve happiness from today slowly slipping away as I reach for my phone and scroll through the wreckage he's sent from the explosion he caused.

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