"Lucas? Hey, Lucas!" A.J. was nearly screaming in Lucas's ear as he attempted to wake up his friend and coworker who had apparently fallen asleep on his motorcycle outside the store.
Lucas sat up abruptly, nearly dislodging his driving goggles from his head, his hands immediately planted themselves on the handlebars a she attempted to steady himself and not topple into his friend A.J. A quick glance around informed Lucas that it was clearly morning, by the way the sun was kind of blinding him, and then he noticed the concerned looks of A.J. and Jughead to his right and Mark to his left. He saw Jughead's bike parked beside his, as Jughead leaned against it with his arms crossed giving Lucas a very inquisitively hard stare. The dark circles under his eyes made Lucas realize that his little discovery the night before that kept his friend up last night as well.
Blinking slowly, Lucas shrugged his shoulders in an attempt to ease the tension in his back from his awkward sleeping position, and his leather jacket seemed tighter than usual around his body. Lucas slowly realized that A.J. was trying to talk to him, as Mark continued to look concerned. "What the hell are you going here, man?" A.J. asked lightly, an amused tone to his question.
Lucas swallowed his discomfort, adopting his usual aloof attitude in an attempt to hide his colossal blunder. "Something happened to me last night," he began, looking between Mark, A.J., and Jughead. "In Atlantic City," he continued while starting up his bike again. At his words, both A.J. and Mark smiled thinking Lucas was being funny, but Jughead immediately rose from his bike, looking startled, but not entirely surprised.
"Whoa, you went to Atlantic City?" A.J. asked quickly. "Did you win anything?" Mark asked hopefully, appearing to expect an amusing story from the night manager.
"No," Lucas stated definitively, pointed a finger at Mark to get his point across. "I did not win," he continued, looking between Mark and A.J. again, and ignoring Jughead who had chosen to pace again in the small space between his own bike and where A.J. stood, not looking at Lucas.
"So, if you guys ever wonder if it was nice to know you, I tell you now, that it was," Lucas revealed somberly, with a nod to both A.J. and Mark. Upon hearing this, Jughead glared at Lucas before closing his eyes and pinching his nose with his thumb and forefinger and reaching up to readjust his beanie.
Lucas revved his engine loudly, preparing the drive away. "Shit, what happened?" A.J. asked, already expecting the worse but needing details. At Lucas's silence, he pressed further. "What happened?"
"I do not regret the things I've done, but those I did not do," Lucas yelled loudly over the engine noise, before driving away and turning sharply onto the man road and away from the store entrance.
"Lucas, how much?!" A.J. yelled after him waving his arms up over his head, still holding out hope for an answer. "Shit," A.J. said under his breath, which drew more concern from Mark.
"What do you mean by shit, man? What's up?" Mark asked looking worried, running a hand through his unruly red hair and letting his skateboard hit the ground with a loud thunk.
"Well, Lucas doesn't have any money and Joe let him close the store last night," A.J. revealed dramatically, as though it should be obvious. All three boys had begun walking towards the front doors of the store as Lucas drove away.
"So?" Mark asked dumbly, following behind A.J. still clearly confused. Jughead interjected, grabbing the edge of Mark's right shoulder and sending him a pointed look. "Dude," Jughead quipped lightly. Realization quickly dawned over Mark's features, a high pitched laugh escaping his lips before he covered his mouth to stop it. "Oh," Mark stated quietly. " I guess he didn't live up to the responsibilities of the position, haha," Mark continued to laugh, which also brought an amused smile to Jughead's face as A.J. just shook his head and moved his brown locks out of his face.
"Hey, shut up," A.J. suddenly said to Mark, as both Mark and Jughead looked back to see their manager, Joe, driving up in his cream-colored convertible. They all greeted the suit and tie wearing middle aged man with a warm welcome and big smiles, which did nothing to hide the sour mood the man was clearly in. "What's up with the nice threads, man?" Mark inquired happily, again failing to conceal his laughter.
Joe continued to exit his car and walk past the boys up to the front doors to unlock them, without so much as a passing glance. "Frigging Archie Andrews Day!" Joe replied frustratingly. He trudged up to unlock the door, and A.J. tried to suppress his cheesy smile at the thought of Archie Andrews Day, while Mark happily danced through the now open door singing the latest hit of the aging pop singer, who Mark was sometimes mistaken for. Jughead quickly walked through the door and made a beeline for the main record player, determined to start the day with some good tunes.
Joe huffed out his anger loudly and locked the door behind Jughead. The foursomes footsteps echoed loudly through the previously quiet store until the shrill ringing of the telephone by the register broke the rhythm. Mark basically jumped over to the register to answer the phone, and after his welcome greeting, he turned sharply to inform Joe that it was the bank. Joe rolled his eyes and began to walk back towards the register at the front of the store, allowing Mark to lace the phone in his outstretched hand. As soon as that exchange was done, the other white telephone by the register also rang, so Mark moved over to answer that one as well.
"Empire Records. Open 'til Midnight. This is Mark," he answered politely, with a wide grin, which faded into a look of horror as the female voice on the other end asked to speak to Joe. Mark's face was frozen, his eyes wide, and his jaw dropped open in shock, before swallowing thickly and turned towards Joe to deliver the news. "It's the boss," he announced shyly, his lips pressed together in a thin line, holding up the phone towards Joe, who immediately looked surprised and took the call. Mark practically ran away from the register towards the backroom to get away from the bad mojo as he heard Joe start yelling into the phone.
"Cheryl? Calm down! Would you stop yelling?" Joe asked in a stern voice into the receiver, used to the fiery bombshell's attitude but in no mood to deal with it this early in the day.
Mark pushed through the swinging blue doors that sectioned off the backroom from the rest of the store, to find A.J. and Jughead sitting at the back table, with their heads pushed close together, talking softly. Mark could clearly tell they were trying to figure out how to conceal their knowledge of Lucas's actions from Joe for as long as possible. Mark had stopped just inside the doors and watched them for a moment, before glancing slowly behind him to see their temperamental manager walking towards them at a brisk pace. Mark spun back around like a spring and made a loud coughing noise, which caught Jughead's attention. If Mark's wide eyes and fingers pointed behind him wasn't enough of a dead giveaway that Joe was heading their way, the way Mark dove onto the couch and tossed a comic book between his hands pretending to be completely engrossed in it was.
Jughead and A.J. moved apart, with A.J. busying himself with organizing the various objects on the table in front of him, while Jughead studied the cover of the closest record he could reach with intense interest. None of the boys looked up as they heard the back doors swing wide open and bang against Joe's office wall. Joe's footsteps were heavy even over the blue carpeted floor, as he moved into the small storeroom where the safe was kept. A.J. and Jughead both discreetly watched as Joe opened the safe and then cursed Lucas up, down and sideways before slamming it shut again.
The long-haired man stood up, turned slowly around while tossing his hair out of his face, and put his both hands on his hips, dislodging his black jacket from his waist. Joe came to stand tall in the storeroom doorway, looking at Mark, A.J. and Jughead each for a beat, clearly expecting some sort of information from the trio.
"What's the matter, Joe?" asked A.J. softly, and with a practiced tone of innocence in his voice. He was the only one who dared speak to and or even make eye contact with Joe right now, whose hard gaze could have cut marble. At A.J.'s words, Joe let out a deep breath, his frustration mounting by the second.
Corey Mason and Betty Cooper were never late. Even if that meant they had to run from Corey's front door to Gina's car with their arms filled with freshly baked goods and advanced placement textbooks without tripping or messing up their carefully selected outfits.
"Surprise!" Corey yelled happily to Gina, as she and Betty descended the stairs of the front walk towards Gina's red convertible. Behind her, Betty echoed the same sentiment, as they continued with their giggles as they entered the car.
Corey, in her fluffy blue sweater and green and yellow plaid skirt with black combat boots, and Betty with her high collared floral pattern shirt concealed under her signature pink cardigan and skin tight blue jeans with white ballet flats.
"What? What is it?" asked Gina quickly, her voice filled with worry that a new crisis had emerged that early in the morning.
"Happy Archie Andrews Day!" Corey nearly screamed as Gina suppressed an eye roll and her frown turned into a smirk and Corey settled in next to her. Betty was busy securing the boxes in the backseat. As the girls' drove off, Corey's hair was flapping in the wind along with Gina's, although Betty's high ponytail remained poised and together and kept the hair out of her face.
"Okay. Here you go," Betty suddenly spoke from the back seat and both girls turned their heads to see Betty's radiant smile, her eyes bright with cheerfulness and two cupcakes with white frosting in her hands, both baked and iced to perfection.
"When did you have the time to make these?" inquired Gina as she took a cupcake and took a quick bite to cover her jaw dropping. Betty just tilted her head and giggled to herself.
"Corey said that there are 24 usable hours in every day," Betty quipped, nodding her head at Corey astutely. Gina just shook her head and polished off the cupcake. "Vanilla," she quipped in a flat tone. "How predictable," she finished, smirking in the rearview mirror at Betty, who couldn't hide her blush as her face turned the same color as her cardigan.
She looked to Corey with a knowing smirk, and her best friend just bit her lip and looked down, her straight brown locks covering her face. "So…" Gina asked lowly to Corey, trailing off noticeably as she waited for the answer she had been expecting since the announcement was made.
"So," Corey started, taking a deep breath, and running her fingers over the album cover she carefully pulled from her backpack. "Today I will offer myself to Archie Andrews," she stated confidently, bringing the album up to her red lips for a kiss.
Gina quickly plucked the album from Corey's grasp and preceded to lick Archie's face. "No, you gotta do it like this," Gina said with a laugh as Corey grabbed back the album to get it away from Gina's tongue while Betty cackled in the backseat.
After the laughter died down, Corey turned to both girls with a more somber expression. "Do you think Archie is the right guy for my first time?" Corey asked shyly, a hint of uncertainty laced through her voice.
Gina shot her a sympathetic look and Betty just stared down at Archie's face, the most prominent feature on the album cover. "I think he's perfect for you Corey," Gina replied softly, touching her friends' arms gently in reassurance. Corey was lost in Archie's face again, moving her fingers over his lips slowly as if trying to memorize them. The girls rode the rest of the way in silence.
The store wasn't even open yet and Mark and Jughead were already embroiled in an intense music debate in the middle of the store, while A.J. leaned against the checkout kiosk, barely listening. A.J. was busy trying to build up his courage to make the most important announcement of his life. He wrung his hands together and glanced around the store quickly, spotting Joe walking back towards his office, and followed. Since A.J. started working at Empire, Joe had been a sort of father figure and giver of advice for him, and A.J. really needed some advice right now.
"Hey Joe, you know a lot about love, right?" A.J. asked quietly, his voice shakey as he followed Joe around the room as the manager looked for the missing money.
"Oh yeah. My wife left me for another woman and my girlfriend forced me to leave at gunpoint," Joe answered sarcastically. "Do this qualify me?" Joe asked seriously.
"Oh yes," A.J. answered, waving off any doubt. With a deep breath, A.J. straightened his posture and said the words he had been reciting in his head for years. "Look, Joe, today is the today that I'm going to tell Corey how I feel about her. Now, I know what you're thinking, but I really am," Corey continued, ignoring Joe's indifference to this news. "I gotta tell her, Joe. I gotta tell her That I, uh…that I, uh…" A.J. trailed off, his confidence dropping as he became unable to say the words on the tip of his tongue, even to Joe.
"That you love her," Joe finished for A.J., placing his hands on his hips with a sigh, realizing that the money appeared to be nowhere in the store.
"Yea, now how do I do that?" A.J. asked seriously, leaning in to show Joe how committed he was to his question.
Joe blinked and stared at A.J. for a few moments. "You say I love you," Joe replied simply, as though the answer was already clear. "What do you need, written instructions?" Joe quipped as he moved to check the worn patterned couch cushions one more time.
A.J., who seemed to be lost in thought or seriously considering Joe's offer of written instructions. With another burst of confidence, he came to stand behind Joe, his mind definitely made up. "I'm going to tell her this morning. By noon. By 1:37. Yes, by 1:37, exactly Joe," A.J. stated definitively, pointed a finger in Joe's face and nodded proudly at his manager who was now standing in his office doorway, looking at A.J. with that trademark blank stare. Oh, to be young again.
"Well good luck," Joe added softly, his tone split between the sincerity of his words and his disbelief at having this entire conversation during the money crisis. "Thank you," A.J. added quickly, pride radiating from his whole demeanor.
Gina parked her convertible behind the store in the employee parking lot, and all three girls exited the car, singing along to the final bars of Archie's most popular hit "I'll Try," all in unison. When the final bars were sung, all three girls had smiles on their faces, not immune to the charm and effective marketing and songwriting ability of Archie Andrews.
As Betty distributed the boxes between herself and Corey, and Corey gushed about the first time she remembered hearing the song, the back door of the store burst open and A.J. appeared before them, a bit frantic, startling all three girls into silence.
"Um, you guys cannot go in there right now," A.J. warned, holding his hands out in front of him to stop them as the door shut loudly behind him. Betty, Gina, and Corey all gave each other bewildered looks before following A.J. away from the door to hear the juicy gossip.
Meanwhile, back inside the store, Joe was in his office with the door shut and the blinds closed. He was waiting impatiently as the phone rang, angrily expecting his night manager, Lucas, to answer the phone and explain himself. Joe swiveled lightly in his chair as he tapped the back of his head with his two drumsticks, as the phone rang and rang, his mood worsening with each beep. "Pick up the phone…pick up the phone…COME ON BUCKETHEAD!" Joe yelled into the receiver in anger.
Outside the office, the foursome entered through the back door and each greeted cheerful hellos to Joe, even though his door was still shut. Corey quietly inquired as to whether Joe knew about what Lucas had done, and A.J. quickly shook his head. Betty dropped her boxes on the nearest table and all but ran towards the front of the store, eager to see Jughead, whose deep voice was traveling back into the back room, filled with rage at the idea of metal music being the ideal of any situation. "I better go save Mark," Betty whispered, "It's far too early for a music choice evisceration," Betty finished as she pushed through the doors and disappeared from sight.
A.J. helped Corey settle and organize the boxes, while Gina reached for a bag of M&Ms in the top drawer, which decided the music choices of the day. To her confusion, the bag was missing and a quick search around the room and a few dropped pieces of candy leading towards the front of the store told her someone had taken it. With a sigh, she beckoned her A.J. and Corey to follow her out front to solve the mystery. Once through the doors, Gina spotted Betty and Mark standing near the record player, Mark talking animatingly about some cool new band he found and Betty was listening intently with a polite smile on her lips.
"Hey, anybody seen the M&Ms?" Gina asked, looking around at the others with a bit of judgment, throwing her hands up. The brief moment of silence following her question was interrupted by a loud crunching noise coming from the large, winding staircase to their right. Gina, A.J., Corey, Betty and Mark all looked towards the stairs to see Jughead, frozen on the spot, sitting in the middle of the stairs, his beanie over his raven hair, one hand full of M&M's and the other clutching the hand closer to his body. Betty was the first to react, letting her mouth drop open a bit and tilting her head in slight judgment at her boyfriend's ferocious appetite.
Jughead continued chewing for a moment as the others' sent him some glowering looks and Gina moved in his direction swiftly. "Ok, hand the bag over now, Jones!" Gina yelled, not messing around. "It's music selection time!" Gina's words broke Jughead from his trance and he sprung to his feet, running up the stairs away from them, taking the bag with him.
Gina stopped and huffed out a breath as she turned around to look at the others. Sharing a few smirks at their friends' appetite, Gina was the first to concede. "Okay, maybe we'll just use Skittles instead," she smirked, moving over to the cash register where a pack of skittles was indeed waiting underneath one of the shelves. She moved to the others, opened the bag and promptly dropped a few pieces of candy into each waiting hand, not speaking a word as she went. In an homage to Jughead, who was concealed in the corner and still eating if the sound was any indicating, Gina jogged up the first few steps and placed the bag of candy in both hands. She stopped on one step and swiftly pulled a skittle from the bag, facing the others who had gathered in a group at the bottom of the stairway.
"Okay, I got a brown! Anybody got brown?" Gina yelled. A.J., Corey, Betty and Mark all checked and confirmed they did not.
Gina selected another piece and made a show of revealing it to be orange, twirling it between her fingers in the right hand. After a moment of silence, Mark quickly held up his left hand, where he held an orange skittle between his thumb and index finger. Betty, A.J. and Corey all groaned, as they watched Mark happily skip away to the record player to start the music from his latest musical obsession.
Luckily, Mark chose an upbeat song, so the gang quickly disbursed and got to work cleaning and preparing the store to open. Not being scheduled to work, Betty went up the stairs to retrieve Jughead and ensure him and his eating habits that he was safe from Gina's wrath.
Meanwhile, A.J. began cleaning the surfaces around the cash registers, while Mark swept the floor and headbanged wildly, and Gina dusted the CD shelves. Corey was in the back, preparing coffee for everyone since she was also not scheduled to work until later that afternoon.
Minutes later, A.J. walked over to the record player and abruptly shut off the song. The sudden silence prompted Mark to run back to the record player, bewildered at the lack of noise. "What are you doing man?" Mark asked as he watched A.J. take the CD out of the player.
"I'm exercising my veto, man," A.J. revealed, hiding the CD from Mark's view as he selected another song. "Are you sure you want to do that? I mean, it's only 9 a.m." Mark nearly stuttered, shocked that A.J. would use his veto so early.
"Mark, listening to this stuff is guaranteed to make you sterile," A.J. stated emphatically, reaching for the concealed lighter in his jacket pocket. Mark scoffed and then sulked away in defeat. "Maybe I want to be sterile…" Mark muttered under his breath, reaching to pick up the broom again. A.J. looked over his shoulder at Mark before burning the bottom of the CD so it couldn't be played again.
In the back room, Joe finally emerged from his office and walked over to the storeroom. He looked up as he headed back to his office and was surprised to find Corey there in the back room, sitting at the table, her nose in a textbook. Joe leaned one arm against the wall and watched her for a moment.
'Corey, what are you doing here?" Joe asked lightly. Corey jumped a bit, startled by the noise, and turned to face Joe was a somber smile. "Calculus," Corey said with an eye roll. "I hate it, but my dad says I've got to get an A," Corey finished, turning back to the book.
"No I mean what are you doing here? You're not on until this afternoon," Joe asked simply, but smiling at her truthful answer.
"Joe, it's Archie Andrews Day," Corey replied with a sickeningly sweet smile. Joe took a deep breath and pushed off the wall, heading back out to his office. "Archie Andrews Day," Joe muttered through gritted teeth, as he slammed his office door open, his footsteps heavy on the tile floor.
Archie Andrews was one of the most popular pop singers of the 1990s. His boyish good looks, flaming red hair, and signature letterman jacket made women and girls of all ages swoon over him. For the most part, his music was super poppy with some suggestive dance moves, but he did break some hearts (and make some girls faint) with his latest single "I'll Try," a softer, acoustic guitar ballad that he was using to bring back his image. Archie went from being a nobody from a small-town football team to a teen pop singing sensation inside of one year and never looked back. But now, twenty years later, his fan base all had teenagers of their own and the money wasn't rolling in like it should.
Luckily for Empire Records, Archie's management had booked the singer for a big signing at the independent record store, which Joe agreed to hoping it would bring in a large crowd. Archie's fanbase may be aging, but they were loyal, and the turnout was always massive. Joe just had to survive a day of middle-aged housewives fawning ad screaming over a grown man wearing a teenage football jacket and singing love ballads in a fake New Zealand accent.
Archie Andrews was from a small town in New York, but after his previous album sales failed to reach expected levels, the singer took a break from music to "find himself." He resurfaced a year later still wearing that god awful yellow and blue letterman jacket, but now it was accompanied by a New Zealand accent, due to Archie having found "enlightenment there" and his "truth," at least according to the press releases for the new music. Sales for the album were still a bit low, but Archie's fans died over the singers' new accent, the same way they fawned over his teenage dance moves. Joe sighed and tried to focus on the set up for the event, which would hopefully be an uneventful signing for local fans who would also be encouraged to buy music while waiting to meet him. It was going to be a long day.
In the main room, someone had decided to play Archie's latest hit, maybe in an attempt to get everyone in the mood for the event. All the same, Corey came out and joined Gina and Betty in showing off some ridiculous and well-practiced dance moves to the uncomplicated lyrics. Jughead watched from his perch on top of the cash register desk, his hands covering his ears to prevent any bleeding at the horrible songs, a cringing look appeared permanently etched on his face. Mark continued to sweep but began to sing the lyrics uncontrollably loud in the back room, which earned him a strict hush from Joe.
Mark stopped sweeping and was about to reply with a clever retort when a familiar looking man in a black leather jacket walked into the back room from the front of the store.
Mark greeted the man the same as he would any other day, despite the circumstances. With a big smile and a polite tone. Only today those were accompanied by a rigid posture and a hint of fear and surprise in his tone.
"Hey Lucas."