So, I'm back at this fic. I have to admit, working on things at the Downtown Orlando library has it's downsides (I.E. lack of wi-fi) All in all, as I am writing this, I am at the library. This will be posted at home. And with that, enjoy…

Chapter 6: Record Store Night

Desmond

"Hey Neo, I'm home" Desmond announced after he shut the door behind him, arriving home. Hard to believe that it had already been 3 weeks since he moved in with Tom, or "Neo" as he preferred to be called when it was just them. Neo was the man's hacker alias.

"So are we ordering Chinese Take-Out or Pizza?" Tom asked as he turned around in his swivel chair at the computer.

Desmond paused for a moment, wondering which he'd prefer. They had Pizza on Monday this week, and he didn't want to eat too much. However, Tom loved Chinese food, to the point where they always ordered not only enough for the night, but also enough to last until Saturday's lunchtime.

"I think we'll order Chinese" Desmond replied "I've been having a craving for dumplings all day"

"Szechwan Village or Green Dragon?" Tom asked.

"That's a tough one" Desmond admitted "Why don't you decide"

"Green Dragon it is then" Tom replied, motioning to the take-out menu that he'd removed from the door during the afternoon.

"So let's see here" Desmond replied, looking over the menu. The menu was listed

Appetizers

Steamed or Fried Dumplings: $3.10/5 $6.05/10

Eggrollls: $4.25/4

Wonton Soup: $3.35/pt $5.75/qt

"So we can get 10 Dumplings for 6 bucks" Desmond replied "Which is a better deal than 5 for 3 bucks"

"I'm game for that" Neo replied.

"Moo Shoo Pork," Desmond noted "I can get a quart of that"

"I think the shrimp fried rice sounds good to me" Neo replied.

"If I get a large order of Chow Mein will you have some?" Desmond asked, noting the new rate on the soupy dish. The last time they'd gotten an order of Chow Mein for both of them, Neo never touched his, and Desmond had to finish all of it. He was beginning to wonder if Tom's statement that he liked Chow Mein was true.

"I'll have some this time" Tom replied.

"So we'll go halves on that…" Desmond replied, looking down. He spotted something new; Sweet And Sour Combo. Half order of rice, with pork and chicken along with it to have with the sauce.

"I'll have the Sweet And Sour Combo" Desmond replied.

"I think Beef Lo Mein sounds good this time" Neo admitted "I think I'll get a large order of that."

"I think I'll get a medium order of that as well" Desmond replied.

Crunching the prices of his purchases into a calculator that was right next to the menu, it already came out to $16.02 when he factored in Sales Tax.

Neo's came to about 17.10 when he decided he also wanted Chicken Fried Rice. Half of what he ordered was rice, since the Moo Shoo Pork that he selected came with a side of steamed rice. Desmond only got a tiny bit of rice with his order. It really showed who had what for their tastes.

For the shared orders of the Dumplings and the Chow Mein, they would each only have to put in about 6 dollars (Chow Mein was cheap, only 3.02 for a large order) and it was Desmond's turn to order.

He dialed the number for the restaurant, and after they finally picked up, he listed off the items that they would order.

"Alright, that is fourty-five dollar twenty-one cents" The man on the other end replied "Plus tip"

"Alright" Desmond replied "We're at 204 Remington Drive, Apartment 6A"

"Your order will be there in twenty minute" the man replied "Thank you for your business"

With that, the man hung up rather abruptly.

"How long will we be waiting now?" Tom asked.

"Twenty minutes" Desmond replied, taking out his wallet and withdrawing $25 in cash "Your turn to answer the door this time. Here's my half of the bill"

He set the cash on the table and went into his room. "I'm gonna get some practice time in if you don't mind"

"I actually saw something on TV today that I recorded" Neo interjected "I thought you might like it."

"What is it?" Desmond asked, comically poking his head out of his room's door.

"It's an interview with Pink Floyd on the show Good Morning America. They also did a small concert on the show as well" Neo explained "I taped the whole thing. I saw them announce it and I put a tape in and recorded it for you"

"Thanks" Desmond replied, smile on his face, eyes lit up bright. He had a soft spot for Pink Floyd as a group.

Neo simply hit rewind for a few moments, and then pressed play. On came Good Morning America, about halfway through the show. At the first moment of the tape being played, we saw the abrupt end of a commercial on Women's Razors.

"So here we have the three remaining members of the band Pink Floyd here…" the hostess announced.

The interview appeared to be a promotion of The Division Bell album that just came out. Most of the interview was David Gilmour and Rick Wright talking about their songwriting techniques, and Nick Mason only spoke to say "Right" and such.

However, from what Desmond saw, it seemed that the three members of the band were a little cold and still compared to what he'd heard of them. It was like they were just existing. Their opinions sounded completely rehearsed and forced. Hardly any bit of natural flow to how they talked. Almost mechanical it was.

And when it came to the short concert, it was only Keep Talking that they played. Even then, compared to the album, it was rather lackluster since they couldn't get backup singers that were supposed to be there.

Right as the taped segment ended, the doorbell rang. Desmond turned off the VCR and started flipping through the channels.

"I left my end on the counter" Desmond explained, as Neo walked back to pick up the cash he'd left out.

He then opened up the door.

Desmond found the usual thing that they watched on Thursday. It was Three's Company. It was one of the shows that somehow, they could both agree on, considering how they had cable and everything.

"Thank you" Neo said to the deliveryboy as he closed the door.

"Now time to sort out dinner" Desmond replied, going through the bag of food, and setting everything in three areas on the coffeetable. On the left was Neo's dinner, on the right was Desmond's, and in the center went the dumplings. Thankfully Green Dragon labeled all of the food containers with what was being served.

Desmond took apart the disposable chopsticks, and began to tuck into his Beef Lo Mein.

"So how are we going to divide the dumplings?" Tom asked.

"We each get five" Desmond replied, mouth full of food. "Just like every time there's an even number."

Tom immediately took a spork and began to tuck into the Chow Mein. Almost immediately, Desmond noted how much he was really going through the Chow Mein.

Desmond had finished his Beef Lo Mein when Tom had begun to eat his share of the Chow Mein. It was like the man was making up for lost time with the dish.

"I'll let you have my half of the Dumplings if you let me have the rest of the Chow Mein." Tom reasoned, pausing from the food.

"Alright" Desmond replied, taking the dumpling sauce container, removing the lid, and then removing the lid to the dumpling container. All ten were there, and all his.

He immediately took the chopsticks and began to go through them. The dumplings were the most tender and salty food he'd had in a while, and he was in Seventh Heaven at this point, having satisfied a craving in only ten dumplings.

And at the end of that, he was still hungry. He then went through to the Sweet And Sour Combo, and began to start on that. He did that by taking the empty container for the Beef Lo Mein, which was enough to hold the contents of the two containers with the Pork/Chicken and the rice together, and dumped the latter 2 contents into the Beef Lo Mein container. This left a small bit of room up at the top of the container, barely a half inch. He then took the Sweet & Sour sauce and dumped it in with the rice, chicken, and pork, and closed the lid on that.

He then proceeded to shake them both up to mix it all thoroughly. After about 3 minutes of shaking, it was all mixed together.

Desmond then took the chopsticks and began to dig in on his mixed up dish.

Tom was currently about halfway through the Chicken-Fried Rice, and was showing no signs of stopping.

Both were ignoring the blatant Girl-On-Girl action going on in the show that Desmond had put on. Not that it mattered to the two men, who seemed to be on their way to finishing their order of Chinese for the first time.

20 Minutes Later

Full and Satisfied were the two men. They had what was the best dinner yet since their begun cohabitation.

"So what now?" Desmond asked, noting how it was only 7:00 at night. He still had quite a bit he wanted to do. He felt like going out for the night with Neo, but the guy preferred to stay at home all of the time.

"So what's it like at the Record Store?" Neo asked, shutting off the TV.

"Well," Desmond replied "Why don't I show you."

"Are you suggesting that we go to where you work?" Tom inquired.

"Well, yeah" Desmond answered "We need to get out of the house every now and then anyways."

"Sure beats your suggestion to go to a bar and pick up women on Ladies Night like last week" Tom replied, sitting up, grabbing his coat and walking out the door.

Desmond was stupefied, unable to comprehend that he had just gotten Neo outside of the apartment.

"Oh, we're really doing this" he stated, getting up, grabbing his things from the bowl, and walking out the door.

Rushing down the stairs, he found Tom in the lobby to the building.

"So if you'll follow me" Desmond replied, taking him down Remington Drive, crossing Jefferson Street, going across the Adams Street Bridge, and crossing Jersey Boulevard, he finally came across Diamond Street Records.

The store was still it's ordinary self, and it seemed that the evening shift people were inside.

"Come on, I'll show you around" Desmond replied, leading Neo through the door.

"So where are do you keep the Rush albums?" Tom asked.

"You're a Rush fan?" Desmond replied "That's interesting. They're stored in the Rock section. Now do you want them on CD, cassette, or Vinyl?"

"Cassette" Tom replied.

"Third aisle to the left" Desmond explained, walking the man over to the cassettes.

"Thank you" Tom sighed, going through and looking through the tapes.

Desmond went to the section labeled Dire Straits in the Rock CDs area.

He went through about 20 copies of the Sultans Of Swing EP CDs, before coming across Brothers In Arms on the CD copy, the entire album.

He'd sold about ten copies of that album on CD right after it had just arrived today. He was amazed that there was even a copy left at this point. He looked around, and took the CD off the rack. He was amazed at how there was one left.

Neo walked up to him with about 3 different Rush albums, their first 3 to be precise. He was amazed at how Tom was a Rush fan.

"So do you know where The Vines are kept?" Tom asked.

"Right at the end of the aisle where you were" Desmond replied.

"Thanks" Tom replied.

Desmond then took a look at the Styx section. There, in the divider, right behind the label, was Styx Greatest Hits. He remembered how it had sold out three times when it came out in '95. There was a line that circled around the block in front of the store when it was released. Desmond had been unable to get a copy for himself then, and since, the store hadn't ordered another shipment, since A&M raised the price of the same CD later on.

"Since when has Styx Greatest Hits been in?" he asked Joan, who was walking past.

"We just got some in yesterday" she replied, before blowing a bubble with her gum.

"Alright, thanks" Desmond quipped.

At this point, he had wanted to hear Lady '95 for at least 4 years. He could finally get some satisfaction with that.

"I'm ready to check everything out" Tom replied, tapping on Desmond's shoulder, and startling him.

"Alright" he gasped, picking up his CDs and walking up to the counter.

Joan was just flipping over her Boz Scaggs tape when they got to the counter.

"Who's your friend Des?" Joan asked, in between smacking on gum.

"This is Tom" Desmond replied, motioning to his roommate "Tom, this is my second cousin Joan"

"Nice to meet you" Tom replied, offering his hand.
Joan shook, and relieved him of his tapes, ringing them up.

"That'll be $11.50" she replied.

Tom fished out his wallet and gave her a twenty, that being the smallest bill he had.

"You rob a bank or something?" Joan asked, noting the contents of his wallet were large denomination bills.

"Just got paid" he replied.

"He works for Adobe" Desmond explained "Big computer company."

"Makes sense" Joan reasoned, giving him change in $1 bills and quarters "Here's some money for vending machines" she joked.

"Thank you" Tom replied.
Desmond gave Joan the CDs and she rang them up. It came to $14 exactly. "So what's the deal with your friend?" Joan asked "is he seeing anyone?"

"Not that I know of" Desmond replied "You want to ask him out or something?"

"Well" she replied, taking Tom's receipt that he forgot, and scrawling something on the back "he's welcome to call me if he wants, since he forgot his receipt anyways."

"Alright" Desmond replied, "I'll make sure he gets your number."

"Thanks" she replied "I'll talk to Jim and see that you get a bonus if he calls me"

"I'll make sure he does" Desmond replied, taking his bagged CDs and walking out the door, following Tom.

"That was fun" Tom admitted, noting that they killed a full hour there "I'm glad we did that. When do you think we can do that again?"

"I'm thinking that we use every Thursday night for Record Store Night." Desmond reasoned "that way we can have a bit of order to it, and you get out of the house some." He paused "you also forgot your receipt."

"Thanks" Tom replied, taking the slip of paper from Desmond. He then looked on the back. "What's this?" he flipped over to reveal the ten digit number in pink ink.

"That's my cousin Joan's phone number" Desmond explained "She asked me if you were seeing anyone, and when I told her you weren't, she wrote her number down for you to call her."

"That's weird" Tom noted, pressing for the signal to cross.
"She said I'd get a bonus if you did" Desmond noted "She's lonely and bored; you'd be doing her a favor"

"Alright" Tom replied "I'll call her this weekend."