SWEET

While she was used to a petting zoo at the carnival, it never stopped her from showing up anyway. Izzy was on her way there, secretly stashing carrot sticks in her pocket to feed them without having to pay for feed. Besides, as far as she was concerned, that sort of thing wasn't good for them in excess, and the creatures would appreciate a crunchy treat over some pellets that probably tasted more like cardboard. She'd been on her way to feed some new furry friends when a familiar face made her adjust her trajectory. "Músico!" Izzy waved before thinking that it might've been considered strange, but not minding if that was the case. After their last meeting, she thought he'd be the kind of person to be alright with a random striking up of conversation. While typically Izzy avoided precisely that, he'd surprised her, and she had waved before she even realized what she was doing. "Want to come sneak some contraband into the petting zoo with me?" The girl asked once the distance between them closed, her voice low while telling him her master plan.

She appreciated his honesty. He didn't owe it to her, but Izzy preferred life to be simple like that. Things got complicated; everyone had an agenda, using tactics, and not many people were genuine so openly. It brought a smile of the same intent on her lips that went along with his words. "Chido," she replied before tuning into the music he put on for her. The beat took hold of her head quickly, a rhythmic nod bouncing her curls along with the song. So far, so good, she thought.

Sky wasn't a bad name; she actually kind of liked it. She'd remember it, but thought right now that her first guess fit him better. "Músico, it is then." Not that his name was up for discussion, still, Izzy didn't believe she'd use the one he provided her as much. She figured she'd return the favor and gave her own introduction, "I'm Izzy." Short, sweet, like her name. "This is pretty good. What else you got?" He'd piqued her musical interest, and to continue enjoying his first recommendation, she had already gotten started on another.

“Oh, we’ve got loads,” Sky said with almost a gleeful expression. “How much time you got? And what sort of stuff are you into, other than Johnny Cash?” The man in black was a good place to start, but he supposed he couldn’t keep recommending similar artists. He himself listened to a wide variety, seeking enough change that he’d never get bored. “You wanna hear some of my favourite stuff?”

Obviously she wasn't going to go into her existentialism with a customer. So she simply reminded herself that right now she was here and everything was fine.

When he said he wasn't sure if his insurance covered his prescription, her face somehow fell more than it already had. "Oh."

Could he really go without?

Living in the local motel took its toll on Frankie; she missed having her own private space and was on a mission to get a job so that she could move into the trailer park. The search was going fairly well, so far, two places had scheduled an interview with her later this week, but she needed to cover all her bases. So when looking in the window of Tunes, she saw a lot of items that she could easily sell to someone if given the chance. Smiling to herself, she opened the door with confidence, the bell ringing to signal her arrival as she took in all the tapes and CDs that lined the walls.

While walking to the register, Frankie began the process of pulling out her resume, not paying attention to who was working. It wasn't until she handed it over and was about to talk that she noticed who was standing right in front of her, Sky. "Oh, woah, hey..." Her cheeks instantly flushed when their eyes met, and she needed to take a step back to regain her balance.

It'd been months since the two of them shared the same space, and being in such close proximity to him made her slightly dizzy. Frankie would be lying if she said she hadn't missed him. The way he looked at her art as if it was so important had always made her feel seen. Sky was one of the few people she dated who actually saw the real her, but she couldn't handle it. Frankie hated it, but she was the one to end the relationship. Shortly after that, her parents attempted to force her to marry some stranger, so she ran away as fast as she could.

"It's nice to see you." Her brows wrinkled when she realized that was all she could articulate.

But here, in the moment, Sky realised with a jolt that wasn't the case. Every freckle on her face was familiar to him, every strand of hair on her head virtually unchanged from the last time she had been in front of him, from the day she had broken it off. Did she feel the same? Did she look at him and see the same messy blonde hair that had once laid on the pillow beside hers, the same blue eyes that had stared into hers? Or had she entirely lost any trace of feelings toward him when they broke up, and now saw him as a stranger, barely worth a second glance? He didn't think he wanted to know. Neither answer would leave Sky happy, he suspected.

"It's.... nice to see you too," his voice was hesitant, slow, unsure of himself. Nice. What a stupid word, like it could ever cover any of the emotions buzzing through his brain. A terrible lie, too, no real effort there to be convincing. "Did you move?" A glance down at the resume prompted the comment - why would she be handing one in if she didn't live in the area? Did she miss him? He presumed not. It was wishful, egotistical thinking to be suggesting he'd have that much of an impact on anyone.

This man didn't seem offended though, nor did he seem to be put off by Ocean's awkwardness. Maybe he could still salvage this. "Your name is Sky?" Ocean asked, surprised. "That's my mom's name too. Do you spell yours with the E at the end? She does." Sky didn't want to hear about Ocean's mother probably, but he still told the other man, "My whole family has nature names. My mom and dad are Skye and River, my older sisters are Sunshine, Coral, and Rain, and my older brother is Forest. And I'm Ocean, like I said." Ocean sighed, feeling like he was probably boring Sky, so he pressed on, asking, "Now were you thinking of another cactus? Or maybe something else?"

"Oh, is it?" That was kind of cool. He didn't meet a lot of Skys, not in his everyday life at any rate. "I love the nature names. Sounds like a pretty cool family," he noted, slightly envious. Much cooler than his, anyway. "Um, well, no. I don't have the E on the end. But technically Sky's short for Skyler, so...." He shrugged. "And it's my middle name, my first name's really James, so I guess I'm a fake. But that's my dad's name, so no one ever really called me that." And he wasn't so sure he'd like to be associated with that man right now, anyway. "My family's very boring. Compared to yours, anyway. My mom and dad are James and Caroline, and then my sisters are Lizzie, Erin... Imogen....." A slight pause before he said the final one, barely detectable, but enough that he was glad of the change of topic. "Whatever plant you recommend. I'll let you decide. You're the expert."

Andrei was ready to ask him another music question but Sky spoke up first explaining to him that they were closing soon. "I did not know, I'm sorry" Andrei said finding himself apologizing again. He hadn't kept a very good track of time while shopping and the time snuck up on him. "I am ready," he said as he took his basket up to the register so that Sky could ring him up. He started pulling out tapes from the basket and began making two piles of his selections making the split decision to narrow his choices down some. "Start with these," he began sliding a pile towards Sky. "I do not think I have enough money for all these," he went on realizing he picked out a lot more than what he'd budgeted for.

"I mean," he tapped a key on the till, and shrugged. "We have a fifty percent staff discount, and I can just say I'm the one getting them, so....." He left it open ended, hoping Andrei understood what he was implying. There were some good picks in the other man's pile. Sky himself would struggle to choose between them, and he didn't want to have to help and find himself torn between bands he idolised. "Um," he paused for a second as he was ringing the purchase up, teeth sinking into his lower lip, an unconscious nervous action he didn't even realise he was doing. "I know this might sound really weird but I'm about to clock off and I live basically round the corner, so did you maybe... wanna come around? Drink a couple beers and put one of those on?" He gestured vaguely to the cassettes. "I'm not a serial killer, I swear.... But like, totally fine if you don't wanna. It's kinda weird, I get it..."

Harper wasn't convinced, and it read on her face. She didn't hide how she felt, whether she wanted to or not, emotion naturally finding her features. Besides, when Sky made claims like that, after proving the very opposite time and time again. She'd let him live in ignorant bliss for now. There would be time to harp on him later as she fixed the blemish he'd caused in record time from his last. "Sky, I wouldn't be surprised if you hit something leaving the parking lot after I just fixed it." Harper didn't think there was any use in pretending when they both knew the truth. He couldn't deny fact as it sat in her garage waiting for a fender bender band-aid. "No curb is safe from you." And that was only the first of many objects she'd suggest stay away when he was on the road.

A treat piqued her interest, watching as each item was presented, and with each her tight-lipped smile grew. "Alright, you got me." As if she hadn't already clocked in for the night to work on his car, the surprise affirmed her evening plans. Before getting to work, she treated herself to a snack after not having eaten anything since her peanut butter and jelly at lunch. Two Oreos were pulled apart so she could eat the raw cookie first and combine the rest to create a double-decker cookie. "I'm a double-stuff girl," she explained, seeing him watch her process, as if it needed any clarification. "And put that shit on and crank it." One thing about working after hours was that she got control of the music, which meant the louder, the better. Harper believed her best work came when she was a few beers in, blowing out her eardrums.

"Double stuff as much as you want," he said with a shrug as he wandered over to stick the record on, positioning the needle and he sat cross legged on the floor as the first song began to play, watching Harper get to work. "Just do me a favour and eat the Reese's pieces, 'cause I can't actually eat those. I just know people like them, so I thought I'd pick them up," he said with a shrug, in typical whimsical Sky fashion. He tended to grocery shop purely based on vibes, and that included buying for other people.

"Thank you," Andrei said as he added the stack of cassettes to the basket the man had provided for him. He glanced down at the cassettes in the basket as he was complimented and he couldn't help but let out a little laugh. "I will not get them all. I just moved here and these are very hard to get where I am from," he explained. His accent was thick and he was sure the man could take a guess at where he came from even without saying it outright.

While Andrei wasn't usually one to ask for help especially when it came to music he was pretty out of his element there and kind of overwhelmed by choice so having some guidance might be nice. "I am looking for Depeche Mode the new album," he said. He couldn't think of the name even though he'd watched a music video for Policy of Truth earlier that day on MTV and didn't even realize the album was already a year old. Truthfully his brain was still adjusting to thinking in English all the time outside of conversations with his sister and he turned his brain off when it came to music.

"I am Andrei, it is nice to meet you, Sky," he said as he introduced himself back to the man.

"The new album?" He had to think for a second, racking his brain for what had come into stock. "I don't think we have any Depeche Mode from like, this year. But we've got Violator, I think that came out last year? Or Music for the Masses, but that was a couple years ago...." He leaned over Andrei, flicking through the D section for a second, blonde hair falling into his eyes, before he produced both cassettes, holding them up. "One of these? Or am I like, super behind?" He hoped not. He did try his best to keep up to date with what was coming out, so he could advise people accordingly.

"Yeah, nice to meet you too, Andrei," and Sky genuinely meant it. It was nice, meeting someone else who seemed to care so much about music. As he said it, he glanced at the clock, and made a face. "Um, fuck. So we're meant to close in like, five minutes. I'd say just stay, but my boss will kill me if I clock out real late again...."

Patience wasn’t something that Lucien had ever had a lot of, but he had had to adapt in a lot of ways ever since acquiring an injury that caused him to lose most of the mobility in his dominant hand. It was inspiring, but at the same time, it was also very, very trying. In all honesty, Lucien had very little patience dealing with external things and other people, which didn’t at all feel like a very bright side to the situation. With that being said, however, he had been relatively patient with Sky. He wasn’t a bad person, he tried to give people the benefit of the doubt, even when their inability to work through their self-inflicted hangover threatened to get on his very last nerve…

"Thanks," he said softly as he wandered over, taking the bottle of pills and shaking two out onto his hand before swallowing them dry, holding the bottle back to Lucien. "I... really appreciate it. And sorry. For not being much use."

Andrei had only been living in Cardinal Hill since April but he'd already felt like he'd seen everything this tiny town had to offer. Truthfully, Andrei found the lack of things to do more of an adjustment than the obvious cultural differences between his life back in the USSR and the one he lived currently. He never realized just how dependent on city life he was until it was absent in his life.

That was how Andrei found himself at Tunes about an hour before they closed. He'd just gotten done with his lessons at the rink and been paid so he had quite a bit of cash burning in his pocket. Having no real expenses living with his sister for the time being most of the money he made under the table working at the ice rink was spent on frivolous things and today that happened to be music.

Andrei spent the next 45 minutes checking out the various cassettes and amassed a decent pile of them in his hands not realizing just how soon the shop was set to close. Andrei noticed a man he could only assume was an employee and approached him with his questions. "Excuse me. Do you have a basket I can use?" Andrei asked having already dropped a couple of cassettes on the floor. He'd have to narrow down his selections but that'd be easier to do when the albums weren't leaping out of his grasp. "And also do you have the cassettes with no music, you know, to mix," Andrei went on having completely blanked on the term "blank cassette" to describe what he was after.

But the man currently picking up cassettes didn't exactly look like he was uninterested or just going for chart hits. Sky had been watching him for at least the last half hour, trying to be subtle about it, staring out from behind his blonde hair and occasionally picking up a CD cover to feign looking at something else. And when he requested assistance, he was maybe slightly too quick to hop out from behind the counter, proffering a basket. "Here. Let me get those for you, too..." Before even being asked he was bending down to pick up the cassettes that had fallen down, glancing briefly at the cases before he threw them into thr basket too.

"You've got some really good choices here," Sky said, evidently impressed, his blue eyes almost lighting up at the sight. "Were you looking for anything else? I kind of keep a secret stash behind the counter, stuff that just came in or is kinda rare.... Oh, blank cassettes," he nodded, understanding the sentiment even if the word itself wasn't necessarily grammatically correct. "Yeah, we've got those too. I'll go get you some. I'm Sky, by the way..."

She sighed, trying to hide the clear disappointment in his answer. It'd been one she'd wanted to get her hands on since it came out in March. "Do you think it'll be coming back in stock?" A hopeful question searching for a hopeful answer. While normally she wouldn't be all that interested in something new, music was one of the only exceptions to that internal rule. In fact, Izzy believed quite the opposite, which was that any music should be given a chance, not limiting herself to one genre or artist. "Alright, I'm listening," the brunette started while following him the few steps to the other section, watching him flip through. She wondered if the artist would be one she recognized or something entirely fresh. While Izzy recognized the name, she couldn't pinpoint a song, but his spiel was selling her. Normally, the girl wouldn't be so easily convinced, yet this time, he was hitting all her points of interest. "A free sample? I'm never gonna say no to that," she confirmed with a smile. "Whatever you recommend. Harvest sounded good, maybe I'll recognize one from the radio." Izzy didn't mind staying a little longer, especially in the name of music. "You got a name, Músico?"

The sound of acoustic guitar began to fill the store as the record started, and he sat back down behind the counter, legs swinging as he watched her, anxious for a sign of approval or disapproval as she heard the first song. "Sky," he said by way of introduction, although he laughed at the tail end of her statement, "but Músico is just fine if you wanna flatter me...."