Bad Tastes

[holiday_pirner]

When Holly entered Tracks, the record store was mostly empty, save for a few people milling over some new releases. A Cinderella track was playing over the sound system, and strains of glam metal accompanied the brunette as she wandered over to the cassettes.

As she rifled through the Q's, trying to find a Queen album a friend had recommended, a movement in her periphery caught her eye. A boy, maybe in his mid-teens, was grasping a few tapes in his hand and acting twitchy.

Holly tilted her head, watching him closely. He was too busy looking out for store employees to notice her, until she pointedly cleared her throat. "Are you sure those are the ones you really want? I mean, if you're going to opt for the five finger discount, make it worth your while."

The brunette approached him, ignoring his surprised glare. She grabbed one of the tapes and held it up. "This one isn't too bad, but...is that Quarterflash?" Holly shook her head disapprovingly. "I think someone should call your parents just to warn them of their son's budding horrible taste in music."

He pulled away from her, grabbing the cassettes back. "Do you work here?"

Comments

[brian_campo]

From his perch atop a ladder, where he sat idly scratching an insect bite on his elbow, Brian spotted the kid when he entered the store. The non-verbals screamed for an employee’s attention in all the wrong ways: hyper-vigilant of his surroundings, aimless meandering, shoulders a few inches too high. It also happened that the kid was blacklisted from shopping in Tracks thanks to a long history of petty theft. It was almost impossible to enforce with a rotating line-up of cashiers, but Brian remembered him. The brunette’s distraction gave him a unique opportunity. He hopped off the ladder and rounded the corner behind the kid.

“No, but I do.” Brian hooked his arm loosely around the boy’s head. He smiled and gave him a noogie. “This is my buddy Troy. We’ve met before. It was Night Ranger that time. What’s he got?”

[holiday_pirner]

Holly nodded to the illicit merchandise. "Quarterflash," she wrinkled her nose in kind, "and the far less offensive Van Halen." The brunette shrugged and smiled at the employee. "Not usually my genre, but 1984 is already a classic."

She watched the teenager go through a range of emotions: disgust, anger, fear, hope. All the stages of being caught in the act. She'd feel sorry for him if it weren't so amusing.

"Night Ranger, though." Holly gave Troy an appraising glance.

[brian_campo]

“Quarterflash? Jesus.” Brian frowned as he retrieved the tapes from the kid’s limp hand. He studied the cover art with a dubious look on his face. “Maybe he likes alto sax.” He checked out the other tape, too. “Van Halen II. This isn’t even a great album. I’m tempted to let him have it.” He shrugged and looked up. His arm was still draped across Troy’s shoulder.

He was grateful to the brunette. Nothing better than being humiliated in front of a girl to dissuade the kid from coming back.

[holiday_pirner]

"Are you going to call the police? Or do you have one of those security guards holed up in a room, breathing against some Plexiglas and just itching for his moment to shine?" Holly surveyed the store.

There was a hint of glee behind her expression. "I'd almost pay to see that." She eyed Troy. "Overly zealous, he tackles you and you land headfirst in the bargain bin."

The brunette tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, spotting the employee's name tag. "But Brian here doesn't look like a narc. Maybe if you promised to be a good boy -- and stop listening to shit music -- he'll let you go."

[brian_campo]

“I think that’s a tall order to fill for this guy.” He let go and went to a bin filled with discounted singles. He plucked out film-wrapped Dio tape and tossed it at Troy’s midsection. “At least have some self respect.” After a clap to the shoulder, Brian pointed at the cash register. He held the back of his own neck and watched the teenager make a beeline to pay. He remembered what it was like to be broke and crave new music. Luckily for his criminal record, it was harder to stash vinyl in pants pockets, thus deterring him from poor decision-making.

“You think he pissed himself?” he asked in nonchalance.

[holiday_pirner]

"Maybe a little."

She picked up a Styx vinyl from the bin, holding it up. "What do you think? New hairstyle idea?"

Holly put the record back. "I need some new music. I only brought like three tapes with me, and I'm sick of them. I almost threw one out the window while driving here."

The brunette reconsidered that. "Maybe I should give it to Troy. He could probably use some Depeche Mode."

[brian_campo]

He didn’t notice her alongside him until Holly spoke. “Oh, it’s um…” Brian held up the paper. It was upside down. He flipped it around. The advertisement had been drawn by hand in black ink and photocopied a hundred times. He knew that because he had done the copying for the kid in Billie’s office at the record shop, not that his boss realized it. “There’s this place called the Dive, lots of local bands. There’s something this weekend. You should go.” He shrugged and handed it to Holly. “Just don’t use the bathroom, if you can help it.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” Billie said from her stool. She was reading a dog-eared copy of The Unbearable Lightness of Being. The corners were mushy as if the paperback had been dropped in the bathtub. “Also I think the bouncer has rabies.”

“Ahh,” he sighed. Brian rubbed his forehead. “Nice contribution.”

[holiday_pirner]

"Don't use the loo, got it." She examined the flyer, her eyes lighting up. Holly had been somewhat of a fixture at the punk clubs in London, and it was nice to know there was a similar option in Vegas.

"She's blunt," the brunette remarked, in a voice low enough for only Brian to hear.

"Let me guess: she rides your ass, but at the end of the day, she's really the boss with a heart of gold? Only with a nice barbed wire exterior."

[brian_campo]

“Yeah, except for the heart of gold, you’re right on it.” Brian fiddled with his t-shirt sleeve.

He watched Billie pull on her stubby, pink ponytail as she tried to release tension from her temples. A year before, just after he took the job at Tracks, he had found himself at the same party as her. They were both messed up and he temporarily forgot that she was the definition of month-long PMS.

He mumbled to Holly, “One time I was stoned and I briefly entertained the notion of asking her out because she had this giant cherry on her t-shirt. I couldn’t stop staring at it. Luckily I passed out in a puddle of my own sick before that came to pass.”

[holiday_pirner]

Holly gave him a sympathetic look. "Now that is some obvious symbolism. That is some Clockwork Orange shit." She still couldn't get that big, phallic statue out of her head.

The brunette shifted her weight from foot to foot, fiddling with the tapes in her hands. "So, you get stoned?"

[brian_campo]

Brian chuckled. “That’s what you took from that?”

He looked at the other customers nearby and then inclined his head, indicating that they should walk away from the register. He stopped in front of a rack of band t-shirts that he could feasibly fold and manage to appear busy while they had a conversation.

“Yeah.”

He held up a finger.

“I’m not sure why I walked over here just to say that. Pretty innocuous.”

He grabbed a shirt that a customer had draped over the top of the stack. The Rolling Stones. He attempted to improve its condition and rapidly remembered why he wasn’t the employee who did this.

[holiday_pirner]

She took the shirt from him and expertly folded it. She handed it back with a satisfied smile. "I worked a shop, too. The clothing variety."

Holly casually leaned against one of the racks. "I've kind of taken a break from the harder stuff, but if you're into green, I always have a plentiful supply."

The brunette patted her olive green bag.

[brian_campo]

Brian had forgotten about the tapes. It looked like one way or the other, merchandise was getting stolen tonight. “Here, I’ll hold ‘em for you,” he said. He wasn’t sure her outfit had pockets. He stuffed them in his pants pocket and climbed the ladder ahead of her. The building was only four stories tall, so it didn’t take much effort to reach the top. He straddled the wall and slung his leg over it. One of his shoes kicked a beer can. He couldn’t remember if it was one of his, or if his assertion that nobody else used the roof was erroneous. In the middle of the roof, there were a couple of plastic crates and metal folding chairs, which seemed to be in the same spot as the last time.

“Got it?” he asked. He didn’t want to be a jerk and imply that Holly couldn’t climb a ladder, but he didn’t want to just walk off and leave her hanging off the side of a building, either.

[holiday_pirner]

She surfaced a few moments after him. "I'm good," she said, grinning. "I have surprisingly good upper arm strength."

Holly looked around the roof, setting her bag down on the roofing tar. "This is cool. Like a little hideaway." The brunette peered over the edge. "That man down there has a little bald spot. I think he's trying to hide it."

Holly turned back to Brian. "So, what are you going to show me? Can you fly?"

[brian_campo]

He snorted. “No, can you?” Brian reacted like it was an absurd question, but maybe it wasn’t and he was about to feel really stupid.

He didn’t go to the roof with the intention of showing Holly anything. He just wanted the freedom to talk about it without being furtive. But now he wondered how she knew about vampires. Was she like Valerie? Was the comment about her arm strength a hint?

He needed to slow down.

He sat on the wall.

“It’s not like that. I’m not a superhero. There’s just this thing I do.”

[holiday_pirner]

Holly grabbed one of the folding chairs and sat opposite him. "Okay," she said, calmly. She crossed her legs and pulled out a cigarette. There were traffic noises below, people's voices amplified by the acoustics of brick.

The brunette lit her cigarette, leaning back against the metal seat.

"What can you do, Brian?"

[brian_campo]

He hunched his shoulders and sat with his fingers loosely locked. He studied an unfinished tattoo on his forearm. The outline had been drawn but he stopped short of getting it shaded.

“I can move things with my brain. At least I think it’s my brain.”

‘What else would it be, idiot? It’s not the power of the holy spirit.’

He looked at Holly. There was something about her that made it easy to talk. She was chill. Even her voice was nonchalant and sort of raspy, like his throat felt after he smoked.

“Still think we’ve got so much in common?” he asked. He looked miserable.

[holiday_pirner]

"Maybe we do," she said, evenly. Taking a drag, she watched smoke descend above the roof, disappearing over the edge. "We both find places to go when everything gets too -- sharp, right?" Holly gestured to the space.

"And sometimes it's not a space, so much as a thing. A tool." The brunette flicked the red glowing tip of her cigarette.

"I'm guessing you mean without physically touching them. Because when you say with your brain, well, everyone moves things with their brain." Holly smiled at him.

[brian_campo]

“Are you serious?” He raised his brows.

Jesus. The world was tiny. He took a second to digest this new information. Had he always run in the same circles with supernatural beings and been clueless about it, or was it a side effect of having an ability awakened in himself? Or was there more to it, as he hinted to Valerie… a destiny of meeting the right people at the right time?

Brian scratched behind his ear.

“I’m seeing one,” he said, looking apologetic because it might come off insensitive to a girl whose father had been murdered by a vampire slayer. “She’s not scary. She’s— she’s beautiful.”

[holiday_pirner]

"Well," she said, as tactfully as she could, "I'm sure they're not all bad. I mean, it must be hard. One day you wake up, and these British people are telling you to risk your life for them. For the greater good."

Holly imagined being a teenager and having to deal with an imperious Julianna. "So what does this beautiful slayer think of your special talent?"

[brian_campo]

He gave her a small smile. “She thinks like you do. I should learn to control it.”

Brian got to his feet because his legs were going numb. He stuffed his hands in the pockets of his jeans and nudged the crate with his shoe. There was a red Bic lighter resting on it, a candle, and a dinner plate that had become an ashtray.

“She said I can use it to protect myself. And you know, I kept thinking, from what? But then I ran into two vampires in the last week, so.” He shook his bangs off his forehead. “The last one was weird. He kept talking about biting low-lifes, like it’s okay as long as the people are jerks. Maybe he was a cop in a former life.”

[holiday_pirner]

Holly shifted in the chair, her ears burning a little at the mention of vampires. Of course, the implication that there was indeed a slayer running around the Las Vegas area was not lost on her.

"Some vampires bite people but don't kill them," the brunette offered. "I sort of know one who does that. She doesn't think it's worth the risk to kill people. She finds, I guess, willing donors."

Changing the subject, Holly continued, "But she's right. You should get a handle on it. Like you said, the more you do it on purpose..."

[brian_campo]

Willing donors? Who would offer up their neck for a bloodsucking monster? There must be cash involved. Brian didn’t say it out loud, but the idea grossed him out. He didn’t even like it when he donated blood to the American Red Cross. But he could see that kind of thing going down in the places where he hung out. He made a mental note to keep his eyes peeled because he was curious.

“Yeah, maybe I will. There’s ah, there’s this magic shop down in Searchlight? I was thinking of stopping by. This girl Echo told me it was authentic.”

[brian_campo]

“Yeah? Does this help?” Brian reached up and twirled his hair into a curly cue on his forehead. He struck a majestic pose.

The door swung open. Billie stuck her head out, no doubt having heard the ladder rattling on the side of the building. “Hey, are you getting paid or what?”

“You know, that’s a subject of some debate,” said Brian. “I did the math and I think it costs more to drive and park here than I make in a day, so actually— ”

“Fuck you.” Billie went back inside.

Brian blew out his cheeks. “I think that’s my cue,” he said.

[holiday_pirner]

"Right." She saluted Billie's retreating form with the tapes.

"Well, Mr. Kent, ring me up and I'll let you get back to work." Holly led the way back into the store.