Reoccurrence

[holiday_pirner]

Holly pushed open the door of the record shop, and the music filling the space was like a warm welcome. She glanced briefly at a display of new releases before casting her eyes around Tracks. A few shoppers lingered here and there.

Her hands, clad in fingerless gloves, toyed with the strap of her bag as she walked toward the register. She was mostly wandering, finding distractions to fill her days which stretched long and empty most of the time.

She approached a black-clad figure, his back to Holly. "So, how long has it been? I remember champagne, a roof, and not much else." Her mouth twitched a little as she picked up a neon orange flyer.

"I think I spotted you at the Dive, but I wasn't about to fight that crowd."

Comments

[brian_campo]

Work was both a blessing and a curse. It offered him a distraction and a way out of his apartment, but the hours felt longer. He kept checking his watch, expecting his shift to be over, only to realize twenty minutes had gone by. Time was weird. Halfway through his shift, control of the tape deck was wrested away after he subjected everyone to The Bitterest Pill by the Jam. Depression wasn’t good for sales.

So now it was Depeche Mode. Happy people bought things, or so his boss insisted, which was confusing because every time Brian spent too much it was because he felt like shit, but he wasn’t going to argue the point. So People Are People pumped from the speakers and his boss pretended to spin records behind the cash register. Slow night.

He looked up from organizing a row of cassettes. From way his face brightened, Holly was a welcome intrusion. “Hey.” He shoved Madonna’s lace corset into the rack. “So what, I’m not worth getting elbowed in the face? I’d take an elbow for you.”

[holiday_pirner]

"You would? I feel like I could use this to my advantage, somehow." Holly set the flyer down. "A human shield in an angry mob, maybe."

The brunette studied Brian as he hovered over the cassettes. "You look different. It's not the hair. Unless it is?" She leaned against the counter, the toe of her boot scuffing over the floor.

[brian_campo]

“It’s longer.” He shrugged. There wasn’t anything different he could pinpoint, unless she had picked up on his bummed state of mind; if so, that was pathetic and he needed to get a grip. Brian picked up Manowar, which had gotten stuck behind Motley Crue. Holding the tape aloft with two fingers, he said, “Did you know these guys are in the Guinness Book for loudest musical performance? 129 decibels.”

It was useless trivia, but a piece he thought Holly might appreciate.

“Not that I’m advocating writing songs about Norse gods. It’s just unexpected.” He replaced it and rubbed his hands on his pant legs.

[holiday_pirner]

"And another piece of empirical evidence that louder isn't always better," Holly replied wryly. She rolled the sleeves of her hooded sweatshirt up. It felt nice not to have to wear a coat, gloves, or scarf in the wintertime.

"Oh, don't lie, Brian. I know you spend your free time penning odes to Valhalla." The brunette couldn't suppress a smirk. "I can picture it now. You, sitting at a black grand piano. There's a window open, curtains flowing in the breeze. For some reason, your shirt is halfway open."

[brian_campo]

"What, you mean like this?" He stretched the neckhole of his t-shirt down and revealed a whole lot of pale chest. "If you play your cards right, you might see some nipple." He looked from his chest to Holly and laughed. It actually hurt his face.

"By the way, you missed the part where I ride a unicorn bareback."

[holiday_pirner]

Holly laughed sharply, causing two browsing shoppers to look in their direction. "I'll consider that a late Christmas present." She tilted her head in faux contemplation. "Riding a unicorn bareback. Sounds like some sort of euphemism."

The brunette glanced at the black watch around her wrist. "I'm thinking smoke break. You're working way too hard." From across the counter, she heard Brian's boss snort.

[brian_campo]

“Yeah,” he drummed his knuckles on the bin and looked at the total lack of tasks to accomplish, “I agree.”

“You don’t smoke anymore,” Billie reminded him.

“I started back up this morning.” He took his sweatshirt from under the counter and pulled it over his arms and head. “Ready.” Under the cynical glare of his boss, Brian trailed after Holly onto the front sidewalk, which was good because he didn’t feel like climbing onto the roof lately.

“So what’s up with you?” Brian’s hands weighed down the oversized pocket of his sweatshirt. He started walking on the outside of the sidewalk. The neighborhood smelled of Italian food and he could hear live jazz from a nearby bar. The street poles were still wrapped in garland and red bows.

[holiday_pirner]

Her hands curled in her pockets as she followed Brian out of Tracks. She looked both ways up and down the sidewalk. "This is much better. Less...the-walls-are-closing-in-on-you." Holly tucked an errant strand of hair behind her ear.

"With me? Oh, the usual." The brunette paused, then admitted, "Actually, nothing. I've been hermitting. I would say it's winter hibernation, but even I can't buy that."

She decided to deflect. "What about you? Tell me everything."

[brian_campo]

“You sure? It’s depressing.” Brian discovered a candy wrapper in his pocket. He rolled it into a ball because it gave him something to fidget with while they walked. “We might as well talk about foreign policy or the infant mortality rate in third-world countries.” His smile was wry. “Ah… first I got in a fight with Valerie because she thinks I talk too much about all the messed up shit we know about. Then I got in a fight with a vampire. Then I made up with Valerie, only to get in another fight over whether or not we’re exclusive. Then we broke up.”

[holiday_pirner]

"Well, shit," Holly replied after a brief moment of silence. She wasn't sure what else to say to that. "But you're just learning about this stuff, right? Of course you're going to talk about it." Her brow furrowed as she watched the sidewalk. Then her head snapped up.

"Wait, fight with a vampire." The brunette tried to catch a peak at his neck. "How did that turn out?"

[brian_campo]

Brian saw her looking, so he stretched his neck for Holly to see that there weren’t any marks. “Not fatal. I think I had the element of surprise.”

They walked past a confectionary store and the scent of chocolate wafted to their noses. A week after Christmas and already the display was full of Valentine’s themed candy available for pre-order, which was a jolt to his sense of time and a sigil of depressing times to come. It had never bothered him before, but he had a new reason for the holiday to make him hate life, because he had already bought Valerie a locket.

“I blew out some windows. Turns out glass is a decent deterrent.” It was an oversimplified version of events, but he figured Holly would get the picture: they had come to a détente. “She only came after me to get at Valerie.”

[holiday_pirner]

Holly shot him a clearly impressed look. "Good for you. That is a handy skill. And I'd still be your friend even if you did grow fangs. Just so you know." She looked up at the sky, tilting her head in thought.

"Could you imagine, though? A telekinetic vampire."

[brian_campo]

The term ‘grow fangs’ had him thinking. When exactly did the fangs show up, in the grave? Was there a definitive answer on that? No way the government wasn’t clued in on something he knew about. “I dunno. Maybe I’d stop being able to do that when I crossed over.” He was relieved to have another direction for the conversation, so he went with it. “Kind of makes you wonder what other cross-breeds are out there. Were-pire? Mum-bie?”

Brian hit the button so they could cross the intersection and waited for the light could change. He wiped a hand over his mouth in a subconscious attempt to stop himself from whatever he was about to say.

“Ah god. I am going to hate myself for this later, but I need a second opinion. Valerie asked if we could see other people and I didn’t handle it well. I was wondering if I’m out of touch. I haven’t had a girlfriend in five years, so.” Brian felt his neck turning red.

It was embarrassing. Even though he knew Valerie wanted to experiment with a girl, he couldn’t say that to Holly. It was too personal. He had to let her believe it was another guy she wanted, which was like saying he couldn’t get the job done by himself.