What We Used To Know

When Addie and Oliver had first started talking, she asked him when the tour was due to be over, just out of general curiosity. At the time when they had first gotten to know each other, late January, he’d said a month was left. Which meant it was going to be late February when the tour ended. By now, after now being friends for those four weeks, the end of February was upon then, and only Oliver knew what was going to be happening next.

Addie had no idea what would happen once the tour ended. Would they continue to talk? Even when he was across an entire ocean? Surely it would be much, much harder for them to continue talking and keep up their friendship when there were even more time zones to conquer by then. Addie wasn’t even sure that Oli would want to keep talking to her, once he was out of the country. Was she just there to pass the time while he road around on the tour bus? She didn’t want to think of herself that way, but Addie wouldn’t have blamed Oliver for using her like that. She was sure that riding across the country with your best friends crammed into the tour bus couldn’t always be the most fun, and talking to anybody would have better than nothing. So, maybe she was just being used.

But Addie had to remind herself that she wasn’t supposed to care where this went. All of this “stuff” between her and Oli wasn’t supposed to be anything more than what it was. All they did was talk, and that’s all that was going to happen. Addie wasn’t going to get obsessive over him, act like some fan girl, and then get offended when he stopped calling one day. She knew that it would have to end sometime, she just wasn’t sure when. It was nerve-wracking for her to think that one day soon when the tour officially ended, she wouldn’t be talking to or texting Oli anymore.

Addie tried not to think about it though. She just let it continue while it could, absorbing every text and phone call with joy, trying to ignore what could have been labeled a crush that was now building inside of her each time she talked to him again.

And Oli was scared that he didn’t know where this was going, either. He knew what his next plan of action was, but he didn’t know how well it would hold up. Would it blow up in his face like every other thing he had ever tried to do in his life? He hated to face it, but Oliver Sykes wasn’t the best at planning things and then having them run smoothly. His life was just a little too jumbled for that sort of thing to happen for him. Events were always just a little off, just a tad too off course to be called perfect, but they had happened just right enough so that things were manageable.

All he could do was remind himself of the night he met Addie. Things didn’t go according to plan whatsoever that night, and something great had happened. He just hoped now that his next plan would go right enough so that he would come out on top, looking like the good guy he somehow felt he needed to be when he talked to Addie. Something about her radiated that bad things had happened to her, Oliver could just tell. It was that sense he had about other people that let him know when they were hurting, and it was all over the place with Addie. He just felt like he needed to be there for her, and he could hear it in her voice, the joy, when they talked over the phone. It was almost like he could see her smiling when he tried to play the good friend role, listening to her like he had known her for ages.

Things just felt right with the pair, and perhaps that was what frightened them most. They were both able to equally feel that they were somehow already dependent on the other, needing them there at the end of the day to listen to their problems and just be able to laugh with someone they didn’t even know. They knew each other, perhaps better than two people who have physically been acquainted for years, but it was that separation between them that kept things just cool enough from transforming into something that scared them both.

***

Just another day at Johnson’s Records for Addie, organizing CD after CD, making sure it was on the right shelf, with the rest of its mates. Really, what else was there to do? All she did all day was file away disc after disc, occasionally helping someone find a certain artist or band. Then, when she was helping them, she tended to get a little carried away, telling them that if they enjoyed such and such, they really should check out this other band, because they’d probably love them, too!

It was those countless suggestions that Addie went off on when she helped a customer that usually scared them away. Perhaps it was because she was slightly deprived of social contact when only sticking to filing away all of the new CD shipments. Although there were usually a few people who took her suggestions into consideration, and they’d end up having an actual conversation about music, before Mr. Johnson, the man who owned the record store came out onto the floor and reminded Addie briefly that she had more important work to do, rather than talk about music with a customer. Of course, Addie rarely saw anything wrong with talking about music with a customer, in a music store, but Mr. Johnson was nice enough to keep her around now for almost three years, and she didn’t want to risk her job now. This store was her life, since she didn’t end up going to college, and she still wasn’t sure what she wanted to do.

For now, all Addie Kaston was, was just the twenty-two year old who worked at the record store, and held no degree. She was entirely useless in any sort of real life world, and that’s perhaps why she was in love with the record store. It was her escape, because no one in the record store was really a grown up. The musicians whose CDs she stocked weren’t grown up - rock stars possibly had the best lives ever; they didn’t even have to work, really. And all of the customers who usually came in seemed more chill than the average working person. So why else would she not love the place where it seemed everyone could be at peace with being safe from the outside world?

More CD cases to file right now. Addie had been handed a big box of new arrivals for the week, most of them being Arcade Fire CDs, for some reason. She liked to look at all of the different covers of each case, enjoying how different each album was from the others. They were all unique, just like people, in a way. Only they were classified together by certain rules.

She was interrupted from her silly thoughts - comparing CDs to humans - when she heard someone speaking behind her. Addie didn’t take her eyes off of the disc cases she was ever so carefully filing on the shelf as she tuned in to the person behind her.

“Uh,” the person started, Addie still didn’t turn around, there were five more cases of discs in her hand that she didn’t want to put down just yet. “I was wondering if you could help me find the Jack Johnson, Matt Nathanson, or Sufjan Stevens CDs.”

“Yeah… hold on,” Addie started off absent mindedly before dropping the CD cases that were still in her hands while spinning around on her heel. Her smile illuminated the area she was occupying, making Oliver in turn smile. He stood there sheepishly, pushing his hands into his front pockets while he watched Addie stand there, beaming.

“Oli!” she exclaimed, a mix of shock and sheer happiness ringing in her voice. “What are you doing here?”

He looked at her, smiling while his eyes looked over her face. She looked so different than she had the last - and first - time he had seen her, but she was still familiar. Her hair sat exactly the same way it had a month ago, but her eyes looked different this time. Oli could tell she was actually happy right now, compared to when he had found her back in the corner of the House of Blues all those weeks ago.

He almost forgot to answer her question, he was so wrapped up in looking at her. “Oh, right. Well, thought I’d just stop by, maybe.”

“Stop by?” Addie questioned, raising an eyebrow. “You can’t exactly just stop by in Springfield. Isn’t the tour over now? Shouldn’t you be going home?”

At that moment, Addie completely forgot she was even on duty at work. She nearly forgot where she was entirely. Her head was spinning as she still stood in front of someone she was sure she would never see again, her thoughts were in complete disarray as she nearly fought to remember how to breath.

“Yeah, tour’s over. But I don’t have to go home. Besides, I thought it’d be a nice surprise, y’know?” Oliver chuckled nervously, hoping that he hadn’t crossed over some imaginary line that he wasn’t aware existed. He thought Addie would be happy he came back; he thought that she might like seeing him again before he went home for good. He didn’t have to go home right away, hell, he didn’t have to go home at all. But Oli wanted to come back and find her, he just had to.

Addie blushed ferociously, ducking her head, hoping that Oli wouldn’t see it. “Well, yeah, it-it is a nice surprise,” she stammered out, trying to keep her words straight.

She looked down, noticing the countless CD cases that were now strewn about the floor because she had dropped them. “Oh, look what I’ve done,” she mumbled while bending down to pick them up. Somehow, more than what had been in her hands ended up on the floor. She must have tripped the box of cases when she spun around.

“’Ere, lemme help,” Oliver said, bending down as well in his jeans that looked like they wouldn’t allow him to bend over. They both picked up the cases, laying them gently back into the giant box they had originally come in.

“So…” Addie began, turning around to face all of the discs in the box that now needed to be filed away. “What are you doing ehre?” She tried to keep her tone airy and she heaved up the box from the table it was on, moving it down a few feet to a counter near the front of the store.

“To come see you?” Oli said in a confused voice, not exactly knowing what Addie was asking. Didn’t she just ask that question?

“No,” she replied, laughing as she pulled out a few discs to place with the others of its kind. “I mean, what are you doing at Johnson’s?”

“Well, since it’s where you work, I thought I’d ‘ave a good chance of findin’ you here. Since I don’t know where you live an’ all. Plus I’d just feel a bit weird showin’ up on your doorstep,” he admitted, laughing and trying to conceal his own blush this time. Luckily Addie was standing a few feet away from him, placing more and more CDs under the right title.

She had to remind herself that she always talked about Johnson’s, so it wasn’t weird that Oliver knew where she worked. The only part she smiled about to herself was that he actually showed up here. She wondered why he came though, even though she was too shy to ask why he had come back. Did he really just want to surprise her? They still didn’t know each other every well, what was he going to do here?

“So where are you staying?” she asked, turning around so that she could face him now, watching as he stood there awkwardly, still with his hands back into his front pockets now. He looked around at the countless shelves and tables full of CDs, the store probably easily held more music than anyone could listen to in a year.

“I’m staying over at the… the one hotel, it’s on sixth street,” Oliver said, mumbling as he forgot the name of the hotel he had checked into just an hour prior.

“Seriously? No joke, that place is like a block away from my apartment,” Addie admitted, laughing as the box full of CD shipments slowly emptied as Oli stood watching as she worked. Addie prayed her boss wouldn’t come out here and find them talking; she’d probably get in trouble. At least he looked like a customer.

“Well, that’s awesome,” he said, not really knowing what to say. He was beginning to wonder why he had showed up here, coming back for Addie like this. It was so unlike him. Lately though, Oli hadn’t been himself at all.

“How long are you staying?” Addie tried not to feel like she was interrogating Oliver with all these questions, but she couldn’t help it. She was still so curious why this stranger whom she befriended was just standing in the record store where she worked. It was weird having someone she actually knew in her place of employment. She actually had someone to talk to now as she filed away the various discs, but she was done now, just standing there with Oliver.

“I’m here for about a week, then it’s back home for a while,” he said, still trying to think of something to say now.

Addie nodded in acknowledgement as she picked up the now empty box, moving it behind the counter. The question of “Why are you here?” still burned fervently in her mind. She wanted to ask him, but Oli seemed like a rather spontaneous fellow, so this might be considered normal for him. He might not even know himself.

“My shift is over in about five minutes, do you wanna go out and grab a bite to eat?” she asked, peering up at Oliver through her bangs.

He smiled, his eyes brightening up at the mention of going out with Addie. “I’d love to. But first, do you wanna show me where the Jack Johnson records are?”

Addie chuckled, heading out from behind the counter. “So you weren’t joking about that?”

Oli laughed too, following behind her as she took off down the store, knowing exactly where her favorite artist’s CDs were kept. “No, actually. I looked up all of them guys you talked about all the time. They’re actually sorta good.”

“I thought you weren’t into the ‘light stuff’?” Addie joked, motioning to the countless cases of Jack Johnson CDs sat in front of them, taking up so much space on the shelves.

“Well, I’m not,” Oliver began, picking up a CD that caught his eye. “Not usually, anyways.”

Addie showed Oliver around the store, letting him look at the various Matt Nathanson and Sufjan Stevens discs. He was amused at the covers of the cases, looking at the various song titles displayed on the back of each case. Addie watched as he held about five CDs in his hands now, collecting them absent mindedly while Addie chortled about which songs were her favorites of singer.

“You know, I could just let you borrow all of their CDs that I own,” she told him, speaking slowly as she watched Oli grab yet another disc case.

His face fell as he looked down into his hands, seeing all of the CD cases that he now held. “Right. Well, I don’t care. I wanna keep these ones, anyways.”

“You sure?” she asked again. It really would be much cheaper for him just to borrow the CDs from her, she had nearly every CD of all three artists.

He nodded, and they headed over to the checkout counter where Addie rung him up. “So are you actually gonna listen to these guys now then?” she inquired while a small smile, placing all of the cases in a plastic bag that had the Johnson’s logo on it.

“Duh,” he said, smiling and laughing. “I don’t normally pay almost forty bucks for a bunch of music I won’t listen to.”

Addie smiled, dashing back to the room where she kept her purse to retrieve it, so the pair could be on their way. In less than half an hour, Oliver Sykes had managed to re-enter her life, making her wonder what the hell was going on, and now she was going out with him.

But of course what Oli didn’t add wile she walked away to the back room, was that each of the songs on the discs he had just purchased all reminded him of Addie. He researched all of the songs she constantly mentioned, listening to them whenever he wasn’t talking to her, imagining her smile when he listened to the songs that were so soft, compared to what he was listening to every night. Everything Addie was, was just so different from Oliver. Her music was the complete opposite of what Oli normally listened to and worshipped. She was nothing like him, but that only added to the mystique she seemed to hold. He wanted to know everything about her, and figure her out, simply because the task seemed impossible, and he wanted nothing more than to accomplish it. He wanted the impossible.

Was that why he came? Did Oliver go out of his way just to fly back to Springfield, Illinois to find a girl he had to figure out? He put off going back home, to where he hadn’t been in months, to stick around in the States for another week, desperate to spend more time with his new American friend. But what would happen once he learned more about her? Would it take more than a week to learn everything he could about this girl, and piece her together? He was certain that it would take much longer than he could have ever dreamed of to figure this Addie out, he knew that for sure. She seemed complicated and secretive, much like himself. So he was here on a mission - what could have been called Mission Impossible.

And trying to find out who she was, was his reason.

What happens once he figures her out, though?