Let My Heart Rest In Pieces

Let My Heart Rest In Pieces 029

Something Off

When I walked into Unlimited Sound, the local music store, I looked around the place, astonished. From outside, the building didn't seem that large. But on the inside, it was like a palace. On one side of the store you had all the music, CDs, Cassettes, Records (which I found pretty cool) and all that jazz.

On the opposing side was where the actual musical instruments found home. From top to bottom, the wall was covered in guitars, basses, any kind of instrument that could be hung on the wall. They also had pieces of drums scattered around, with me almost running into a snare when I wasn't paying attention. The girl at the counter noticed me and walked over, a smile on her face.

"How can I help you?" she asked, causing me to jump because I hadn't seen her come towards me.

"Oh, um, I'm actually here for an interview. Envy Moore."

"Oh yes! The manager is in his office waiting for you. Just head that way."

"Thank you," I said, giving her a smile before I walked to the back of the store. The door that I was looking for was right in front of me, with 'Manager' written in bold lettering. I knocked tentatively on the door, nervousness swelling up inside me. I heard a couple people shuffling around in the room for a minute, then the door opened up.

"How can I-"

"Ray?" I questioned at the man standing in front of me. He looked just as bewildered as I did. Then his confusion gave way to a smile.

"Hey V, what are you doing here?"

"I'm here for a job interview, with the manager."

Ray's smile widened a tad. He moved to the side so that he could walk into the office. "Come on in then."

I did as told, walking into the room where I saw another familiar face sitting behind the desk in the middle of the room.

"Hey Bob, look who's here for an interview."

The blond looked up from his paperwork, his blue eyes seeming preoccupied. They lit up when he saw me, and I grinned at him. "Hey there Envy."

"Hi Bob," I greeted, walking over to one of the chairs that sat in front of him, taking a seat.

"So you're the interviewee?"

"And you're the manager?"

"That I am," he said with a loving smile.

"Yeah, well I'm the assistant manager! It's like being the boss, without all his paperwork," Ray put in, making me laugh. Bob shook his head and turned his attention back to me.

"Can I see your resume?"

Nodding my head quickly, I took my backpack off of my shoulders, digging around in the thing for a minute before I pulled out a professional manila folder.

The blond man took the folder and opened it, looking through the stack of papers that were secured into it. I bit my lip, looking over at my poofy haired friend, who gave me a thumbs up.

Only moments later, Bob put the folder down and gave me a smile. "You start on Thursday."

My smile grew ten times larger and I was ready to jump over the desk to hug the guy, or Mr. Bryar as I should call him. But I was sticking to Bob.

"Come on kid," Ray said when I stood up, "I'll show you around and show you what you'll be doing."

I hit his shoulder. "Don't call me kid."

The man rolled his eyes, but agreed not to call me that. He put his hand on the small of my back and led me out of the door and into the front part of the store, where the girl I had seen earlier was with a customer.

"That," Ray said, pointing to her, "is Lisa. She'll be the one to answer your questions if you need any help."

Lisa saw her boss pointing at her and waved at the both of us before turning back to the teenager who was looking through the CDs.

"Whenever someone comes into the store and you are in talking distance, you welcome them and ask if they need any help. Most of them come in here to either by a CD or play around with the instruments. Just make sure they don't break anything, okay? And no one is allowed to touch the stuff on the walls. Don't want them falling and breaking."

"What if they want to buy one of the guitars or something up there?"

"We have multiples of all of the stuff on the wall, that way we never have to take them off."

"I think I got everything. Is there any specific dress code?"

"Nope, come in whatever you want. Just nothing too provocative, okay?"

"Do I look like someone who would wear 'provocative' clothing?" I asked, giving Ray a look.

"Just a precaution," he replied, smirking.

"Sorry, the kid was having problems finding something. Did you need me Ray?"

"No," he said, shaking his head, "I was just informing Envy here of who you were."

"It'll be nice to have another girl in here," Lisa voiced, "I'm outnumbered completely."

"There's no other female workers?" I asked.

"Nope, just me and you now."

~~~~~

"Come on Envy, please?!" Mikey begged the next day at school, giving me puppy dog eyes as if that would persuade me.

"I can't believe you still want to go to that party. Frank would be more than likely to ignore you than actually talk to you."

"You don't know that," Mikey said, but changed his mind when I gave him a look. "And even if he did ignore me, I would have you there with me."

"I'm not even sure if I'm invited anymore. You saw what I did to Todd and how Frank and his new posse reacted."

"All the more fun then! You can go and crash their party."

"Mikey..."

"Please! I will do anything, I just don't want to be alone..." he trailed off, looking away sadly. I knew that this was just another ploy to guilt me into going, but I fell for it anyway. I sighed, running a hand through my hair.

"Fine, fine. I'll go, okay? But we're leaving when I say. Got it?"

"Thank you Envy!" the boy shouted, hugging me tightly before giving me a wet kiss on the cheek. I scrunched up my nose and wiped my face.

"Just shut up and get into the class before we get a detention from Ms. Den."

Fortunately, we both made it in time so we didn't get in trouble. The class continued to talk for a little while, waiting for the teacher to walk in. Soon, she did, but something seemed completely off with her.

"Today you will be taking a test on chapter 5. If I hear anyone talking during the exam, your paper will be taken away and I will give you a zero."

As she began to hand out the papers, I leaned into Mikey, poking his side to get his attention. "Does Ms. Den seem... I don't know, different today?"

Mikey scrutinized the woman as she walked down the isles of lab benches. "She does, but I can't place what."

We instantly shut up when she turned to us and gave a glare. Even that didn't seem normal. It seemed weaker than usual. I didn't linger on the subject, too engrossed in the extremely hard test she had given us. It took most of the class until the end of the period to complete. I gave Mikey my test to give the woman when he went up, that way I could pack up all of my stuff.

"So I was talking to him, and then- oh crap! Sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going," one of the girls in my class apologized when she bumped into my backpack, causing it to fall to the ground and spill all of its contents. She bent down to help me out, but I waved my hand.

"I'll be fine, thanks though."

So when the bell rang not even five second after I said that, I was left alone in the room to clean up my things. I was waiting for Ms. Den to reprimand me for still being here, but when I looked up, she wasn't glaring daggers at me like she usually was.

I looked at the woman, who had her back to me, and saw that her back was shaking somewhat. I could hear her breathing from here, and it seemed a lot shallower than usual.

"Ms. Den, are you alright?" I asked, stepping away from my things, about to walk up to here.

"I'm fine, you should be going or you're going to be late. Don't get yourself another detention."

"Um, okay," I said, taking my book bag and heading quickly out of the class.

This was completely weird, and totally out of character for me, seeing as I hated the lady but... I was actually worried about her.