Let's Set Ourselves Free

As in any Wednesday or Friday morning, sometimes Mondays. I was awaken by the scent of Brendon’s axe body wash, I moved in my spot trying to block out the strong scent and fall back to sleep for the hour I had left. I knew that Brendon had to wake up early on those days to open up the coffee shop he worked at. I groaned lightly and opened my eyes as they adjusted to the 5 clock morning sky. I sat up and stretched my arms and back out. I fell back against the bed and looked up at the ceiling, blinking tiredly.

I heard the shower turned off and some movements in the small bathroom, I rolled onto my side and stared at the cracked opened door waiting for Brendon to appear. I took a calm breath as I started to wake up a little more, there was always a moment in the morning where I didn’t want to go work and I just wanted to stay with Brendon.

I held my breath out of habit watching Brendon appear wearing his usual work clothes which was black slacks, and a white button up shirt with sleeves cuffed up to his elbows and a black belt. I smiled a little and started to breathe again when he looked over to me, flashing a wide smile. I brought myself to sit and sighed lightly.

“Sorry, did I wake you up?” He asked softly, sitting on the bed to put his shoes on.

“No… yes you did.” I said and crawled over to him, wrapping my arms around his neck and rested my chin on his shoulder.

Brendon laughed and then leaned back against me, I kept one of my arms around his neck loosely as other mindlessly started to run its hand through his damp hair. I watched as his eyes closed, his chest moving up and down calmly. I pressed my lips to the side of his head and kept them there.

“We seriously need to have a day to ourselves.” He mumbled and grabbed one of my legs wrapping it around his waist.

I nodded in reply and closed my eyes, my hand stopping in mid-brush and rested on his head. We stayed in that spot, his hand moving along my leg sending chills through my body. I felt him move under my hold, his warm lips barely touching the skin on my neck, my lips brushing along his forehead as my fingers curled into his hair on the side. I felt content.

“Babe, I have to go now.” He said breaking the peaceful silences after a long while.

“Okay,” I said taking a shaky breath trying to fight off the sleep that was trying to take over. I opened my eyes and untangled myself from him. He brought my chin up a little as he got up, placing a few kisses on my lips making me smile, I returned each one. “Be careful, I love you.”

“I love you too Jul, see you later.” He said grabbed whatever he needed and left the apartment.

I looked over to the window seeing the sky get brighter, I got off the bed and walked over to the bathroom that still held in some warmth. I shook slightly and turned on the shower, waiting for it to get warm and discarded my clothes. After my warm shower I wrapped a towel around my body and got another drying my hair and headed for the small closet.

I dried off my body slipping on my underwear and bra, along with some light black stockings that came to mid-thigh and I brought my black shorts from a suitcase and pulled those up. I looked through the closet and finally found my black sleeved baseball-t with ‘The Beatles’ faded on the front. I dropped to the floor and started to crawl around it looking for my high-top converse and slipped those puppies on.

I got back to my feet and blew some of my hair that fell into my face, I headed back for the bathroom and started to do my hair and applied a bit of makeup. I was out of the door almost an hour later with my sunglasses on my face and my bag. The warm sun was beating down in my face making me smile more than I already was. Everything was perfect.

I would have to say that half an hour later I was entering the vintage record store, moving my sunglasses to my head; I smiled at the looks of it. Expecting to be the typical 80s record store when I first walked in, I was right away proven wrong. Yes it did have that 80s vibe, but no there were posters on the wall from Glenn Miller, to Frankie Lymon & The teenagers, Hootie & The Blowfish, Madonna, Aerosmith, and KISS and whoever else that played in a band, or was a solo artists even unknown bands. In right corner were shirts and bags that were pinned to the wall. If I could, I would’ve lived in the store. I walked down one of the aisles to get to the back counter, CDS, records, cassette tapes, and some 45s were displayed on both sides.

“Juliet, Juliet where art thou Juliet.” I screamed and jumped back, as one of my co-workers jumped out from behind the counter, a hand on his chest as the other stayed in the air and he looked dramatically to the ceiling with a serious face.

“Oh my god…” I said trying to catch my breath, I placed my bag on the counter and set my sunglasses next it.

“Morning Juliet, it’s a beautiful outside. I love it.” Adam said happily. The guy was always happy, it didn’t matter on the weather it didn’t matter on the rude costumers, and he always seemed to keep that positive attitude. He was probably as tall as Brendon if not maybe an inch or so taller, his head sprouted shiny jet black hair, that stopped just at his jaw line also sporting that side bangs kind of look. He wore glasses and seemed to always have a beanie on his head.

“Yes, it is beautiful outside.” I stated once I was calm. I licked my lips a little and walked behind the counter stuffing my bag under it and watched as Adam stole my sunglasses placing them over his glasses and started to push random buttons on the register. With the happiness always came the hyper side as well, I didn’t question it. I thought I would get annoyed by him, but I never did. He was someone you always wanted around because he made you laugh and feel happy.

“JACKPOT!” He yelled loudly as the cash register’s drawer popped out.

I laughed softly and sat down on the stool, I heard the door open and my other co-worker entered. She wasn’t that friendly at first, but then again she isn’t that friendly to begin with. She complained a lot about the store, about the posters and about the music it sold. She was a real treat to have around.

“Oh fuck, Sourpuss Sandra is here…” Adam’s voice lowered his voice; he looked over to me over the two pair of glasses and pouted.

“Don’t let her get to you.” I said trying to comfort him; he always was the one to get picked on by her.

“I can’t she’s like a life sucker, she’s just… annoying.” He whined.

“What am I?” Sandra asked, slamming her keys on the counter and her bag.

“A life sucker annoying Sourpuss.” Adam said lightly and took off the sunglasses, placing them on my lap.

“Fuck off, yeah?” She said and took a slip of her coffee; she walked around pulling her stuff behind the counter like I did with my stuff. “Juliet.” She said boringly and walked off with her coffee.

I never understood why she always was mean to me; well not like she was to Adam but enough to make me stay away from her. I didn’t reply to her and stuffed my sunglasses into my bag and placed my arm along the surface of the counter, ready for this day of work to start.

I always loved to watch the people that walked in because they weren’t always the same, there were some that entered with the Greaser look even the girls. Some that entered totally 80s, others entered with the Hippie look and some just dressed update I guess I say but I loved the people who knew that they were born in the wrong time period.

I managed to get off the stool and started to help those were in of need it when the customers entered; Sandra was a greeter, even though her greets sounded more like, ‘Fuck-you-and-everyone-in-this-store.’ I don’t know how she got hired.

The morning seemed a little long and somewhat busy, it finally settled down around noon and we got to relax. I placed myself on the stool again just to annoy Sandra, who wanted to sit there plus she only sat there to taunt Adam and I wasn’t going to allow it. I yawned widely and regretted not covering my mouth, I felt Adam’s finger wiggle in my mouth.

“Ewww.” I whined and slapped his arm; I looked at him and pouted.

“Sorry, you should know what I do by now.” He said cutely while wrinkling up his nose.

“I know, but I forget. It’s not every day that someone does that to me.”

“I wish someone would do that to me, do it for me. Deflower me with your fingers.” He demanded and opened his mouth. He placed himself on my lap and turned slightly wrapping an arm around my neck.

“Oh my god…” I mumbled and rubbed my forehead, laughing lightly. I was always saying that around him, he never seemed to fail at grossing me out or making me blush with the exotic things he came up with. And it didn’t bug me that he was on me; he was always sitting on me so I wrapped my arm around his waist loosely.

The door opened rescuing me from the conversation that could possibly go into another level of disturbing. I dropped my hand from my forehead and smiled brightly at the man that entered the store, holding a few bags and a tray of sodas. I could see from the corner of my eye Sandra standing there, biting her bottom lip as if she never seen someone like Brendon. It sort of bugged me that she was staring, that she was probably undressing him with her ugly eyes. I looked at her and my lip curling in annoyance.

“That’s why she doesn’t like you because you have that sexy piece of man candy right there,” Adam said also struck by Brendon’s charm. Yes, Adam was gay or so I thought, if not he was Bi-sexual.

I took my eyes off Sandra and looked at Brendon finally; he approached the counter putting the bags and soda down. He looked at Adam who still sat on my lap and then at me, and he looked back at Adam.

“I’m sorry did you want to sit on her lap?” Adam said getting off and stood next to me, a smile brightly shining off his face.

Brendon shook his head and laughed, “Maybe later.” He replied and leaned over placing a soft kiss on my lips. “Hey there beautiful, you look good today.” He continued and placed a longer kiss on my lips. I heard Sandra groan lightly, it made me smirk.

“Hello handsome,” I said and got off the stool and made my way around the counter and wrapped my arms around his waist as his arms went around me.

“I brought you guy’s food, I didn’t know what to get so I got a few things.” Brendon said, looking over to Sandra and then at Adam.

Sandra walked on the other side of Brendon, brushing against him as she reached for a soda that she could’ve easily got from the spot she was standing at. I looked at Adam and rolled my eyes a little, he shook his head, and it probably didn’t surprise him as he started to look through the bags.

I brought myself onto the counter and let go of Brendon, not wanting to but I didn’t want to look like I was a clingy girlfriend. I dug through the bags, pulling out a small bag of fries and started to munch on those. I kept my eyes on Sandra a smile on her face, as she started a conversation up with Brendon.

“Oooh girl, that’s one annoying and skanky hoe.” Adam stated making his way around the counter while taking a big bite of his hamburger. He stood next to me and looked at me, offering me some of his hamburger.

I shook my head a little and laughed, “Gees, tell me what you really think of her.” I brought out another hamburger unwrapping it before taking a small bite from it.

“There’s not enough hours of working together that could explain what I think of her.” He rolled his eyes and leaned against the small space that was offered that my body wasn’t using.

I heard them chatting away, well mostly her as Brendon was just answering in one word. I knew he was trying to find a nice way of getting out of the conversation. I looked over to them and saw Brendon looked over to me as well, he raised his eyebrows.

“You had something tell me right babe?” I asked softly and took another bite of my hamburger.

“I did, yes of course how could I forget.” He said and moved closer to me. “I was hoping that tonight we could go this club like place, a guy from work told me about it and I wanted to check it out, he’s going to be there too.” He explained and stole a bite from my food.

I looked at him oddly and raised an eyebrow, “Seriously?” I had to ask.

“Mhm, so should we go?”

“Sure.” I replied and bite down on my bottom lip. I was never the party type I mean not after Brendon took me to be a normal teenager that one time. I could still picture how he looked just hanging over the toilet and how sick he looked. I really didn’t want a repeat.

“Alright, cool.” He said with a smile and pecked my cheek a few times. I could feel the nerves nibbling at my stomach; I set the hamburger down and chewed at the inside of my cheek. I rested my chin on Brendon’s shoulder like I had did only this morning, since he now stood in front of me.

After the food was gone and sodas were in the process of being gone, Brendon left with a kiss goodbye; I could just feel the burning stare from Sandra. For the rest of work, I stood pretty quiet but no one seemed to notice yet alone care expect maybe Adam, but he was too busy bouncing off the walls.

When I finally locked up the store with Adam we went our separate ways, my walk home was calm but I couldn’t shake off the nerves that took over my body. It was probably the stupidest thing to worry about, but I just didn’t want to be taking care of Brendon while he was sick. I didn’t want to cause a scene if he was acting differently, I just didn’t want things to get ruined.