Dazey Records

Present day

True to his word, Nick was back in Boston by winter, telling me all about his brand new band and his new friends. I had no idea what he was talking about, but his excitement was contagious. He was always travelling back and forth from Boston to Phoenix, saying that he had no idea why I would have ever wanted to move away from it. I still hadn't told him that I never wanted to.

His band gained momentum and soon he was barely in Boston anymore, on the road touring with his friends or in big cities recording new songs. He never forgot me and would always send me messages on the road and postcards from the places he went. It was with his help that I developed a taste for music and collecting old records.

I went to Boston University to study business, still not sure of what I wanted to do. Since I finished, I've been working in a small record store in the heart of the city. It wasn't my choice of career, but it paid the bills and gave me a little extra to work towards starting my own business.

I had just finished work in the middle of spring, when I received a call from Mr Santino himself.

"Daze, you still work at that record store in Boston right?" he asked, sounding out of breath.

"Yeah, why?" I asked, confused as to where this was leading. I had confided to Nick that my dream was to own my own record store somewhere, since growing up I never really got to experience one and I didn't want anyone to miss out due to their city's lack of stores.

"Well, the only record in Phoenix shut down last week and the space is still available for rent, and I know how much you want to open your own store-"

"But-"

"Yeah I know, it's Arizona. I know you don't really want to come back but please? Imagine the opportunities this could open for you! There are so many local bands that can play acoustic shows and do signings and it's a huge space and-"

"Fine! I'll open a store in Arizona, geez calm down," I laughed, trying to sound happy but really shitting myself on the inside. What if I ran into people I knew? What if I saw my dad? Or John?

Within a week I had begun packing to move, started apartment hunting and talked to the real estate about leasing the building and by the end of the month I had secured an apartment, the record store had been leased to me and I was beginning my car trip to Arizona. Thankfully, Nick had flown out to Boston the week before to do a roadtrip with me to Phoenix.

As we crossed the Arizona state border, I began to grow nervous as I anticipated seeing the place I grew up in all over again. I don't know how my dad would feel seeing me again, but I knew John would be angry. Angry I didn't tell him where I was going, why I was going, or why I didn't tell him about my parents in the first place.

"I would offer to let you stay at my apartment tonight, except there isn't even anything to stay on," I said as we arrived in Phoenix.

Nick chuckled. "That's okay, I'm staying with one of my old band mates anyway. You remember Halvo?"

How could anyone forget Halvo? He reminded me of a puppy dog at times, always excited and happy with a big goofy smile.

He directed me to Halvo's place that he shared with a friend and I pulled up outside.

"You wanna come in?" Nick asked, "I'm sure Halvo would be glad to see you again."

I contemplated it, but shook my head. "I'm pretty tired and the movers are coming early tomorrow to deliver my stuff. Tell him I said hi though."

"I will. 'Night Daze."

"'Night Nick."

I drove off towards my new apartment, ignoring the white truck in Halvo's driveway.

* * * * *

"So, I feel like I haven't seen you since you moved to Arizona so I'm proposing we all go out for dinner and drinks so you can get smashed," Nick announced over the phone as I lifted another box onto the store counter.

I sighed. "Nick, between unpacking in my apartment and unpacking in the store, I'm really not up to going out and being around lots of people."

"Okay, then just you and me. We'll order pizza to your apartment and I'll bring a couple of six-packs. How's that sound?"

"Perfect. I just need a night to unwind and relax so I can get back into setting up the store. You should see my plans, they're awesome."

"You can show me when I come around at 6pm. Pepperoni with extra cheese please." Nick hung up and I put my phone down to sort out the box of records that I had put on the counter.

When I stepped into the building, I could see why the previous record store had gone out of business. The whole store just looked dingy and old, somewhere that no teenager would want to step foot into.

I spent the whole first day tossing out the old shop fittings and scrubbing the walls and I spent the whole night ordering new stands and counters online. When they arrived two days later, I had already done a base coat of paint with three white walls and a red feature wall. Since Nick was busying doing some recording, I enlisted his friend Halvo to help me put together the furniture and position it once I had finished painting the walls. Once that was done, we attacked the ceiling with matte black paint, giving the whole room a darker, but more modern vibe.

For the rest of the week, I had been polishing the old wooden floors and ordering in things to decorate the store with, as well as stock. The last thing I needed to order was the sign to go outside the store, but I was having difficulty coming up with a name.

I was thankful for Nick's pizza and beer night, I needed some human interaction to stop myself from going crazy.

I had just put in the pizza order when Nick arrived, his hands full of beer. I took one of the packs from him and he looped his now free arm around me in a hug.

"You look exhausted," he greeted me.

"I feel it. This week has been so busy and I still have so much to do in the store before it opens. As soon as I get a beer in my hand I'll tell you all about my plans."

Five minutes later, I was enthusiastically telling Nick about my plans to turn the feature wall area into a performance area, as well as my clothing rack and large selection of vinyls.

"But the one dilemma I have is that I can't come up with a name for the store. And I can't open until I have one, so you need to help me."

We sat there drinking beer for a few minutes, thinking of something witty that we could call the store.

"What about 'I-used-to-live-here Records'?" Nick suggested, gesturing as if he was seeing a sign. I flicked my bottle cap at him in annoyance. "Well, you think of something better, Daze."

A lightbulb went off in my head. "What about 'Daze Records'?"

Nick pursed his lips. "Sounds a little too generic. Why don't we just use your name? But spell it D-A-Z-E-Y instead? That way it's your name but it doesn't seem as pretentious for you to call your record store after you."

"I'm going to ignore that last part, but I think you're onto something, Santino. 'Dazey Records'. I like it. It's perfect."

Our pizza arrived and we ate while discussing plans for the store and drinking beer. I could feel a buzz coming on, especially after not drinking for so long. I knew Nick was starting to feel the same, since his voice was becoming louder with each beer and he was laughing at more things than usual.

Pretty soon, all the beer was gone and I was lying with my head in Nick's lap as he stroked my hair and I fought off the drunken sleep I could feel coming on.

"Hey, Daze?"

I opened my eyes and lifted my head, my eyes meeting his. "Yeah?"

Nick leaned down and pressed his lips to mine, tasting of beer and pepperoni. He pulled away with a funny look on his face.

"I'm sorry, I have no idea why I just did that."

I giggled. "Nick, we're both drunk. I don't know why you did it either, it was kinda weird."

"It was, wasn't it? It won't happen again, I promise."

I giggled again. "Okay."

We were silent again until Nick swore. "Do you mind if I sleep on your couch tonight? I forgot that I drove here and I don't wanna have to call Halvo."

"My bed is big enough for us both, you know that."

We stumbled towards my bedroom, giggling like teenagers as we bumped into walls and each other. We climbed into my bed, Nick curling up against my back as I pulled the covers up over both of us.

"Sorry about the kiss before," Nick mumbled into my hair.

"It's okay."

* * * * *

I woke up the next morning with a dry mouth and a pounding head, Nick still curled into my back like a baby koala.

"Nick. Nick. Nick!"

He nearly shot out of bed, as well as nearly hitting his head against mine. "What? What's wrong?"

"We need to get up. I have to keep working on the store and you should probably go home."

He stretched, his shirt rising slightly. "You're right, I'm supposed to be going to help Halvo and his roommate clean out their place. You should come and help us out, we could always use and woman's touch. Knowing us we'll do it for half an hour then crack some beers."

I chuckled. "If I didn't have to clean up and organise an entire store before it opens on Wednesday, I would totally come and save you guys. Your friends are still cool to play in the store next weekend, right?"

"Yeah they're chill. I'd better head out there and make sure they actually clean up and don't just watch TV and drink beer all day."

Nick left and half an hour later I was back in the store, filling shelves and cleaning counters.

* * * * *

Nick's POV

John and Halvo's apartment was always a mess, almost from day one they moved in.

"When are you guys going to toss out some of this crap? You have yearbooks from high schools you never even went to," I pointed out one day, seeing stacks of boxes piled towards the ceiling. So since their friends were starting to notice the mass amounts of shit, they decided to do something about it, and since I was the one who usually pointed it out, they dragged me into cleaning it with them.

We spent the first half of the day sorting through the boxes in the garage and taking old things to the dump. After that we took a much needed break for beers and about 1:30pm we got stuck back into it.

We moved onto John's room, since he had the most stuff he wanted to throw away. It only took us about half an hour to fill three garbage bags with clothes for Goodwill and another two garbage bags of old high school and college papers, tests, forms and forgotten sick notes.

I moved back to the closet, trying to find some shirts in good condition that Daisy could sell in the record store while John moved onto his desk drawers and Halvo attacked the shit under his bed.

I was lost in band shirts until Halvo pulled us all out of our cleaning frenzy. "Whoa, who's this babe?"

"Just an old girlfriend from high school. Don't throw out any of that shit." John's voice said that the issue was closed, which made us even more intrigued.

"I wonder what she looks like now, if this was her in high school then she must be banging now," Halvo kept raving about this girl so I moved from the closet to the floor where he was pulling out more photos.

"Halvo, just put them back and keep cleaning," John sounded exasperated.

I picked up the first photo, seeing two familiar faces smiling back at me. John and Daisy?

"So, uh, who-who was this girl? What happened to her?"

"She was my girlfriend back in high school and she moved away without so much as a word, c'mon man just put them away," he whined.

Things were starting to click into place, especially Daisy's tattoo. I had always thought it was funny and coincidental that The Maine had a song called Daisy and it had the same line that Daisy had tattooed on her side, but now it was all beginning to make sense.

I decided it would be wise to keep my mouth shut about Daisy, not wanting to start anything now while we had to spend the rest of the day together.

Halvo put the photos back into the box and none of us brought Daisy up again.