The Black Rose: I've Been Watching You (Book 1)

Chapter 35

Third Person POV

Liam was mindless wandering down the crowded lanes of the mall, with his hands buried into his coat pocket. He was frustrated that he couldn't find anything to buy Troy, but all that stopped when he stopped in front a music store. A light bulb lit over his head as his eyes focused on the wide array of things in the store.

There was a spectrum of instruments, microphones, vinyl, and all sorts of other stuff. Another lightbulb lit over his head when he remembered all those times Troy would call him at an ungodly hour of the night to tell him about a melody in his head. What should I get Troy? He thought with his hands wrapped around his chin.

He walked into the store and his nostril was bombarded with a very pungent cinnamon smell. He looked over to the right to see a very young man handling the cashier counter. "Welcome in." The cashier cheerfully smiled. Liam returned it with a light nod and smile before walking towards the microphones.

There stood microphones of all shapes, sizes, and complexity. He bent over to observe the rows of microphones a bit closer. Scrutinizing each and every inch of every microphone, he wanted something easily accessible for Troy because God knows he wouldn't be able to turn anything on by himself.

He picked up a simple, chic quality microphone for Troy to get a better recording of his melodies. The ones he recorded with his phone microphone were barely audible.

This isn't enough, he thought

Luckily the store sold records of all kind and a record player too. Liam made his way towards the turntable and examined all of them before picking one of the most recent turntable models up. Lastly was the records. The store had records from all sorts of time periods. The most popular one was some Ariana Grande album which Liam knew Troy had no interest in. He looked through the horizontal stored records until he managed to find a handful from Carly Rae Jespen. He pulled the four vinyl out.

Perfect. He thought.

Liam made his way towards the cashier and luckily for him there was no line. "Hi, I hope you found everything okay." The cashier smiled. Liam handed the items to the cashier right as he greeted someone else. "Hi welcome in." He turned around and his eyes widened, seeing Troy walk in. He had earbuds in so he didn't hear anything giving Liam the opportunity to step out of the now forming line behind him. Shit what is he doing here, he thought as he looked around the store for a place to hide, but mentally groaned when he couldn't find any.

A frantic Liam ignored the annoyed cashier calling his name. He snuck up behind Troy to escort him out. "Hey Troy." He said behind him.

"Gaah! Jesus Liam what are you- hey! What are you-" He said while being pushed out the store.

"Nothing to see here, I think I see Issac calling, over there." Liam pointed to a random location, at this point he wasn't worried about the people staring.

"What are you-" People were starting to stare.

"Go! Go! Go!" And with that, Troy was out of the store.

"That was rude." He mumbled behind Liam's turned back before walking off with the heavy bags.

I'll be back. He bitterly thought.

Liam returned back to the front only to be greeted with a displeased cashier, glaring at him. "I'm so sorry about that." Liam focused his eyes onto the silver painted name tag on the cashier's shirt. "Jones."

"That's alright." He sighed. "Now that'll be $1032.93." Jones dimly smiled. Liam handed his card and with that, he was set. The cashier bagged all of the items and proceeded to hand it to him.