The Middle | Hemmings + Styles AU

10. it's not zayn

On Tuesday morning, I decided to leave Louis out the front while I unboxed a new shipment of CDs out the back.

Usually, I preferred being out the front and talking to customers (the nice ones, anyway) and Grunge preferred that Louis stuck to taking inventory out the back and putting away new stock. He was a few years older than me and while the two of us got along relatively well, Louis wasn't much of a people person. And he had a habit for showing up to work stoned.

On that Tuesday morning, however, I needed some solitude.

Monday had easily been one of our busiest days yet and I was still trying to shake off the feelings left behind by my interactions with Luke and Harry over the weekend. Both of them were beginning to take up substantial time in my thoughts and even though I insisted to both Aunty Peg and Olivia that they were trying to find smoke where there was absolutely no fire, that wasn't entirely true.

There was fire, and curiosity. I wanted to know more about both of them. It was as simple as that. From my first interactions with both of them, they seemed to captivate me in ways that I hadn't felt before.

Everything with Luke just came so easily; the fun banter, and the laughter. Then there was Harry who was so intense and soulful. He was unlike any other person I'd ever met in my relatively short life. I won't even mention the obvious fact that both boys were wildly attractive. It almost seemed offensive for the rest of us to stand near their beauty.

But back to work.

Aside from unpacking CDs, I was thinking about the different ideas I had to get more people into the store. Ever since Grunge and I had spoken about the possibility of upgrading to a bigger space, I'd spent a lot of time thinking about different ways to inject money into the business (See? I hadn't completely lost the plot. I was still capable of thinking about things other than those two boys.)

The first idea was a loyalty program. Like, every ten albums purchased could result in a store credit or something. And maybe, we could give customers a free album on their birthday. I'd have to run the specifics over with Grunge, but I thought it was an idea worth pursuing.

The other idea had come to me when I was at the 5SOS show on Saturday night. We could stock local band merch. We could buy merchandise directly from local bands, and then sell it in store. The idea being that when fans came in to buy a t-shirt, they might also pick up a CD or two.

"Stella?" Louis poked his head into the small storeroom. "There's a customer out the front waiting to pay for something..."

"Has your weed habit resulted in you forgetting how to use the till?"

Louis rolled his clear blue eyes, "He asked for you specifically."

"It's not Zayn again, is it?"

Zayn was one incredibly hot customer that came into the store quite often. On paper he was perfect: good-looking, charming, had one hell of a voice - but boy did he know it. His level of cockiness definitely pushed him over the edge, making him the definition of a beautiful nightmare.

"Nah... not Zayn."

"Oh."

I was marginally curious and told Louis to finish up with the unpacking before I went out to the front. In his signature black skinny jeans, Luke was leaning against the counter. He was staring off into space - his tongue playing with his lip ring - and didn't notice me right away.

"Quiff boy," I said, standing behind the counter. "I haven't seen you in here for a while."

"Stella," he smiled. "Is that your way of saying you missed me?"

"Make sure you listen to track three. It's really good," I told him, taking The Offspring album from his hands and scanning the barcode on the back. "And no, I didn't miss you." Maybe just a touch.

"That would have hurt if I didn't think you were lying," Luke chuckled to himself softly as he handed over the cash to pay for the CD.

"Your ego is going to land you in trouble one day," I pointed out, trying to hide my smile. It was becoming impossible not to smile when I was around him.

"It already has," he winked, taking the store bag which now held his CD. "This is a really good song," he looked up, referring to The Smiths song that was playing in the shop.

I sang along, "So please, please please, let me get what I want." It was one of my favourites.

"What exactly do you want, Stella?" Luke bit into his lip again. I would have made fun of him for the constant habit had I not enjoyed it so much.

"I was just singing the song, you idiot."

"I know, you idiot. Now answer the question."

His blue eyes stared into mine like he was looking for a real answer. After thinking about it for a moment, I told him that I wanted a kitten. At first, I thought perhaps a puppy. Puppies were cute. They also seemed like a lot more work than a kitten.

"What do you want a kitten for?"

"Some company, I guess. Maybe I'll become one of those creepy ladies who live alone with twenty cats. And instead of talking to them, I'll play them all of my favourite albums." Great job, Stella. Make the cute boy think your life goal is to become crazy-cat-lady.

"Do you really live alone?" Luke seemed surprised. I suppose it was weird for someone my age to live completely alone. Most people I knew still lived with there parents, or with housemates.

"Yeah, for now anyway. My parents are off travelling the world," I shrugged, suddenly feeling a little awkward that I was telling him my life story.

"And you don't get lonely?"

"Not really. I have music, and Aunty Peg and these things - you may have heard of them - called friends."

Luke's eyes crinkled as he laughed, "Your sarcasm is going to land you in trouble one day."

"It already has," I winked and we burst into laughter again.

When Luke left the store, Louis came out of hiding and immediately started questioning me about "the cute boy who is clearly into you."

"What is this, high school? You're worse than my friend Olivia," I told him. "Just because a girl and a boy are friends, doesn't mean they like each other."

That night when I was making new mixed-CDs for the store, I found myself Googling 5 Seconds of Summer and to my surprise, they had an entire website. They even had an EP on iTunes which I decided to download so I could add both 18 and Amnesia onto the mixed CD to play at work tomorrow.

Before I shut the computer down, I sent my parents a bonus email for the week asking if I could get a kitten. I could already guess the answer was going to be a big fat no.