Mixtape - Side A || Shawmila [Completed]

Side A

It was an early spring afternoon, and like any teenager, Olivia had no desire to do her homework. Why should she spend her time with her head buried in books when she could spend her afternoon doing anything else? At sixteen, the world seemed limitless, but when you're locked inside the house as punishment for ignoring curfew, ideas for killing time become scarce.

So, determined to continue her rebellious phase, which is reserved for every self-respecting teenager, the girl had firmly resolved to find a new pastime, preferably something she could do inside her room. She had spent at least half an hour lying on her bed, staring at the ceiling, racking her brain to come up with a new hobby. For a split second, she had almost decided to open her math book, but it was a fleeting thought that had crossed her mind like a bolt of lightning, quickly dissipating without a trace.

Finally, she came up with a brilliant idea: to wallpaper the walls of her room with a myriad of photos. She wouldn't limit herself to printing the ones saved on her phone; in fact, Olivia had a grand project that involved collecting as many shots as possible, including some of her parents.

Driven by curiosity, she headed to their room and dragged a chair to the closet, climbing on top of it to reach the dozens of old shoeboxes her mother used as time capsules. The boxes were dusty, and the girl feared she would be attacked by a spider that had undisturbedly taken ownership of the containers until that moment.

She began rummaging through them, a smile on her face as she admired photo after photo. There were all kinds: family vacation snapshots, stolen shots from her childhood, the first day of school, Christmas in the snow, the day she was born... Olivia would never admit it out loud, but those images were moving her. She was only sixteen, but she felt like she had lived a thousand other lives since the last time she had ridden on her dad's shoulders or let her mom style her hair.

Overwhelmed by nostalgia, she continued searching for more memories until she stumbled upon a box she had never seen before. It looked at least twenty years old, and the layer of dust covering it indicated that it hadn't been opened in a long time. There was nothing more exciting than snooping around something off-limits. Inside, Olivia found pictures that painted a picture of her mother as a young woman, during her high school and college years. There were also a few letters and a couple of postcards, but they faded into the background when she noticed a rather unusual object: a pair of vintage headphones hanging from a cassette player. Inside was a cassette that seemed to have been hand-recorded by someone. It took her only a couple of minutes to figure out how to operate the device, and then she immediately started listening.

The recording began with a boy's voice. It was a young voice, but sweet and deep. The tone was playful, but there was a hint of emotion in the words the boy was speaking.

Olivia understood that it was something extremely personal, and deep down she knew she shouldn't continue prying into matters that didn't concern her. One of her big flaws, however, was curiosity, which often pushed her to exceed the limits imposed on her and break the rules she should have followed. So, sitting on the floor surrounded by hundreds of photos, Olivia continued listening to the tape.

It didn't last long; it only contained six songs, but they were always introduced by the same voice, which explained in a couple of sentences why each song was chosen. Olivia listened to every second of the recording but, completely absorbed, she didn't hear her mother calling her insistently. When she burst into the room, the woman was already visibly annoyed by her daughter's indifference, so when she noticed what Olivia was listening to, she lost her patience. She snatched the cassette player from the girl's hands and didn't wait to hear her pathetic apologies before yelling at her to go back to her room.

Olivia would have never expected such a reaction from her mother, who was usually very understanding. Of course, lately, the girl knew she had pushed her parents' limits a bit too far, but her mother had never yelled at her before. She remained holed up in her room for a while, mulling over her behavior and trying to convince herself that her mother had overreacted. In the end, she decided to apologize, even though it was difficult for her to admit her mistakes.

She found her mother where she had left her, sitting on the bed in her room, listening to the cassette again. Her eyes were teary, and a shy smile appeared on her face. She seemed completely immersed in memories. Olivia knocked on the open door and waited to have her mother's attention before speaking. "I'm sorry, Mom, I shouldn't snoop through your things."

The woman sighed but still smiled at her. "Come here," she patted the bed next to her. "And I'm sorry for yelling at you. I panicked when I saw you with this in your hands," she said, waving the cassette player. "I had forgotten about its existence, and obviously, I didn't expect my daughter to find it."

"Were you hiding it?"

The woman shook her head. "No, but a lot has happened since it was given to me."

Olivia tried to read her mother's face. She couldn't describe the emotions coursing through her. "Would you like to talk about it?"

"About the cassette?"

Olivia shrugged. "Yes, about the story behind it. I'd like to know... but don't feel obligated if you don't want to," she quickly added.

Olivia's mother looked at her with an inquisitive gaze. "You've already listened to the whole thing, haven't you?" Olivia bit her lip and nodded, her face contorted in a grimace of apologies. The woman chuckled. "Of course, what a pointless question." Then she sighed. "Alright, you might as well know the whole story."