ambivalence ☆ // awsten knight

☆ prologue ☆

☆

working at a record store wasn't what margot had planned to do with her music management degree, but she liked it well enough. besides the rare stuck-up customer who lectured her on their beatles collection, most of their customers were pretty cool and a few of them were around her age, which was nice considering her only interaction with people outside of work was her best friend/roommate.

plus, when they got to do cool stuff like hosting in-stores, the perks were worth it. she got to handle the planning and setup of most of them, which usually meant she got to meet the artists they were organizing the event for. despite being in L.A., the store was tiny, so most of the bigger ones got the opportunity before them, so when they were chosen, it was sick.

margot was sorting through new arrivals in the back when her manager came up, waving a flyer in his hand. she looked up at him, but he was clearly waiting for her to ask what it was, a giddy look on his face.

she sighed, giving in, "what's the flyer for, flynn?"

"another in-store! it'll be in two weeks, but the exciting part is that it's for my favorite artist!" flynn cheered.

margot peered down at the flyer, skipping past all of the date and time details, to where the artists name was in bold letters at the bottom. awsten knight? she'd never heard of him, but she wasn't going to let flynn know that.

"oh... him! wow! that's exciting." she mustered up fake enthusiasm. from the look flynn was giving her, he was seeing right through her. she smiled sheepishly.

"cut the shit, hawthorne. i don't care if you don't know him. all i ask is that you at least listen to his new release before he shows up here. if you ruin this for me, i will fire you." flynn glared at her.

"no you won't." margot taunted.

"no i won't. unfortunately, you're one of the only ones here who can help plan our events." he sighed, running a hand through his hair.

flynn was a pretty decent boss. he was only in his thirties, so he at least got some of her references to things, and they had a pretty similar music taste. plus, he let her get away with a lot, considering she did the most work out of all the employees.

she smiled up at him, "don't worry, i'll make this our best in-store yet! i'm almost done with sorting these out," she gestured to the records spread out over the table, "and then i'll start doing some research and printing out more flyers. when is the guy going to announce the event?" she asked, knowing she couldn't put the flyers up until then anyways.

"probably tomorrow, so just be prepared to hang them when you come in for your shift." flynn replied. she saluted him mockingly and he rolled his eyes at her before returning to the front to work the register.

she looked down at the flyer again. there was nothing on it that indicated what kind of music he made or even a picture of him, so she would actually have to do some research for this. shit. she tried to do the bare minimum when possible.

margot checked her phone, realizing her shift was almost over, so she quickly scanned the flyer and printed out a handful of copies, sliding them into her locker. on her way out, she waved to flynn and the highschooler manning the register, deciding not to say anything because she hadn't learned the kids name yet. whoops.

margot hurried to get home. she wanted to have the event planned as early as possible to make sure that nothing went wrong, so she had a lot of work to do.

☆

two weeks later

margot sighed, running a hand through her auburn hair. she fucked up and only got two hours of sleep the night before because she was binging one of her favorite tv shows. now, she had to work this event on little sleep, and deal with the screaming of a bunch of teenagers. don't get her wrong, she loved concerts and screaming at concerts, but she was so damn tired.