I suggested that we go get pizza, but Ashton had something else in mind. Ashton's grand idea was taking me to an old music shop downtown, to show me what "good music" really was.
We entered the store, the smell of old records and albums filling the air, something I had never experienced before. It was all so interesting and I had to stop walking and take a moment to just look around, even though I had no idea what exactly I was looking at. Ashton was already making his way to the back of the store, and once I snapped out of my daze I followed closely behind him, not wanting to get lost in an unfamiliar place like this.
"Okay, this is the part where I introduce you to some good music." Ashton stood in front of me, fidgeting a little as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other.
"I'm perfectly fine with the music I listen to now." I said, and bit down on my lip.
"You won't be saying that when we're done here." Ashton laughed. He walked back even further, passing by racks and racks of CDs until he found what he was looking for.
"Let's start with this." He picked up a stack of CDs and handed them all to me. "The Killers. My favorite band of all time. You can listen to them as much as you like, but don't let them become your favorite band. They're mine."
"What kind of music is this?" I asked, mainly speaking about the genre. The Killers sounded like kind of a scary name to me, I didn't want Ashton to force me into buying some screamo-punk music without me knowing.
"Good music, Murphy!" Ashton exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air. He grabbed my shoulders and turned me around, leading me through more racks of CDs. Every once and a while he would stop and pick up an album, adding it to the growing pile in my hands.
"I'm assuming I'm paying for all of this?" I rolled my eyes.
"I'm certainly not. Don't you have daddy's credit card?" Ashton laughed. He searched through more CDs and pulled one out, putting in on the top of the stack in my hands. "Vampire Weekend. You definitely need to listen to them."
This continued for a long time. Ashton giving me CDs and music recommendations and me not having a say in any of it. I didn't mind, though, because even though Ashton was being pushy and a little rude I was breaking him open bit by bit, and that's exactly what I wanted. The second he walked into this shop his whole mood changed, he seemed to turn into a whole other person. It was crazy, how he changed so fast. But instead of sitting here and gawking at him I decided that I was going to use this to my advantage.
"Green Day. You've listened to Green Day, right?" Ashton asked, handing me yet anther CD.
"I've heard a couple songs on the radio." I shrugged. I honestly wasn't a big fan of music, I hardly ever even listened to it unless I was listening to the radio in the car, which I hardly even got to do anymore.
"Christ, Murphy." Ashton shook his head at me. "Your first assignment is to listen to Jesus of Suburbia and tell me what you think. We can talk about that at the bus stop on Monday morning."
"Assignment? I thought you were suggesting some new music for me, I didn't think you would be assigning me songs to listen to." I questioned.
"Just listen to the damn song." Ashton groaned, running his fingers through his hair
"So you like music, huh?" I ignored him and asked this instead, setting down all of the CDs I had collected on a nearby table.
"Music is great. It's a good way to escape from all the shit going on in the world." Ashton shrugged.
"You never listen to music while we're waiting for the bus." I noted, coming to that realization for the first time. Ashton could easily just plug in a pair of headphones and tune me out, but he never did.
