alexander- a.t

11. saturday, november 2003

Luna didn't come into school at all the week after Halloween and it crippled Alex with fear because neither did Harry. He was worried at first that they had moved away or something but he had received a text from Harry saying to get all the psychology work for when he comes back.

It was his first day at work the first Saturday of November and what he didn't expect to see when he walked in was Luna Temple stood behind the counter, reading the back of a record. She looked up and her eyes widened.

"Alexander?" She asked. He walked towards her in confusion.

"Do you work here?" He asked. She nodded and his heart flushed with heat. It was enjoyably uncomfortable. "So do I." He pointed out and watched as it clicked in her head.

"You're the new lad?" She smiled slightly but he could see that something in her had changed.

"Yeah, I guess." He said quietly. It was silent between them for a moment before Victor came out of his office.

"Alex! Welcome to your first day! Luna could you show him the routine and what to do with everything? Do you have your paperwork?" He spoke quickly.

"Here." Alex handed him the papers. Victor took it with a sigh.

"I'll just go and run these through upstairs." He stared at the chunk of papers before running upstairs again, leaving the two together. It was silent again.

"Are you okay?" Alex couldn't help but ask. "You kind of disappeared." He pointed out, trying to meet her eyes but she refused. It looked as if she was trying to figure out what to say.

"My dad died." She said bluntly, meeting his eyes. Alex's heart dropped.

"I'm so sorry." He said automatically. She shook her head and walked out from behind the counter.

"It's okay. He had cancer, we knew he didn't have long but it still came as a shock." She explained. "Harry and I have been organising his funeral. It was yesterday." She added.

"Oh. How's your mum?" He asked, not being able to fathom one of his parents dying.

"Pretty wrecked. That's why we organised it all, to kind of not have it wreck her any further." She walked towards some records and he followed. "I don't really want to talk about it." She said, defeated. Alex nodded.

"Yeah. Could you show me around?" He asked. She gave him a gracious smile and nodded.

"So in the morning when you come in, you can put on whatever record you like as long as we agree." She eyed him, he smiled. "It's a lot about organising really. We get a lot of new records, CD's and tapes through every week and we have to put them out on a Saturday." She was very serious when she spoke. "Merchandising usually happens during the week so we don't have to do that but just make sure it looks nice you know?" She walked around as she spoke and Alex followed obediently. "Other than that just help out customers when they come in." She finished. Alex nodded.

"Cool."

"Vic might ask you do something once in a while like go and pick up a record from someone. We get a lot of people giving old records in now since they're going out of style but yeah that's not often that we have to pick them up. I've only done it like twice and I've worked here for a year." She explained.

"Got it."

"It'll be nice to have someone to talk to though when it's not busy." She looked up at him and smiled. He could see the sadness in her eyes.

"Yeah." He agreed. Luna walked back to the counter and sat on it. He followed her in and leant against it. "Lu, it's probably not relevant anymore but I've been wanting to apologise for the halloween party incident for a while now." He burst. She looked up at him and a sort of relief washed over her.