THE RECORD SHOP ⋆ 𝗱𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝗵𝗹

one

NOV 30 1990. OLYMPIA, WASHINGTON

EVIE WORKS EVERY weekend from 10am to 5pm at Riot Records in Olympia. The shop has been owned and ran by her dad for almost 10 years and since she was 12 years old she's been behind the counter selling records too. She loves her job, it allows her to meet some of the sweetest and most interesting people, and she pretty much just gets to sit around and listen to music all day long. It beats an office or school, that's for sure.

It's 9:50am when she unlocks the door, the bells ringing as it swings open. Lights on, bag behind the counter, turn on register, turn on turntable, light some incense and start the day. It's her usual routine and it is followed by picking out a record to spin to begin the shift.

Today it's Low by the one and only, Bowie to start the day off right. It's just on 10am and Speed of Light is playing throughout the store when the first customer comes in. It's a young girl who looks around the age of 11. Little kids are usually her favourite customers because she is always interested to see what they pick out.

The little girl after walking around the store for 10 minutes makes her way towards the counter with a smile on her face and record and cash in hand.

"Hey, whatcha got here?" Evie asks, taking ahold of the record and examining it. The Cure, she's impressed.

"Disintegration. The Cure," the little girl proudly states.

"Very good choice. The Cure are amazing, is this your favourite album of theirs?" she continues making conversation as she rings up the record.

"I think this album is my favourite at the moment. It changes everyday but and I already have Seventeen Seconds and Kiss me on vinyl," she tells.

"I'm the same way, I can never pick a favourite," Evie smiles as she hands the little girl her record in a brown paper bag.

"Thanks a lot," she says, flashing a big smile before walking out of the store.

It was a nice way to start her day. She reaches into her bag and grabs out her sketchbook, she usually passes her time at work by drawing, reading or browsing the records. At the moment she's working on a small strip for the local magazine that she also works for. It's called Society 90 magazine and every month she draws up a comic strip, takes some photos of local bands and writes up a live music column. Initially she started working for them earlier this year due to the payment of getting into gigs for free, but now she gets that and also a little bit of cash to get her by. She doesn't need the money, but it's a nice bonus. She sketches her idea for a strip works on it through the morning.

Around 12:00pm her good friend and workmate Josh comes in to work his 12-3pm shift. He can only work a few hours every weekend, but he needs the money for rent and for stuff for his band, so she convinced her dad to give him some shifts.

"Hey Evie, how you doing?" He asks upon walking on over to give her a hug.

"Hello Joshua, I'm alright, and yourself?" She says.

"Yeah yeah, I'm doing well."

"Pick an album to put on after this one ends, I think it's only got a couple of songs left," she tells him, and he nods before walking around the front to flick through the rows of records. He pulls a few and brings them back to the counter to get her opinion.

"Okay, I can't decide so you choose. Options are The Pixies, Surfer Rosa, The Modern Lovers self titled or Plastic Ono Band," he lists them off.

"Go Modern Lovers, I'm in a mood for them at the moment, but we'll work through them by the end of your shift. Next we'll do Lennon then Pixies until 3," Evie decides.

"I love the way you think, great idea," he states. By this time the previously playing Hendrix record has finished and so Josh puts on the new one. They end up making conversation all through out the shift, serving customers in between. He tells her that his band, Bad Luck, are planning on recording in the new year and they've got heaps of gigs lined up.

"We've got a gig tonight actually. 8 o'clock at the Hideaway, you should come," he invites her, and since she has no plans for the night she agrees.

"Yeah? That sounds cool. I've got to take some photos and write up a column for the magazine this month anyway, so that will work well. I'll call Ben and let him know," she tells him. Ben is the owner of Society 90 and she usually runs these things by him, just to keep him in the loop.

She dials Ben's number into the telephone and waits on the ringing line.

"Hey, Ben speaking," he answers.

"Hey Benny it's Evie, just wanted to run something by you," she says.

"Oh for sure, what's up?" he asks.

"I'm going to a gig tonight at the Hideaway, a few local bands are playing umm," she looks to Josh to fill in on who else is playing besides his band.

"Well - us, Alchemy, Howl and Nirvana," he says and she repeats the bands back to Ben.

"Oh yeah that sounds sweet, call me on Monday and let me know how your photos turned out and what your thoughts are. I've got to go, but I'll talk to you then, thanks Evie," he says.

"No worries, thanks Ben, later," she says hanging up.

3 o'clock rolls around, Surfer Rosa ends and Josh leaves. It's been a pretty quiet day so she thinks of closing up around 4 instead of 5.

It's about 3:30pm when the tall, lanky guy with long dark brown hair who's been frequenting the store walks in. He's wearing a long sleeved black t-shirt and some blue jeans. He's familiar as he comes in almost every Saturday. She doesn't know his name, but what she does know is that he has a good taste in music and is very cute.

"Hey," he says smiling as he walks in. He looks around for 5 minutes before walking to the counter empty handed.

"Hi, I was just wondering if you guys had Surfer Rosa, I've looked but I can't find it anywhere," he asks.

"Oh yeah, we do actually," she replies walking to the other end of the counter and picking up the record which her and Josh had been spinning earlier.

"I was playing it before so it was behind the counter," she informs him.

"Oh right, thank you," he says, pulling out his wallet.

"Uh that's just $20," she responds as she slips it into a brown paper bag for him and places it on the counter. He gets out a $50 bill and hands it to her and she passes him back the change.

"Thanks, I'll see you next time I guess," he says, tucking his hair behind his ear.

"Yeah, see you later," Evie smiles.

He looks at her for a moment longer before turning on his heel and walking out of the store and she watches as he walks out of sight up the street before letting out the breath she had been holding. Ugh, she reminds herself mentally to stop falling in love and romanticising every single attractive guy that comes into the shop.