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Chapter 55 - Harry

                                                                 55.  

                                                           ●•Harry•●

As the usual lately, the store was crowded, and Joe – fortunately – didn’t have enough time to “keep an eye” on me as he always does. As if I needed him around to look after my work. He just can’t let go of me, can he? Honestly, I’m starting to think he may envy me or something, because seriously, through the past years he always finds a way of criticizing me for whatever it is.

I couldn’t care less, though. There are so many people around, so many asking for help, or even suggestions, that I can’t afford caring about his presence. Joe has always been insignificant, to be fair. He’s just a huge pain-in-the-ass I’ve learnt to deal with since I signed for this job. And it’s not like I’m going to stay here much longer, anyways. Soon enough I’ll be done with uni and I’ll finally be able to properly work with music. And I mean music itself, not only selling CD’s and DVD’s or whatever.

Once I was done helping some lady trying to find the album she wanted for her daughter’s friend (which led me to hear a whole story about the birthday party being too soon, the girl not warning her in time to think about something good to give, and many other mother-like complaints I barely paid attention to), I showed her the way to the counter, sighing in relief once I was free of the need to make small talking.

On my way back to between the several rows of CD’s, I bumped into someone, already apologizing when I realized that dark brown hair and that small body was not unfamiliar. Actually, before I could even get to her face, I was already smiling, taking her in my arms for a hug.

“Charlieeee,” I trailed off, watching as she tried her best to get rid of my grip so that she could hug me back. “What are you doing here?” was the first thing I asked after putting her back on the floor, signalizing for her to follow me while I walked as away as possible from Joe.

“Good to see you too, Haz. And, well, I came here because of you. It’s been a while you don’t call, sometimes I even get to wonder if we’re still friends,” she said, sadly smiling, and for a second, I felt guilty. I never meant to act as if I’d completely forgotten her, but I’ve been so out of this world that I didn’t even realize how much I’m leaving behind.

“I’m so sorry, Charlie. You know I don’t mean to, right?” she nodded at my words, and then my gaze focused on someone behind her, walking around the store confusedly, obviously looking for something he couldn’t find. Which reminded me: I was still at work. “Hey, can you pretend you’re actually searching something? I need to at least pretend I’m doing my job,” I whispered, half smiling at her as she nodded again, laughing.

“Harry Styles can’t even work properly, shame on you,” Charlie mocked, turning around and faking an interest on some particular albums, looking through them and staring at me as if she had a real doubt. “So, what have you been doing lately?”

“You know, stuck between here, home and uni. My life is not exactly what people call interesting,” I said simply with a shrug of my shoulders. It was true, after all. My whole life was based on those three places, except from the few days when I decided to get out of my routine. And those were really few.

Like Saturday with Davie, Leigh and Mark. Which, by the way, was a funny day. Mark and I didn’t really come back from the bar as soon as we thought we would, and later, Davie and Leigh nearly killed us. Davie was worried about our safety, freaking out because he honestly thought something had happened to us. Leigh, on the other hand, was damn pissed, cursing the whole world ‘cause Mark and I had disappeared with her best friend’s car.