Once I left the Davies’s house I didn’t feel like going home so I drove back into town; stopping outside the small music shop in town; Chaos. It sold a very small array of instruments but there was actually a fairly good supply of CDs and things. I walked through, flipping through the myriad of CD cases that lay around in racks that weren’t organized anymore. The woman who owned it was named Dot and she had moved down from New York with her daughter Jamie. Jamie was a year older than me and was pretty much known as the town dyke. Dyke. Why did that word bother me so much? It never had before. But now it almost seemed offensive. In Brittany being gay just wasn’t accepted but she bore it rather well. Once people realized that she wasn’t interested in fighting or even really debating about her sexual preference they laid off a lot. I’d talked to her a couple of times but we’d never exactly been close. She was working the counter now and I found myself weirdly interested in her. Not in a sexual way; at all but I wanted to know about her. I found myself staring at her as I made my way slowly through the store. I thought I was being sly with it but apparently I wasn’t because she shocked me a few minutes later.

                “Can I help you?” She asked, an amused smile covering her face.

                “No,” I answered, suddenly flustered as I tried to put a CD back on top of a case and ended up knocking over the whole stack. My face was instantly covered in a blush as I dropped to my knees, so embarrassed I could hardly even look at her.

                “Spencer! Calm down, seriously!” She laughed, grabbing my hands from where they were attempting to pick up all of the spilled CDs. I yanked my hands back from her grasp, making her raise an eyebrow.

                “I’m sorry!” I cried out; not sure what I was apologizing for as she began to gather all of the CDs up.  

                “It’s not a problem, really. You seem really nervous are you okay?” She asked, carrying the stack of CDs to the front desk and dropping them on the counter.