"He should be upstairs...he's been working here for a little while, but since he's underage, he doesn't get to do too much." I say as I climb the stairs, with Chris and Gina behind me. The stairs are stone and the wall smooth as I run my hand across it as we climbed up, lights flashing to the pulse of the music on the floor.


"What is this place anyway?" Gina asks, pointing up the stairs and eyeing the bottom floor. She stops mid-step to examine a poster of her favorite band, Ludo, on the staircase wall.


"Just some modernized, everywhere-you-look CD shop. You can find it almost anywhere here." I reply, peeking around the corners of the shelves on the top floor, looking for Brody. I spot him listening to one of the CD's with some headphones on, completely oblivious to the fact that his boss is just around the corner.


"Wait here." I say, smiling as I walk up behind him, pull his headphones down to his neck, wrap my arms around his waist and whisper, "Hey, slacker." to the back of his neck. He turns around, tilts my chin up, and kisses me. "Hey beautiful. I missed you," he smiles, then turns to see Chris and Gina, "I see you brought friends. I'm Brody."


"I'm Chris, and-"


"I'm Gina. We came up to see Remy this summer, since it's been so long."
Gina was always the assertive one when it came to making my boyfriends know her place in my life.


"Right, yeah. Remy told me you were coming...I've just been so busy-"


"Listening to," I inspect the cover of the CD in the CD player, "Dashboard Confessional?" I tease him, then let my body fold into his side as he slides his arm around my waist.


"Yeah, they're actually pretty good. The boss asked me to listen to some of this stuff because I'm 'young' and 'hip' and all that stuff. If he isn't planning on getting involved with the music, why does he insist on running this place? Seems messed up to me."


I laugh. "Okay, okay, enough. Wanna go grab something to eat? You guys must be starving, and exhausted. We could head out the Starbucks. It's only about a 5 minute walk from here." Chris nods and Gina admits she's sick of airport food, so we head out.


At Starbucks, Gina and I get a Caramel Frappuccino, Brody gets the regular coffee, and Chris decides just to get some water, since he slept more than he should have on the plane. I swirl the whip cream around with my straw until half of it dissolves into the coffee, and Brody slips my hand into his under the table. It isn't that I feel awkward around my two best friends, it's that things are so different here, and I'm sure they've changed just as much back in the States. Brody saves me.


"So I here you're from Round Rock, right? I have a friend who moved back there a couple of years ago. Maybe you know him. Tyler Moore?" he asks.


"I don't know him. You aren't from the States though, are you?" asks Chris. He looks settled but still slightly uneasy, like he was still trying to recognize me.


"Haha, no- did the accent tip you off, mate?" he smiles his crooked smile. "I'm from Austrailia. Moved here about three years ago."


The rest of the hour goes smoothly, Chris and Brody talking about sports, and Gina and I catching up on the latest news back home and gossiping about old friends and everyone else. When it gets dark, we head out to the city night life scene, taking in all the lights and streets where no one sleeps.
***