Liam sighed as he slid the record into it's alphabetical location. It was a record he wanted to purchase, but he couldn't afford it with the minimum wage he was making at the store and paying for his classes and food and everything else an adult was expected to accomplish. Don't get me wrong, Liam knew he was an adult now, that he was supposed to be taking care of himself, but he just didn't seem to understand the concept of being an adult. He certainly didn't seem like one: he dressed (and looked) like he should be in his junior year of high school, not his junior year of college. He wished he was still in high school, aside from living with his parents. Not an experience he ever wanted to talk about.
When Liam wasn't in school, he still lived with his parents back in New Jersey, a.k.a. hell. They would endlessly pester him about how he should have tried harder in high school, taken harder classes and gotten into a better college. The college he was going to wasn't even bad; he actually really liked it. It was away from his parents, it really wasn't that expensive. Sure, he would be paying back student loans for the rest of his life, but he would be doing that at any college he went to.
The bell of someone walking into the store woke him from the beginning of an existential crisis and he took a moment to carefully think of how to greet them. They were the first person into the store since... he was hired, I guess. He realized he has no idea how to even talk to customers. He always had an early morning shift, the one down side to working at the record store, although he has the pleasure of being alone for basically the whole shift. "Good morning" the customer said. 'Say good morning too. Easy as that, Liam.' "Goo-od morning..." He stuttered awkwardly. 'Good job, ya idiot.' He thought angrily, flipping through the albums like he had something to do. He glanced up at the clock to find that his shift should have been over fifteen minutes ago, but his replacement wasn't here yet. 'Just kill me, Charlie where the ******** are you?' He thought, almost praying for his co-worker to walk in the door right then so he could go to his dorm before his room mate.
After an embarrassing confrontation of the customer asking to purchase an album, Charlie finally showed. "Thanks a lot, ya d**k. Not like I had somewhere to be twenty minutes ago." He told Charlie angrily when the customer left. He quickly went out to his beat up, hardly working Volvo that was older than he was. He was astonished when he managed to drive the car all the way across the country three years ago with it only breaking down twice! The short car ride to the college campus was exhausting with his things in the passenger seat hitting loudly against the window or falling into his lap every time he turned.
Finally making it to the college, he lugged his few bags up to his dorm. It was the same dorm he had had the previous year and he was looking forward to having the same dorm mate. The guy he had roomed with had hardly spent any time in their room, which was a blessing for Liam. Upon unlocking the door to his dorm, he found that one of the rooms was already closed up and he assumed taken. He groaned as he dragged into his things into the other room and threw them unenthusiastically onto the empty bed. He went back to the other room and lightly knocked on the door. There was no answer and no noise coming from inside. "...Hello?" Also, no answer. He placed his hand gently on the door knob and turned it. It was locked. He sighed, knowing that he would have to wait to meet his room mate. He quickly left his dorm though, doing his newly annual analyzing of the freshman. He found amusement in looking at the their confused faces. He had once had the same face and yet he enjoyed theirs.
Overhearing a girl complain about how difficult all this was, he felt like it was his job as a newly upperclassman to help her out. "What's the fun in everything being easy?" He asked, looking at the same board she was before glancing over at the smaller woman. 'Great, you got one line out. Now what?" He tensed as he realized he probably couldn't even help her. He had spent hours looking for his dorm his first day at school, and even now, he didn't know any of the letters of the buildings but B. 'Play it cool, Liam. Try to introduce yourself.' "Hi. My name is Liam." He managed to get out. 'You sound like a kid desperate to make friends on his first day of school. Oh wait, you are.' He thought angrily to himself, feeling his cheeks grow warm.
((I don't know how this ended up being so long. The rest of my posts will probably be like half of this.))
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