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CHAPTER TWO
half the world away
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TWO DAYS FELT like two hours and soon enough, Piper was clocking in once more at the Record Shop. There was a boy around her age, maybe a little younger, who came in a few minutes later in the same uniform, he seemed to be heaving as if he was running before coming in. His hair was blown back and his cheeks were flushed, Piper assumed he was running for a while.

"Sorry I'm late!" The boy stated as he rushed to the punching machine, there was a new ticket there waiting for him, Piper quickly read it before he grabbed it to clock in.

She clipped her name badge onto the chest pocket of her flannel. The new hire had a badge waiting for him on the counter, Jonah was his name. Piper pointed to the piece of plastic for him to grab.

"You're fine, I just got here too," Piper shrugged, walking over to the counter to set her stuff down in an empty bin on the floor that she snagged after unloading albums from it, "my names Piper, I'll be training you for the next couple of days, or at least until you feel comfortable."

Jonah nodded. His shoulders relaxed as he walked over. He had a look of wonder in his eyes, like he was finally discovering something, maybe the small "Behind the Scenes" anyone would feel when looking behind a register for the first time.

"We're going to be setting up an album display today for a new artist," Piper advised him as he set his stuff with hers in the box. She'll have to get him a new box since Ashton took his with him on his last day.

Piper led Jonah to the back room of the building where new shipments came in. The new display was labeled for her to drag out carefully. Jonah seemed to catch on and grabbed the second box and together, the two brought out everything they needed for set up.

There was a designated spot for new displays to sit so that they were properly advertising their artists. Piper had to hold herself back from falling into a robotic routine. She straightened up her posture after they set the boxes down.

"Okay, I'm not the best at this training thing, that was Ashton, so if I say something that doesn't make sense, stop me and ask," Piper instructed, "this is the designated spot for new album displays, most record labels send a foldable display case with the albums but sometimes they don't, we have an old foldable that we spray painted black years ago for those instances, apparently Interscope really loves this Oliver guy, so he comes with a display."

"Oh okay, will you show me where stuff like that is at some point today?" Jonah asked as the two began to open the boxes.

"Yeah, of course," Piper nodded, "I'll show you everything that I know, Mr. Weissman wants you to learn everything that has to do with close, so I have a feeling he's bumping me to opening shift once everyone feels that you're ready to close on your own."

It was quiet after that, save for the playlist that Piper had queued over the speakers when she got in. She showed Jonah the instructions that always come with the display and the two slowly but surely finished the display. Piper tasked Jonah with stocking the albums as she got onto the computer next to the register, deciding to make a training guide for him to make sure she wouldn't miss anything.

She passed the photo of Ashton on the wall when she did this, "Employee of the Month: April" sat proudly on a plaque underneath it. Before he quit to be in the band full time, the two had a friendly competition to see who could earn the title more than the other. Ashton was still winning by a narrow number, but Piper knew that she could surpass him, she had already earned the title for the past three months, granted she had been the only employee since Ashton left. A small smile graced her face as she looked up at his one last time.

"He looks familiar," Jonah spoke up, his gaze was on Ashton's photo, his eyes squinted like it was on the tip of his tongue.

"You know 5 Seconds of Summer?" Piper asked as she sat by the laptop, pulling up a word document, quickly typing away as Jonah seemed to be searching his brain.

It was like saying the bands name out loud summoned them, She Looks So Perfect started playing over the store speakers. Piper pointed up, making Jonah realize who he was listening to.

"Ashton is the drummer," She explained.

"Oh!" Jonah exclaimed, "I didn't realize that the underwear guys were from here, that's so cool, are you close?"

"Yeah, they're some of my bestfriends," Piper paused, "I'm sorry— did you call them The Underwear Guys?"

Jonah flushed a little bit as Piper began to laugh. She grabbed her phone, pulling up her group chat with the boys, they had to hear about this.

piper
guys, you wont believe what the
new hire just called your band,
I'm tearing up i'm laughing so hard.

penguin boy
omg what did he call us

piper
THE UNDERWEAR GUYS

she looks so perfect is way more
popular than you guys thought it
was going to be.

cal
are you bragging about
us to your new coworker

ash
awe piper how sweet of you

piper
no, u losers, ashtons
stupid photo is like, PLASTERED
on the wall bc of mr. weissman

btw ash im about to beat
your record next month.

ash
that's what you think

piper
??? you don't work here
anymore ?? im beating you

ash
sure pal

piper
get a life, mate x

cal
youre the one texting
your friends instead of working

new hire is gonna get the plaque by default

piper
i'm rolling my eyes at you

but ily guys, please send more pics!
im enjoying them all and my mom
likes to be updated, i'll text you all later

Piper got a range of "goodbyes" and "goodnights" paired with "love you too's" before she set her phone back down and focused on the guide. She was a pretty fast typer, so she was a page into everything she knew when Jonah approached her.

"Is there anything else we do with the display?" Jonah asked.

"No, we just break down the boxes they come in and leave them out back for pickup, I'll show you that in a minute, let me finish up this sentence." Piper advised him, "When we go to do stuff like that, always make sure the register is covered, or you have to lock it all down."

Jonah nodded.

"People don't normally see Mr. Weismann's shop as an easy cash grab considering the location, but on occasion there's a tourist who thinks they're slick," Piper explained, "they're easy to spot, and considering it's the vacation season, I can probably point a few out to you today."

She stood up from the stool and knocked on Mr. Weismann's door behind her. He was pretty quick in coming down.

"I'm going to show Jonah some stuff in the back and I didn't want to shut everything down yet, if you could also look at what I'm working on here, I would like your input," Piper told her boss, he only nodded as he occupied the spot Piper was just in.

The two walked around and gathered the empty boxes and went to the backroom, in the back of that, was a glowing exit sign that led to the alley being the strip mall that the shop sat in. Piper propped the door open so that the two had easy access back into the building. There was a large bin next to the dumpster that was reserved for broken down boxes.

"I don't want to pry on your life since I just met you, but can I ask you a personal question?" Jonah asked.

Piper perked and eyebrow as she stomped on a box.

"What is it?"

"You seemed really close with the band, why didn't you go one tour with them?"

Piper had stuttered in her step when she went to stomp down another box. The miscalculated step had her sliding right onto her butt. She wanted to laugh at how dumb that probably looked, but she instead quickly recovered, and got up as if it didn't even happen.

"Uh, well there's a lot of reasons, they left while I was still in school, they had dropped out a good few years ago, on top of that, the record is only paying for their hotels and stuff like that and while they're making good money now, it wasn't the case back then, so a long story short, things didn't align properly for me to join them, and even then, considering Luke had a girlfriend at the time, if anyone was going to be able to join them on tour, it would've been her."

"Well that sucks, but maybe it was for the best," Jonah shrugged as they finished the last of the boxes, "Who know what close, daily proximity would've done to your friendships, speaking as a guy, we get pretty gross."

"Yeah," Piper chuckled, "And they're really nasty sometimes."

Jonah joined her in laughing softly, the two of them heading back for the building. There were so many things that Piper needed to show him, she had to remember to pace herself. The poor kid would need time to remember everything she showed him.

Realization struck the back of her mind as if her subconscious had been working on the problem the whole time. Piper wasted no time in pulling her phone out as she entered the front room of the shop, standing next to Mr. Weissman with her eyebrows furrowed.

She went straight to Luke's contact, despite him and Michael hating each other for a year, they grew immensely close after. In fact, Luke was the closest person to him behind Piper. At least that's what she had previously thought.

The words practically appeared on her screen without her even realizing that she typed them. Her heart in her throat as she nervously pressed send.

piper
is Michael, like, ignoring me? please be honest,

I haven't heard from him in three months.

Piper had no idea what time it was wherever he was so she had no expectation for him to respond, she was willing to wait if it meant Luke gave it to her straight. She already knew the answer, but she can't help but put herself in a state of denial and delusion. She needed help from Luke to get a well over due reality check.

And she hoped that he would put her out of her misery and do it soon.

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IN PIPERS ROOM, she found herself playing her keyboard, an unknown melody that had been stuck in her mind was now being heard out loud as she struck the keys. The words were hard to find, so she didn't sing.

Instrumentals and melodies were more her thing, Michael and Luke were better with the lyrics. Even then, none of the songs they made together every went to the studio, or even their respective YouTube channels.

Piper hasn't uploaded a video in a couple years, she had practically abandoned her channel to help Luke build his. She didn't mind, her channel was going nowhere since all she did was post vlogs and her covers weren't at Luke's level.

A knock on the door had Piper looking over her shoulder to see Gwen entering her room. Confused, she stood up.

"Hey, sorry, your mum let me in," Gwen spoke up, "was wanting to know if you would be willing to hang out for a few hours while I avoid my dad."

"Oh course, make yourself comfortable, sorry that my room isn't cleaner, I was at work all day and I haven't had time to work on it," Piper explained her cluttered room, it wasn't as bad as Luke or Ashton's rooms, but there was definitely more laundry that should be put away that's just laying around the room.

"Oh this is fine, my room is much worse," Gwen shrugged as she plopped down on Pipers beanbag chair in the corner of the room, "what was that song you were playing? I've never heard it before."

"Oh that's because I made it up, it's only the melody and some improvisation though."

"Oh okay! Do you have any words for it yet?" Gwen asked.

"No, not really, lyrics were never my forte, though I wonder..."

Piper walked back over to the keyboard, the melody was meant to be in the context of a heartbroken ballad, and a few words came to mind when she thought of that. She took a seat, her mind focusing on timing the words properly with the notes of the melody.

"I know you're tryin to make it
And I don't know what to think
I can't escape this pain, I'm drowning in it
My heart is aching, tears falling bit by bit."

Piper continued on with the improvisation of her instrumental but when she finished, she pulled out her old song book and wrote down the lyrics, using a small line over each of the words to tell her future self how the notes should be sang.

"Wow," was all Gwen said, "why didn't you join that band?"

"I don't like performing in front of large crowds, plus being in the band like that would've been too much at the time," Piper shrugged.

"Was that about someone?" Gwen asked, she had a chuckle in her throat, "That almost felt personal."

Just like that, there wasn't anymore awkwardness between the two, Piper wished she remained close with Gwen after the boys left but at least she was with the girl now.

"No, it just came out," Piper shrugged, she thought back to the reason why Gwen was here, "Has it got bad with your dad again?"

"Yeah, he was set off by drying dishes this time," Gwen sighed, "Apparently my brothers and are supposed to dry them the second they come out of the sink."

"Do you just want to stay the night?" Piper offered, "I have clothes you can sleep in."

"That'd be nice."

"Okay, well I do have work tomorrow but you're free to hang out here as long as you want," Piper smiled as she got up and turned off the keyboard, walking over to her dresser to get some clothes for Gwen, it looked like the girls were the same size, "but if you leave and my mom is also out, just make sure to lock the door behind you."

Gwen nodded, a thank you was mumbled as she accepted the clothes, it seemed that she was desperate for a subject change. Piper was always extra aware of the fact that Gwen didn't know how to accept kindness and never took it to heart if she didn't say "thank you" immediately. That just wasn't her, she always did something or gave something in return to show her appreciation.

The night was still relatively young and Piper didn't want Gwen to think of her house too seriously. She resorted to pulling the girl downstairs to raid the freezer that she restocked. Gwen seemed keen on getting a good number of scoops from the chocolate tub. Piper was in the same boat as her.

"So I had a couple ideas for your birthday," Gwen spoke up after another spoonful.

"Oh, interesting," Piper raised her eyebrows as she sat back on the island counter, slowly kicking her feet.

"How do you feel about going on a pub crawl?" Gwen asked, "it would give you a chance to see what spots you like outside of the boys performing, and now, the bartenders will actually serve you the good stuff."

Piper chuckled at Gwen's air quotes, nodding as she thought about the idea more. It wouldn't be her first sip of alcohol, the amounts of wine she's shared with her mum and shitty beer Michael was able to sneak out of his dads fridge was more than enough for her to get an idea of a base for the taste palette she had.

"That sounds fun, it would be nice to go to the city," Piper replied, "should we borrow my mum's car?"

"No, my mum helped me buy one, it's in the shop right now but I'll be picking it up in a couple days," Gwen replied, "plus I have a friend out in the city, so if it comes down to it, we can stay with him for a night and drive back."

"Okay cool, what part of Sydney were you thinking?"

"I was actually thinking of going up to the Rocks, they have a lot of pubs close together, and the friend has a flat there."

Piper realized the amount of thought Gwen had already put into this, it brought a sense of warmth through her as she observed her friend take another scoop of the ice cream. She never stopped to realize that she could receive this kind of care outside of the band. Piper glanced over at Gwen to see that she was waiting expectantly for something.

"Oh! The Rocks is great, I would love to go," Piper felt her face flush, "Thank you, Gwen, I really appreciate you."

Gwen shrugged before taking Piper's now empty bowl and repeating her actions at the sink.

"Do you want to invite anyone else?"

"No, your the only person I'm close with besides my boss," Piper chuckled.

Gwen laughed and stepped away when Piper hopped down from the counter. After she started the dishwasher, the girls headed to the living room, getting ready to watch a few movies. Piper may have work tomorrow, but she didn't want to throw away her time with Gwen. She that the girl wasn't going anywhere, but there was something about her that brought Piper a sense of energy, it was something she hadn't felt in a while and she wanted to hold onto it for as long as she could until she falls asleep.

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3k words

HELLO!!! ANOTHER CHAPTER!!

the 5SOS brainrot is real, piper and michael consume my thoughts fr.

but i'm so excited to introduce some more characters in the next few chapters!!! hopefully you guys enjoy them as much as I do!!

— greta!