wednesday, november 18th

Rain rattled the windows of the record shop, almost flooding the sewers, keeping most people inside.

Well, Beth was working her usual wednesday-evening shift, reorganizing the shelves. Some smartass had put all the copies of the Footloose soundtrack in the middle of Metallica, and now she had to restock all of them.

She heard the door open and the little bell ringing. Who the hell would want to go shopping in this weather?

"Sorry, we're closing in fifteen minutes." She shouted over her shoulder, not seeing who it was.

"Do you have the new Beth Parker works too much -album?" A familiar voice asked.

Beth turned around, seeing Robin standing in front of her. "Robin!"

"Hey." The freckle-faced girl smiled. "So, do you have the album?"

"Sorry to disappoint." Beth sarcastically said. "And I don't work too much, okay?"

"Okay, you do. You have like three shifts a week, and school." Robin said.

"Well..." Beth moved a pile of records to the other side. "Maybe." She checked the time. Almost six o'clock. "Do you think that Jeremy would be pissed if I closed early?"

Robin shook her head. "It's only like, ten minutes 'til your actual closing time."

"Okay, I'll do it. I doubt that anyone would come here tonight anyways."

Beth put the left over records to the desk, and went to grab her stuff from the backroom.

Robin followed her, looking around the staffs dressing room. "This is so clean." She sighed.

"Much cleaner than the staff rooms at the movie theater."

"Right, you worked there last year." Beth put on her coat, and passed Robin to go close the front door.

She flipped the 'open' sign to 'closed' and locked the door from inside.

Once she and Robin were out of the back door, Beth locked that aswell and stuffed the keys to her pocket.

Robin pulled her yellow raincoat tighter around herself, trying to save her hair from the pouring rain.

Sadly, the first fall of snow was the also the last so far. No more snow, just boring, cold, wet rain.

"How far away is your place?" Robin asked.

"Not far, I promise." Beth said. "Too bad my parents are on that dinner, my mom could've picked us up."

"Well, your bike is good enough for me. It's kinda like one of those yellow taxis." Robin laughed.

The pair rode away on Beth's bicycle, trying their best to avoid puddles on the way.

—

Once the girls got to Beth's house, soaking wet, they decided to order pizza and spent their evening on the couch watching a rerun of Flashdance.

Beth was thinking if she should ask Robin about last thursday -if and why she was jealous. But the girl had been acting perfectly normal the last two days, so Beth decided to drop it.

She loved these hangouts with Robin, and she didn't want to ruin the magic by bringing up Josh.

But since Robin insisted that she needed to see Beth's room -judge it, since she had judged hers, the two had ended up on the floor, Robin going trough Beth's cassettes.

"Okay, you really have a good music taste." Robin said, reading the back of one of Beth's mixtapes.

"It's rare, you're one of a kind."

"Do you want to borrow some?" the other girl asked, making Robin smile.

"Sure!"

It was nice and calm, neither of Beth's parents were home yet.

"You know, before I got to know you I thought you were a total priss." Robin admitted.

Beth's eyes widened at the girl's sudden confession. "Really?"

"Yep. I guess that was because you always hung out with your popular friends, I thought you were like that."

"A girl who only cares about boys, makeup and parties?"

"Exactly."

Beth sighed deeply. "Your thoughts.. might have been right. That is what I pretended to be. But It's not really who I am."

Robin nodded understandingly. "I know exactly what you mean. Sometimes.. you have to pretend."

Beth couldn't make up anything to say, so she just softly smiled, nodding.

Robin changed the subject: "But, you do give off an Uptown Girl -vibe." She laughed.

It took Beth a while to realise what Robin was talking about. "Billy Joel's Uptown Girl?" She

asked. "Uptown girl, she's been living in her uptown world." She quietly sang.

"Yeah!"

Beth frowned, smiling. "I guess I can take that. Uptown girl is not that bad."

"Well, do you have your downtown man?" Robin asked.

"What?"

"And now she's looking for a downtown man.." Robin sang, terribly out of tune.

"Right." She sighed. "No, no downtown man's."

Robin raised a brow. "Really?"

"Yeah, no. I'm not like that, you know. I'm not one of those boy-crazy girls. I guess that's one of the reasons I never fit in with my friends."

"Believe me, I know that feeling too." Robin said softly.

Is it because you're a lesbian too?

Beth smiled at her. It was funny how similar their thoughts were. About everything! She couldn't help but think about the chance, that Robin actually liked girls. Beth had just given her a hint that she didn't like boys. At all.

"Hey." Robin said, snapping Beth out of her thoughts.

"If it helps at all..." she whispered. "Now that I know you, I don't think you're a priss. Or anything like that."

Beth face lit up. "You mean that?"

"Yeah." Robin took a deep breath. "Actually, you might be the coolest person I know."

Beth's heart awed, and she felt a smile crippling on her mouth. "That's the best compliment anyone's ever said to me."

The two were just lost staring in each others eyes, until Beth spoke again.

"You are definitely the coolest friend I've ever had."

Robin's mouth dropped open. "Uh, friend?" She couldn't help but smile.

"We're friends?"

"Yeah." Beth breathed out. "If you-"

"Yeah! Of course. You're the coolest friend I've ever had." Robin slowly said.

"You just might be the best friend I've ever had." Beth added.

Robin's smile grew even bigger.

"You too."

The second-hand regrets washed over Beth, as she tried to back off: "I hope this doesn't sound weird. Uh, we've known eachother like, a month."

Robin put a calming hand on her shoulder.

"Believe me, it doesn't. It sounds... great."

Both of the girls just smiled, softly laughing as they got back to the mixtapes.

"Hey, this one's got Uptown Girl on it!" Beth said, showing Robin the tape.

"Some gods heard us talking." Robin wawed her hand around.

"I'm gonna play it." Beth grabbed their home radio from her table -yes, she had stolen it from the kitchen- and clicked the cassette in.

She pressed the button, as Billy Joel's singing filled the room.

Robin started swaying on the floor, quietly singing along, as Beth sat back down next to her.

"Who do you like more? The Beatles or The Rolling Stones?" The girl asked.

"Can I say Fleetwood Mac? It's the only neutral option on that battle."

"Nope."

Uptown girl

She's living in her uptown world...