Secret Notes by Angely Cruz (red white and royal blue hardcover TXT) 📖

I tossed and turned around in the bed after I finished talking to Rodrigo. When I was about to tell him about the letter I found hidden inside the CD, I hold back and said nothing. I couldn’t sleep because all I could think of was where mom got this. If she bought it, it should have cost a fortune but if she found it, she didn’t know what she wasn’t getting herself or rather me into.
The clock read 4:30am. I yawned tiredly and adjusted my pillow. Somehow I found my mind wandering to the guy from Jonah’s. How his cardigan covered his arms and his dark cleaned boots shined in the light. I knew we had one thing in common and that was our appreciation for music. Jeremiah called around 9:30pm yesterday when I was already in bed reading a new copy of Just Listen by Sarah Dessen. He said I should be there around 11:00am because I was taking care of the cash register. I begged him to let me out before five in the afternoon. At seven I was leaving with Rodrigo and Monica to a gig at Lino’s. Monica was Rodrigo’s third girlfriend—they were not together now—and a really close friend of mine. Lino’s was right down the music store. The door was almost below the floor and every Thursday you could feel the pumping of the bass of some rock band that was paid to play that night. I liked it there. The walls were full of old pictures and posters but most of all, antique things of different bands, some I adore and some not.
I heard a noise from downstairs and remembered Louis wasn’t here when I went to bed. He must be drunk but he’s a big boy now. I heard tumbling up the stairs and then his door open and close. I sighed and flicked on the light from the bed side table lamp. I stood up and walked to the window. I opened the curtain and looked outside. Down the road, a guy around my age was walking. With every step he took he neared the house. My eyes found themselves looking at him intently when I recognized the cardigan and the dark boots. It was the guy from Jonah’s! I put my sandals on and opened the door to my room. I ran down the stairs and stopped in front of the front door. I needed to apologize to him fro being a complete cold bitch before. It was unintentional but I was afraid during mid-apology it would come out again. Without thinking I opened the door and yelled out at him.
“Hey, you!”
He stopped in his tracks and turned around slowly. When he saw me standing in front of the door in just a tank top and pajama bottoms, he looked confused. “You are the girl from the music store! You fell with the box of posters,” he chuckled.
Oh, joy. Of all the things he could have remembered, he remembers that one.
“Y-yeah,” I stuttered. “I wanted to say I-I’m sorry for before. I was such a bitch but I can’t help it when I’m around guys like you. Attractive, if you know what I mean. I am really sorry and I should just quit my job at Jonah’s but I love music and-”
“You think I’m attractive?” he smirked.
My mouth was shut and my eyes widened. I can’t believe I just said that. I am such a dork and stupid person! First, I fall in front of him and then I’m a complete bitch to him but then I come and apologize and I start rambling and say he’s attractive. Way to go!
He chuckled. “Are you there?”
I shook my head and looked at him. “Y-yeah.”
Walking a little bit closer to me, he extended his hand reluctantly as if I was going to eat it off. “I’m Conrad and you are?”
I reached for his hand a little bit too eagerly. “Marla.”
He nodded and moved his head around looking anywhere but my face. “What are you walking at 4 in the morning all alone?”
He looked taken back by my forwardness but cleared his throat and answered. “When I need to think a bit I walk around the neighborhood for a while.”
“You live here?”
He chuckled and assented with his head. “I should get going. See ya later, Marla,” he winked then turned around walking in the direction he had been before. “Wait,” I yelled. He stopped but did not turn around. I sighed and opened my mouth, “Where do you live?”
“Why so eager to know, babe?”
I swallowed and shook my head but then notived he couldn’t see me. “F-forget it,” I stuttered. “I’ll go sleep.”
He started walking again and I took this as the queue for me to go inside. I closed the front door slowly, as if not to wake Louis up, and made my way to the stairs. I climbed them with no energy and reached the last door to the left or better known as my room. After closing the door, I went to the curtains and gazed outside again. He was no longer there but the light from the moon was. I sighed audibly and pulled them shut, turning off the bed side table lamp. The bed was cold because of the time I hadn’t been laying there. I pulled the covers over me and turned around to look at the Please Please Me album. I grabbed it and opened it. My eyes roamed around looking for the letter until settling upon it, resting itself in the same corner where I found it. Opening it, I assumed nothing had changed. The same cursive writing and of course the same name written neatly in the end. I studied the words and looked intently at the name. Conrad. From that moment I knew when I see him later at the store—if he comes—I will ask him. I need to ask him. I would come to you, Conrad Stonem.

Text: angiezapp - Angely Cruz
Publication Date: 07-17-2012

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