Ack! I'm so sorry that this took forever @aquaburst07! Had a bit of trouble balancing school and writing. Decided to combine the two ideas into one. :) Hope you guys like. Xxx "Excuse me miss," a man in cut off shorts called to her as she rushed by him, stopping her in her tracks. "Do you think I should get the puma shirt or the panther shirt?" Pacifica failed to see how this question was relevant to her. She was only there to restock shelves, put things in their proper place and sweep the floor, according to her grandma anyway. Why did this guy need her opinion on a shirt anyway? They were both the same material, quality and price. The only difference was the animal on the front. Her eyes darted to the rack of road maps, and the six year old that was pulling out all the maps and throwing them to the ground. "Um," Pacifica floundered, looking at the shirts. It wasn't a big deal, all she needed to do was give him her opinion. "I think the puma shirt is nice." She tried to continue walking away from him, but he shuffled himself back in front of her, stopping her from taking another step. "Hm, I don't know," the man said, looking over the two choices. "I like the colours of the Panther shirt. Doesn't it look classy?" Pacifica looked at him and then back at the kid who was throwing maps everywhere. All the maps were now strewn across the ground. The kid had ran outside to catch a glimpse at all the attractions Granny Carla had placed in the outdoor exhibit. "Then you should get the Panther shirt," Pacifica suggested, unable to keep the exasperation from her voice. She really couldn't keep a customer friendly smile after dealing with stuff like this for the past few hours. This guy was probably not the worst she had to deal with today. But from kids constantly picking up merchandise and then putting it back in the wrong place to angry customers yelling at her for the prices being to high, she was getting completely overwhelmed. And it was only her first day. Even though this guy wasn't a jerk like some other people had seen that day, she really wasn't in the mood to deal with one guy's indecisiveness while there was a big mess of maps she had to clean up and resort. "Oh I don't know," the man stated as he scrutinized that two shirts. "I really like the mountains in the background with the puma shirt. Hmmmm. Puma shirt? Panther shirt?" Christ, was this guy for real? She rolled her eyes as he held the two shirts up, looking from one to the other, over and over again. Pacifica's frown deepened and she looked over the guys shoulder at the pile of maps on the floor. If Granny Carla saw that she would be pissed. Even though her Grandma probably wouldn't fire her, she would more than likely force her to do chores for neglecting her job. The sound of restrained laughter caused Pacifica turn her head for a split second. She caught sight of the cashier boy, Robbie was his name, bringing his fist up to his mouth in order to stifle his laughter. He watched her from behind the register counter, failing to hold back the amusement in his eyes. Pacifica's cheeks flared with a wild blush when she noticed him looking at her, both from embarrassment on messing up on her first day and from the fluttering in her stomach that came when he actually noticed her. Christ, she needed to get a hold of herself. She turned back to the customer with a strained smile, one that was just about ready to crack. "Well, if you like them both, why don't you get them both?" The man brought his hand up to his chin in thought, letting out a long hum. In fact the hum dragged on for so long, Pacifica was sure she was gonna snap and scream at him. That would definitely get her in trouble. "Oh, alright!" he finally relented. The man walked over to Robbie at the cash register and proceeded to check out the shirts. Pacifica could only sigh in relief when he was out the door. Pacifica avoided looking over at Robbie when she walked over to pick up the maps. Why would a kid just throw them on the ground? Is it really an entertaining thing to do? She figured they were sorted alphabetically, and did her best to fold them properly and put them back in their proper place. If Granny Carla had some sort of labelling system this would be a lot easier. "First time in retail?" Robbie's voice caught her off guard in her moment of concentration. She jolted violently at the sound of his voice and as a result, she dropped the maps that she had picked up. All of them fluttered back to the ground. She would swear that they were mocking her. Every stupid knickknack in the store was mocking her. She rubbed her arm nervously, trying to put on a friendly smile but finding it impossible to force any joy at this point in her day. "First job ever, actually," she answered quietly. Her voice barely raised above a whisper. God she felt so stupid. He probably thought she was some spoiled little rich girl who couldn't do honest work if her life depended on it. Sure, it was kinda true, but she didn't want him to think that. "Really?" he asked with obvious sarcasm. "I had no idea." Pacifica rolled her eyes and ignored the unease within her gut. So what if she had been looking like an idiot all day. It's not like she had expected things to go well on her first shift. Didn't make her feel any less inadequate though. She couldn't help the deep frown that settled on her face. God, if this was only her first job, how bad would it be for the rest of the summer? Maybe her mother was right when she said that she wouldn't be cut out for it. "Hey," Robbie continued, loosing the sardonic edge in favour of a more sympathetic tone. "Don't sweat it Goldie. You're just overthinking things." He lithely hopped over the counter, landing right beside her with a soft thump. She took a step back as the teen diligently stated picking up road maps and methodically placing them in alphabetical order on the shelf. It was as if he had done it a million times before. "That kid comes in here all the time," Robbie answered when he caught her look of astonishment from the corner of his eye. Pacifica automatically shut her gaping mouth. "Hey would you watch the register for me?" "Oh, sure," Pacifica murmured awkwardly, relaxing a bit now that most patrons were outside with all the attractions. She ducked behind the counter and leaned beside the register. "So, how long have you been working here." Robbie paused for a moment to crack a crooked grin, and Pacifica couldn't help but notice how well it suited his face. "God, I guess it's already been two years." At his own statement he gave an easygoing laugh. "Do me a favour and don't spend the rest of your teens in this place." Pacifica smiled a bit and nodded. "Okay," she said with a breath of laughter. "God knows I probably won't even make it through today." "Eh, don't be so hard on yourself," he replied flippantly, before his expression shifted into a mocking overconfident expression. "I know I may seem like the perfect employee but, believe it or not, even I make mistakes. The only one who's a natural at this is Gideon." Pacifica glanced towards the window, awkwardly angling her head so she could see the outdoor floor show Granny Carla had set up on their lawn. Gideon was currently showing off the weird rock face attraction, probably inventing some wild story about how the rock ended up with the face. His audience was clearly enraptured with what he was saying, though his cuteness probably helped with the positive response. The levity with which Robbie spoke, and his own relaxed state helped ease the tension in her high strung muscles. She smiled a bit as she felt herself relax. She placed her forearms on the countertop, leaning heavily over it as she watched Robbie diligently place all the maps in proper order, only to hear the crinkling of paper under her weight. Pacifica lifted her arms curiously, finding a small stack sheet music under her arms. The songs weren't any that she could recognize. She had never been very good at reading music, but she could get a small sense of the melody. Reading over the lyrics, she noticed a repetition in the mentioning of red hair. "Did you write this?" she asked, holding up the paper so Robbie could see what she was referring to. As soon as Robbie's head lifted and he saw the sheet music, he scrambled over to her like a madman. It almost made Pacifica giggle to see the way his eyes widened with alarm, arms failing as he ripped the paper from her hands. "Nothing!" he practically yelled. He scooped up the remaining pieces of sheet music and hurriedly stuffed it into the pockets of his jeans. "I don't know who these belong to! And they're not even songs! What's music? Ha ha ha!" Pacifica stared in astonishment at the awkwardly laughing teen, who had managed to crumple up every piece of paper and stuff them all in his pockets. That was definitely his sheet music. "It's okay if you don't want to talk about it," Pacifica stated, a little too happy that she was now the one who was keeping a cool head. "But I think it's neat that you write your own music." Robbie went still, his eyes becoming wide like saucers. "You do?" he asked, eyes shifting from side to side in confusion. Pacifica could only gather that he was pretty shy about his work. She offered a soft smile, nodding in response. "Gideon told me you played guitar," she stated, watching as his cheeks flushed a deep red. The bewildered embarrassment in his thin face was kinda sweet. "Do you play those songs?" He rubbed the back of his neck, his face twitching with a shy and hesitant smile. Pacifica couldn't help but find it endearing. "I don't play them in front of people I don't know to well," he mumbled. "Or my friends. Or my family. I actually just don't play them in front of people." "You don't play for anyone at all?" she asked, a little disheartened. She had been hoping to hear him play. "No, I just don't play my own songs in front of anyone," he corrected, still sheepish in his movements. "I'm in a start up band actually." "Really?" Pacifica said in awe. "Yeah, I play lead guitar. No big." His sheepish smile shifted to a cocky one. "Then again, I am the only one who actually knows how to play an instrument." Pacifica smiled, crinkling her nose with amusement. "I'd like to see your band play." "Well, you'd have to go to my friends garage for that." Robbie smiled, a bit bashful. His pale skin easily took on a pink tinge when he was embarrassed. "We're not the kind of band that does gigs. Thompson just wanted to start a band to impress girls." "Who's Thompson?" Robbie paused before he answered, debating on the best way to explain Thompson to the uniformed. "You know how the Gravity Falls public pool is closed for a few weeks?" "Yeah, some idiot drove a truck full of sheep into it," she snorted in derision. Pacifica could recall laughing out loud quite obnoxiously when she heard about it. Her father had showed her the article one morning in the den. Her laughter causing a rare smile to flicker across his face. She was happy to learn the sheep were okay after the incident, if a little startled. Robbie smirked, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Yeah, that idiot was Thompson," he said. "He was also the guy who released all those chickens into the museum last year. Don't know if you heard about that one." Pacifica couldn't help the loud snort of laughter that escaped her mouth. As the feeling of mortification swelled up, she covered her face with her hand and shook her head profusely. She didn't miss the amusement in Robbie's eyes, and it made her flush even harder. She tried to brush it off by continuing with the conversation. "Why would he do something like that?" Robbie merely shrugged, "The chicken thing was a prank gone wrong. Though, he considered it a success. So, it's a matter of perspective, I guess." Pacifica lowered her hand from her pink cheeks. "And the truck full of sheep?" "That one of was a dare," he said with a shrug, as if it were a simple answer and not completely ridiculous. "He drove a truck into a pool on a dare?" she asked, aghast at the idea that someone would agree to that. Robbie laughed outright, "Of course," he replied. "Thompson takes everything as a challenge. One time I told him to be careful while climbing the water tower. And you know what he did?" Pacifica could guess pretty easily. "Fell off on purpose?" "Fell off on purpose," he confirmed, the grin on his face was full of warmth. He walked behind the counter so that he stood beside her. Pacifica's heart pounded a little harder. He leaned his forearms beside the register with and easy grin. "It's a miracle he's still alive." The blonde giggled. She didn't expect to enjoy talking to him this much, but Robbie turned out to be the easiest person to talk to in this shack. "So what kind of music do you write?" she asked curiously. Robbie's expression shifted from relaxed to pensive in the blink of an eye. "Uhh, well," he said with a slight stutter. His words flew out of his mouth without any filter. "It's not that interesting and it's honestly pretty terrible and I think I might of accidentally stolen the melody without thinking about it." Despite putting up a cool front, Robbie seemed so nervous and tightly wound whenever she brought up his music. "It's okay," she reassured him, her voice gentle and friendly. The most natural friendliness she had displayed all day. "You don't have to show me the lyrics. I was just wondering if you write pop or rock or something. Or country. Do you write country? If you do then we can't associate with each other." Robbie chuckled at the statement, and the dead serious way she said it. "No I don't write country," he said, his form a bit less tense as he ran his fingers through his black hair. "I mostly write light rock, alternative music, you know." She hummed thoughtfully, a mischievous smirk twitching at her lips. "An indie rocker huh? I figured, you look like a hipster." There was an audible gasp. Robbie placed his hand on his chest in mocking mortification. "I do not," he denied loudly. "I was nearsighted and wearing bowties before it was cool." She cocked her hip to the side and raised a sceptical eyebrow at his statement. Robbie skewered his lips in annoyance as he realized that he had just proven her point. Pacifica couldn't help the sharp laugh she let out. "Alright, laugh it up Blondie," he rolled his eyes and nudged her with his elbow. His eyes widened as he caught a glimpse of something out the window. "Oh, hey, can you close up by yourself?" The question caught her off guard, causing her to tilt her head to the side in confusion. "Huh?" "Sun down," he said with a pretty bad southern drawl. She pursed her lips at the intended impression. He nodded his head towards the window. "Time to go home and reign in the cattle." He was right. The high June sun was finally starting to set, signalling the end of the day. Pacifica hadn't noticed it until then. He smiled at the startled expression on her face, "So you can close up?" he asked. "Lock up the register and do the inventory." Pacifica hadn't had too much training in terms of inventory or anything really, but when she looked at his face, it wasn't as if she could say no. The sun had slowly descended low enough so rays of golden light poured through the gift shop windows. With his face bathed in the light of a summer sun, Robbie's pale skin seemed to overflow with colour. He wasn't gorgeous like a male model on the cover of a magazine or a movie star on the silver screen, but there was a wholesomeness in his smile that made her heart pound a little harder. Comely, was how she would describe him. Pacifica tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, her lips blooming into a hesitant smile. She tried to ignore how her insides melted into a gooey mess or how her leg muscles contracted relentlessly. Taking a deep breath, she nodded. "Swankafied," he said with a cheesy grin, making her giggle. He hopped over the register counter, his lithe form completing the jump with minimal effort. He walked towards the exit with a confident swagger, giving her a two fingered salute as he left. "Catch you on the reverse, goldilocks." He turned back to her with a dorky smile. "I just made that up," he beamed proudly, a hearty chuckle escaping with his words. With a final wave and a breath of outside wind, he was out the door and out of sight. For a moment, Pacifica couldn't move her legs. She brought her hands up to her chest, hoping they could still her ferociously beating heart, pumping blood through her arteries at an alarming rate. "Ka-pow," she whispered. It seemed to be the only word that described what had just happened to her heart. Xxx Fun fact, the title 'catch you on the reverse' came from that time Robbie said 'catch you on the rewind'. I know the saying is 'catch you on the flip side', but honestly, I wasn't even thinking about that.
