And though we’ve been at the same school for four years, there’s something strange about this: McNair and I having been at the same concert, clapping for the same band in a sea of sweaty Seattle hipsters.
He finds the N section first, flips through it as I open my group chat with Kirby and Mara. It’s not impossible Savannah’s recruited more people since Hilltop Bowl, and even if we’re on shaky ground, I don’t want to be scared of my own friends.
I’m sure the answer is no, but you guys didn’t by any chance team up with savannah bell to kill mcnair and me, did you?
MARA
We definitely did not.
KIRBY
WTF???
overheard her organizing an army at the safe zone
KIRBY
I repeat: WTF???
yeah
so I may have kind of joined forces with mcnair
I slip my phone into my pocket, not quite ready for their responses yet.
“They don’t have it,” McNair says, and I nudge him out of the way to take a look for myself.
“Can I help you find anything?” asks a woman with a Doo Woop lanyard around her neck. She’s probably midtwenties, with a platinum-blond pixie cut, wearing long overalls and combat boots. Her name tag reads VIOLET.
“We’re looking for Nirvana’s first album,” I say, and because I looked it up earlier: “I think it’s Bleach?”
“It is indeed!” Violet chirps. “Old-school Nirvana. I love it. You’re actually not the first people who’ve asked about it today. Are you playing some kind of game?”
“Sort of like a scavenger hunt,” McNair says.
“Hmm, I know we have it. It should be right here.” We shift out of the way so she can take a look at the N section.
Whoever came here before us—what if they hid it? There are thousands of records in here. They could have slipped it in anywhere.
McNair must come to the same conclusion, because he says, “Would you guys have a copy of it anywhere else?”
“We have Nevermind—overrated, in my opinion—In Utero, and MTV Unplugged in New York. Now, that’s a good album.” She pulls it out, strokes it fondly. “Best live album I’ve ever heard.”
Violet’s gaze lingers on McNair, and at first I assume it’s because he has something on his face. I let myself stare for a moment too, but there’s nothing there. I—I think she might be flirting with him.
I am so embarrassed for her.
“Definitely,” McNair agrees. Is he flirting back?
Violet beams at him. “Unfortunately, I don’t see Bleach here. Someone might have misplaced it, or taken it back to a listening booth.”
“Or bought it,” I put in. There are other record stores in Seattle, but we’d lose time getting there, and they may not have the album either.
“Let me take a look in the back, okay?” Violet slides MTV Unplugged back into the N section. “It’s always possible someone brought in a copy to sell.”
“Thank you so much.” McNair’s politeness is at an eleven. When Violet clomps away in her boots, I lift my eyebrows at him. “What?” he asks.
“?‘Definitely. Best live album ever recorded in the history of mankind.’?”