Feat. Jo - Blog Posts
jofcreman:
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a strained smile. “yeah, i need my sad music fix, now that the smiths have broken up.” said in a desperate attempt to make light hearted conversation. small talk. not one of jo’s forte’s, for sure. when it got to idle chitchat, she never really participated in the conversation, except for a few nods and affirming noises to show that she was listening. she chuckled at cole’s joke, though she hadn’t missed his initial grimace which, in turn, had made her grimace a bit, too, as she felt bad for … well, calling out his state like that. smalltalk. not her thing.
people skills? lacking. she gave him a shrug. “yeah, i’m alright, i guess.it was a, uh…interesting night.” in truth, the keg party at skull rock had faded into somewhat of a blur in her head. a blur of tossing around a football with jack and his friends - and nancy wheeler’s boyfriend ? -; a blur of californian weed and jonathan byers’ pretty face.
eyes wide, she instinctively held up her hands, nearly dropping the record. “oh my god, no, yeah, i get it, totally. i didn’t think - i mean, you’re also great, cole, you’re like, tops, you’re major and …. everything. just - but i don’t - yeah, don’t feel that way either. “ eager nods, she cleared her throat. “definitely on the same page here.”
boy, was jo glad that there weren’t any other customers present to hear their stopmach churningly awkward exchange. she quickly looked back at the record, smacked her lips together and moved them around as if she was applying chapstick .finding anything to do but talk.
anyways. glad that cole had broken their silence again she looked back up with a smile. “uh, yeah, sure. shoot.”
xx.
Hand to his heart, Cole groaned. “Don’t remind me before noon, Foreman, Jesus,” he teased. “Some of us are still in mourning.” He turned to the other side of the aisle, raking his fingers through the intentionally-small country section. One of Cole’s greatest battles in life was whether or not they needed to carry every genre of music, but the Big Man wouldn’t budge on this one.
Cole glanced at her over his shoulder. “Interesting is a good way to put it.” He pulled The Clash’s ‘Combat Rock’ out of the Country/Western section with a raised brow and slid around Jo to return it to its rightful place. “Byers’ shit was pretty good,” he commented, remembering Jo had smoked it, too. “You had it before?”
At Jo’s response, Cole smiled-- actually smiled-- for the first time that day. It was amusing, the way they were both tumbling over their words because of some far-fetched lie printed in some dude’s basement. “That’s a relief,” he said, turning to face her with a mock-serious expression. “Because usually I have to beat girls off with a bat, or enlist Max. Embarrassing for them, really,” he joked.
Turning back to the records in front of him, Cole pretending to skim his clipboard while a heaviness wedged itself back into his chest. All of the sudden, he felt silly, asking Jo if she had heard anything about Adam instead of talking to Adam himself-- but they hadn’t really fought before and it seemed like Adam needed space. Only, Cole wasn’t so good at giving space. Not after the Mindflayer incident.
“It’s not a big deal,” he lied, attempting to put on a casual air. “Just... Adam’s a good friend of mine. And he seemed off that night. I was wondering if Jack said anything? Or if you heard anything?” He said, eyes not leaving the paper in front of him in an attempt to keep his voice steady and light. At the end, he looked up at Jo and offered a small smile, as if to say see? I’m totally normal about this.
Cole had a lot on his mind. Despite the glaringly obvious-- being pushed into open graves, having horrific visions, and his boyfriend coming back to life-- now they were fighting. Kind of. It wasn’t a fight, really, but things were tense in a way they never had been before. And Cole really didn’t know how to handle himself in a fight-- he could give great advice to people like Steve, sure, but when it came to him? He was miserable and whiny and terrified to say too much or not enough.
He’d been going over the whole night all morning-- everything he said, every look they exchanged, looking for anything to find comfort in. And it was driving him crazy. So crazy that he decided to go into work on a day he wasn’t scheduled. He had leftover inventory to do, anyway. Cole clicked ‘The Queen is Dead’ into his Walkman and skated over to the Music Center. The Smiths were, objectively, the perfect music for wallowing in self-pity.
A few hours passed of Cole listening to the album on repeat and getting a surprising amount of work done. It was nice to drown out his brain for a while, uninterrupted except for when the clerk told him that he was singing out loud again. As he finished up cataloguing the folk section, Cole looked up to see Jo walking in. His cheeks flushed involuntarily-- this Keith guy’s paper had been pushed to the back of Cole’s mind, but not forgotten.
Stepping through the aisles, Cole approached her and lowered his headphones. “Good album,” he commented, always a little relieved when someone with taste came into the store. He offered an awkward smile-- it looked more like a grimace-- as she commented on his state. “Not quite, I just have naturally dewy skin,” he joked. His hangover was certainly still with him, as per the pressure behind his eyes. “You feeling okay?”
He laughed, relief evident in his tone. Thank God she had brought it up. “No, no, yeah, I didn’t think you... I mean, even if you did...” Cole groaned at how awkward he was making this. “Jo, you’re great. I’m just... not... I don’t feel that way! So, I’m glad we’re on the same page.” He said, finding his words at last.
Cole knew better than to listen to anything published in that shitty paper when Keith suggested that Cassie Conrad go for Thad or Adam. Talk about misreading the room. But still, he didn’t want to give anyone the wrong idea, or completely ignore it and come off like an asshole.
“Anyways,” he said, dragging out the syllables. “Can I ask you something? About the keg party?” Cole knew that Jack and Adam were close, and thought that maybe, if Adam had said something to Jack, maybe Jack had said something to Jo. Worth a shot, at least.
where: the music center
what: jo’s browsing through some new sweet tunes !
who: @loverboymontgomery + jo
truly, it felt like her first day off in weeks, and jo intended to spend it as follows: lounging in bed as long as possible ( until her mother started passive aggressively vaccuming up and down the hallways, seeing as this was her day off, too ), driving down to the music centre to browse through their latest releases and then straight back home to work on the board. a perfect day, in her humble opinion. or as perfect as it got in hawkins, indiana.
with the first part of her day off concluded, jo had wasted no time grabbing her walkman, pulling her headphones over her ears before she’d even left the house to drown out her mother’s incessant sighing. not even half of side a was finished when she’d reached the music center - a new personal best - and she quickly locked her bike, rushing into the store, straight to the aisle with the new releases.
humming happily to herself, a content smile on her face as she inspected a copy of the new cocteau twins album, jo jumped sligthly as a figure came into view. she looked up, pulled her headphones down around her neck. “oh - hi, montgomery.” said somewhat awkwardly, she gave him a smile. it felt a bit silly, calling him by his last name with how often jo came into the store. “i see you’ve recovered from the keg party.”
a couple of beats passed, jo hesitated, drew in a breath - no, it wouldn’t leave her mind. she had to say something. “listen - keith is an ass.” a bold yet true statement, another beat passed before jo continued. “like… i don’t know if you’ve seen his stupid little paper, but.. .i don’t know, he’s spreading rumors that i, like, have a thing for you? and i just wanted to make clear that i don’t. i’m not into you, cole, i promise!”
