Sun Upon Dark Clouds

37: Is Margo All Right?

“No, I don’t mind.”

It was a lie. She did mind—in fact, she did not want to let her leave with her ex-boyfriend somewhere. She wanted to take the red-haired woman’s hand instead and tell her to go with her instead. But as usual, Margo hid her feelings once again and let her friend go with her ex-boyfriend. It was like déjà vu as the purple-haired woman found herself answering the same thing again from two years ago.

“No, I don’t mind,” Margo flashed a small smile on her face.

“Yay! You’re the best, bub!” Nora squealed as she leaned in to give her a peck on the cheek.

Margo forced out a smile as she watched Nora take all of her things and left her room without throwing another glance at her. The purple-haired woman dropped the smile on her face as she comforted herself by saying that Nora’s first date with Dylan as lovers would result to Nora’s happiness anyway. Her happiness was all that mattered to Margo, after all.

The purple-haired woman could only let out a chuckle as she realized that she said the same answer again even though she knew that it would only leave her with regrets and pain. If only Margo was honest to her feelings and was brave enough to take the risk, she would not be walking back to the record shop alone with her shoulders drooped in dejection. While Coley managed to convince Ghrae in taking her out for ice cream again, Margo was left alone like how she usually was as she went back to her record shop to continue her boring daily routine.

It was not her first time to regretfully let Nora go somewhere with someone else, which was why she always questioned herself about why she was hurting about it when it was not anything new. Margo was just making herself feel small by just thinking about the blond who was able to make the red-haired woman happy since he was way better than her. In the end, the purple-haired woman knew that she would never be the person who would be with Nora for the rest of their lives.

A sigh left her lips as the purple-haired woman pushed the glass door open and stepped inside. The playlist of all Paramore’s songs was still playing from the speakers as she realized that she forgot to turn the music off before leaving since she did not expect to be out for so long. Margo walked toward the counter as she took a seat on the stool and looked at the small shelf on the corner where her magazines and books were stored in. Since she wanted to distract herself from overthinking about how she did not deserve Nora anyway, Margo reached for the novel which book cover had colors of pink, purple, and blue.

“‘Unexpected Creature’. I’m reading this for the first time,” Margo mumbled as she opened the book to begin reading the prologue.

Paramore’s soft sad songs started to play from the speakers as Margo did her best to focus on what she was reading. She furrowed her eyebrows as she let out a sigh of annoyance when the words that she was reading were not even entering her mind because of the image of Nora and Dylan looking happy together appearing in her head with the background music obviously not helping her situation. The purple-haired woman heaved out a heavy sigh of frustration as she put the book down on the corner and buried her face on her palms.

She could not even cry anymore because of how frequent it happened—how she was already used to in being hurt and lonely. Margo did not even have the energy to ask the world why it would not give her happiness since she was just sick of everything already. Instead, the purple-haired woman just shut her eyes for a while and let her heart ache by unconsciously seeing painful scenarios in her head.

The door in the record shop was pushed open as multiple heavy steps entered the store followed by their snickers, which made Margo know immediately that they were actual customers. The purple-haired woman was forced to lift her head as she impassively greeted the four men who looked like fuckboys based on their physical appearances while she pushed her book to corner.

The men had fade haircuts with some of them having faux hawk hairstyles. Some of them had eyebrow slits and piercings with clean shaven faces. All of them were wearing windbreakers in fake brands, pairs of ripped jeans that looked like they were desperate in showing off their legs, and pairs of fake Jordan shoes. The smirks on their faces as they looked at Margo from her face to her clothed breasts were already raising red flags, which made the purple-haired woman wear a serious facial expression as she intently watched them while they roamed around her store. The purple-haired woman knew that they were delinquents and fuckboys since she had met many guys like them.

“Hey, sexy,” the man with a star tattoo on his neck said as he stood across her. “You single?”

“Why do you want to know?” Margo coldly answered as she succeeded to not use a cuss word.

The man let out a smug laugh as he shamelessly rested his arms on the counter and leaned his face near to her with a perverted smirk on his face while his eyes evidently moved to the purple-haired woman’s chest. She was literally wearing a gray oversized t-shirt yet he was looking at her as if she was showing him something. The purple-haired woman gritted her teeth as she glared at the man’s disrespectful action while she did her best to not break his nose. He turned his head back up as he let out a scoff in disbelief when he saw her glaring at him.

“Yo, is that how you look at a customer, huh?” the man arrogantly spoke as he leaned his chin up. “Yo, dudes! Look at this chick glaring at a customer!”

His friends turned to see what their friend was talking about as they laughed scornfully while looking at her like she was some sort of toy to them. With a deep frown on her face, Margo turned to see what the other guys were doing as she caught a glimpse of them putting a vinyl record inside their jacket before the neck-tattooed man moved to block her view from them as he sneered irritatingly at her.

“You live here, yeah? Your bedroom is upstairs, right?” Margo did not answer as she just stared at him in vexation. “Come on, answer me.”

“If you are not here to buy anything, I would like to ask you to leave,” Margo spoke through gritted teeth as she did herself to calm herself down.

“What if we don’t want to?” the man playfully jeered as he tilted his head to the side when Margo tried to see what the others were doing.

Even though the man was blocking her view, she could catch sight of the three men brazenly hiding the vinyl records that they were taking from the shelves to the inside of their windbreakers while they would smirk at her when they met her angry hazel eyes. The man with a neck tattoo sneered as he leaned forward until his lips were almost touching the purple-haired woman’s pierced ear.

“How about we head upstairs so you can show me what you have under those pieces of clothing?” the man whispered to her ear with a perverted smirk on his face as his hand slowly moved to reach for the woman’s clothed chest. “I can make you my—”

The red button in Margo had been smashed on as she could no longer resist her anger. Before the perverted man could even finish his sentence, the purple-haired woman roughly grabbed his wrist that was about to touch her as she shoved his face away from her and threw a hard punch straight to his nose while blood flew to the air. The three men turned to see their friend lying on the floor while holding his broken bloody nose in surprise as the purple-haired woman pushed and lifted her body up to jump over the counter.

“f*****g assholes!” Margo growled as she charged toward the man with a star shaved undercut who was the one who took the most records.

Before the purple-haired woman was about to throw a punch on his face, another man pulled her hair back harshly, making her hiss in pain as she fell on the floor. The man had the biggest arms among them as he smirked at her annoyedly and held the v neck of her shirt to pull her back up on her feet. He let out a sneer before slapping her face, making her fall back on the floor with as blood dripped from her busted lip.

Despite the pain on her cheek and lip, Margo did not want to look weak as she immediately pushed her body off the floor and got back up on her knees. Before the man could even swing her arm to give her another slap on the face, she crouched and threw a punch on her crotch hardly as she made sure to hit his member. The man shouted in pain as he dropped down to his knees while holding his crotch, which gave the purple-haired woman the chance to punch him on the nose. The purple-haired woman turned to the two who obviously never experienced being in fights based on their terrified facial expressions as she charged toward them and grabbed both of their heads to smash them against each other.

Margo panted as sweat trickled down her temple while she looked at the four men who were grunting in pain on the floor. She shook her hand as she slowly began to feel the pain on her fists. It seemed that having rings was useful as Margo looked at her knuckles that were not swollen thanks to her rings, which were covered in blood. The purple-haired woman heaved out a sigh as she realized that she could get charged for beating them all up, though she was actually surprised at the fact that the men could not get back up to their feet when she did not exactly beat them up.

While she was taking her rings off, the door suddenly opened as Noah came into sight with two coffee cups while he looked around the place in utter shock. Margo only threw a blank glance at him before returning her attention taking her rings off as she knew that she would be bombarded with questions.

The purple-haired woman could sense the brunet’s presence going closer by the sound of his footsteps and his shadow as she did not bother looking up. Margo let out a low groan as she realized that there was a possibility for her metal rings to be stained with the blood of the lowlifes. They did not deserve to have their blood stained on her rings. The purple-haired woman was about to wipe her rings with the handkerchief that she pulled out from her pocket when a hand, which was almost two times bigger than hers, held her hand to stop her from doing so.

“Margo, are you okay?”