In a horrible turn of events, I lost a bet at school and had to go to Hot Topic. God that sounds like the kinda story you’d tell your kids.
Our story begins on a Friday, during first period at school. I made an offhand comment about wanting to wear band patches for a battlejacket. I don’t own one, but I think they look cool so I want to change that. One girl chimed in, “You should totally go to Hot Topic for that!”.
”Hot Topic is for fuckin’ posers!” I jeered.
People in class then felt the need to insist that Hot Topic wasn’t for posers, despite the fact they acknowledged the existence of Nirvana shirt girls when I brought them up. This was all just banter until third period PE class, where we do nothing but sit around in a rec room shooting pool and playing chess and taking naps on a couch. It was then that a teaching assistant had brought Jenga with her. I decided to play, and either me or something else had proposed if I lost, I would have to go to Hot Topic over the weekend. I fucked up by trying to show off and take pieces in a risky way. It was reckless confidence fueled by the image of Mike Patton at a concert climbing on a camera crane while having a microphone in his mouth being stuck in my head.
When I got home that day I chilled for a couple of hours before getting on my bike to make a long trip from my home in Valley Glen to all the way to Studio City, where Google Maps told me where the nearest Hot Topic would be. Everything was going along fine until my bike’s back wheel spontaneously burst on me upon exiting the NoHo Arts District. I chose to trek onward, holding my bike to my side and moving even slower than if I didn’t have it with me.
When I was walking on the sidewalk in Universal City, there was an angry man screaming on the other side of the street yelling something I was too far away to understand. It was less than a week after that whole Salvador Ramos thing so it put me into fight or flight mode. The man would only have to jaywalk across the street for me to be in shooting range. I was standing next to gates of Universal Pictures and I contemplated trespassing. I wondered if the courts could forgive that.
In the end, I just decided to just move forward, albeit slightly faster than before. I don’t remember why I did that but it was probably something stupid anyways. I even passed by the guy as we walked in opposite directions on the crosswalk minutes later. His attitude was explained to me when I saw that he wore a Pantera shirt.
There was no longer any threat looming in my head, yet I soon came to realize that everything I did was pointless. It took all that time walking to Studio City trying to get the store for me to realize that it was in Universal City, near the theme park who’s entrance I just passed, on top of a giant mountain. I would probably have to blow all of the 13 dollars I had on me just to get admission.
In short, not the best way to spend a Friday.