Chapter Text
“Maggie, dear?” Aziraphale asked the record shop owner. “Do you happen to have any new recommendations for this week’s listen?”
Maggie Service, the sweetest darling ever, looked up from her phone and grinned at her usual guest. She gave a wink to the middle-aged man dressed in layers of perfectly tailored suit and jacket and vest (also finished off with a pocket watch) before turning around and picking up a record off the middle shelf where her newest recommendations were.
Maggie showed Aziraphale the vinyl.
“I know it’s not your kind of taste, but hear me out,” she said. “I recently discovered this artist when I was over at Give Me Coffee or Give Me Death for my usual fix of caffeine. There was this one song that was playing, and I really liked the religious imagery that the artist had in the song, so I asked my friend whose song was playing.”
Aziraphale looked down at the LP cover. It depicted a winding snake around a glossy red apple with a knife stabbed into fruit. He had to admit it, even though he felt iffy about the misuse of religion and religious imagery music, the cover art was well made and very beautiful to him.
“Ahem.” Aziraphale cleared his throat. “And this is...”
“Unholy Serpent,” Maggie answered. “He’s well-known in the rock scene. Pretty hardcore with imagery and stuff.”
The middle-aged man gave an awkward smile. “I don’t think I’ll like it very much, Maggie.”
The woman shook her head and pushed the record towards the bookshop owner.
“This one is a must listen,” she adamantly said to her friend.
Azirphale knew better than to argue with her, so he took the LP and thanked Maggie. He waved goodbye and walked back to his shop.
It had been a week already, and the vinyl was used to collect dust on top of it. Aziraphale knew that he had to listen to the record someday soon or else he couldn’t bear to face Maggie without his review on the music she recommended to him.
Aziraphale gently whipped off the dust from the cover and looked at the album art again. Something about the snake coiled around an apple drew him in. He took the vinyl out and placed it onto his antique record player. Aftering setting the needle down, light drum beats sounded accompanied by a melody.
A soft male voice sang on.
Yeah, you put on a faith façade
Think you’re holy when you’re not
I hate to break it to you, baby
But you’re simply lost
You can right all the wrongs just to feel you belong
But simply calling out sins don’t bring you closer to God
Aziraphale felt a pang in his heart. The lyrics cut too close to home. It reminded him of highschool. That time was the darkest time in his life.
“Look who it is,” sneered Gabriel. “If it isn’t God’s most unloved angel.”
The group of followers laughed and pointed at the poor highschool student.
“Whatcha got there, loser?” asked Michael.
She snatched the notebook from Aziraphale’s hands and flipped to a random page and started reading the entries out loud
“I wonder if God will forgive me for liking other boys, ” Michael said loudly, reading from the pages.
The singled-out young boy turned beet red. Now everyone knew his most kept secret.
Uriel fake gagged and took a hold of the notebook next.
“I want to tell Joseph that I like him, ” Uriel read in a high-pitched voice, mocking poor Azirpahle’s pubescent voice.
Muriel looked helplessly back and forth between the highschooler being picked on and the group of bullies.
“I think you should give Aziraphale back his notebook,” Muriel suggested meekly.
Michael turned to the girl who just dumped water on their roaring fire.
“You’re such a buzzkill, Muri-ew,” said Gabriel.
The biggest bully stepped towards the blonde boy.
“Does your mummy and daddy know you’re a fucking fag?” the brunette asked loudly.
Everyone in the hallways turned around to face the commotion.
Aziraphale could feel the dam break from the stress and his tears broke past the walls, flowing outwards. He wanted to run away but to where? All eyes were on him, and he couldn’t escape them.
The boy buried his face into his hands, sobbing loudly.
“Ew, is that snot coming out of his nose?” asked Michael.
“Yeah,” asked Uriel. “Let’s go before Miss Hawthorne finds out.”
The trio of bullies left and walked to the canteen.