The Incredible League of Goth Pizza Haters (RH)

Part 3

--Sylvia--
After dinner we all walked back to the tour buses and loaded in. Ian groaned and just collapsed in the bunks while Cody and Mark sat down a turned on Netflix, marathoning the Office. Meg went on doing whatever Meg does with most of her time in the back lounge with her laptop. I sighed and went outside, pacing around a bit. The night washed cold air over me, September weather.

In front of the MIW bus, Ricky was smoking and staring at something off in the distance. We made eye contact and I walked over, rubbing my arms from the cold bite of the wind.

"So," I said, "Cat or dog?"

"What?"

"Cat or dog? I'm a cat person. I love cats, though I love almost every other animal as well."

"Me too, I'm also a cat person." he took a drag of his cigarette, "Do you like spiders? I fucking hate spiders."

"I'm not overly fond of them, but if they don't bother me I won't bother them. What about lizards?"

"Eh, don't like."

"Are you kidding me? Lizards are adorable. There's something wrong with you." I smiled and shivered

"You seem like a shaky person. You were shaking in the restaurant, too."

"That was from nerves. Now I'm just cold." I breathed into my sleeve and cursed myself for not grabbing a jacket.

"Here." he removed his sweatshirt, revealing another sweatshirt and offered it to me. I said thanks and put it on. It smelled kind of nice.

"Why are you wearing two sweatshirts?" I said semi-humorously. He ran his tongue over his piercings and said;

"I'm never cold. And, um... style."

"Style?"

"Style."

"I saw a funny thing about that. Not about jackets or anything. Just this weird-here I'll show you." I pulled out my phone and showed him the weird picture.

"That's weird, and I think they're called 'memes.' Have you heard of that before?" he asks. I grin, nodding.

"I spend too much time on my phone." He nodded and stomped out his cigarette as I showed him several pictures and ridiculous videos saved on my phone, some of which he cringed to and others he laughed. We stood out in the cold together and eventually we're so close that we're touching, both hunched over my little phone. I'm glad, because it only got darker and colder but we shared warmth as the night closed around us.

When I ran out of videos we talked about cats. He had one named Dexter who he named after one of his favorite shows, Dexter. I told him about my two cats, Wally and Andy (or Koala and Panda as Dani, my younger sister, had officially named them). We talked about tv shows and bands and if the night hadn't come so soon we probably would've talked about the universe and the economy and global warning and the inevitability of death. But soon Cody called out to me and told me that we had to leave the following morning and I should get some sleep because I have to take my turn driving and he doesn't want to die from a sleepy driver.

I said goodnight to Ricky, forgetting to return the coat. He smiled and went back to his bus. His sweatshirt kept me warm, inside and out.