Cassandra glided through the motions of getting ready once she was back to her loft, pulling on a much more modest periwinkle blouse that outlined her chest and tied in the back. By the time ten to nine rolled around she was fully made over and ready to start the day. Re-locking her door, she flitted down the stairs and headed south to meet Anna instead of crossing the street straight to work. They met halfway in between Anna’s apartment and Casss loft. Anna looked exited and Cass flashed her brightest smile.
“Hey!” Anna called.
“Hello Ana-chan.” Cass grinned. “How was your day yesterday?”
“It was ok, I mean I just had class and then dance class to go to afterwards. What about you?”
“It was positively delightful. I re-connected with some old friends and Justin and I had a date.”
“Ooo, where did he take you?” Anna bubbled.
“He brought me to the new French restaurant out by the Broadmoor prior to seeing Friday the 13th. He later accompanied me to my loft and we fell asleep together. It was emphatically delightful.” Cass smiled.
“Wow, you did have a great day.” Anna teased.
“Did you have a nice time Wednesday night?”
“Oh my gosh, that was so much fun. Yah, I loved it. Thanks for inviting me.” She gushed as they turned the corner.
“You seemed to be quite taken with Tim.” Cass prodded.
“Oh, yah, he’s super sweet, not to mention really hot. I couldn’t tell if he was into me though, so it might just be a lost cause.” She shrugged.
“I would not be so quick to say that, he was positively infatuated with you. I believe you two would make an adorable couple.”
“Really, you think so? Did he say anything about me?”
“He was asking about you and wanted to know if you were into him.” Cass supplied. Her pocket started buzzing and she pulled out her phone. It was yesterday all over again; three new texts with in the last two seconds. The first was from Terrik. Hey freak. What’s up? She sighed and replied quickly telling him she was at work and then moved on to the next. This one was from Justin and she smiled. I miss you already. :( She sent him a message in the form of prose describing exactly how much she missed him as well and then went on to read the next. It was from Joey. Hey Cassie. Miss you. How’s life? As she was responding to this four more texts arrived and she laughed.
“Who’re you talking to?” Anna asked as they entered Starbucks together.
“Justin, naturally, and some old friends of mine, there are ten of them so if my phone looks as if it is going haywire, just ignore it. My old friends plus the coven equals fifteen people, add my friend James into the mix and I could very well be texting sixteen people at one time.”
“Wow, you’re a lot less reclusive than I thought.”
“No, I actually only recently started speaking to my old friends again and I had found the coven just four days ago. Up until Tuesday this week, I was exactly as reclusive as you thought. It’s a rather long story, perhaps I’ll tell it to you sometime when we’re not working.” Cass smiled, pulling on her apron as her phone vibrated in her pocket.
“Ok, I’ll remind you.” Anna grinned; tying her own apron as the first customers of their shift came trickling in. Somehow Cass managed to carry on fourteen different conversations while filling orders and chatting merrily with the customers without being reprimanded by her boss. The Shadow Wolves and the coven had all been texting her, everyone save Spencer and James. The coven had bombarded her with questions about last night, trying to verify Justin’s story and she played it up slightly for his benefit. Twelve thirty came quicker than she had expected and Justin and Tim entered the shop followed closely by Preston, Spencer and Tylor. Anna stopped chattering as she caught sight of Tim and Cass looked around, smiling when she saw the coven approach the counter. She and Anna had been talking every chance they had, getting to know one another. They were both pleased to find that they got along quite well.
“How may we help you fine gentlemen?” Cass greeted them with a wink. Tim looked positively confident as he smiled at Anna. She had taken the opportunity to tell him what Anna had said about him during their texting and it made a visible difference in his demeanor. He was wearing a black and green Metallica tee and his black jeans. His eyeliner was much more modest today and his eyes sparkled as Anna returned his flirtatious smirk. Spencer was back in black, although he was wearing an uncharacteristic black cloak around his shoulders. Preston had on a replica of the very jeans Cass was wearing and a flowered blouse that stretched over his muscles impressively and Tylor was decked in what seemed to be every piece of Jack Skellington merchandise he owned; he was sporting the hoodie he had worn the past two days, the belt he had worn the first day she had seen him and Jack Skellington fingerless gloves under a black wristband that displayed Jack as well on his right wrist.
“Yah, I’ll take a Vanilla Frap.” Tim said, handing Anna a ten. “Keep the change.”
“A Vanilla Frap for the hottie, coming right up.” Anna blushed, giggling. She moved to make his drink and the rest of the coven converged upon the front counter.
“Well good afternoon, Mrs. Scott.” Preston teased.
“Come off it.” Justin reprimanded but he couldn’t quite hide the joyous expression on his face.
“Good afternoon to you as well, Mr. Somper.” Cass laughed lightly. “What can I get you?”
“Can I get a chia latte?” he arched his left eyebrow.
“But of course and what can I get for you Spencer?”
“Uh, a pumpkin spice latte.” He squinted at the menu board behind her, pulling out a twenty from his wallet.
“Coming right up, and what does Mr. Skellington want?” she smiled at Tylor.
“A caramel frap with extra whipped cream.” He replied, grinning.
“Will do, and I know what you want?” She winked at Justin; tending the twenty Spencer had given her for his and Tylor’s drinks and the five seventy-five Preston had presented.
“You always do.” He laughed. He had her purse draped over his left shoulder and one of her ear buds from her i-pod inserted in his left ear. She gave them one last smile before working to fill all of their orders. She scrawled their names on the side of their cups; My Justin-sama, Ty Skellington, P-ditty and Pez-de-Spencer and began mixing their drinks expertly.
“You know, I was surprised by your i-pod.” Justin called over the blender and she glanced up at him. He was smiling so she gave him a puzzled look.
“What do you mean?”
“I did not expect All American Rejects, Band of Skulls, Black Eyed Peas, Boys Like Girls, By Any Other Name, Cute is What We Aim For, Death Cab 4 Cutie, Fall Out Boy, The Fray, Jason Durulo, Jesse McCartney, Jonas Brothers, Kelly Clarkson, Ke$ha, The Killers, Lady Gaga, Lykke Li, Miley Cyrus, Muse, My Chemical Romance, Nickleback, Panic! At the Disco, Paramour, Pink, Rihanna, Selena Gomez and the Scene, Taking Back Sunday, Taylor Swift, the Used and Usher but all the rock came as a shock too. I mean, ACDC, All That Remains, Apoclaplyptica, Avenged Seven Fold, Black Label Society, Black Tide, Breaking Benjamin, Bullet for My Valentine, Burn Halo, Chivell, Disturbed, Drowning Pool, Egypt Central, Evanescence, Five Fingered Death Punch, Fly Leaf, Foo Fighters, God Smack, Green Day, Hinder, Hollywood Undead, Hurt, Korn, Linkin Park, Metallica, Motley Crew, Nine Inch Nails, Offspring, Otep, P.O.D., RED, Rage Against the Machine, Rise Against, Saliva, Saving Able, Seether, Shine Down, Showbread, Sick Puppies, Since October, Skillet, Slipknot, Stained, Static X, Stone Sour, Stone Temple Pilots, System of a Down, Tantric, Taproot, Ten Years, Tool, Trapt and Queen! Your i-pod is better stocked than a music store. And look at this, heavy metal! Acacia Strain, Cataclysm, Creator, Devon Townsend Project, Fear Factor, Forbidden, Haunted, In This Moment, Kill Switch Engage, Murder Dolls, Mutiny Undone, Mute Math, Nuclear Assault, Overkill, Slayer, Testament, Type O Negative, and 36 Crazy Fists?”
“What, are you reading off my Artist list?” She asked, amused.
“Yah, and who’s Cold Play, Enya and Garbage? Seriously, they named their band Garbage? I can’t believe you have so much Christian music; The Afters, The Almost, Audio Adrenaline, Barlow Girl, Building 429, By the Tree, The Classical Crime, Daniel Kirkly, Demon Hunter, The Devil Wears Prada, Disciple, Falling Up, Fire Flight, Flyleaf, Hyper Static Union, Jars of Clay, Junk Yard Prophet, KJ 5 2, Kronicles, Krystal Myers, Kutless, Lyrycyst, Manic Drive, Nevertheless, Philmont, Pillar, Plus One, RED, Rush of Fools, Sanctus Real, Showbread, Skillet, Spoken, Stellar Kart, Stephanie Smith, Superchick, Switchfoot, Thousand Foot Krutch, Third Day, Toby Mac, Tree 63 and Zoë Girl. The only thing that didn’t surprise me is all of the Michal Jackson albums.” He teasingly scoffed.
“You’re forgetting my Sound Tracks.” She smiled, finishing up the coven’s drinks.
“Yah, you have a ton of those; Death Note, Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Moulin Rouge, Naruto three disc set, NCIS season Six, Nightmare Before Christmas, Nightmare Revisited, Phantom of the Opera Deluxe Edition, Pirates of the Caribbean Trilogy, Rorouni Kenshin five disc set, Transformers One and Two and the Twilight Saga. You’ve got some foreign stuff on here too, Asagi, Cinema Bizzare, Dong Biang Shiki, The Gazzette, Malice Miser, The Trax and Umph. How can you hold all of this on here?” he demanded.
“I did not have adequate funds to buy a better i-pod so I purchased as much additional memory as I could and added it to that one.” She explained, handing him his drink. The rest of the coven congregated around her and she passed them their pick-me-ups as well.
“You like Lady Gaga?” Spencer asked in disbelief.
“Yes, I find her to be very talented and her songs to be overpoweringly appealing.”
“Yah, but Jesse McCartney?” Preston compelled.
“But of course, I have been a fan of his since his days with Sugar Beats.”
“His days with what?” Tylor snorted.
“Sugar Beats, they’re a children’s group that only employs small children. They Hired Jesse when he was young, from there he co-founded the boy band Dream Street which broke up after two albums at which point he pursued his solo career which, obviously, has been a hit.” She shrugged as the four of them sipped their drinks, looking at her as if she had gone insane. Tim and Anna were off in a corner, talking with their heads bent close together. Apparently she had taken her break. Cass glanced at the front counter to ensure she was not neglecting any customers and sighed. Three were waiting patiently in line. “Listen, I would love to discuss this further but I have a job I have to get back to.” She announced, leaning over the counter to kiss Justin quickly on the cheek before approaching the front. The coven settled down at a table and she smiled to herself as they discovered her nicknames. They were joshing one another loudly and Spencer seemed displeased with his. Time moved quickly and the coven was soon leaving for class, Spencer approaching the front counter once more.
“How may I help you?” Cass smirked.
He looked apprehensive.
“Pez dispenser, really? Tylor gets Ty Skellington and Preston gets P-ditty, but I’m stuck with Pez dispenser?”
“It was the first thing that came to mind. Do you like action films, horror movies and such?” she improvised.
“Uh, yah, why?” he blinked.
“Then I take back Pez-de-Spencer and christen you Sus-Spence.”
“Suspense?” He questioned.
“No, Sus-Spence. It’s your normal nickname with a prefix that allows it to sound like something you enjoy. Does that satisfy you?” She smiled, amused that this should matter to him.
“Yah, yah thanks. I like it. See ya later, Cass.” He grinned, following Tim Tylor and Preston out the door.
“Are you off now?” Justin asked softly, making her jump. He had snuck behind the counter while she was speaking to Spencer and wrapped his arms around her possessively.
“Yes, I only need to clock out” she smiled, making for the back so she could check out and hang up her apron.
“Hey, Cass, listen, thanks for covering for me while I talked to Tim, I really owe you one.” Anna whispered, stopping her. “I mean, we’re not official or anything, but it’s definitely going places thanks to you.”
“It was no bother, I was more than happy to help you out.” Cass replied. Her phone started buzzing again and she sighed. “Before I forget, may I have your number?” she asked, pulling out her phone and clearing the screen before handing it to Anna.
“Yah, sure!” Anna took it, programming herself into Cass’s contacts before handing it back. “I’ll see you later today.”
“Will you now?” Cass blinked, opening a new text from Daily.
“Yes, Tim asked me to hang out with you guys again tonight.”
“That is wonderful. I shall see you later then.” She said, moving past her to the back, Justin still firmly attached to her waist. She swiped her card quickly, extracting her apron with some difficulty and hanging it on its hook.
“And now we have the entire afternoon to ourselves.” Justin murmured, kissing her neck
“Yes, we do.” She beamed, pulling him outside. “Where do you wish to go?”
“Anywhere so long as I’m with you.” He replied, releasing her waist and interlocking his fingers with hers as they took off aimlessly down the sidewalk.
“There is a beautiful park across the street from Memorial. The leaves are changing and it is sure to be a breath taking sight.” She suggested.
“I was thinking more along the lines of going back to your loft.” He admitted with a suggestive smirk.
“Why don’t we do both? We have three hours before we are to be joined by the rest of the coven. We can spend an hour at my loft and an hour at the park. It will take us nearly half an hour walking each way so it works out rather well, wouldn’t you say?” she compromised.
“Sounds perfect.” He said agreeably, towing her back towards her loft. She noticed that the caravan was gone from where he had parked it last night.
“When did you take the van back?” she inquired.
“Spencer and Preston have the same study hall third period so they took it back for me. They didn’t want to take away from our time together now.” He radiated gratefulness.
“That was very generous of them.”
“Yah, it was Preston’s idea. They’re awesome friends, you know?”
“Undoubtedly.” She replied, heading once more up the three flights of stairs that led to her loft.
“Good afternoon, Miss Cassandra!” came a cheerful voice and she turned. Her downstairs neighbor had just exited his loft and was glancing from her to Justin excitedly.
“Good afternoon Mr. Harrison, how are you doing?” she asked kindly. He was a gentle but vivacious old man in his mid-seventies and had taken an unlikely liking to Cass from day one.
“Life is cruel, life is kind. I can’t complain I still have my health.” He wagged his head merrily from side to side. “Who do we have here, a friend of yours at last?”
“Yes, Justin this is my neighbor Jasper Harrison, Mr. Harrison this is my boyfriend, actually, Justin Scott.”
“Boyfriend you say? Well it’s about time little missy! I was beginning to worry about your emotional health. It’s a pleasure to meet you young man.” He declared, grabbing Justin’s free hand and shaking it vigorously.
“Er, nice to meet you too, Sir.” Justin responded.
“Well I’m off to the YMCA, water aerobics starts in twenty minutes.” Mr. Harrison grinned, patting Cass affectionately on the cheek before turning to leave.
“Alright, have a wonderful day Mr. Harrison.” She called, watching him hop down the stairs.
“He’s interesting.” Justin commented.
“Yes, he is very sprightly for his age. He’s a sweet old man really, always sends up a basket of cookies every holiday. He is of the opinion that I am under fed.” She smiled.
“That’s cool.”
“Have you eaten yet?”
“No, we skipped lunch today so Tim could see Anna and I could see you. Normally we grab a Mickey D’s or a Carl’s Jr. before we hang out at the park, but I wanted to see you.” He stated as she unlocked her door.
“I am sorry I do not have much in the way of lunch food, if you so desire I could make us each a bowl of ramen or a ham and cheese sandwich. That is all I have, I’m afraid.” She warned, watching as he hung her purse on its hook.
“Uh, ramen sounds good I guess.” He shrugged.
“Make yourself comfortable. I will have our lunch right out.” She conceded, walking into her kitchen as Justin kicked back on her sofa. He watched her much as he had this morning and she blushed, putting on a pot of water for tea and removing two packages of ramen from the cupboard. She retrieved two bowls from the cabinet above the sink and placed the raw noodles in each before adding water and placing them both in the microwave. She set the timer for five minutes and turned to find Justin still watching her. He had taken off his black shirt once more and was relaxing in his muscle shirt, the red causing his eyes to sparkle enchantingly. His aura was a mixture of deep pink and brilliant gold which, Cass thought, only added to his enthralling beauty.
“The remote control for the plasma is on the table in front of you if you wish to turn it on.”
“You can’t afford a new i-pod but you can afford a plasma?” he questioned.
“It was a gift from my father’s side of the family. They had all combined their funds and bought it for me as a loft-warming gift. I only receive local channels, but it was a very thoughtful and exceptionally generous gift nonetheless. I am, of course, their only Granddaughter and niece seeing as how my father was the only one of their sons to have a girl so I presume they do not feel bad indulging me like this.”
“I see. And all of these decorations?”
“My mother was so kind as to help me purchase most of them before I left. The rest I either was given or had found for next to nothing at outlet and second hand stores. Everything else I had previously owned while I was still living with my mother. I bought myself my i-pod and my cell phone soon after I moved out. My two year indenture was up a couple months ago so I up-graded to the Fascinate and renewed my contract.” She prattled, unsure as to why she was telling him all this.
“Nice,” he nodded. Cass jumped as the microwave dinged behind her and laughed at her own foolishness, pulling the ramen out and stirring it. She extracted two pairs of chop sticks before pouring the now boiling water into her favorite tea pot, letting the leaves of Jasmine steep as she brought everything out to Justin on an antique Japanese tray.
“Very nice presentation.” He noted.
“Why thank you, I try.” She beamed, sitting next to him as she set the tray on the coffee table in front of them. They ate their lunch, babbling animatedly as the time passed.
“Was it not your intention to look over my songs and see if they were adequate for the band?” Cass said suddenly.
“Oh! Yah, do you want to do that? All my stuff is at my house, but we can work with yours.” Justin answered.
“Perfect, let me fetch them quickly.” She jumped up, racing to her purse to dig out her lyric book and came back with it in hand. “You may just leaf through them; look over the ones that speak to you.”
Justin took the small note book and opened it, skimming over the first few pages.
“These are really good, Cass.” He muttered, reading slower once he found one to be of particular interest. After going through all of her songs he pointed out three that he really liked. “I like Void, Laughter in the Rain and Frost Covered Haven. Can we work with those for right now?”
****