"So, did you two enjoy your little... date?" my dad asked.
"Yeah, it was great," I replied, chewing on the straw of my drink.
"Mm-hm," he mumbled, not looking up at me as he read something on the menu.
This morning, we both woke up early to the sound of the neighbors drilling and tearing out their drive away, so we currently sat in a booth at the nearest breakfast diner, scaring away strangers with our matching smeared eye makeup and early morning glares.
"I can't choose between crepes or the avocado omelette," I mumbled, flipping back and forth between the pages.
"The avocado thing looks better," he said, his light hazel eyes locking onto me as he took a sip of his coffee. "By the way, if you have a mark on your neck that's as dark as that one is, you should probably cover it before going out," he mused, laughing when I began to choke on my apple juice. "Easy there, Lucy, don't die on me!"
"What are you talking about?" I croaked, totally unaware of any marks of any kind.
Silently, he smiled and pointed to a spot on his neck, and my curiosity alone was enough to cause me to use my phone camera to look at myself.
"Oh... my god," I breathed, slapping my hand over the vibrant hickey as I used my other hand to pull the hair tie out of my messy bed head.
"Next time you should check," he said, still laughing as I turned crimson.
"I don't want to talk about it," I hissed, looking down at the menu.
"Hey, believe me, I've had my fair share of love bites over the years, but never did my parents notice them. Oh, and Ace says to stay out of bathrooms."
Now, I went pale, rather than turning even more red.
"What?"
"He saw you guys go in... and come out," he said nonchalantly, "and I guess, heard you, too."
"Um, I-"
"I don't want to know anything about it," he said quickly, closing his eyes tightly, as if to block out the mental images.
"Like I said, I don't want to talk about it," I mumbled softly, taking one last sip of my juice as the waitress handed me my tea, and Taime his coffee, the drinks we were really waiting for.
Once we gave our orders, we sat in silence, annoyed that we were awake that early and that we were in public already after having such a long night.
"I wish we didn't have neighbors," groaned, propping my head up on my hand.
"Yeah, me, too. What time did we get home?" he asked, squinting.
"Two I think."
"Christ, it's only seven thirty. When we get back, I'm going back to sleep," he said with a nod.
"Me, too. It's too early for a Sunday."
"See, aren't you glad that we don't go to church?" he asked with a laugh.
"Very."
°°°°°°
"Hey, did you see the text I sent you," Taime asked, sticking his head into my room.
"Hm? Oh, no," I said as I continued to draw out a Santa Cruz logo, just for fun.
"I was asking you about the color you used on the last design you did for me. We were thinking about making some anniversary stuff."
"Like what?"
"Like bracelets and stupid shit like that. Maybe some custom guitar picks," he said with a shrug.
"Oh, it's a pantone color," I said, knowing that he had no idea what that meant.
"What the fuck is that?"
"Pantone is a color thing, think like a code, but it's very specific. It's how you always get a to be exactly the same every time."
"There's no name for it then?"
"No; it's numbers. I have it written somewhere," I said as I flipped back through my sketchbook.
"It's okay; I don't need it right now, but I probably will later."
"Okay. I'll let you know when I find it," I mumbled, scratching my head as I looked around.
"Yeah, it's fine. It could be in any of these," he said, grabbing a random sketchbook off of the pile that sat on my desk, skimming through the pages. "When did you do a Skid Row logo?"
"Oh, I just did that for fun. Just to goof around, I guess," I said, looking back to my Santa Cruz logo.
"Hm. That's cool," he said. "Well, I'll leave you alone. You're probably talking to your boyfriend," he said with a smug smile, dipping out of my room.
"He's not my boyfriend," I called after him.
"Sure."
Whatever. I was just being technical... which was the best thing to do in my situation. I mean, Archie didn't ask me to be his girlfriend or anything, so for all I knew, we were just friends with benefits, which I was okay with. Still, I couldn't help but want more... I could imagine having a future with him someday.
I had a lot of feelings of being unsure; who was to say that he even wanted me? He must have at least a little bit to keep coming back like that, but who knows... God he made my mind a mess.
Already, I had a lot going on, and my head was full of nonsense and filth, but he made everything much more... realistic. Thoughts of doing certain things in certain places were now real memories, and because of that, I realized how dirty my mind really was. It almost made me laugh.
"I'm sure he can't be much better," I thought to myself as I gave up on the logo, knowing that I was being weird.
"It's like I'm addicted to him," I mumbled to myself. "What the hell is going on?"
I couldn't stop thinking about him, and it was going to make me insane; every time I focused, he somehow crept back in through a crack in my mind- he wouldn't go away. At least I didn't have any real work right now, otherwise I'd be up to my ass in failed designs and bad color choices.
Like clockwork, my phone buzzed, letting me know that I had a text from none other than Archie.
Sighing, I shook my head and opened it.
"Hello, I have a question for you," the message said.
"Oh? And what's that?" I answered, my heartbeat starting to race.
It was probably nothing, but I was a first place champion when it came to over thinking, so it could also be anything.
"What would you say to going out for drinks tomorrow night?"
I thought for a moment, simultaneously bummed and relaxed that he just wanted to go out.
"I'd love to. Let me see if I have anything going on."
"Taime," I shouted, walking into the hall.
"Yeah?" he yelled over the sound of his guitar, which he was practicing downstairs in the den.
"Do we have anything going on tomorrow night?"
"We don't, but I think you have something."
"Well, that's what I can't remember" I said.
"Isn't it some party thing-"
"Oh shit!" I said with a gasp. "Thank you," I shouted before running back to my room.
I had totally forgotten that I had a party to go to; it was hosted by Kevin Lyman, the guy who ran Warped Tour, whom I was supposed to design a few new shirts for. Luckily, I had one the designs a few weeks back, so that part was covered.
"Hey, I'm really sorry but I can't tomorrow," I texted Archie. "I have a party to go to for someone I designed a couple things for."
"No worries. Maybe some other night. :)" he replied moments later.
"Definitely next time!" I assured him.
Well, now I needed to make sure that I actually sleep tonight.
°°°°°°
Less than twenty-four hours later, I found myself mingling with all of the important people of Warped Tour. I had already seem Kevin Lyman, and that being said, I had given him a folder that had the shirt designs, and so far, he was stoked, which was great for me. Granted, sketching out a few t-shirt logos and such wasn't the biggest deal, but Kevin was one of the nicest people that I knew, and making him happy made me happy.
After setting up a date for a later meeting, I was set free to roam, schmoozing and wasting time with many of my musician friends who also happened to be there.
"Well, Lucy, you're looking good," my friend Ricky said, decked out in his usual Motionless in White black on black clothes.
"Thanks, Rick, so do you," I said with a smile. "How are things?"
"Pretty good; New album soon, tour coming up- nonstop touring. It's kind of nice, but I miss my girl after a while," he replied, stretching his arms before giving me a hug.
"Aww, Ricky has a girlfriend," I teased.
"I have for a while," he chuckled, but paused, his bright blue eyes locking onto something over my shoulder. "Oh, don't look now, but I spy with my little eye an evil ex-boyfriend of yours."
"Fuck... please tell me that it isn't Bret," I begged, not wanting to be in the same room as him.
"Uh, I won't tell you that, but that doesn't change the fact that it's the one and only," he said casually.
"Oh my god. Why is he here?" I asked quietly, casually glancing over my shoulder, avoiding his gaze.
"It's kind of an open invitation thing, I guess. Kinda like, whoever's been on Warped can get in."
"He was on there once, and that was partially because of me," I grumbled regretfully.
"Hey, you didn't know that he was a dick; at least you found out before it was too late," he said.
"You've got a point, but that doesn't make me want to be anywhere near him."
"Fair enough; it's definitely understandable," he mumbled absently, looking over to where the rest of his bandmates were congregated, busy picking on Vinny for his bright red shoes.
"Go save the kid," I said with a laugh.
"Are you sure? I'm sure you can come say hi if you're worried about Bret."
"No, it's fine; I'll probably come say hi in a few... He probably won't say anything to me."
"Alright well, you know where we are if you need us," he said, smiling before he walked over to spare Vinny of the incessant teasing.
With a sigh, I sat down at an open table, minding my own business as I drank my iced tea. Once again, mental images of Archie Cruz tangled up any coherent thoughts I had as I watched all of the people I knew chat with each other about upcoming projects, lineup changes and what not.
"Well, Lucy! Long time, no see," a familiar, yet despicable voice purred into my ear.
"Oh, dear god," I whispered under my breath. "Yeah, long time for a reason, Bret," I spoke up.
"I missed you," he said, sitting beside me.
He looked quite different that the last time I had seen him; his hair was shorter, and there was a somewhat faded scar between his deep, green-hazel eyes from splitting his face open on stage a few years back. He had also taken out his lip rings and seemed to act a bit different than I remembered- more punk like.
"No you didn't," I corrected with a laugh. "You missed my dad pulling strings for you."
"Lucy, it wasn't like that-"
"If it wasn't like that, what was it like? My dad and I did you guys a bunch of favors, and as soon as we stopped, you started being a dick. Not okay."
"How was I a dick?"
"Really?! You were not nice to me; you started tearing me down because you thought it was funny. Once you realized that you were on your own, you made it pretty obvious that you didn't care about me anymore."
"I did not."
"You did too," I snapped, becoming angry with myself that I was even giving him the time of day.
"Name one time that I was randomly mean," he demanded.
"Okay, after you got back from the Dead Rabbitts tour, you wanted my dad and I to help you guys make your own headlining tour, but we said no because it wasn't our job. We went back to your apartment, where you had a meltdown and threw a bottle of Jim Beam at me."
"I don't remember that happening," he said, rolling his eyes as he sat back.
"Yeah, I guess it would be hard to when you get that drunk," I quipped.
"Lucy-"
"No. Goodbye, Bret, we're done with this conversation."
"Why? What are you gonna do, tell your fake boyfriend on me?" he asked slyly.
"Nope; I'm going to tell my real one," I said, standing up.
"Oh, so you do have a boyfriend?" he asked, also standing up.
"Yup, he's big, and he's blonde, and he's amazing; the opposite of everything that you are."
"Sure thing, doll," he said with a smirk, following me through the room.
"Can you fuck off, please? I'm leaving," I snapped, turning back to look at him.
"What if I wanted to meet your boyfriend?"
"Not gonna happen."
"Because he's not real."
"Nope, because I don't want you near him," I said simply. "To think that I turned down a date with him tonight to come deal with this shit," I growled, gesturing to Bret himself.
"Hey, don't be so rude. We had fun, right?"
"No, come to think of it, not really."
"Really?"
"Mm-hm."
"Never?" he asked in sarcastic disbelief.
"Nope- well, actually, the first few dates were fun, but that was about it," I said.
"Well, nothing good can last, I guess," he said bitterly.
"Yup, just like your band," I quipped, turning on my heel.
Saying goodbye to the few people that cared, I left as fast as I could, leaving Bret in the dust.
Early update; I had to try to redeem myself, lol. Enjoy (or try to).
-H