People Change

“Hey, Brian,” Ashley, Larry’s assistant, greeted with a smile as Brian walked into the studio. Brian smiled and greeted Ashley back. She was probably the sort of girl Brian would’ve made fun of in high school: not too pretty and quiet. But now that he was a grown up, he was out of that stage and knew that she was average and quiet, but also extremely nice and hard-working.

“Oh, Brian, I’d be careful,” Ashley warned as Brian walked towards the lounge where he knew he’d find the guys. Brian stopped and looked around at her. “They had their scheming faces on.”

“Oh, great,” Brian replied, slapping his hand to his forehead. “This really can’t be good. Did you catch what they were scheming?”

“No, sorry,” Ashley answered apologetically. “I heard something about doughnuts, though. I’d just watch your back.”

“Got it, Ash, thanks,” Brian said.

“Glad I could be of help,” Ashley replied with a nod. She turned and continued on her way, as did Brian.

A few moments later, Brian stepped into the lounge. Matt, Johnny, Jimmy, and Zacky all sat on the various couches placed in the lounge. Brian almost laughed at the sight of Matt holding an open newspaper and a cup of coffee. He didn’t look like the morning-coffee-and-news type by anyone’s standards.

“Oh, good, you’re here,” Zacky said upon noticing that Brian had joined them. “Listen, Gates, we’re all really hungry and need breakfast to feed our inner musicians.”

“So, since you’re the last to arrive, we’re going to send you out for doughnuts,” Johnny continued, strumming a few strings on his bass guitar.

“Ashley told me you guys were scheming,” Brian said with a grin, pointing accusingly at his friends.

“Yeah, yeah, Gates,” Matt answered with a wave of his hand. “Hark about it to someone who cares. Here’s a twenty we mugged Johnny for and go down the street to Sweetness Bakery to get us some doughnuts.”

“They any good?” Brian asked as he stepped forward and snatched the twenty out of Matt’s hand.

“The best,” Jimmy answered before anyone else could. “I know the co-owner.”

“Well, why don’t we send you?” Brian asked, looking around at Jimmy. “You could get a discount.”

“Sorry, already agreed on you,” Jimmy said, leaning back in his seat, over exaggerating his relaxation to peeve Brian off. Brian just shook his head and walked back out of the lounge.

After several minutes of searching, Brian finally found the bakery. He walked in the door, and a bell tinkled above the door letting the person at the counter know that someone had walked in. No one stood at the counter at the time, however. Brian walked up to the counter, which was pretty much a big glass display case through which he could see the different pastries the bakery had to offer. A bell and a note sat on the counter. The note read in elegant, neat writing: Ring the bell, and someone will help you. Maybe. Brian quickly rang the bell before going back to studying the different doughnuts available.

“Welcome to Sweetness, how may I help you?” a female voice asked. Brian jerked his head up, not having heard the chick walk up. Something flashed in her bright blue eyes upon seeing Brian’s face, but disappeared just as quickly as it appeared. She looked oddly familiar, but Brian didn’t know where he knew her from. Actually, she looked a lot like a girl Brian used to be an ass to in high school, but that chick had been much uglier than the woman standing on the other side of the counter.

The woman standing on the other side of the counter could not be called ugly. She had a round, fresh face with wide innocent blue eyes surrounded perfectly by a thin amount of eyeliner. Her long shimmering black hair had been piled up into a bun at the back of her head; a few stray tendrils trailed down her neck. Brian couldn’t see her below the waist, but he hazarded a guess that she was extremely tall, and that most of that height was legs.

Pretty much, she was hot.

“Of course you can,” Brian answered, leaning his arm casually against the glass display case. “I’ll take five cinnamon twists and five glazed, please.”

“That’ll be nine-fifty, sir,” the woman said as she grabbed a box and began to put the specified doughnuts into it. Once she finished that task and put the lid on the box, she accepted the twenty from Brian and gave him change. “Can I help you with anything else?”

“Actually, yes,” Brian answered, slipping the change into his back pocket. “You see, I recently got a new bed. It’s one of those beds they advertise on television, the one where you put a glass of wine on it and jump up and down and it doesn’t spill the wine. But I was wondering if maybe you’d like to come help me try it out.”

Usually, when Brian said this to a woman, she’d blush and laugh. However, this woman didn’t appreciate the lame-ass pick-up line. She didn’t even laugh. She just looked disgusted and before Brian could see it coming, she pulled back a hand and slapped him hard across the cheek.

“Ow!” Brian protested, resting a hand on his throbbing cheek.

“You’re such an ass, Brian,” the woman snarled before whirling and storming through a pair of swinging doors into the kitchen. Brian stared after her in shock, mostly because she talked as though she knew him. But how could she know him when he didn’t know her?

Brian grabbed his box of doughnuts and left the bakery with more questions than answers.

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Seeing Brian again after all these years, face to face, prodded old wounds in Sydney’s soul. She’d been working hard to avoid all of Jimmy’s friends over the past ten years. It’d been difficult, too, since the studio was only about forty feet down the street from the bakery. Sometimes, if Sydney cared to look, she could see all the guys entering the studio from the front windows of the bakery. And what nerve that asshole had! Sydney really couldn’t stop herself from slapping him when he used that lame ass pick-up line on her, like he thought she was someone worth having sex with. He was obviously just messing with her. Sydney really hoped he would’ve grown up by now, but apparently, old habits die hard.

“What’s wrong, bitch?” Lanie asked Sydney. It was Lanie’s day to man the ovens while Sydney worked the counter. Sydney felt Lanie’s hand on her shoulder.

“I just had to serve the asshole of all assholes,” Sydney answered shakily. She didn’t like to think much about what happened in high school...the humiliation she went through daily because of Brian...the self-esteem issues that made life Hell for Sydney. She’d long since jumped over those hurtles in life; she really didn’t feel much like jumping over them again.

“Here, have a drink,” Lanie said soothingly, pressing a glass into Sydney’s palm. Sydney nodded and took a drink from the glass, looking into Lanie’s concerned chocolate brown eyes.

“God, he’s still an ass,” Sydney told Lanie with a sigh. Lanie already knew who Sydney was talking about; she’d long since heard the story about how Sydney was treated in high school by her brother’s friends. “He used the lamest pick up line ever. I don’t even understand why he did that. Was he mocking me? I’m still not sure. But I slapped him.”

“Good on ya,” Lanie said, a hard look on her face. “He deserved it. Now, Syd, don’t let him affect you. That was in your past. Look at you now. You’re gorgeous. He’s probably just jealous that you aged gracefully but he didn’t.”

Sydney quickly bit back a remark that Brian actually looked pretty attractive even now.

“Yeah, maybe,” she agreed instead.

“Or maybe he’s just mad that he didn’t treat you better before. He could be dating the sexiest bitch in Huntington right now if he’d played his cards right,” Lanie continued with a comforting smile Sydney’s way. “Like you would ever give him a chance, eh?”

“Never in a million years,” Sydney lied solemnly. Lanie smiled happily. “Thanks, whore, I feel better now.” Sydney and Lanie often called each other bitches or whores, except it was a term of endearment.

“Always glad to help,” Lanie answered, taking the glass from Sydney. “Now, go on and take your place at the counter. It’s about to get busy.”

“Aye aye,” Sydney said with a salute before leaving Lanie to do her own thing.