Burning It Down, All the Way to Bat Country

Blaike’s POV

Pheonix.sucks.BALLS. I thought Huntington was hot, but at least it rained occasionally. I was in the middle of the fucking desert in JULY. It was like, 4000 degrees here. And the icky creatures like snakes and spiders? Sooo not crackin. I groaned as I grabbed my phone and dialed Trin’s number, she had called me while I was in the pool earlier.

“Buddy the Elf, what’s your favorite color?”
“Hmm, let’s go with green today. So Matt finally released you?”
“Barely. I have to let him know whenever I leave, he has the logins to my MySpace, Facebook, and emails, and he installed this thing on my laptop that records all my chat logs and sends them to his office computer.”
“That’s harsh man. So how’s life in sunny California?”
“I wouldn’t know, I’ve only been un-grounded for a few hours. It rained last night though, it was so awesome. I sat on my roof and got soaked.”
“Oh my god I am so jealous. It was 97 degrees here at 7 o clock last night, it’s ridiculous.”
“Well I was talking to my dad and he said you’re flying out here on Friday, so you only have to deal with it for two more days.”
“Yeah, my parents told me about that before they went to work this morning. How’s your dad feeling?”
“He’s doing good actually, he healed up pretty nicely. He ran five miles this morning though, even though the doctor told him to take it easy for the first month of recovery.”
“Well yeah, but your dad doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who actually listens to what his doctor tells him to do.”
“Haha yeah, I love him though.”

“Haha yeah, so how are you and Mitch?”
“We’re ok I think. I talked to him earlier but he sounded really weird, like he was hiding something from me.”
“What do you think he’s hiding?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. I haven’t talked to him for over a month, it could be anything.”
“Well I think you should just ask him straight up about it, or you’re going to make yourself sick stressing about it.”
“I know, I just don’t want anything bad to happen. Gah, whatever, I gotta go chick, I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Alright, love ya!”
“Love you too, bye!” I laughed as I heard the dial tone and shut my phone, cutting off the annoying noise. I hopped off my bed and went downstairs to drag my suitcases out of the closet, might as well pack since I have nothing to do. I opened my closet and I was pulling shit out and tossing it on my bed when the doorbell rang, I skipped downstairs and pulled open the heavy oak door to reveal Jeremy, my awesome next door neighbor who had basically taken me under his wing and now treated me like his little sister. He was 24 and had the nicest girlfriend on the planet.

“Hey man, what’s up?” He grinned and held up a box of cupcake mix.
“I may have broken my oven yesterday and today is Anna’s birthday and she loves cupcakes so I was thinking maybe you could help me?” I looked at him and blinked before busting up in laughter,
“How…the hell...did you break your oven?” I gasped out, knowing my face was bright red from lack of oxygen. He grinned sheepishly and shrugged his broad shoulders,
“Let’s just say, when you’re drunk, baking a can of hairspray is the most brilliant idea in the world.” I shot him a disapproving look but let him in anyway.
“So you blowing up hairspray was the explosion I heard last night?”
“Maybe, maybe not. Now hell the hell do you make these things?” He looked at the box, confusion written all over his face. I laughed turned the box so he was looking at the directions, smirking as the confusion cleared, replaced by red faced embarrassment.
“Stop laughing at me, I was a player before I met Anna, I don’t know how to make cupcakes. At least I’m trying right?”

“Mhm, and it’s very sweet of you, but why don’t you just go buy her some cupcakes?”
“Because I’m going to propose and I think it would be cuter if I made the cupcakes.”
“OH MY GOD!! Can I see the ring?” He grinned and pulled a blue Tiffany’s box out of his pocket, cracking it open to reveal the gorgeous 1 carat flower shaped ring.
“Holy crap Jay, it’s beautiful. How are you going to give it to her?”
“I was kinda thinking of putting it in the icing as a decoration…”
“Jeremy Andrew Marshall I swear to GOD, if you dirty up that ring with icing I will KILL you. What you need to do is take her to dinner and propose in front of the whole restaurant. Or, take her to where you had your first date and do it there.”
“You really think I should do it another way?” I thought about it for a minute and shook my head,

“No, you should do it whatever way you want. I actually thing the ring in the icing thing is really cute.” He smiled in relief and handed me the cupcake mix,
“Good, now help me dammit!” I laughed and nodded, opening the box and dumping the contents into a bowl I pulled out of a cabinet.
Four hours, three small fires, an explosion, and ten boxes of cupcake mix later and we finally had an edible batch of cupcakes. I looked at Jeremy and threw my arms up in victory after I placed the perfectly golden brown cakes on the cooling tray.
“Ya know, without me you probably would have burned your house down.” I stated, shutting off the oven and starting on the dishes.

“Did you forget already? I burned down half the kitchen six months ago.”
“Dude, I wasn’t here six months ago. But yes, I remember you telling me about that little incident, you need to stop letting your coworkers cook genius.”
“He wasn’t my coworker, he was a professional chef, I figured he could handle it!”
“Jay, he was PLASTERED. He couldn’t handle anything shithead!” He just stuck his tongue out at me and grabbed a cupcake, taking a huge bite. I started laughing hysterically when he immediately spit it back out, fanning his now burnt tongue.
“Hey Jay, that’s hot dumbass.”

Kat’s POV

I was sitting at my station sketching a 36 Crazyfists tattoo for some hardcore fan when Anna stomped over, practically shaking with rage. I grinned and stood up, placing my hands on her shoulders,
“Deep breaths; use your words. What happened?” She breathed in, slowly calming herself before speaking.
“Stupid blonde bitch wants a fucking butterfly on her hip, I told her we don’t do butterflies unless there’s something seriously fucked up about it, she said she was the customer and there isn’t anything posted about it so she can get whatever she wants, I told her no, she called me a crazy haired whore. Told her to fuck off, she wants to speak with ‘the manager’.” I sighed and walked to the front, spotting the typical blonde California girl standing at the front desk, one hand on her hip, the other in front of her face so she could study her nails. I stepped up to her and waved my hand in front of her face, catching her attention,

“Hi there, I’m Kat, I’m the owner. What seems to be the problem?”
“I like, want to get a tattoo of a butterfly on my hip and your office manager said I couldn’t get one. What the hell is up with that, cuz I don’t see a sign anywhere that says I can’t get a butterfly done.” I looked at her, amazed that anyone could be that stupid, before pointing to the sign on the counter that read
We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.
“Ya know what that means sweetie? It means we don’t have to do the damn butterfly.” She glared and turned around, stomping out the door. I turned to Anna and grinned,
“Well that was easy.”

Trinity’s POV

“Steph, do we really have to do this? I really don’t think this is necessary. We still have time to leave!” I pleaded for the fifth time in ten minutes as I sat in the waiting room, filling out ridiculous amounts of paperwork with the most embarrassing question ever.
“You promised Trinity, no finish filling out the damn paperwork!” She snapped, going back to her magazine. I huffed and turned my attention back to the papers in front of me, grudgingly filling it out and handing it to the nurse at the front desk. Fifteen minutes later and a lady in a white coat walked out with a clipboard in her hand,
“Trinity Sanders?” I sighed and stood up, walking back to the room. We had agreed that Steph would stay in the waiting room, I was embarrassed enough as it was, I really didn’t need her in there with me. We sat down in the little exam room, getting right down to talking.

“Alright Trinity, do you know what type of birth control you’re looking for?”
“I’d really like to get Mirena if that’s possible.”
“Ok, are you still planning on using condoms?”
“That’s the plan, but Mitch doesn’t really like them, so I’m taking all the steps possible and the birth control pamphlet says that Mirena is the most effective female contraceptive.”
"Ok, how long have you been sexually active?"
"Only about a month."
"Have you used a condom every time time you engaged in sexual activities?" Oh god, why am I doing this?
"Yes, I'm not stupid."
"I'm just making sure, alot of young girls who are sexually active don't use protection every time."
"Well, I'm not most girls, we always use protection ok?" The doctor nodded and scratched something down on the paper in front of her and stood up, going to a cupboard and pulling out one of those ugly green paper gown things.
“Here you go sweetie, put this on, I’ll be back in about five minutes.” I nodded and quickly changed once she left the stupid gown and sat back on the table. I can’t believe I’m sitting in a doctor’s office about to get birth control. This is so amazingly awkward; I don’t know why I agreed to do this. I was sitting on the table contemplating the situation when the doctor walked in with a little kit thing, and twenty minutes after that I was changed and walking out to the waiting room to find Steph. She grinned when she stood up, slinging an arm around my shoulders and walking out to the car,

“So how did it go?”
“That was so fucking embarrassing! Why did I have to do that?” I whined as I slid into her car, plugging my iPod in.
“Because if you’re going to have sex then you need to be protected, besides, it couldn’t have been that bad.”
“It was so that bad. It was so awkward; she kept asking me how long I had been sexually active, which is really annoying when adults say that. I mean, am I going to just like, deactivate one day? When did sex become robotic? Jesus Christ, she was so stupid!” I ranted, sitting back in my seat and covering my face with my hands.
“Well, what did you get?”
“I got that Mirena IUD thing. I guess I only have to check it once a month and it’ll last for like 5 years. I figured that was easier than getting on the Pill and having to remember to take it every day.”
“Makes sense, I don’t know if this whole Mirena thing was a good idea, but it’s your choice. Now, how about some ice cream?”
"I want a triple scoop."
"Ok."
"With as many toppings as I feel like."
"Alright."
"I don't want to talk about this with my dad."
"Ok sweetie, I'll talk to your dad for you." I nodded in satisfaction and leaned back in my seat.
"Thank you Steph." She just smiled and kept driving.