Come Pick Me Up

"You should get a job."

"Excuse me?"

"A job. You know when you work-"

"I know what a job is you twat. I mean why?" I asked without taking my eyes off the TV.

"You've been here for over a week. Eventually we're going to start charging you for rent y'know." Garrett smirked at me. I playfully punched his shoulder and grabbed a handful of Kellogs from the carton on his lap. "Hey!"

"You deserved it."

"Quiet children. Spongebob is just about to audition for the dance competition." Kennedy hissed.

"Sorry." We hung our heads low. Yup this is what's been happening every morning for the past week. Eat breakfast while watching tv. I tend to adjust to time faster than normal cause my old job sometimes requires me to be in a new place for around five days and have to be up and preppy during the day then sleep like a baby at night for the next day.

"I was kidding about the whole rent thing." Garrett whispered into my ear. "The job is mostly so that you could support yourself and buy the stuff you like."

"Aw so if I we were in the mall and I ask you to buy me that nice jumper on the window, you wouldn't buy it?" I pouted.

"Nope."

"Shoes?"

"No."

"A cupcake?"

"Dream on sister."

"A new set of knickers and bras?"

"I'd consider it."

"Good to know." I looked over at him to find him texting. "Who you texting?"

"None of your business."

"Oooh Garrett's got a girlfriend!" I teased. He didn't find that amusing at the least. I decided to change the subject.  "How do you feel about taking me to the mall?"

"Are you seriously going to drag me with you to go underwear shopping?" His face turned beet red. "Remind me not to joke with you ever again."

"Of course not, you tosser!" I hit his arm lightly. "I'm going job hunting."

"Do I really have to go?" He whined.

"You're the one who told me to get one so I'm bringing you down with me! Come on!" I jumped up from the couch and pulled him by the wrist.

"You're lucky I find you pretty." He muttered.

"What was that, zombie boy?"

"Nothing." He said in a pitchy voice.

"Get a room you two, would ya? Squidward found a way to enter the competition." Kennedy groaned.

---

"This looks like a good one."

"Oh no. You wouldn't want to work in a fast food chain. It's all grease and sweat." Garrett wrinkled his nose in disgust. "Might as well cross out Taco Bell while you're at it. Hey, this one looks good." He pointed at the ad for a pawnshop in need of an assistant.

"I'll pass. Pawnshops give me the creeps." I shivered and took one last look at the list of job openings that a kind lady from customer service gave us. "Ok so we've narrowed it down to Panera, Vintage Records, and Victoria Secret."

"I'm leaning towards Panera and Victoria Secret. For one, you could get me free sandwhiches. On the other hand you're going to work in a place that sells lingerie. Oh life's choices."

"Mm yes the struggles of the upper middle class musician. You lot must have it hard." I said dramatically. "My and how deep you all are.

"Hey John's the one who writes the lyrics. I just play bass." He raised his arms up, sliding his jacket down to his elbows and showing off a tattoo if some sort of peace sign under his arm. We stood up and walked over to Panera first.

"I bet your tattoo melts all the ladies' knickers."

"Tatoos, actually."

"You've got more?" How could I have never noticed any of them before?

He rolled his sleeves up, showing two more in his arms and one on his wrist. Then he lifted up his pants above his ankles which had another tattoo on it. And if that wasn't much, he lifted his shirt up a bit, exposing his side and another tattoo which read 'I need you so much closer.'

I traced my fingers over the letters on his side. "That is a lot of ink."

"So they say." He laughed and put his shirt back down.

---

"Thank you so much for your time." I smiled and shook the hand of the manager of Panera.

"I hope to see you soon." The sound of the chair scraping against the floor as we stood up made my ears almost bleed. I went over to Garrett who was munching happily on his sandwich. "Come on let's go." I dragged him up by his arm.

"How'd the interview go?" He asked he tried to keep up with my pace.

"Oh yeah it went great. Bloody manager tried to feel me up but it went fine."

"He what?!"

"Feel. Me. Up." I rolled my eyes. "Forget about that though. Who was that blonde cashier you were chatting up?"

"Oh uh." His face flushed. "Her name is Sarah. She's this girl I met at a gig. We've been texting for a while."

"She's that girl you were texting earlier wasn't she?" I saw him nod with his head hung low. "Well we're going to the music store next. You may want to pull the assistant manager?"

"Ha ha." We turned into a small store with lots of posters on the walls that you could barely see the white walls. It reminds me a bit of Garrett's room. Garrett went over and looked at some vinyls. I walked over to the counter and rang the bell.

"Coming!" A girl with orangey-ginger ponytail (much like Jared's), blue tee and beige khakis, walked out of what I assumed to be a back door. "Hi I'm Andrea. How may I help you?"

"I'm inquiring about the job opening-"

"Oh thank god! You're hired!"

"Aren't you going to ask me a few questions first?" I was taken aback by her enthusiasm.

"Name?"

"Julia Adams."

"Have you killed anyone?"

"Nope."

"Are you going to kill anyone?"

"I have no imideate plans?"

"Is that a question?"

"No mam. I have no imidiate plans." I was already starting to like her. She hasn't even said a word about my accent.

"I'll see you tomorrow then. I'll give you your uniform tomorrow." She smiled and went back to the room she was in a few minutes ago.

"Well that was easy."

"She must be desperate." Garrett shrugged. "Now off to Victoria Secret!"

"But I already got a job."

"Won't hurt to check right?" He grinned at me.

"Wanker." I rolled my eyes as we made our way over to Victoria Secret.

"I could always have been a chav, right?"

"I see you're picking up on my English."

"Just the insults." We both laughed as we walked into the store. It was absolutley my worst nightmare. The Walls were pink with lighter pink stripes, there were lacey frills drapped on the top and it smelled like highschool school girls. I scanned over the racks of bras and picked up an animal print one. "This place is so tacky. It's even chavier than John."

"That bad huh?"

"Hello I'm Amber. I'll be helping you today. What's your size?" A fake blonde with pink neon painted nails. Yup, chav.

"Oh uh-"

"She's actually inquiring about-"

"Garrett?" Great there's more of them. A girl with dyed red hair approached us from behind. "Well don't be a stranger, Garrett. Introduce me to this girl."

"Her name is Julia. She's Kennedy's-"

"-friend but most people refer to me as his girlfriend." I hugged his sides. This boy better thank me later.

"A new girlfriend, Garrett? You go on the rebound fast." She crossed her arms  under her chest in an obvious attempt to make it look bigger. "And a Brit none the less."

"It's been three years, Rachael." I felt him stiffen. I stroked my thumbs over the spot where his tattoo was supposed to be to try to calm him down.

"As I was saying earlier-" The blonde interrupted. "Your size?"

"Yeah, what is your size, Julia? I'm a 36C but don't feel to bad or anything. I actually have that same design. Garrett would know." She winked.

"I'm actually a 34D. But don't feel too bad or anything." We that shut her up. Garrett stared at me with wide eyes. I squeezed him, motioning for him to say something.

"Babe, why don't look at another one. I always found that design really tacky." He made a face. "I like the white ones on you best." He whispered loud enough that only he, Rachael, Amber and I could hear.

"You're a real pleaser aren't you." I leaned in to kiss him on the cheek but he turned to far and I ended up kissing him on the corner of his lip. He turned a deep shade of red for the third time today. This must be some kind of record or something.

"And you're just full of surprises aren't you?" He mumbled on my lips as I pulled away. I pinched his side and smiled a I saw him wince. Amber lead us to the racks (no pun intended) with the sets of knickers and bras. Garrett chose a white lacey set and handed it to Amber.

"Ok I'll go on and look for your size." She stalked off to a closet similar to the one in the record store.

I'm certain that Rachel is still observing us so I wrapped my arms around Garrett's neck and whispered in his ear "Your ex is a real proper bitch, you know that?"

He caught my belt loops then pushed our hips together. "I'm sorry. She used to be pretty ok."

"Or maybe you were just pretty in love."

"That's more likely." We both laughed. We pulled away when someone cleared their throat behind us.

"Here's your size mam'. Just ring it up over to the counter." I thanked her then proceeded to the counter which had a cashier who was chewing her gum loudly.

"That'll be 34.99." Then the cashier leaned in closer. "She's looking this way. Put your hand in his back pocket, that'll drive her nuts." She gave us a devious smile.

I did as she told me and what do you know, there was a sound of plastic hangers falling on the floor and a frustrated groan.

"Thank you." I smiled at the cashier as Garrett put down the money.

"No sweatheart, thank you. Now she might finally put her big head out of her flat ass."

"Don't even get me started on her bum." I giggled. Garrett and I left the store then headed over to the parking lot. We both realized that my hand was still in his back pocket the whole time when he looked for his keys. I pulled my hand out and muttered an apology. We got in the car and drove back home. It was relatively silent until I spoke up.

"You owe me big time for this."

"Isn't the $35 underwear enough?" He pointed at the paper bag in the back seat.

"Do you think that's enough after embarassing your cheating ass ex-girlfriend instead of her embarassing you this time?" I raised an eyebrow at him.

"You're right. I owe you my life. Thanks, really."

"Anytime." I smiled at him. This was the most unconventional friendship I've ever had. And I have some pretty weird ass friends.