The Taste of You and Me

I woke up the next morning after falling off the air mattress from an entire height of four inches. It hurt more than falling out of a normal bed.

I gathered a few things from my as-yet unpacked boxes and went to my lovely new bathroom, taking a quick shower. Seeing as it was my first day, the dress code was unclear: I decided to hedge my bets with a grey Ramones west top, black blazer and black very nice (as in, not ripped at the knees) skinnies. I tied my hair up, though it did nothing to hide the fact I wasn’t completely over my blue hair phase - the ends were still bright.
I kept the make-up clean and simple, took my bag and a soft blue scarf, and a bottle of water and headed out the door.

That was where I bumped into Vic.

“Hey, Maya,” he chirped, closing the door to his apartment behind him.

“Hey, man. You alright?” I replied as we headed to the stairs.

“Yeah, thanks. What about you? You look great by the way.” he commented, motioning to my outfit.

“Aw, thanks,” I chuckled, blushing, “it’s only the smartest thing I own. First day of work.”

“Already?” he said, raising his eyebrows. “Have you even unpacked yet?” I shook my head and he chuckled.

“Where’s your sabre-stealing brother?” I asked. Mike had refused quite stubbornly to return it to me as I left, despite my insistence that I hadn’t touched his pizza.
He didn’t believe me.

“He’s still asleep,” Vic laughed. “He’s got a day off, so he can relax.”

“But you’ve got work, I’m assuming. Where do you work?” I said, grinning. He sighed dramatically and nodded.

“Yeah. I work in a record store - it’s pretty cool. You should drop by!” he said. “Where do you work?”

“Have you ever heard of Point Blank Media?” I said. Vic nodded. “They have an alternative music magazine. I’m the new PA for one of the editors-in-chief.”

“Hey, yeah! I’ve seen that! I’ve read it before, a couple of times.” Vic exclaimed. “The building’s off 24th, right?” I nodded as we finally reached the bottom of the stairs. “Well, I’m headed that way, let me give you a ride.”

I narrowed my eyes at him suspiciously.

“My mother always told me to never get in a car with a stranger.”

Vic sniggered.

“You didn’t seem to have a problem with us strangers when we were having duels with light-up sticks yesterday.” he stated. I frowned at him as we left the building through the gleaming glass doors.

“They’re lightsabres. Not sticks.” I said stubbornly. “But you have a point.”

“Yes. Yes, I do.” he said, nodding. He headed to the curb, where a black Range Rover was parked. “Now, get in so I can take advantage of you.”

I wiggles my eyebrows at him and he pulled a kissy-face. A stranger passing by paused and looked at us strangely; we both stopped what we were doing and looked at the passerby. He hurried off, and we looked at each other, before bursting into laughter.

“What was that all about?” I said as he unlocked the car.

“I don’t think some people fully understand how awesome we are.” Vic chuckled. “C’mon, you can pick the radio station.” I grinned as I got into the passenger seat, and he the driver’s. “There are a couple of CDs in the dash too.”

I flipped open the dashboard and ran a finger over the CDs, pulling out one that caught my eye.

“Ooh, what’s this?” I murmured, looking over the cover. “Pierce The Veil mix?” Vic glanced over and smiled, pulling the car into the road.

“Oh, that? Listen to it and tell me what you think.” he said. I fed it into the CD player and the first song began to play. As it did, Vic began to sing along under his breath. “She was always the one, I’ll repeat it again, the one - no such thing as too young…”

“Oh my god, is that you?” I gasped, grabbing his shoulder. He glanced at me, still singing with a quick cheeky smile. “You sing so good!”

“It;s not just me, it’s our band. Me, Mike, Tone and Hime. We’re called Pierce The Veil.” he explained. I nodded, letting go of him and reading through the tracklist.

“Pierce The Veil,” I repeated, rolling the words around on my tongue, “very cool. Can I borrow this CD?”

“Keep it. We have tonnes of them. We’re trying to get our music out there, but...you know…” he trailed off, pulling up in front of my work place.

“It’s hard?” I offered. He sighed and nodded. “Well, for what it’s worth, I think you sound great.”

Vic’s face lit up and he smiled at me brightly.

“Well, thanks, hun.”

“It’s alright. Thanks for the ride, man.” I replied. He took the CD out of the stereo and handed it to me. “And for the CD.”

“No problem.” he said. “Let me know how your first day goes, OK?” I nodded and jumped out of the car, shutting the door behind me.

“Bye!” I called, waving as he drove away.