Pretty Burning

The sound of chips crunching resonated through the apartment followed by the crinkling of a plastic back. Two young women sat on an old maroon couch in front of a large TV.

“You know,” Cleo started, popping another Cheeto into her mouth, “This TV would be great for gaming,” crunch, crunch, crunch, “And here you are, only using it to watch Bob’s Burgers and Grey’s Anatomy.”

Teddy stole the chip bag back from her friend and plunged her hand inside. “It sounds like you’re making fun of me for it, but who was it that got me into Grey’s in the first place? Oh, right, that would be you.”

The brunette next to her shrugged her shoulders and nodded, holding a manicured finger up, “This is true. I’m just sayin’ turn all the lights off, turn the volume up and pop in a Resident Evil game. Would be pretty fuckin’ cool.”

“Alright, well,” Teddy stood up and pushed some blonde hair over her shoulder. She rolled the rest of the chip bag up and put a clothes-pin on it then tossed it on her counter by the rest of her unhealthy snacks. “I’m tired of eating junk. You wanna go get some real food?”

The other girl nodded and stood up. She stretched for a bit—they had just sat and watched three episodes of the medical soap opera after all. “Always down for real food. You want to do Benny’s? I’ve been craving one of those calzones for weeks.”

Teddy laughed softly and grabbed a black cardigan off the back of the couch, slipping her arms through it. “Yeah, I could go for a couple slices of Hawaiian.”

Cleo made a face as she tied her sneakers. “Disgusting.”

The two women left the apartment and galloped down the single set of stairs to Cleo’s Wrangler. It was something the blonde girl was infinitely jealous of, but her friend had worked her ass off to get it, not to mention the hefty note she paid every month. Still, the forest green jeep was Cleo’s baby. She probably got it washed once a week and planned on having it jacked up sometime soon.

As soon as Cleo turned her keys in the ignition, music blared from the speakers—a song by Bullet for My Valentine that both of them knew. They sang most of the way to the hidden gem that was Benny’s Pizza and when Teddy hopped down from the tall vehicle she was still air guitaring. Cleo laughed and patted the hood of her car and the two walked inside.

It wasn’t particularly busy for a Thursday night, but it wasn’t slow by any means. The bar top was full as were most of the tables, but there was no wait and the two sat themselves at a booth in the corner. “Beer?” Teddy asked. Her friend nodded. “Bud Light, or something else?”

“Can you actually see if they have Hopadillo?”

She nodded and walked over to the bar, flagging down one of the busy bartenders. A skinny kid no older than eighteen came over to her and smiled, slinging a white towel over his shoulder. “What can I get you, sweetheart?”

“You have Hopadillo?”

“Yep!”

“Alright, then I’ll take one of those and a Blue Moon, please.”

“Tall or short?”

“Both tall.”

He nodded and turned quickly, pulling out two chilled mugs and filled both then brought them both over. “You wanna start a tab?” Teddy shook her head and slapped a few bills on the counter.

As she turned with the two full mugs, she felt her toe catch one of the bar stools and stumbled. Beer sloshed out of both before she caught herself, but she watched as the foamy liquid hit both the floor and a man’s pant leg and shoe. The blonde looked up with wide eyes to see a hulking man wearing a flannel and a backwards hat. His arms were covered in tattoos, even more-so than her own. He would have been absolutely terrifying if it weren’t for the smile that spread across his face.

“I am so sorry! I—”

“It’s okay, it’s okay!”

“Are you sure? Fuck, I’m so clumsy.”

“Nah, it’s cool,” he chuckled, raising his wet foot and shaking it a bit. “Definitely not the worst thing that’s ever happened to me.”

Teddy bit her bottom lip. “Can I, like, buy you a beer or anything? I just know I’d be kind of pissed if someone spilled something on my favorite jeans.”

“These aren’t my favorite jeans, but I was just about to get another Hopadillo.”

Teddy nodded. “Funny, that’s what I was bringing back to my friend.”

“Yeah?” The man asked, scanning the small restaurant.

The blonde nodded in Cleo’s general direction. “Over there in the corner.” The same skinny kid came over and lifted an eyebrow at the girl he had seen just moments before. “Another Hopadillo, please.”

He poured it and the blonde slapped another few dollars on the counter.

“Thanks for this,” the stranger said taking a sip before introducing himself. “I’m Matt.” She took his hand and actually looked at him for a second. His brown hair was a little shaggy as she could see it poking out and curling underneath the cap he wore. Deep hazel eyes matched his perfect smile and the most adorable dimples made themselves known on either side. He was very handsome. He was also a little familiar.

“I’m Teddy,” she said with a smile. “I feel like I know you from somewhere, but I can’t pin it.”
He let out another little chuckle. “I’m in a band. I can’t really say this in a modest way, but we’re pretty big. Just got back from a worldwide tour.”

“Woah!” She was not faking surprise. As soon as he said the name, she knew she was going to slap herself. She was pretty familiar with music, especially music that originated in the Orange County area, but she was not good with faces. Not even a little bit.

“Yeah, we’re called Avenged Sevenfold.”

Her eyebrows rose above her bangs as she took a swig of her beer and after a difficult swallow, she sputtered, “No shit! I never would have guessed. I was real into y’all when you were all eyeliner and dyed black hair and screaming. Looks like you’ve grown up.”

The grin hadn’t left his face, but it somehow widened. “Yeah, that was a while ago.” He adjusted his hat and looked around for a moment. “Look, do you want to wave your friend over? We have a pretty big table in the corner, if you want to join us.”

“Yeah, man! Let me grab her.”

Teddy walked just a little closer to their original table and saw Cleo looking at her curiously. She yanked her head toward Matt which only made the skinny brunette even more confused, but she still grabbed her purse and slid out of the booth.

When she made her way over, Teddy asked her, “You remember in high school when we were really into A7X?” She nodded and looked at the large man her friend motioned to. “Well, this is what their lead singer looks like now.”

Matt waved and went in for a handshake. “Hey, I’m Cleo,” she said with a charming flutter of her eyelashes.

About twelve years ago, the two women would have been completely star struck, stumbling over their words and possibly even coming onto the man in front of them, but they had both grown up quite a bit since then. Now, it was just cool to meet the dude.

“Alright, well we have a few other guys here, so follow me.” Cleo finally took the beer out of her friend’s hand and they weaved in and out of tables behind Matt. On one of the walls was a group of four at a round table. Two of them men rang a dull bell in the back of Teddy’s head. She knew that they looked familiar, but she wouldn’t be able to place any names.

“Alright, guys, this is Cleo and Teddy. Teddy spilled a beer on me and then she bought me one, so they’re sitting with us now.”

Teddy huffed a bit, “I did not spill a whole beer on you. But it was enough to be embarrassing,” she ended by putting her face in her free hand. Matt laughed and pulled up a couple of seats.

“Ladies, this is Val,” he put his hands on the shoulders of the only other woman at the table, then went around pointing, “Zacky,” a raven-haired man with a kind little smile and lovely green eyes, “Johnny,” a man in a black denim jacket with a black mohawk. He looked at Teddy with a twinkle in his brown eyes and the side of his mouth lifted in a smile. Her stomach flipped in response. “And this is Brent. His brother, Brian, was supposed to be here, but he has the flu or something.”

“It’s pretty gross,” Zacky added.

The chairs that had been pulled up were situated between Brent and Zacky and the newcomers took their places. There was a ton of pizza in the middle of the table that Val motioned to, “Please, for the love of God, help yourselves. There’s everything—supreme, buffalo chicken, meatlovers. There’s even Hawaiian thanks to Johnny,” she said the last bit and stuck a finger in her mouth.

Teddy perked up, though. “Hawaiian is by far the most superior of pizzas.” She wasted no time in leaning over and grabbing a slice, biting in and smiling as she chewed.

“So gross,” Cleo and Val said in unison.

Teddy narrowed her eyes. “Look, I can respect your opinion and all, except you’re both wrong on this one. Just wrong.”

“Pineapple on pizza is what’s wrong,” Brent grumbled as he took a slice of the supreme.

“Your taste buds just haven’t developed to this higher state,” Johnny argued. “Kind of like a toddler not liking broccoli. You’ll grow into it one day, big guy.” He pat the larger man on the back and Teddy giggled.

The conversation flowed easily. The actual band wasn’t really brought up. Instead, everyone seemed interested in what the girls were like, what they did.

“Well, Teddy and I are both sonographers.”

“Like, baby pictures?” Zacky asked, taking a big drink from his beer.

“Yes and no. Cleo works with pregnant women,” Teddy explained. “I actually look at hearts. It’s pretty cool and it pays the bills.”

All of them sat, very interested by the couple of stories that each girl told about their jobs. Cleo once had a woman go into labor as she was scanning her and Teddy recalled the time she discovered the largest tumor she had ever seen on a man’s thoracic aorta.

“It was insane. I wanted to cry for him.”

They got another round of drinks. Then another. Then another. Most of them were nice and warm at that point. Cleo had zoned in on Zacky and had been flirting with him for the last hour or so. He seemed interested, but then again, so was every other guy who Cleo showed any interest in. She was beautiful, slim and fit, not to mention smart and funny.

Where Cleo was tall and skinny, Teddy was shorter and thicker. She had always had hips that prevented her from wearing anything smaller than a seven. Her thighs had meat on them, as did the rest of her body. She wasn’t quite curvy and thick, and in high school, she had hated it. She learned to embrace it after years of self-loathing, but it took a very long time, and sitting next to women who looked like Cleo and Val always made a couple of those insecurities come back.

When Matt offered to get her another beer, she shook her head. “Nah, I’m good. I actually need to be getting back home.” She looked at her phone to check the time and was surprised to see that they had been there for about three and a half hours. “Holy shit, yeah, I really need to go.”

“Do you really?” Cleo whined. “I was just starting to have fun.” She winked and Teddy shook her head.

“I can get an Uber if you want, but you don’t need to be driving home either, chica.”

Her friend saluted her sarcastically, then immediately went back to talking to the man next to her. Teddy pulled up the Uber app. Her apartment wasn’t really that far away, but it was far enough away to not want to walk there at 11 o’clock at night.

There was a car close by and she booked it, then grabbed her purse and stood up. “Well, guys, it’s been a pleasure. Hopefully, we’ll meet again soon.”

Everyone at the table nodded except for Johnny who instead stood up. “I’ll wait out there with you. Don’t know what kind of creeps are out roaming the streets.”

Teddy waited for him and bit the inside of her lip as they made their way outside.

“This was cool,” she spoke up as soon as the cool air hit her, blowing her blonde hair around her face. “I used to listen to you guys a while ago. Like, a long while ago. Fifteen-year-old me would have peed her pants if she ran into y’all.”

Johnny smiled widely, “Oh really?”

“Yep,” she wrung her hands in front of her, a nervous habit. “Cleo and I were both the girls in all black with piercings we weren’t supposed to have. We both listened to y’all’s first and second albums a lot.”

“You keep saying “y’all”. You’re not from Cali, are you?”

Teddy shook her head. “Born and raised Texan. Houston, to be exact.”

“Ah, I thought it was something like that. We go to Houston on almost every tour. Do you miss it?”

The blonde looked down and kicked at the pavement before looking back at him with impossibly dark brown eyes. “With every fiber of my being. I know that a lot of the state is really conservative. We have a lot of ignorant rednecks. My city has hands down the worst drivers. But Texans are some of the nicest people. Like, I’ve met some really nice people since I’ve been here, but it’s in a different way.” Johnny cocked his head to one side and urged her to elaborate. “Texans are nice even when they’re not expected to be. We sacrifice our own belongings to give to our neighbors after a hurricane and help you push your car to a gas station when you run out and we wave when someone lets us cut in front of them in traffic. That last one really gets me, too.”

“What, waving at people in traffic?”

“Yes! I have let so many people in during high traffic times and not one of them gives me the little wave of acknowledgement and thanks. It’s fucking infuriating.”

The man laughed heartily. “Why did you even move then?”

“My parents,” Teddy answered. “Mostly. They moved first a few years back. I was living with my ex-boyfriend. I missed them so much. I talked to my mom every night on the phone. Then things got really bad with my ex and I just decided to come here and leave everything behind.”

“And Cleo?”

“She didn’t really have any ties like I did. Both of her parents moved to Vermont after retiring. They have an insane house. Both of us had already finished school, so we both just came here and found jobs after a bit of searching. It worked out pretty well.”

A Prius pulled up at the curb and Teddy’s phone buzzed. “Well, that’s me. I’ll see you around, Johnny.”

“Yeah, uh, about that,” he started, rubbing the back of his head. “I actually kind of wanted to get your number. Just to make sure I really do see you around.”

Teddy felt her face heat up and her stomach flipped again. “Um, yeah, yeah, of course.”

He pulled his out and she recited her number. “Just call me and I’ll save yours, okay?”

“Okay, yeah,” he nodded and followed her to the car, opening the door for her. “Good night, Teddy.”

“Night, Johnny,” she said with a smile.

The Uber pulled away, leaving Johnny standing outside of the restaurant with his hands in his jacket pockets, contemplating how soon was too soon to call her.