Briana woke up to Bon Jovi blasting from her iHome.
"Your love is like bad medicine.
Bad medicine is what I need."
Untangling her bare legs from the 450 count, red bed sheets, she walked over to her closet, her cold feet being soothed by the soft, white carpet.
"And I got lots of money but it isn't what I need.
Gonna take more than a shot to get this poison outta me."
When she was a little girl, her parents had installed hardwood floors in the house. Though this actual installation- and family bonding time by association- was fun enough, the bitter cold winter nights that were all but guaranteed for the northern mid-west almost completely froze the wood and her morning feet. To say that she was ecstatic to get carpeting back her life would be an understatement.
"Then you bleed
(You get a little and it's never enough)"
Dancing and singing along to her favorite band, Brea grabbed a pair high-waisted black slacks (her rather…plump booty not allowing her to comfortably wear normal pants), a red, short-sleeved ruffle-front shirt and black, pin-strip vest, she walked into her bathroom. She hopped from her carpet to the bathroom rug- making it a point to avoid touching the tile floor- and used her hands and the walls to propel herself over to the shower. Balancing carefully, she leaned around the curtain and turned on the water and shower head. The muffled sounds of Bon Jovi swirled with the fog and made for pleasant background noise as Briana stripped from her tee shirts and bikini style panties and stepped into the just-below-boiling-hot water.
Spencer awoke from a restless sleep to the annoying blaring of his alarm clock's bell. With a groan, he rolled over onto his stomach and beat the poor clock into submission, silence over-taking the plain bedroom. After a view moments, Spencer hoisted himself up on his arms and checked the time. Noting that it was only 5:45 am, and that he had plenty of time until he had to be at work, Spencer took his sweet time shuffling out his bedroom door and to the kitchen. Coffee first, personal hygiene later.
Going through the motions that were as second nature as brushing his teeth, Spencer got everything set up in less than thirty seconds and started his way to the bathroom.
He flipped on the lights- silently cursing when he was temporarily blinded- and trudged over to the sink. He turned the cold water on, balanced it out with some hot, and started to wash his face.
Last night had been hell after he got back to his apartment. He was so hard that he was seriously worried about passing out, Morgan had apparently seen himself and Briana together and decided that he was now going to harass Spencer the way only Morgan could, and he was freaking out about seeing Bri the next morning.
A realization hit Spencer like a twenty-ton truck driven by a speed-hungry teenager. He had to see Briana in less then two hours.
The coffee maker in his kitchen beeped loudly and Spencer went to go start another cup. He was gonna need it.
"The kids are in danger,
They're all getting habits,
Because from what I can see,
Everyone's at it.
Everyone's at it."
Briana stepped out of her bedroom, leaving the door open so she could hear the music, and went to her stain-less steal filled kitchen. She reached for one of her hanging skillets- and small one she got specific for making eggs and grilled cheese sandwiches- sprayed it with some Pam and placed it on a burner set to 'medium-high'. Walking to the other side of the kitchen, she opened one of her cabinet and pulled out a small glass bowl, set it down on the counter, and moved to her fridge.
About five minutes later, she was leaning against one of the counters and watched the morning news on the small plasma-screen tv in her kitchen.
An over-throw in Egypt, a politician recovering from a bullet to the brain, and some health statistics that say everyone in America is morbidly obese. In other words, nothing new.
Turning off the small television, Briana put her freshly emptied plate and used fork in the sink and moved into the main room. After picking up her new reading book and the remote control, she switched on the much larger LCD to the local news and half listened to the anchors, half read the book- her music forgotten completely.
Apparently a house had burned down, there was a water-main break, and some city was wasting tax-payer's money. Shocker. And the main character of her book (A crime/romance) just found a threatening note under her windshield wipers. Would have never seen that coming.
"The time is six forty -seven and here's Richard King with the weather."
Briana turned off the television before the meteorologist had time to speak. She already knew the weather forecast (you gotta love the internet), memorized her page number before setting her book down, and started to get ready to leave.
Spencer dashed around his apartment looking for his badge. It was crunch time and he couldn't be late to meet up with Briana, but he couldn't forget his badge or ID, either.
Throwing pillows off of his bed, flinging open dresser drawers and basically wrecking his apartment, he finally found the black leather case.
He tossed it into his messenger bag, threw on some converse and sped for the door.
Briana grabbed her re-usable coffee cup (filled with soda) and walked out her door, her med-sized black leather purse hanging under her shoulder and her key ring decorated her middle finger.
Locking the door behind her, she walked leisurely to the stairwell door and started her trip down to the lobby.
Impatiently tapping his foot on the worn out 1980s carpeting, Spencer watched as the numbers above the elevator door slowly ticked away. He stared at the small black screen- willing the '2' to finally change and let him off.
A small red star lite up the tiny screen above the door and Spencer braced himself to be greeted by...
an empty lobby.
An unbelievable sense of disappointment flooded through him for whatever reason, and he made his move to start walking to the subway when the sound of a door opening caught his attention. He turned around and saw a smiling Briana walking out of the stair well- looking beautiful like always.
"Hey," She greeted with soft pink lips and pearly white teeth.
"Hey," Spencer replied, much less confident than Briana appeared to be.
"You ready to go?"
"Uh, ye-yeah, let's go." He stuttered, one hand tugging his messenger bag strap and the other running through his much shorter hair.
She giggled slightly and walked towards the in-building...or maybe adjacent-to-building would be more appropriate...parking garage.
Spencer followed after her and couldn't help but laugh when he saw the car she was going to.
"What?" She asked, her own laugh threatening to break through. Good, she thought, I love being around people with contagious laughter, it makes life more fun.
"I just," He started, "I just can't believe I never thought you'd have a Cadillac."
She looked at her car and shrugged, opening the driver-side door.
"I know what I like." The statement was simple enough, but Spencer caught himself hopping that maybe, just maybe, there was more to it.
A/N: Happy Be-Lated Valentines Day! Hope you all had a good one!
Okay, so, I kind of look a little older than I am (I have a mature body and face, so where as some 26 year olds consatantly get carded, I could propbably get away with it even though I'm ten years younger) and this was never really that big of a problem. Sure, when I was in highschool some people confused me for a student teacher ever now and then and when I was a lot younger some teenage boys had asked for number (really creepy, by the way. My daddy enlisted me in a self-defense class right after that. Of course, I was too young and innocent to understand what was going on :P) but, now that I'm in college about two years early, people seem to think that I am actually a lot older than I look.
How do I know?
Well, I was typing this in the cafeteria so my roommate and her boyfriend could have the place to themselves- Happy V-day and all- and at least five creepers came on to me. I had to show them my id to get them to leave. Eventually I had to finish typing this in the girls' bathroom. Romantic, huh? Great Valentine's Day.
But anyway, sorry it took me so long to update. I finished Chess in Vegas and I may start Cherry v. Lime soon, but I'd rather try to refrane from starting another story until I have either this one or In The Sun finished- but they're both going to be pretty long, so...
I don't know. I guess we'll see.
I'll introduce Seaver in the next chapter.