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Avery wiggled her key in the lock to her apartment door, biting down on her bottom lip in concentration. You had to hold the doorknob a certain way and wiggle the key just so to get the deadbolt to unlock, and it seemed to be disagreeing with her today. She had just gotten home from her shift at her day job, a greasy, fifties-themed diner a mere walk from her apartment, and it had been a drawn-out bore of a day. The door finally unlocked, and Avery half-tumbled into the yellow kitchen, where Alex was sat at the breakfast table balancing a cup of coffee in one hand and typing on his laptop with the other.
"Hey." He didn't even look up. Avery shut the door with the heel of her Vans and raised an eyebrow at her brother as she walked to the fridge.
"How many of those have you had today?" She asked, referring to Alex's coffee. He shrugged.
"I dunno, like three? Four, maybe?" Alex kept his eyes on the screen in front of him. It was late for coffee, but Alex had a shift at The Parlor in an hour, and needed the energy. It seemed strange to most that Alex managed the bar, he was only twenty-two, but Alex had special favor. Birch, the owner of The Parlor, was Alex and Avery's uncle. He was an old and grouchy man, more preoccupied by his endless poker nights with his outdated jazz band than running his bar, which left high expectations and a lot of pressure on Alex. Avery made a disapproving face and opened the fridge door to find the inside lukewarm with a stale smell.
"Shit, Alex, the fridge is broken." She reached in and grabbed the mostly-full jug of milk, sniffing it, and reeling back with a choked-out gagging sound.
"What the hell? Maintenance just came and worked on it last Tuesday!" Alex finally looked up, eyes wide.
"Well, they didn't fix it... or it broke again, one of the two." Avery tossed the milk jug back inside the fridge and shut the door. Their shared apartment wasn't awful for it's price, but the appliances were old and unreliable. Avery leaned into it, finding thrifted antique furniture to decorate the space and calling it 'charming', but the lack of functionality was frustrating.
"It is so hot in this stupid apartment." Their third, and notoriously negative roommate, Ericka, marched out from the hall and through the living room to open all of the windows. The old apartment had high ceilings in the living room and gorgeous, tall windows looking over the city below, but an iffy HVAC system and a dustiness that seemed to be impossible to get rid of.
"I think the A/C is messed up again..." Avery squinted an eye. Alex groaned and dropped his head backwards, pressing his palms to his eyes.
"No shit... I can't breathe." Ericka fanned herself with two strips of paper she held in her right hand.
"Okay, okay. I'll put in another maintenance order tomorrow... but tonight, I've got to work. Birch is up my ass this week, and I can't focus on what's broken here right now." Alex massaged his forehead. Avery frowned.
"I can do it, don't stress... and I can come do a set tonight, if you want... early crowd." She smiled when her twin sighed in relief.
"Could you? Ave, that would be fantastic..." Alex breathed, running his hands through his hair.
"You know me, saving your ass, per usual. What about you, Ricky? You wanna come slum it at The Parlor tonight?" Avery plopped down in the chair opposite of Alex and grinned at Ericka. Through stray pieces of her stick straight, dark brunette hair, Ericka raised a cynical eyebrow and shook her head.
"I'll pass. I'm up to my eyeballs in homework anyway." Ericka rolled her eyes at the thought of the research paper she was working on. While one would usually peg Ericka as edgy, maybe artistic due to her style and demeanor, she was science-minded. She was in school for chemistry, a strange contrast from her family. Her dad, being a lightly-known music producer, had the hardest time relating to Ericka's goals, but she wasn't the type to care or to try and fit in a box created for her.
"Suit yourself, I'm playing something new tonight." Avery leaned her chair back on two legs and wiggled her eyebrows mischievously.
"Ooh, really?" Alex tilted his head, and Avery nodded. Ericka rolled her eyes again.
"You can play it for me later... hey do you two want some concert tickets?" Ericka held up the two slips of paper she had been fanning herself with.
"Your dad try to impress you with his connections again?" Alex chucked.
"Something like that," Ericka smirked and waved them in the air, "... but seriously, do you guys want them? I'd rather write my fucking research paper than see this band." She grumbled and handed the tickets to Alex before retreating back to her room.
"Hey, this is that band I saw." Alex scanned over the tickets whilst Avery got up and dug through the small, stacked dryer in a tiny laundry closet across the kitchen, looking for something to wear to The Parlor that night.
"Huh?" Her voice was muffled as she leaned into the machine.
"Greta Van Fleet... Remember? We met their guitarist at The Parlor the other night..." Alex tossed the tickets on the table and moved to rinse his coffee cup out in the sink.
"Oh yeah, the guy who hardly speaks and plays guitar to breathe... when's the show?" Avery had slung three different pairs of pants and several options for tops over her arm, almost colliding with Alex in the tiny kitchen as she turned around to take her clothes to her room. Alex tilted himself back over the table to read the tickets.
"Tomorrow night... we should go!" Alex shrugged.
"On a Friday night? That's our busiest night at the bar... shouldn't we be there?" Avery questioned. Friday nights usually were packed at The Parlor, and it was the night she made the most tips for her music, and Alex made the most tips at the bar. Alex paused, thinking for a moment.
"Maybe, but I'm fucking stressed, Ave. Let's go to the show, it will be a good distraction for me and you love live music. I can get Maurice and Jessie to cover the bar. Besides, its a rock show..." The corner of Alex's mouth pulled upwards in a sly smile. Avery shrugged, her own smile growing.
"I never turn down rock and roll..." She stated as if Alex didn't know that.
"I'll run it by Birch. I gotta get down to the bar, though... you promise you'll make it for the early crowd?" Alex pulled his shoes on and pointed at his twin.
"Yeah, yeah, I promise." She waved her hand in a shooing motion as Alex backed out of the apartment door.
"Okay, I'll see you there then." It still seemed like a question, and Alex held up his pinky in the air through the crack in the door. Avery rolled her eyes and held up her own pinky. It was their version of a pinky promise, something they had done all their lives, and it was of the highest caliber of security. Alex and Avery Elliott never broke pinky promises. Satisfied that Avery would show up when she said she would, Alex closed the door and left the apartment for work. Avery noted the time and rushed through the living room and down the hallway to her bedroom, kicking a stack of CD's on her rug and sending them in a splayed out display across her room. She cursed under her breath at the sting of it, and made a mental note to clean her room at some point. After tossing her clothes on top of her unmade bed, almost burying Toast the cat, she took off to the bathroom that they all shared and took a painfully cold shower, reminding her that she needed to call maintenance.
