Night Changes

Chapter 12- Is This What I Think It Is?

Simon curled up at the foot of Scarlett's bed contently as Scarlett flipped through the pages of her book. A cigarette dangled between her lips, and the sound of her ceiling fan whirring around was dull compared to the loud bass of rock music playing downstairs. Scarlett's dad was throwing a party, and his parties were always so loud. Scarlett had been given the book for Christmas by Devin. It was called What's Eating Gilbert Grape by Peter Hedges. She had seen the movie and wanted to read the book for a long time, so Devin got it for her. Scarlett had gotten him some purple hair dye as well as his Doctor Who box set, so she felt like she did good that Christmas. Though it was extremely hard to read the book due to the obscene noise that was shaking the whole house.

Scarlett kept glancing over at her clock. Each minute seemed to tick by slower and slower. Adam was supposed to be picking her up so they could hang out pretty soon. They had planned on going out for pizza and then going to watch "The Martian." It had already been out in most theaters since October, but when you live in a small town like Willow's Creek, movies that come out everywhere else in October come out here in January. Scarlett was ready to get out of the house.

A light tap on her window made Scarlett jump. She set down her book and rushed over to the window. She threw it open and saw Adam's smiling face as he hung from the lattice outside her window like a monkey.

"Ready to get outta here?" He asked suavely. Scarlett grinned and grabbed her bag off her chair. Simon circled at her feet and meowed loudly. He wanted out of there as much as she did. Scarlett swung her legs out the window and scaled down the side of the house. Adam caught her as she jumped down. The two of them laughed as they hopped into Uncle Barry's truck and sped off into town. Barry had let Adam borrow the truck that night, and Adam was under strict instructions to be careful with it.

"Oh thank god I'm out of there. I swear I was about to go deaf in there," Scarlett said, rubbing her ears in an attempt to clear them.

"Yeah, I could hear your house before I could see it," Adam joked. Scarlett laughed and smiled at her best friend. Adam drove into the heart of town and parked in front of a random store. The pair hopped out of the truck and started to walk to the best restaurant on the block. That restaurant was Harry's Pizzeria, with the best pizza in all of the South. Scarlett and Adam were seated in a booth by the window. Everything was very nice. Except the waitress.

This woman was in her early twenties, and might have been a very beautiful woman underneath all of that makeup and fake tan. She looked like her face was painted on, and her skin looked orange. Her shirt was cut so low her boobs were pretty much falling out of her shirt, and her skirt looked like panties. You could see her thong through that damn thing!

"Well hello there, mister," the woman said flirtatiously. She bent down to show off her already showing cleavage and smiled, "What can I get you, sugar?"

She was practically undressing him with her beady black eyes. It was disturbing. She batted her fake eyelashes, and Scarlett wanted to barf.

"Um, I'll have a Pepsi please. Scarlett, what do you want?" Adam asked, eyes focused solely on Scarlett. The woman turned to Scarlett as if it was the first time she had noticed her and scowled.

"Water, please," Scarlett said through gritted teeth. She had no idea why she was so jealous. Oh wait, yes she did. It was because she had a mother trucking crush on her best friend!

The woman wrote  down their orders and sashayed away. Scarlett pretended to barf, making Adam laugh.

"She was scary," he said under his breath.

"She was pretty much having eye-sex with you, Adam," Scarlett corrected. Adam almost choked on his own spit.

"You know, I didn't really notice that part," he said once he had regained the ability to breathe.