Lust in the Mosh Pit | A Jared Dines Story

A Pie For A Pie

        I woke up, still sitting in an upright position with Jared's head in my lap. I let out a sigh of relief after touching his now normal temperature forehead. I quietly slipped a pillow under his head so that I could start getting ready for work. Since Janie and I were good now, we figured there was no reason I couldn't continue working at the pie shop. It was one of the few jobs I had had that I didn't mind doing. I might even goes as far as saying I took pride in my pie work. After throwing my hair up and applying some press powder, I pulled on my uniform quickly. It was seven in the morning so Austin was still asleep as well.

       When I got to the pie shop, it smelled awful. I walked in the back to see Janie scraping out the inside of the oven. 

     "What the hell happened?" I asked as I clocked in. Janie huffed in annoyance.

     "Fucking pm shift yesterday, that's what happened. Adam can't supervise for shit, I swear." She said with a sarcastic smile. 

     "Do you want me to clean and you do prep, or vice versa?" I asked sweetly.

     "Please for the love of God, let me do prep?" Janie said defeatedly looking up at my from the floor. I laughed and nodded toward the prep table which earned me a quick hug and 'thank you.' "So, was he feeling any better this morning?"

    "O-oh, yeah, I think." I said, have focusing on the conversation. There were loads of burnt berries and spots of dough in the oven which needed heavy duty scrubbing.

    "You think?" She asked with a confused tone.

    "Well, I kinda just checked his forehead before leaving. I didn't want to wake him up." I replied. She started rolling dough and playing Muse from her phone.

     "Once again, such a mom!" She squealed, without looking up. I rolled my eyes and laughed.

      "Whatever." I mumbled. After a few hours of seemingly endless cleaning and only two sales, Janie decided we could afford to close for an hour or so to get lunch. Mondays were usually pretty slow so we wouldn't be having a third employee come in until two. 

     "This is crazy, let's get out of here." Janie said while messing with hour 'out of office' clock sign.

     "Yes, please." I responded while grabbing my bag from the lower cabinet by the register. "Where do you feel like going?" I asked, following her out the door. 

     "I have just the meme," she said while rapidly scrolling through her phone, "here it is." She held up her screen to show me a goddamn 'Pantera Bread' meme. 

    "Oh my God, I'm done with you." I said walking towards my car.

    "You know it's funny!" She yelled, catching up.

     The drive to Panera was pleasant and included a lot of singing, as we were browsing through a Spotify playlist of local bands. Sometimes it felt like the only people I knew were in the local scene. When we got our food and sat down, neither of us said much. I think we were to starved to think straight. It wasn't until we went to the bakery section that we actually started talking. 

    "What do you think you'll get?" Janie said resting her hand on my lower back. I rested my head on her shoulder.

     "I'm not sure, the cobblestone thing looks good, but I almost always get a blueberry scone." I said indecisively. 

     "Maybe you should step out of the box y'know, try something you haven't tried before." She said wiggling her eyebrows at me. I laughed it off and got a blueberry scone anyways. "Would've been better if it was a peach scone. 'Cause you're a peach. You're a peach scone, Bob." Janie said, poking my nose. 

     "Alright, Hobo Joe." I rolled my eyes as we walked back into the shop. I was finishing my outs around one thirty when Jared called.

    "Hey, where are you at?" He asked groggily. I snickered.

    "Please tell me you're not just now waking up?" I rolled my eyes. "And I'm at the shop, I'll be clocking out as soon as I sweep and mop the walk in." I answered.

    "Good, and did you change the juice in my tank?" He asked concerned. I mentally facepalmed.

    "Yeah, I did. I meant to tell you last night but you were out. I put peppermint in so it could maybe help with your sinuses. That's what I do when I get stuffy. Sorry if that was too much, I didn't really think about it." I said nervously, hoping I hadn't crossed a line. 

     "It was really sweet, maybe warn me next time though." He laughed a bit.

     "Noted." I said cringing.

     "Well, you get back to work and I'll see you when you get home." I smiled and hung up. After I did my duties in the walk in, I grabbed an apple pie from the warmer.

    "Mind if I grab one of these bad boys for the road?" I asked, swinging my body halfway into the office with the pie in sight. Janie laughed and stood up from her chair. 

    "Of course I don't mind, cutie." She said walking to the register. I followed her and clocked out. "Don't mom out too hard when you get home, I'm the only one who's paying you for hard work like that." She said with a wink. I sighed as I grabbed my bag.

    "No promises." I said as I walked out the door.

      I got home around three to see Jared passed out on the living room couch. I quietly set my stuff down on the counter.

     "I see you came baring gifts." Jared said as he stretched. I was startled for a second by the noise and then laughed.

    "And I see you migrated to the couch." I put a few monsters I had picked up into the fridge. I was about to ask him if he wanted any pie when I heard a loud bang come from upstairs. "What is Austin doing up there? Jeez." I turned to look at Jared who was fixated on the stair case.

   "Austin's not home, he went bowling with some friends." Jared said looking back at me. I immediately went into 'fuck that' mode and went back to what I was doing. "So you're not going to check and see what that was?"

    "You've got legs." I said sassily cutting myself a piece of pie. 

   "So you're just going to let whatever made the mysterious bang, kick me while I'm already down?" He said, sitting up and returning the sass.

    "Look, man, I lived in a haunted house growing up. I don't play games with noises like that." I laughed sitting next to him on the couch with my pie. He poked out his lower lip.

     "If you're not going to check the spooky stuff, will you at least get me a piece of pie." He said sadly. I sighed and got up to get him a piece when I heard what sounded like footsteps. Jared didn't seem to notice so I kept my observation to myself.