#beaniestm

closed: @beaniestm where: beanie's

It was the Saturday after New Year's (just a few days later) and Ted was still trying to wrap his head around what had happened that night. How he went from being at a party alone to taking a beautiful babe home was still beyond him-- and how he spent the whole next day wrapped up in her was also a mystery. A blessing even and one he was definitely counting. He hadn't stopped thinking about it either-- how it went from him uttering a pick up line about ringing in the new year with a bang and her rolling her eyes. He had been about to lay on another that was a little classier when she grabbed him by the front of the pants and dragged him right into the copier room. Didn't take a genius to figure out what was going to happen from there, but the night that followed? The day? Ted was reeling. He couldn't rightly remember the last time he'd spent that long in the embrace of the same woman. Sure, yes, he had been with the same women multiple times over the course of different days... but to spend all night and next day together? Now that was new.

He was doing his best to be as normal about it as he could be too, but he really enjoyed his time with Emma. She was fun and he didn't just mean in the sack... though that was pretty phenomenal as well. No, they'd had a good New Year's Day at his place. He'd made sure his brother wasn't going to come home so they wouldn't be disturbed, but it didn't matter much as they barely left his bedroom outside of bathroom breaks and grabbing food from the front door. Their time in that bedroom? It hadn't just been about sex-- though, mind you, there was plenty of it. No. They'd talked. They'd laughed. They'd explored thoughts that seemed to pour out a little too easily despite their lack of previous interactions. Ted talked about his job and how it wasn't necessarily the dream, but it paid well. Benefits. Good colleagues. Etc.. She had asked what his dreams were and he'd teased her by saying she wasn't ready to hear those-- so she spoke of hers. Finishing college, buying a chunk of land, opening a pot farm.

pot farm?

She'd confirmed he'd heard right and they both had a small laugh about it before Ted confessed that his dreams were ever changing. Sometimes it felt like they were in reach and other times they seemed impossible to even imagine a scenario for. She'd asked again what they were and Ted shrugged, what everyone wants, you know? And she'd waited for him to reply, but before either could say something else there was a knock at the door signifying food had been delivered. They didn't go back to the topic. But that conversation, her smile, the way they laid on their sides talking... it hit something deep within him and he wanted more. Because for once... someone had chosen him. He knew, somewhere in all this, she'd picked him because he was easy and desperate, but she stayed at his place. She stayed through the night and the day and he... no woman has ever done that with him before.

So as he stepped into Beanie's Saturday morning he'd done so with confidence and his head held high. He had tried to swing by after work yesterday, but Emma hadn't been working. And he would've texted her, but he didn't have her number. Did that worry him? Maybe a little, but she'd been so... flirty in her goodbye that he was certain meeting again in some situation would be alright. It's why he was here, why he was striding to the counter with an air about him-- in air that only thickened at the sight of the barista behind it. "Well, well, well... if it isn't the perkiest number this side of Lake Michigan." He grinned with a touch of a smirk, "Was hoping I'd find you here-- turns out my phone is very much lacking your number in it."

even as she comes to the turn off, the car groans it protest loud enough she makes a mental note that she needs to get under the hood again--- but who the fuck has time for that ? i'll make time eventually. she allows herself to believe that she means it for the time being, a small comfort as she hits a pot hole with such force it jolts the car and she has to slow down to be certain it didn't flatten the tire as the tree line begins to thin out ahead, betrayed by the burning sun of the late morning. she doesn't remember the trip being this long.

if she didn't know this was right, she would have assumed that she took a wrong turn. where there once was a sprawling lush green there is now a swath of dirt brown and black with sporadic sprays of vegetation. no rhyme, no reason simply destruction. of course she's heard the rumors, that @beaniestm and ziggs had gone insane, hunting nighthawks and setting fire to the farm, but she hadn't seen it firsthand. not until now. the guilt pangs once again as the farmhouse begins to come into focus. emma had worked so fucking hard for this place.

she glances briefly into her backseat, wishing that she had brought a handful of rattle cans with her and not just the tool bags. angry black splotches would have at least been better than the abuse scrawled across the burnt farmhouse, and she can only imagine the carnage continues within. what the fuck happened here ? she doesn't know if she wants to know as she pulls into a patch of grass that's been flattened by any number of vehicles to the point it's beginning to decay into a makeshift parking spot before phishing her phone out of the passenger seat and opening the car door.

for a moment, she considers walking up to the house with tool bag in hand, before she thinks better of it. emma might be expecting her, but that doesn't mean walking in uninvited isn't a good way to get shot. people out here are paranoid for a reason, and when she inadvertently steps on a fragile pile of bird bones she knows it's for good reason. rather than simply walking up to the door, she leans against the side of the car, flipping through her messages to find the one she's looking for.

[ text : E. PERKINS ] : just pulled up, parked in front.

[ unsent : E. PERKINS ] : is it rude if i smoke here if it isn't weed ?

OUTGOING MISSED CALL | 12:17 OUTGOING MISSED CALL | 12:18 OUTGOING MISSED CALL | 12:18 OUTGOING MISSED CALL | 12:22

[ TEXT -> EMMA 💞 ] : please call me back emma [ TEXT -> EMMA 💞 ] : i need you

"hey now! all spirit and such customers are more than happy to leave their credit card information with me! don't ... don't listen to her!"

@beaniestm ! <3