Categories > Celebrities > Fall Out Boy > Now I Only Waste It Dreaming Of You
Barry Mannilow, Bon Jovi, and Baseball Caps, Oh My!
3 reviewsTeddy is just an average girl when she happens to have a run in one day with a certain Mr. Stump that sends her life traveling down a different path than she ever expected. This isn't one of those ...
0Unrated
A/N: I don't know anyone in Fall Out Boy (unfortunately) and there are several characters in this story based on real people but they are only based on my general impression of them. And while bits of real details are scattered throughout a lot of stuff comes from my own imagination so please don't yell at the screen 'But I know their sound guy and that's not their sound guy!', okay? It's just a story. That said, thanks for reading and Enjoy!
Chapter 1
"Teddy!"
"Teddy get your ass out of that bed, it's nearly 7:30!"
With that last shout, two things occurred simultaneously; a front door slammed shut and a rather sleepy eyed, rather messy haired girl, shot out of bed as quick as though someone had jerked her upright.
"Not again, not again, I cannot be late again, ahh!" above mentioned messy haired girl, also known as Teddy, muttered to herself while running around the room frantically trying to find any clothes that didn't look as though they had been lying on the floor of her room for a week (which, unfortunately, most of them had, because Teddy tended to find laundry a very poor waste of one's time).
The slamming door had been Teddy's roommate and best friend, Missy, heading off to her job. She was never late for her job. Of course, Missy only had one job and Teddy currently had three, which may have slightly accounted for the difference in punctuality.
For the past 6 months, Teddy had been working at a record store 4 days a week. She also worked at a bookstore 3 days a week and at a restaurant 4 nights a week. She was also pretty sure she was the most exhausted 22 year old girl in all of Chicago. And the worst part of it all was that she had chosen the life she was currently running through at a fast pace.
Eight months ago, she had graduated from college. Her whole four years there had basically been spent trying to decide what she wanted to do and before she knew it, there was no more time, and they were handing her a diploma and she was hugging her parents and trying to look very goal oriented and not at all like she had no fucking clue what to do with her life.
Eventually, she had decided to take a year off from finding a "real" job and try and find herself instead. Chicago seemed like as good a place as any. It was where her best friend was living, after recently graduating from a college there herself. It was also 10 hours away from her parents, her hometown, and everything she'd ever known.
Her parents were none to pleased. It seemed that just because she didn't have a plan they had certainly had some thoughts on the subject and none of them involved her moving to Chicago or working in a record store after they spent thousands of dollars putting her through college. Not to mention the fact that she was their only child. Eventually, they all agreed that they would support her, but not financially. If she wanted to do it, she would have to make her own way. So that was what she had been doing for the past 6 months.
She was glad to have Missy so close again, they had been best friends since they were 10, but she saw her almost as little now living together as when they were in college with working so much. Missy had turned traitor and actually moved onto the real world, which Teddy was maybe just the slightest bit jealous of. Missy was a research assistant at one of the local hospitals and loved it.
Teddy pulled herself from her thoughts and rushed into the bathroom to tie back her curly brown hair. She brushed her teeth quickly but carefully applied eyeliner to her wide brown eyes in an attempt to hide the dark circles underneath. Unfortunately, that seemed to be as much of a lost cause as actually trying to make it to the store by 8 a.m. She looked down at her jeans, white shirt, and converse sneakers and decided that would have to be good enough. Grabbing a bag filled with clothes for her job at the restaurant that night as she made her way through the apartment, she took a quick glance around for left on lights or appliances and, finding none, locked the door and hurried down to catch the train to work.
She, of course, as these things usually go, had no idea that her life was about to change forever.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Flip. Flip. Flip --- no back, Barry Mannilow before Bon Jovi. Flip. Flip. Sigh
Working at a record store was not the most exciting of jobs. Of the three jobs Teddy had though, this one was the second most exciting. Working at a bookstore was definitely like the "watching paint dry" level of exciting, She'd been so happy to start there because she loved to read. She was always reading at least three books at once. Missy always teased her about being a "book slut", cheating on one with another. (Missy was not gifted with Teddy's fabulous sense of humor, or at least that's how Teddy would always respond*) She also loved to write and she thought a bookstore would be a perfect job. Unfortunately, it was more about doing inventory. And stocking shelves. And doing inventory. And cleaning up puke in the children's section. And doing inventory. And explaining to an old guy in a cardigan that looked like Mr. Rodgers that they didn't have an "Adult" literature section. And doing inventory...while you get the picture.
Working at the restaurant as a hostess wasn't exactly anything to jump up and down about but at least she was never bored there, things always moved quickly because it was a popular restaurant.
The record store was a small, independently owned kind that had just about one of anything you could ever hope to find. The owner didn't particularly need the money but he loved music so he kept it open even though they didn't do a whole lot of business. He was rarely ever there, the owner, but he made his daughter work every afternoon to "learn responsibility". Candy. That's right. Not like the Hershey kiss kind, like the blonde, airhead, 100 pound kind. No one ever had a more fitting name, Teddy always thought, than Candy. Too much of her would give anyone a headache. She was eighteen and popular and perfect and pretty much everything that Teddy had ever hated.
She was just so...blonde. And thin. And tall. Teddy wasn't fat but she had curves and boobs and she was 5'4, maybe, standing on her tip toes. She'd never been the sort of girl that guys fell over themselves for. She was average. But she liked to think she made up for it in brains. And sarcasm. The world could never have too much sarcasm.
Teddy snickered to herself as she went on with her record sorting and tried to tune out the sound of Candy's giggles behind her. The only other person she ever worked with, Davy, was currently doing something extremely amusing, Or at least Candy was pretending it was extremely amusing, which was much more likely. Candy had a big crush on Davy because he was 24 and had a motorcycle and tattoos and Teddy was sure he was nothing like any boy that Candy had ever been exposed to in her snotty prep school.
Teddy actually liked Davy alright, he was a nice enough guy, but she couldn't help but wonder how long he could hold out on the apparent charm that Candy seemed to inflict on every man in a 50 mile radius who turned into a bumbling idiot at the sight of her. Watching him sweat was actually a quite amusing way that Teddy had found to pass the time. Of course, with the two of them playing cat and mouse it left her with most of the work, but she didn't really mind if it kept them out of her hair.
Suddenly, the bell above the door echoed loudly throughout the empty store as Teddy swung around to set eyes on the profile of a customer she was sure she'd never seen before.
A short guy in a black jacket hurried into the store with the brim of a baseball cap pulled low hiding most of his face, reddish-blondish hair sticking out the bottom. Teddy stared at him curiously as he turned to glance out both of the windows wearing a worried expression before turning around and locking eyes with her from across the store.
She barely held in a small gasp but she was pretty sure her eyes widened and her mouth fell slightly open at the sight of the man before her. She knew him. Or rather, she knew who he was and he was not someone she would have ever expected to wander into her record shop.
She watched as he seemed to sense the spreading recognition on her face and he bit his lip nervously and glanced behind his shoulder at the window he had just been peering through.
Apparently, she seemed a better choice than whatever was waiting for him outside because he took a few tentative steps towards her, nervously playing with the bill of his baseball cap.
Teddy was well aware of the fact that she was staring and had yet to move, an Elvis Presley record dangling limply from her hand, but she couldn't seem to get her body to respond properly, much as she was screaming the words in her head. Say something.
He stopped a few feet in front of her and bit his lip again before giving her a small smile and opening his mouth.
"Hello."
Teddy finally shook herself out of a daze and managed an awkward smile back. "Hello."
"Elvis Presley fan?"
Teddy stared at him for a moment, brows furrowed before following his gaze down to the record that was still dangling from her hand.
"Oh! Oh, no, I was just putting this away."
"I work here, " she added almost as an afterthought and resisted the urge to smack herself in the head with the record as she laid it down on the shelf.
"Ah, I see." His smile reached his eyes a little more this time and Teddy thought he seemed a little relieved. Maybe the fact that she worked there made it seem less likely that she was a stalker or something, she pondered while gazing into his hazel, no maybe more green, eyes.
He smiled at her once again, "well, I was always more of a James Brown and Jackie Wilson fan myself." He turned slightly and thumbed through a few of the records sitting closest to him.
Teddy watched him with fascination. "Mmm, while I'm not gonna say Elvis didn't rip them off some, but you have to admit the man was a hell of a performer. And he had a big voice."
Teddy smiled, feeling pleased with herself for forming a complete sentence, and tried to bite back even more of a grin as he froze and looked up at her with big eyes before breaking into a grin himself.
"You know about music?"
She smirked. "While, I do work at a record store, don't I?"
His eyes twinkled back at her. "While I used to work at a record store and I know for a fact that they don't hire their employees based on musical knowledge."
"You have a point there," she said and gave him a wry smile while tilting her head towards the back of the store. Candy and Davy were sitting at the cash register still chatting away, never even noticing they might have an actual customer to attend to. For once she was glad for their dimness if it meant she got this intriguing boy all to herself for a few minutes.
He glanced behind her and seemed to notice the other two for the first time and she saw the cornered look return to his eyes.
"Stupid gits, they're always too wrapped up in themselves to notice when that stupid bell rings." She stated slyly, pointing to the small gold bell above the door and hoping to calm his nerves. She wasn't sure what had him so jumpy, or even if he was always like this, but he seemed pretty sure she wasn't going to attack him at any moment, at least.
His eyes slid back to hers and held her gaze for a moment with a look she couldn't read, hard though she tried. "Gits? Spent a lot of time in London, have we?"
Teddy felt her face heat up a bit and turned from the heat of his gaze to sorting the Elvis record back to its proper place and trying not to look at him. "No, I'm been reading a bit too much British literature lately and I'm afraid it's been slipping into my conversations. Yesterday, I called the man behind the counter at McDonalds a 'jolly good chap'," she admitted but before she could even begin to feel embarrassed he had let out a loud laugh and was still chuckling as she turned once again to face him.
He smiled. "What'd the guy say, "g'day m'lady, would you like fries with that?" he asked in a rather good imitation of a British accent and she couldn't help but giggle.
"Actually, he looked at me like I was nuts, much as you were a moment ago, and sort of threw the bag at me. I guess he was afraid of 'crazy germs'."
"Probably a fair concern," he teased her, while nodding seriously and she tried her best to glare at him for a moment before turning away so he couldn't see her smile.
They stood in comfortable silence for a moment, thumbing through records before she noticed him glancing out the window again from the corner of her eye and turned to face him fully once more.
"So, are you gonna tell me who's after you or shall I just sneak you out the back door and pretend this never happed," she asked matter of factly, except for waving her arms around a bit dramatically at the last part.
His head whipped around and he stared at her, surprise written all over his face. "What?"
She sighed. "I'm assuming it's either paparazzi, a swarm of teenage girls, or Fall Out Boy made a deal with the mafia I don't know about."
At this, she became a little afraid for his health as he stared at her and turned slightly pale. "You...you know who I am then?"
She nodded and it was her turn to bite her lower lip. "I thought you could tell as soon as you walked in."
He seemed to be recovering a little and nodded slowly, "I thought so but then you didn't say anything...I've never talked to someone for so long before who knew who I was but didn't say anything." He glanced at her a little suspiciously.
She frowned, "Well, you didn't bring it up, so I thought maybe you didn't want me to either." She faltered, "I'm sorry...I didn't mean to be rude."
He quickly shook his head, "No! No, you were the opposite actually, I'm just not used to it." He glanced down and then back up at her almost shyly, "Thanks."
She gave him a small smile, "No thanks necessary," she shot him a slightly mischievous look, "It is sorta my job to talk to customers you know."
He smiled, a real smile, and she found herself smiling back quite stupidly for no reason. "I haven't bought anything yet."
"Good point, get out." She pointed towards the door and raised one eyebrow.
He raised one eyebrow back at her and turned back to the records. "I'm still perusing."
She nodded and turned back to sorting, a comfortable silence falling over them again. "You still didn't tell me who was after you. I was right about the mafia wasn't I?"
"Who say's anyone's after me?"
"You look like my mom's cat after he gets caught peeing in the neighbors yard."
He glanced up at her confusedly.
"After he gets caught by their three rottweilers."
His lips turned up at the corners as she watched him out of the corner of her eye and he turned away again.
"We were rehearsing at a club down the block, I left alone and when I got back there was a group of..er..rowdy fans outside. They sort of saw me and..chased me... and I...er... sort of ran....in here"
She looked up at him, slightly horrified. "Are you alright?"
He nodded, "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine but I do need to get back and these kids are pretty relentless, I'm sure they haven't given up searching that easy. And I left my phone at the club."
Teddy nodded, "You can use mine, I'll just go get it out of my jacket."
No sooner had the words left her mouth did she notice about 8 kids, all about high school age, emerging from the deli across the street and glancing in all directions before 4 of them headed towards the store. Teddy quickly grabbed an arm and a baseball cap and shoved down.
"Wha--?!
"Shhh." She said putting her fingers to her lips and waving at him to be quiet.
The kids entered the store and glanced around wildly.
"Can I help you?" Teddy asked coolly.
One of the boys took a step forward, "Has there been anyone in here, a guy---"
"Do I look like the yellow pages? You're the only ones in here and you're bugging me so get out."
"What a bitch." The boy said as a girl stepped forward and grabbed his arm, "Come on Billy, there's no one here, lets check the theater down the road."
With that, they left in a flurry of black t-shirts and heavy make-up and Teddy let out a small sigh of relief.
"Thanks." She turned around and stared into grateful green eyes and a smile. The real kind.
She smiled back (she was pretty sure this was the most smiling she'd ever done in a ten minute period) and after a short phone call and a brief interruption by Candy, who Teddy scared away by saying she was chatting with an insurance salesman (only Candy would believe that), the two of them were waiting by the door for a bloke named Charlie to show up.
"I feel like I owe you something."
She turned towards him and wrinkled up her brow, "You don't owe me anything."
"You did get called a bitch on my behalf," he said biting his lip.
She smirked and ran a hand through her curly ponytail, "While it wasn't the first time and I'm pretty sure it won't be the last."
"I find that hard to believe," he said in a gentle voice that she hadn't yet heard and she fought hard not to look into his eyes, afraid it would be too hard to look away if they matched that voice.
"Look, I don't really know if you want to, because while we didn't exactly talk about it, but I do have a show tonight if you would want to come. I'm pretty sure I could get you fairly good tickets. I know someone," he said solemnly, with just the tiniest hint of laughter in his voice, and then she did look up at him, ignoring his last statement.
"Really?"
"You'd want to?" he asked, looking genuinely surprised.
"Of course, I love your albums, you make great music." She smiled a little shyly, feeling awkward all of a sudden.
"Oh. Oh, thanks. While I didn't know, since you didn't ask for an autograph or anything-not that I wanted you to, I mean-"
She couldn't help but giggle at his rambling a bit and decided to put the poor guy out of his misery. "The thing is, I guess I'm kind of weird, but I never really saw the value of a signature on a piece of paper."
"I understand. I never really got the point either, but if it makes somebody happy, who am I to argue right?" He asked glancing at her with a trace of amusement in his eyes. She nodded and he went on, "but if you would like to go tonight-"
"Oh!" He jumped and glanced around a bit wildly as Teddy startled him with her quick interruption, "Sorry, it's just," she could feel the disappointment welling up, "it's just that I just remembered I have to work tonight."
"Oh," he actually looked disappointed too. "Is this place open 24/7?"
"Oh, no, at one of my other jobs I mean, I hostess at a restaurant on Tuesday through Friday nights."
"One of your other jobs, how many do you have?"
"Just three," she said avoiding his eyes, he probably had enough money to buy the whole block if he wanted. "Here, the restaurant, and a bookstore." She left off the dog walking and babysitting lest he think she lived in a cardboard box.
But he wasn't staring at her with pity when she risked a glance up into his eyes, only admiration. "Wow, that must be tough, I used to have 2 jobs and a band and that very nearly broke me down."
For some reason, when he said 'that must be tough' it sounded like he was really saying 'you must be tough' and somehow, she felt tears spring up completely inappropriately into her brown eyes and quickly turned away before he saw even a hint of them. Maybe it was because she had been tough, for the past six months, she had to be tough, and it would be nice to have someone like this boy with his gentle voice and his kind eyes and his crooked baseball cap to lean on sometimes. It had been far to long since she'd had anyone to lean on.
He seemed to sense a change in her mood and laid a hand on her arm which he quickly jerked away when she spun around to face him. "If you don't fly airplanes or anything on Saturday nights," he said smiling, "we play tomorrow too."
She couldn't believe it and felt the smile as it lit up her whole face, but she struggled to keep the excitement out of her voice as she said, "While I am scheduled to land a few jets at O'Hare but they'll just have to make do without me for one night because I'm going to a concert, and they'd better be good seats Mister, cause I know one of the guys in the band," she said while poking him slightly in the chest but he only laughed.
Suddenly, they both turned to look outside as a horn honked and a large bald guy waved from inside a black SUV.
"That's my ride," he turned towards her, "Good seats, I promise, and bring a friend if you want, okay? Just tell them your name at the door, I'll make sure and have you down." He started to turn away and then suddenly stopped. "I've just realized, I don't know your name," he said looking thoroughly shocked at himself.
She smiled, "Teddy. Teddy Baker."
He stuck out his hand, "While nice to meet you Teddy Baker, and thanks again for everything."
She smiled as he turned away, "You're welcome, Patrick."
He turned back around once more and gave her a fleeting smile before hopping into his SUV and speeding off.
Teddy stood on the corner until the car was out of sight.
Chapter 1
"Teddy!"
"Teddy get your ass out of that bed, it's nearly 7:30!"
With that last shout, two things occurred simultaneously; a front door slammed shut and a rather sleepy eyed, rather messy haired girl, shot out of bed as quick as though someone had jerked her upright.
"Not again, not again, I cannot be late again, ahh!" above mentioned messy haired girl, also known as Teddy, muttered to herself while running around the room frantically trying to find any clothes that didn't look as though they had been lying on the floor of her room for a week (which, unfortunately, most of them had, because Teddy tended to find laundry a very poor waste of one's time).
The slamming door had been Teddy's roommate and best friend, Missy, heading off to her job. She was never late for her job. Of course, Missy only had one job and Teddy currently had three, which may have slightly accounted for the difference in punctuality.
For the past 6 months, Teddy had been working at a record store 4 days a week. She also worked at a bookstore 3 days a week and at a restaurant 4 nights a week. She was also pretty sure she was the most exhausted 22 year old girl in all of Chicago. And the worst part of it all was that she had chosen the life she was currently running through at a fast pace.
Eight months ago, she had graduated from college. Her whole four years there had basically been spent trying to decide what she wanted to do and before she knew it, there was no more time, and they were handing her a diploma and she was hugging her parents and trying to look very goal oriented and not at all like she had no fucking clue what to do with her life.
Eventually, she had decided to take a year off from finding a "real" job and try and find herself instead. Chicago seemed like as good a place as any. It was where her best friend was living, after recently graduating from a college there herself. It was also 10 hours away from her parents, her hometown, and everything she'd ever known.
Her parents were none to pleased. It seemed that just because she didn't have a plan they had certainly had some thoughts on the subject and none of them involved her moving to Chicago or working in a record store after they spent thousands of dollars putting her through college. Not to mention the fact that she was their only child. Eventually, they all agreed that they would support her, but not financially. If she wanted to do it, she would have to make her own way. So that was what she had been doing for the past 6 months.
She was glad to have Missy so close again, they had been best friends since they were 10, but she saw her almost as little now living together as when they were in college with working so much. Missy had turned traitor and actually moved onto the real world, which Teddy was maybe just the slightest bit jealous of. Missy was a research assistant at one of the local hospitals and loved it.
Teddy pulled herself from her thoughts and rushed into the bathroom to tie back her curly brown hair. She brushed her teeth quickly but carefully applied eyeliner to her wide brown eyes in an attempt to hide the dark circles underneath. Unfortunately, that seemed to be as much of a lost cause as actually trying to make it to the store by 8 a.m. She looked down at her jeans, white shirt, and converse sneakers and decided that would have to be good enough. Grabbing a bag filled with clothes for her job at the restaurant that night as she made her way through the apartment, she took a quick glance around for left on lights or appliances and, finding none, locked the door and hurried down to catch the train to work.
She, of course, as these things usually go, had no idea that her life was about to change forever.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Flip. Flip. Flip --- no back, Barry Mannilow before Bon Jovi. Flip. Flip. Sigh
Working at a record store was not the most exciting of jobs. Of the three jobs Teddy had though, this one was the second most exciting. Working at a bookstore was definitely like the "watching paint dry" level of exciting, She'd been so happy to start there because she loved to read. She was always reading at least three books at once. Missy always teased her about being a "book slut", cheating on one with another. (Missy was not gifted with Teddy's fabulous sense of humor, or at least that's how Teddy would always respond*) She also loved to write and she thought a bookstore would be a perfect job. Unfortunately, it was more about doing inventory. And stocking shelves. And doing inventory. And cleaning up puke in the children's section. And doing inventory. And explaining to an old guy in a cardigan that looked like Mr. Rodgers that they didn't have an "Adult" literature section. And doing inventory...while you get the picture.
Working at the restaurant as a hostess wasn't exactly anything to jump up and down about but at least she was never bored there, things always moved quickly because it was a popular restaurant.
The record store was a small, independently owned kind that had just about one of anything you could ever hope to find. The owner didn't particularly need the money but he loved music so he kept it open even though they didn't do a whole lot of business. He was rarely ever there, the owner, but he made his daughter work every afternoon to "learn responsibility". Candy. That's right. Not like the Hershey kiss kind, like the blonde, airhead, 100 pound kind. No one ever had a more fitting name, Teddy always thought, than Candy. Too much of her would give anyone a headache. She was eighteen and popular and perfect and pretty much everything that Teddy had ever hated.
She was just so...blonde. And thin. And tall. Teddy wasn't fat but she had curves and boobs and she was 5'4, maybe, standing on her tip toes. She'd never been the sort of girl that guys fell over themselves for. She was average. But she liked to think she made up for it in brains. And sarcasm. The world could never have too much sarcasm.
Teddy snickered to herself as she went on with her record sorting and tried to tune out the sound of Candy's giggles behind her. The only other person she ever worked with, Davy, was currently doing something extremely amusing, Or at least Candy was pretending it was extremely amusing, which was much more likely. Candy had a big crush on Davy because he was 24 and had a motorcycle and tattoos and Teddy was sure he was nothing like any boy that Candy had ever been exposed to in her snotty prep school.
Teddy actually liked Davy alright, he was a nice enough guy, but she couldn't help but wonder how long he could hold out on the apparent charm that Candy seemed to inflict on every man in a 50 mile radius who turned into a bumbling idiot at the sight of her. Watching him sweat was actually a quite amusing way that Teddy had found to pass the time. Of course, with the two of them playing cat and mouse it left her with most of the work, but she didn't really mind if it kept them out of her hair.
Suddenly, the bell above the door echoed loudly throughout the empty store as Teddy swung around to set eyes on the profile of a customer she was sure she'd never seen before.
A short guy in a black jacket hurried into the store with the brim of a baseball cap pulled low hiding most of his face, reddish-blondish hair sticking out the bottom. Teddy stared at him curiously as he turned to glance out both of the windows wearing a worried expression before turning around and locking eyes with her from across the store.
She barely held in a small gasp but she was pretty sure her eyes widened and her mouth fell slightly open at the sight of the man before her. She knew him. Or rather, she knew who he was and he was not someone she would have ever expected to wander into her record shop.
She watched as he seemed to sense the spreading recognition on her face and he bit his lip nervously and glanced behind his shoulder at the window he had just been peering through.
Apparently, she seemed a better choice than whatever was waiting for him outside because he took a few tentative steps towards her, nervously playing with the bill of his baseball cap.
Teddy was well aware of the fact that she was staring and had yet to move, an Elvis Presley record dangling limply from her hand, but she couldn't seem to get her body to respond properly, much as she was screaming the words in her head. Say something.
He stopped a few feet in front of her and bit his lip again before giving her a small smile and opening his mouth.
"Hello."
Teddy finally shook herself out of a daze and managed an awkward smile back. "Hello."
"Elvis Presley fan?"
Teddy stared at him for a moment, brows furrowed before following his gaze down to the record that was still dangling from her hand.
"Oh! Oh, no, I was just putting this away."
"I work here, " she added almost as an afterthought and resisted the urge to smack herself in the head with the record as she laid it down on the shelf.
"Ah, I see." His smile reached his eyes a little more this time and Teddy thought he seemed a little relieved. Maybe the fact that she worked there made it seem less likely that she was a stalker or something, she pondered while gazing into his hazel, no maybe more green, eyes.
He smiled at her once again, "well, I was always more of a James Brown and Jackie Wilson fan myself." He turned slightly and thumbed through a few of the records sitting closest to him.
Teddy watched him with fascination. "Mmm, while I'm not gonna say Elvis didn't rip them off some, but you have to admit the man was a hell of a performer. And he had a big voice."
Teddy smiled, feeling pleased with herself for forming a complete sentence, and tried to bite back even more of a grin as he froze and looked up at her with big eyes before breaking into a grin himself.
"You know about music?"
She smirked. "While, I do work at a record store, don't I?"
His eyes twinkled back at her. "While I used to work at a record store and I know for a fact that they don't hire their employees based on musical knowledge."
"You have a point there," she said and gave him a wry smile while tilting her head towards the back of the store. Candy and Davy were sitting at the cash register still chatting away, never even noticing they might have an actual customer to attend to. For once she was glad for their dimness if it meant she got this intriguing boy all to herself for a few minutes.
He glanced behind her and seemed to notice the other two for the first time and she saw the cornered look return to his eyes.
"Stupid gits, they're always too wrapped up in themselves to notice when that stupid bell rings." She stated slyly, pointing to the small gold bell above the door and hoping to calm his nerves. She wasn't sure what had him so jumpy, or even if he was always like this, but he seemed pretty sure she wasn't going to attack him at any moment, at least.
His eyes slid back to hers and held her gaze for a moment with a look she couldn't read, hard though she tried. "Gits? Spent a lot of time in London, have we?"
Teddy felt her face heat up a bit and turned from the heat of his gaze to sorting the Elvis record back to its proper place and trying not to look at him. "No, I'm been reading a bit too much British literature lately and I'm afraid it's been slipping into my conversations. Yesterday, I called the man behind the counter at McDonalds a 'jolly good chap'," she admitted but before she could even begin to feel embarrassed he had let out a loud laugh and was still chuckling as she turned once again to face him.
He smiled. "What'd the guy say, "g'day m'lady, would you like fries with that?" he asked in a rather good imitation of a British accent and she couldn't help but giggle.
"Actually, he looked at me like I was nuts, much as you were a moment ago, and sort of threw the bag at me. I guess he was afraid of 'crazy germs'."
"Probably a fair concern," he teased her, while nodding seriously and she tried her best to glare at him for a moment before turning away so he couldn't see her smile.
They stood in comfortable silence for a moment, thumbing through records before she noticed him glancing out the window again from the corner of her eye and turned to face him fully once more.
"So, are you gonna tell me who's after you or shall I just sneak you out the back door and pretend this never happed," she asked matter of factly, except for waving her arms around a bit dramatically at the last part.
His head whipped around and he stared at her, surprise written all over his face. "What?"
She sighed. "I'm assuming it's either paparazzi, a swarm of teenage girls, or Fall Out Boy made a deal with the mafia I don't know about."
At this, she became a little afraid for his health as he stared at her and turned slightly pale. "You...you know who I am then?"
She nodded and it was her turn to bite her lower lip. "I thought you could tell as soon as you walked in."
He seemed to be recovering a little and nodded slowly, "I thought so but then you didn't say anything...I've never talked to someone for so long before who knew who I was but didn't say anything." He glanced at her a little suspiciously.
She frowned, "Well, you didn't bring it up, so I thought maybe you didn't want me to either." She faltered, "I'm sorry...I didn't mean to be rude."
He quickly shook his head, "No! No, you were the opposite actually, I'm just not used to it." He glanced down and then back up at her almost shyly, "Thanks."
She gave him a small smile, "No thanks necessary," she shot him a slightly mischievous look, "It is sorta my job to talk to customers you know."
He smiled, a real smile, and she found herself smiling back quite stupidly for no reason. "I haven't bought anything yet."
"Good point, get out." She pointed towards the door and raised one eyebrow.
He raised one eyebrow back at her and turned back to the records. "I'm still perusing."
She nodded and turned back to sorting, a comfortable silence falling over them again. "You still didn't tell me who was after you. I was right about the mafia wasn't I?"
"Who say's anyone's after me?"
"You look like my mom's cat after he gets caught peeing in the neighbors yard."
He glanced up at her confusedly.
"After he gets caught by their three rottweilers."
His lips turned up at the corners as she watched him out of the corner of her eye and he turned away again.
"We were rehearsing at a club down the block, I left alone and when I got back there was a group of..er..rowdy fans outside. They sort of saw me and..chased me... and I...er... sort of ran....in here"
She looked up at him, slightly horrified. "Are you alright?"
He nodded, "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine but I do need to get back and these kids are pretty relentless, I'm sure they haven't given up searching that easy. And I left my phone at the club."
Teddy nodded, "You can use mine, I'll just go get it out of my jacket."
No sooner had the words left her mouth did she notice about 8 kids, all about high school age, emerging from the deli across the street and glancing in all directions before 4 of them headed towards the store. Teddy quickly grabbed an arm and a baseball cap and shoved down.
"Wha--?!
"Shhh." She said putting her fingers to her lips and waving at him to be quiet.
The kids entered the store and glanced around wildly.
"Can I help you?" Teddy asked coolly.
One of the boys took a step forward, "Has there been anyone in here, a guy---"
"Do I look like the yellow pages? You're the only ones in here and you're bugging me so get out."
"What a bitch." The boy said as a girl stepped forward and grabbed his arm, "Come on Billy, there's no one here, lets check the theater down the road."
With that, they left in a flurry of black t-shirts and heavy make-up and Teddy let out a small sigh of relief.
"Thanks." She turned around and stared into grateful green eyes and a smile. The real kind.
She smiled back (she was pretty sure this was the most smiling she'd ever done in a ten minute period) and after a short phone call and a brief interruption by Candy, who Teddy scared away by saying she was chatting with an insurance salesman (only Candy would believe that), the two of them were waiting by the door for a bloke named Charlie to show up.
"I feel like I owe you something."
She turned towards him and wrinkled up her brow, "You don't owe me anything."
"You did get called a bitch on my behalf," he said biting his lip.
She smirked and ran a hand through her curly ponytail, "While it wasn't the first time and I'm pretty sure it won't be the last."
"I find that hard to believe," he said in a gentle voice that she hadn't yet heard and she fought hard not to look into his eyes, afraid it would be too hard to look away if they matched that voice.
"Look, I don't really know if you want to, because while we didn't exactly talk about it, but I do have a show tonight if you would want to come. I'm pretty sure I could get you fairly good tickets. I know someone," he said solemnly, with just the tiniest hint of laughter in his voice, and then she did look up at him, ignoring his last statement.
"Really?"
"You'd want to?" he asked, looking genuinely surprised.
"Of course, I love your albums, you make great music." She smiled a little shyly, feeling awkward all of a sudden.
"Oh. Oh, thanks. While I didn't know, since you didn't ask for an autograph or anything-not that I wanted you to, I mean-"
She couldn't help but giggle at his rambling a bit and decided to put the poor guy out of his misery. "The thing is, I guess I'm kind of weird, but I never really saw the value of a signature on a piece of paper."
"I understand. I never really got the point either, but if it makes somebody happy, who am I to argue right?" He asked glancing at her with a trace of amusement in his eyes. She nodded and he went on, "but if you would like to go tonight-"
"Oh!" He jumped and glanced around a bit wildly as Teddy startled him with her quick interruption, "Sorry, it's just," she could feel the disappointment welling up, "it's just that I just remembered I have to work tonight."
"Oh," he actually looked disappointed too. "Is this place open 24/7?"
"Oh, no, at one of my other jobs I mean, I hostess at a restaurant on Tuesday through Friday nights."
"One of your other jobs, how many do you have?"
"Just three," she said avoiding his eyes, he probably had enough money to buy the whole block if he wanted. "Here, the restaurant, and a bookstore." She left off the dog walking and babysitting lest he think she lived in a cardboard box.
But he wasn't staring at her with pity when she risked a glance up into his eyes, only admiration. "Wow, that must be tough, I used to have 2 jobs and a band and that very nearly broke me down."
For some reason, when he said 'that must be tough' it sounded like he was really saying 'you must be tough' and somehow, she felt tears spring up completely inappropriately into her brown eyes and quickly turned away before he saw even a hint of them. Maybe it was because she had been tough, for the past six months, she had to be tough, and it would be nice to have someone like this boy with his gentle voice and his kind eyes and his crooked baseball cap to lean on sometimes. It had been far to long since she'd had anyone to lean on.
He seemed to sense a change in her mood and laid a hand on her arm which he quickly jerked away when she spun around to face him. "If you don't fly airplanes or anything on Saturday nights," he said smiling, "we play tomorrow too."
She couldn't believe it and felt the smile as it lit up her whole face, but she struggled to keep the excitement out of her voice as she said, "While I am scheduled to land a few jets at O'Hare but they'll just have to make do without me for one night because I'm going to a concert, and they'd better be good seats Mister, cause I know one of the guys in the band," she said while poking him slightly in the chest but he only laughed.
Suddenly, they both turned to look outside as a horn honked and a large bald guy waved from inside a black SUV.
"That's my ride," he turned towards her, "Good seats, I promise, and bring a friend if you want, okay? Just tell them your name at the door, I'll make sure and have you down." He started to turn away and then suddenly stopped. "I've just realized, I don't know your name," he said looking thoroughly shocked at himself.
She smiled, "Teddy. Teddy Baker."
He stuck out his hand, "While nice to meet you Teddy Baker, and thanks again for everything."
She smiled as he turned away, "You're welcome, Patrick."
He turned back around once more and gave her a fleeting smile before hopping into his SUV and speeding off.
Teddy stood on the corner until the car was out of sight.
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