Work Text:
Terry was a bit glad that they'd lost Lark thirty minutes ago.
Grant had wanted to leave the venue early, but Terry had been looking forward to the last band. So, when he'd asked Sparrow if they could go, and Sparrow had asked where Lark was? Terry had saw his in, and made his way back into the crowd.
Once they'd managed to find Lark (who had been on a quest for a joint for the last half hour,) they'd all piled into Grant's minivan and began the drive home. That's when he saw her.
Well, he hadn't known it was a her. Not in the moment. Really, what he'd seen was a car pulled over with their hazards on about five minutes from the venue.
"We should pull over." He'd half-asked, half demanded, Grant. Grant grunted, checking the time on his mounted phone.
"I can't get home too late." Grant responded, carefully giving the car a wide berth. "I need to be up on time to give Linc his first class of the day. I promised Marco."
"Then leave me." What was he doing? "I'll call an uber."
"Are you trying to get murdered?" Lark asked, turning his full body in the passenger seat. "That's how you get Bundy'd, man."
"I just want to check on them! It won't even take five minutes."
"I vote that you don't get murdered." Sparrow said softly, checking his phone, then angling it for Terry to see. Hero had fallen asleep reading to Normal. Aw.
"C'mon, please?" Terry pleaded, and Grant sighed, flicking on his turn signal and pulling off to the side.
"Five minutes." Grant ordered, and Terry nodded, even as he clambered out the door.
It was a bit of a jog to make it to the person, the woman, who was leaning against the guardrails on her phone. He caught the tail end of her conversation (voicemail?) to whoever she was talking to.
"You better not be ignoring me, you asshole! Call me back!" She snapped, before whirling on Terry, who put his hands up.
"I have a gun." She announced, flicking her eyes back to her car. Terry swallowed.
She was, maybe, the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Tall, although nobody was quite as tall as Terry, with her dark hair teased into a bats nest. She was wearing a low cut shirt he pointedly looked away from, and her face was heavily contoured, with dark eyeshadow surrounding her striking eyes.
"Cool." Terry managed, nodding. "Just- uh, I wanted to ask, do you need any help? My friends and I," he pointed back to the minivan, "saw you pulled over, and I know a bit about cars, really, my buddy Grant knows more, but like, I can change a tire-" He was absolutely rambling, but she looked a little entertained, so he continued. "But if you have a real problem, I can get Grant, of course."
"I ran over something." She said simply. "You can change a tire?"
"Yes ma'am."
"Do you have time to change mine? I have all the stuff for it."
He glanced back to the car, with a driver that was definitely getting more impatient by the minute, and nodded.
"I'll be right back."
He jogged back to Grant's car, leaning against the driver's side until he rolled the window down.
"Terrance."
"Listen-"
"Terrance Jr."
"She just needs me to change her tire!"
"Terrance, I need to get home to my son."
"I'll call an Uber!"
Lark clambered over Grant to lean out the window, elbow awkwardly blaring the horn before he readjusted. "Terry, no."
"Terry, yes."
"You can't 2016 meme your way out of this, you're being insane."
"I'm going to do it anyway, you can either wait, or leave."
With that, he jogged back over to the woman. Too much jogging.
"We're good, you have stuff to change a tire?"
"Yeah, it's right in the trunk." She said, and she smiled at him. Dear Doodler, she smiled at him. All teeth, a little gum. She was illuminated by only a halo of streetlight, and she looked unearthly. Terry had seen unearthly, he'd seen hundreds of horrors, and he'd see them again if it meant he got to see this smile at the end of them.
He followed her dumbly to her trunk, pulled the tire out for her when her hands had gone for it, and rolled it to the offending tire as she got out the rest.
She passed him the jack first, and he shook his head.
"It's the lug wrench first, actually."
"Really? Why?"
"No clue." Terry said, grinning nervously. "That's just how my dad taught me. I'm sure he told me at some point, but I don't remember"
Grant honked his horn. Terry shot him a glare, and flipped him off.
"Your friends seem nice."
"They're just ready to get home, ignore them." Terry shrugged. "They can wait ten minutes."
The woman snickered into her hand, and Terry got to work loosening the lug nuts.
"So uh, what's your name? I don't think I introduced myself- I'm Terry."
"Veronica." She said warmly, crouching beside him to watch him work. Directly in his way, really, because he needed to get where she was to jack her car up, but he didn't mind. Gave him an excuse to look at her before he moved.
"Could I-"
"Oh! Yeah, sorry-"
They shimmied about, a little awkward, and Terry attempted another piece of conversation.
"So uh, were you at the show…?"
"Goth Night? Yeah."
"What? There was a goth night?" He tilted his head. "I was talking about a different one, there were a few hardcore bands playing about a half mile from here."
"What? I was thirty minutes out for Goth Night."
"That sucks! I should've gone there, I'm way more goth than I'm hardcore. We mostly went for my buddies who like to mosh."
"I would've loved to go to a hardcore show! We should've swapped places."
Terry snickered to himself, before clearing his throat.
"So, who was playing?"
"Just a few local bands." She hummed, watching him finish jacking the car.
"Same here. I prefer local, honestly. It feels nice."
"I had a band in college, we played at the venue I went to. It's nice to show up at my old haunts."
"Hey! Me too, what was yours called?" He asked, moving back to her ruined tire to finish screwing off the lug nuts.
"Gutteral Screams."
"Shit, that's good."
"Yours?"
"Black Asshole Sun." He said, avoiding eye contact. The soft giggles were enough to make him flick his eyes back to her, though. She covered her mouth when she laughed.
"That's great."
"It is not!" He insisted, pulling her tire off and grabbing the spare.
"I love it, personally."
He shook his head, and they lapsed into comfortable silence as he put the new tire onto her car. His phone buzzed in his pocket, and he ignored it. Grant honked again.
Tightening the last lug nut, he stood up, grabbing the old tire from the ground and bringing it to her trunk, while she gathered the tools.
"So, uh. You can just tell me to fuck off, but uhm…" he stuttered for a moment, cursing his social anxiety. "Are you single?"
That made her pause, like she had to think it over. "No, not really."
"Not really?"
"I'm married."
He darted his eyes to her left hand, and sure enough, he hadn't somehow missed a ring. "Oh. Sorry?"
"Don't be." She leaned against her car, staring up at him. "It won't last."
"What makes you say that?" He could already tell he was putting on the same voice his mother did, but he ignored it, choosing to soldier on.
"We're mostly together for my daughter, honestly. But I'm pretty sure it'll be over soon."
"Shit, I'm sorry." Why was he apologizing?
"Again, don't be." She shut the trunk door, and tilted her head. "Do you want a ride home, Terry?"
He swallowed. "Let me tell my friends."
He jogged, again, up to Grant's car, knocking urgently on his window. Grant rolled it down, looking far less agitated than Terry had expected.
"Are you ready to go?"
"She's giving me a ride home."
"Wha- Terry."
"C'mon, man." Terry pleaded, leaning against the car door. "Let me have this!"
"Ooooooh," Sparrow giggled from the back seat. "Terry has a cruuuuush!"
Lark leaned over, so Terry could see him behind Grant, squinting.
"Keep your phone on, I'll be calling you in an hour." He stated, crossing his arms and leaning back. Grant was smirking.
"Fine, if that's what you want."
Terry jogged back, Veronica was hitting a vape, which blew into his face from the mild wind of the evening. It smelled like strawberries and ice.
"I'm trying to quit." She remarked, as she got into the drivers side seat. Terry buckled his seatbelt, swallowing.
"Me too." He lied, because who knew if he'd be seeing her again?
"We should quit together."
"Yeah?" He managed, swallowing. What was he getting into? She was married. He couldn't do this.
"Yeah."
The carride to Terry's apartment was fairly short, but filled with enjoyable conversation. Enjoyable enough that he didn't want it to end. However, when they got to his complex, she parked and took her keys out of the ignition.
"So…"
"So?"
"You gonna invite me upstairs?"
Maybe he could do this.