Chapter Two

I remember the first letter you ever sent me. It was delivered to my doorstep exactly one week after our whirl wind weekend traveling through Pennsylvania and New Jersey. You wrote: “Be brave, be fearless, be that girl who drove six hours to see me when all of her friends thought she had lost her mind. Be her. Because that is you, Lucy.” I can still picture that letter; your block handwriting bleeding through white lined paper. On a rainy day like this, when I feel lost in a city of thousands: that letter, those words stay with me. As much as I hate to admit this, you will always be my hope….personified.

-----------

Later that night, the silence of the salon surrounded her, tucked its gummy arms around the hollow of her ribcage and squeezed tightly. She swept the remaining stray hairs off the floor, and listened to the simple ‘whoosh, whoosh’ of the broom bristles tickle the base of her chair. The stillness of the night whacked her sorely in the face. Lucy squared her shoulders against the lonesome hush and clenched her teeth together. She continued cleaning, mentally asserting herself with a list of chores. Her pale arms stretched high to wipe down the salon mirrors. She sprayed Windex over the scattered dots of caked hair wax and residue from spewed shots of hairspray. She watched her distorted reflection through the long tears of bright blue cleaning solution. Her lifeless green eyes blinked back at her.

The words ‘I won’t always be like this. I will feel again.’ echoed through her head like a tiny sphere entering a pinball machine, bouncing back and forth against the walls of her cluttered brain. She closed her eyes " a desperate attempt to refocus. All she saw etched in the darkness of her eyelids were the knowing looks of her closest friends who have said their gracious goodbyes to the girl she used to be.

Her eyes snapped open: maybe it’s time she does the same.

She stopped to look at herself in the mirror, taking in the olive colored sweater hanging shapelessly from her thin frame. She brought her hands to her cheeks and rubbed them furiously in an attempt to add color to her pale skin. She sighed and stepped back with a realization. She was the girl who contemplated buying a one way ticket to London, consequently abandoning her business, her family, her friends, and every fruitlessly planned detail of her former life. She was the girl who woke up every morning in her empty house filled with hollow corners and empty walls. The girl who didn’t have the heart to fill the barren void because she’s not sure what could ever make her feel like home the way he did. With an exasperated sigh, she rested her chin on top of the broom handle and closed her eyes. They fluttered as her mind flashed back to the night that started it all.

----------
“Do you remember the last time you dragged me to a concert like this? You went to buy a T-Shirt and I was left to fight for my life in a sea of sweaty, shirtless high school kids punching each other in a giant circle of teenage angst.” Nina bellowed dramatically as she raised a bottle of beer over her head and maneuvered through the narrow pathways of the crowded bar.

Lucy smirked and rolled her eyes dramatically. “Oh, you did not. I think you lost your shoe for, like, a second.”

“Exactly my point. I was barefoot! In a mosh pit, no less! How does that not constitute as some kind of story of survival?” She handed Lucy her beer before she pulled her hair up in a makeshift pony tail and fanned the back of her neck to ward off the heat of the crowd.

Lucy laughed, her head tilted back slightly. A mass of dirty blonde hair fell away from her face. “Alex was with you the whole time. And as I dimly recall, he was the one that almost got trampled on trying to retrieve one of your sandals.”

Nina’s lips pursed, her expression etched into a mock scowl. She grabbed her beer back sharply. Her straight hair fell around the contour of her shoulders. “I just think that we need to find another Friday night activity that doesn’t involve one of us leaving with unexplained bruises on our body.”

Alex snuck up behind them with a drink in hand and leaned casually against the railing of the bar stairs. “And here I was thinking unexplained bruises were standard for most of your Friday nights, Nina.” He commented, a smarmy grin on his handsome face.
Lucy smiled and covered her mouth with her hand to hide her giggle.

Nina’s slim hand quickly backhanded his arm. “Remind me again why you continually insist on bringing him out in public?” She questioned. Her annoyance stricken gaze turned to Lucy.
She shrugged in response. “I don’t know. I kinda like him.” Lucy smiled widely up at Alex, his tall, thin frame leaned over her.

He smirked smugly at Nina. The blinking strobe lights projected from the stage and shadowed his boyish face. His dimpled smile flashed quickly from blue to yellow as the lights faded in and out.

“I think you both should just drop this whole ‘best friends from the sand box’ routine.” Nina commented, her hands mimed air quotations as she spoke. “I say just have sex already.”

Lucy flushed scarlet. “Nina!”

Alex cleared his throat audibly and coughed. Lucy looked around the crowd nervously. She felt certain that all eyes were on the three of them. The loud music that surrounded them seemed to quiet, turned into elevator music orchestrated for this awkward exchange.

“Hey, if that theory were true Nina, then you and I should just have sex.” Alex retorted. His words broke the uncomfortable silence that lingered amidst the booming bass of the drums.

“I’m sure that would be a memorable and joyous occasion.” Nina chided. Her body heaved forward as she pretended to vomit.

“Believe me, I share the sentiment.” Alex added dryly as he tilted his beer bottle towards his mouth.

The strap of her sundress fell down her arm as Lucy’s shoulders relaxed. Alex smiled warmly at her as his hand moved the black fabric back to her shoulder. His hand lingered briefly around her collar bone.

“Will you two ever stop bickering? Just for, like, five minutes?” Lucy asked as she shrugged her shoulder away from Alex’s hand.

“No!” They shouted in unison.

She shook her head in frustration and looked around the bar with a sigh as she listened to her two best friends hurl insults at each other. Her eyes glazed over a sea of blurred faces as they bobbed their heads to the music surrounding them. The dilapidated walls shook with the noise of crackling speakers as the ripped and crumbled posters of bands pulsated with the beat. Columns stapled with autographed dollar bills supported the slanted roof above them. It wasn’t much of a music venue. Like everything else in Rhode Island it was tiny, run down and uncomfortably familiar. Lucy had bravely joined the most tumultuous of mosh pits here since she was old enough to buy her own pair of Chucks. She spent most of her adolescence and the bulk of her college years housed in the confines of this bar, singing loudly to her favorite bands. Over time, the hole in the wall dive bar had adopted its own unique charm. Besides, where else could you find Rhode Island’s own unisex sticker toilet?

Nina and Alex’s arguing had finally desisted, their attention turned to the stage. Lucy’s eyes followed theirs as she took in the sight of the band. They jumped in unison with the beat, their guitars and basses swung effortlessly around their hips. Blinking strobe lights pulsated rapidly, lighting the small room in flashes of bright white. Her eyes squinted as she reflexively turned her head away. Her eyes sought comfort in the dark corners of the bar. It was then that Lucy’s gaze fixated on a glint of bright blue belonging to an arm of elaborately colored comic book tattoos. Her stare slowly traveled up as she took in the sight of a tall man in tight plaid pants, a hot pink belt, and a Superman T-shirt. He had a white bandana tied around his tattooed wrist, his jet black hair styled in a tall Pompadour. His blue eyes were focused on the two young girls in front of him. His tall frame crouched over a long brown table to sign a CD. He talked animatedly. His arms gestured wildly with each word. Lucy watched as he pulled both girls closer to him as someone snapped a picture. He waved as the girls turned away, both giggling to each other. Lucy smiled to herself as she watched their exchange. His eyes caught hers, lit by the stage lights. She quickly looked away and tucked her hair behind her ear nervously. She looked back sheepishly just as he stepped behind the merchandise tables.

Alex elbowed her, his eyes followed her stare. “See something interesting?”

Lucy snapped her head back to him. Nina and Alex both stared at her expectantly; Nina with a knowing smirk and Alex with an irritated edge to his gaze. Lucy shook her head. “Nope. Just looking at the different band’s t-shirts they have for sale.” She lied. Her teeth gnawed at the bottom of her lip. “You know what? I need to go to the bathroom. Will you guys manage not to annihilate each other while I’m gone?” She asked.

Alex shrugged. “I make no promises.”

Nina groaned and rolled her eyes. “Yeah, go for it. If he gets lippy, I’ll just tell security a tall man in a plaid t-shirt got a little too friendly in the mosh pit.”

Alex snorted. “You’d wish.”

The sound of Nina’s witty retort drowned in the crowd behind Lucy as she turned to walk towards the bathroom. She tucked her hands into the pockets of her dress as she waited in line, keeping the man with the tattoos in the periphery of her vision. His arms folded on the ledge of the mini alcove that encased the merchandise tables. His chin rested on his arms as he talked to a group of club promoters.
“Okay, so are you going to tell me what you’re staring at or should I say who? Because a T-Shirt cannot be that interesting.” Nina’s voice shouted in her ear as Lucy followed the direction of Nina’s outstretched hand. She pointed to the gap Lucy had left between herself and the rest of the line for the bathroom.

“Oh! I, um, I just got distracted.” She fumbled and rushed forward to meet the rest of the girls waiting outside the door.

“Exactly. And that begs the question: what exactly did you get distracted by?” Nina smirked, her eyes already narrowed in on the man with the tattoos.

“No one. Really. I think I was just stressing about the salon opening in a few weeks.”

“You’re talking to me, Luce. Your best friend? The one who knows you’re terrible at lying? Your eyes have been all but glued to that dude over there for the past fifteen minutes. Who, by the way, may be the only individual I know who could pull off those pants.”

Lucy blushed. She was caught red handed. “I hate you, you know that right?”

Nina laughed. “So why are you standing in line pretending you have to pee instead of walking over there and talking to him?”

“Okay, sure. I’ll just walk up to him and ask him for an invitation on to his tour bus and we can chat all night about my entire lack of tattoos, my business plan for the salon and the troubles I’ve had potty training my dog.” Nina stared at her blankly. Lucy gestured a hand in his direction. “Seriously, look at him. We would have zero in common.”

“And you know this how?”

“I have eyes.”

Nina thought for a moment, her eyes looked back and forth between the two of them. “Valid point.”

Satisfied, Lucy turned back towards the bathroom just as Nina linked her arm with hers forcefully and pulled her in the direction of the merchandise tables. Lucy’s heart raced faster with each step forward.

“Nina, what are you doing?!” She shouted in a whisper. She tried desperately to pull her friend back to the comforting red glow of the bathroom.

“Excuse me! Can my friend take a picture with you? She’s a big fan.” Nina asked as she planted the both of them in front of the man with the tattoos.

The man looked at them and laughed, burying his head into the crook of his elbows. Nina and Lucy exchanged confused glances as they took in his odd behavior. He recovered from his laughter and handed Lucy a tiny scrap of paper. “This is for you.” He choked out between raspy chuckles.

She unfolded the piece of paper with shaky hands, her polished pink nails held the edges in front of her. Lucy’s eyebrows rose in surprise as she took in the sight of two stick figures drawn with black sharpie. One had tall hair scribbled high above a small round face, the other with giant circular b***s drawn on a tiny stick frame. The girl figure had her twig like hands wrapped around an exaggerated line jutting out from between the other figure’s long legs. Is that a stick penis? She thought as she snickered.

“Is this really for me?”

The two men behind the merchandise tables laughed audibly before one of them spoke. “It really is. He’s been staring at you all night.”

She looked at the man with the tattoos who nodded in agreement.

Nina laughed along with them as she eyed the drawing over Lucy’s shoulder. “I’d say that as far as pick up attempts go, this ranges somewhere between revolting and charming.”

Lucy stared at his band mates skeptically. “I still don’t believe you guys.”

The man with the tattoos stepped closer to her. The smell of cologne filled the air around them. “No, seriously. I saw you in the crowd and I said to them ‘how funny would it be if I handed you this heinous drawing and then just walked away?’”

“And you thought that would work?” Nina responded.

“Oh, not at all.” He laughed again as his deep set blue eyes settled on Lucy’s wide eyed stare.

“He never goes up to girls.” A band mate chimed in as he folded a black shirt before placing it in a large pile spilling out of a cardboard box.

Nina rolled her eyes. “Yeah, okay. A tall, good looking, tattooed, touring musician doesn’t go up to girls? Come on. Give us one reason why we would buy that.”

Lucy blushed at Nina’s forthright response and focused her eyes on the tip of her cowboy boots.

His band mate laughed at her bold reply. “You just want one reason? Tell you what, I’ll give you several. One: look at his outfit. Two: he has the joker tattooed on his stomach and his mom’s lip prints on his elbow. Three: he spends more time reading comic books than any normal human on the planet ever should. I’m telling you, you can’t take the dork out of someone; touring musician or not.”

Brian laughed as he eyed Lucy. “Thanks for the endorsement, man! I’ll take it!”

Author's Note

This is not finished in any capacity. It's where I hit a mental road block with my story. Suggestions would be most welcome!

Reviews

[Clarisse Nanoit]

{I'll read this chapter later. I need some food in my belly}

[KurKota]

An imaginative write to this point. It seems you have a keen perspective of the "band/fan" scene. Using your good imagination is effective here. As for suggestions of where you go with this now, I am not of the age group that can easily relate to this scene currently, I have some hunch that a huge disappointment is on the horizon after a frantic, enegized short term relationship......but that may too tv show predicable. I think you have a better imagination as to where you wish for it to go.

[CreativeStroke]

Well up to this point everything is going smoothly. Your detail is good and your characters are believable and the dialogue between them flows naturally. I like that you tied in Alex for a male perspective in the story, which also gives your character Nina someone to bicker with. That provides some comedic twists in your story, providing the reader with a laugh and keeping entertainment entwined in your story.
I don't have any suggestions at this point for your story... at least nothing I can think of off the top of my head. I wouldn't want to give you random suggestions. A story takes careful thinking and you wouldn't want to rush into anything. If I think of something I can definitely let you know, but hopefully you have come up with something yourself that you feel strongly takes your story into a bold place. I'm quite excited to be able to read more of your story when you are able to get more posted. I hope I could be of some encouragement for you. You really have a great talent!