Chapter Text
“Sure, babe, I’ll go with you.”
Zheng isn’t really thinking about it when she agrees to go with Olu to Archie’s gig.
Archie is an old friend of her boyfriend, who had found moderate fame as a musician and often played shows at the local bar, claiming that no matter how big she got, she’d still love her community — her home.
Zheng knows Archie’s name, but not a lot about her. Olu wants to go, though, and that’s good enough for her. She nods casually, and they set the plan.
Then she realizes she is a bit…nervous. Archie is an old friend of her boyfriend’s, and Zheng is so bad with new people. She has this way of projecting confidence at work or whenever she has to, but simple socialization always feels a little more uncomfortable.
Sighing, she sits down on the tattered old sofa in their living room and picks up her phone.
She types the words: Archie music video.
Immediately, several of the woman’s videos appear on the screen. Shrugging her shoulders, she chooses one. She should at least know what kind of music this woman makes before the show.
The video is stunning.
Archie has the most incredible sultry dark eyes that Zheng has ever seen, and the muscles in her arms…fuck, the girl is ripped. The video starts with her outside on a dusky desert night. She looks at the camera and smirks before she sings the first lyrics of the song.
“I know you miss me, babe, and I miss you too / But this rage I’m feeling / Makes me feel like / I dunno what I could do…”
It is a pretty simple song and reminds Zheng of many similar angry girl tunes that she’s heard before. Still, there is something about the look on Archie’s face, how she flexes against the camera. The tattoos around her biceps seem only to emphasize the fact that she has gorgeous arms.
“Come on, baby / Don’t make me mad like this / Because you know I’m the best you ever had.”
Archie smirks at the camera, and Zheng feels a shot of lightning go straight down below, literally as if something zaps her.
In another music video, Archie sits in a convertible car, top down. Something blows a gust of wind through her hair, and she looks, well, orgasmic, singing about someone special.
Fuck.
Zheng watches a few more of her videos, and each of them gets to her differently. Archie is confident, fun and exudes sexuality in a way that made her want to watch more, to see more.
Zheng is no stranger to arousal.
The heat between her legs, the flush across her chest and cheeks. But this is a confusing moment because Archie is clearly a woman.
Okay, she is a little hot for Archie, isn’t she?
Which is surprising.
Zheng has considered herself straight her whole life. Olu is her first serious boyfriend, someone that she loves with all of her heart. Before Olu, she had honestly believed that dating and relationships weren’t for her at all.
“Am I bi?”
The words leave her lips before she realizes that talking aloud in a room by herself is weird. Then she dismisses that because why can’t she be a little weird?
“Maybe I am bi…”
She understands bisexuality, of course. She has many LGBTQ+ friends. Her close friend Ed, in fact, is bisexual himself. She has just never really thought about herself as bisexual. She is Olu-sexual, y’know? Bisexuality makes sense though, at least on paper. Why limit yourself to just men? Still, it is pretty rare for her to be sexually attracted to anyone.
She really focuses on the lyrics to Archie’s song, and she knows for a fact that she is a little turned on.
“I have never wanted anyone / like I want you right now.”
Well, Zheng has never wanted anyone quite like this. At least not a woman.
Something about the whole thing makes her feel uncomfortable. There’s an unease that settles deep in her stomach, a twisting discomfort that…just bothers her. She doesn’t understand why, though, that this woman makes her think so hard.
It feels like something is under her skin, crawling, and it leaves her irritated, feeling jittery, like she is going to jump out of that pointlessly itchy skin. Ugh. It is pointless.
Why does it bother her so much? Even if she is attracted to a woman, it means nothing. She has a boyfriend, and there is nothing that would ever make her cheat on him. She would never do something that would hurt Oluwande, so her attraction to Archie is just the same as if she found a random man hot.
Same thing.
Same thing.
Okay, so bisexual. One of her best friends, Ed, is bisexual, right? And he’s now in a monogamous relationship with a man, Stede. Stede, who had struggled with his sexuality well into his forties before realizing that he was gay.
So, late in life coming out happens. And bisexuality is real.
Why does it bother her, then?
Oluwande even asks her about her behavior two days before the concert.
“You okay lately, babe?”
Zheng tries her best to force a smile, to act like she is absolutely normal.
“What? Yeah. Just tired from work. Why do you ask?”
“I dunno. You seem distracted.”
“Well, I mean, everything’s been a lot lately. It’ll get better.”
Part of her wants to tell Oluwande about her feelings and possible bisexuality, but she also feels hesitant about the whole thing… She’s anxious, and well, that is rare. She usually feels like she can tell Oluwande any and everything. This time, however, she is a little scared.
Why?
It’s frustrating.
On the day of the concert, Zheng finds herself no less frustrated. Actually, she’s only grown more nervous. Seeing Archie in person is scary. She finds herself afraid that this person is going to open her mind to something new, something she has to explore.
“So, how did you meet Archie?”
She asks that simple question while she and Oluwande work at getting dressed. She puts on a red shirt that looks fantastic on her, low cut and ruffled along the bottom hem.
“Huh?”
“She seems really cool. But how did you meet? She’s not the kind of girl you usually…”
“Well, first, you’re my usual kind of girl,” Oluwande teases. “And Archie and I met through my Stede, you know Ed’s boyfriend.”
Oluwande explains how he met Archie, and it is so mundane.
“Stede worked with Archie before she got signed by her record label, and the three of us met for lunch one day. We really got along well and sort of developed a casual friendship from there. I wouldn’t say that we’re best friends or anything like that, but she’s a real sweet girl.”
“Oh, that’s cool.”
“Are you…jealous or something?” Oluwande asks, like he’s amazed. “I have never seen you jealous before…”
“I’m not jealous,” she blurts out, because she’s not. Even though she can understand how, in context, it seems like jealousy. It isn’t sweet Olu who has eyes for Archie though — it’s her. “It’s just something different. I can’t explain it yet. Not yet. Let’s go.”