Chapter Text
The first time it happened, Laney had been at a Girl Fest concert solely for the purpose of the few opening acts. Paying for the ticket would have supported Candy Jams and her lies, so the redhead had made little work of climbing the fence around the stage. Unlike the time Laney had regretfully performed, there were three other bands playing 'til Candy made her appearance. Overall, the girl assumed the good part of the show to last an hour. After that, she'd jump back over the fence and hit the road.
Candy Jam's promotional event started at 7:00 PM, with the lights in the sky just beginning to fade. The first band played music that had Laney tapping her foot and grinning; the music itself wasn't too bad. The lyrics could definitely use some word - this kind of hardcore beat didn't deserve such sappy lyrics about a break up. She assumed the reason she really spited it was because it was relating to her at the moment. Luckily, their set list wasn't entirely about relationships, so Laney got to continue to enjoy herself and drift away from all her other problems.
She hadn't even noticed, but it was dark by the time the second band had begun their set list. Only half an hour had passed and Laney was beginning to like the idea of staying a little longer. This band, who was full of girls that could seemingly be Trina's new best friends, played surprisingly well. The singer could definitely have that auto-tuning helmet Kin had once made, though. It was like listening to fifteen-year-old Trina whine about Nick Mallory all over again. But, seeing as the redhead was near the stage without having paid for a ticket, she had little place to complain about the quality of the music she got to hear.
However, the times where she had to squeeze her way through the crowds of taller girls just to get a soda was more than annoying. Laney found it even more so aggravating when she accidentally rammed herself into the chest of another girl's, promptly spilling her two dollar soda on the both of them.
"Like, nice moves!" A familiar voice touched her ears. Laney looked up from her stained jacket to stare into the eyes of Carrie Beff, her white shirt splattered in fizzy brown pop.
Ignoring the jab, the bassist asked, "You like Girl Fest?"
The singer busied herself with standing up and snatching half the napkins out of the dispenser and beginning to soak the soda out of her shirt. With the display, Laney was tempted to dumb the rest of the bottle's contents all over her dumb beanie, but decided against it. After a minute, Carrie responded, "Yeah, totally. I want to be able to jam out like that someday."
Laney furrowed her brows and stood up as well, dismissing the fact that she only came up to Carrie's collarbones. "You know Candy is a sham, right?"
"Uh, yeah? That news is so yesterday. I don't really dig bands that don't write their own sound, but that's why I'm here for these opening dudes. After that, I'm leaving." Carrie continued to scrub at her white shirt, making little progress in cleaning up the mess.
Laney had already sighed in relief by the time the guitarist finished explaining. She would have been given more reason to hate the band if they supported someone like Candy Jams. "Really? Same here, actually." Still, the revelation that Carrie knew was a tad surprising. It's not as if when Laney exposed the entire thing that many people listened. The bassist paused, giving a small smile that she hoped didn't come off as too cocky, and added on, "I'm sorry about the soda."
Carrie sighed, rolling her eyes. But, the girl did have a similar, small smile on her face that had Laney grinning wider. "It isn't that big of a deal, but I am going to go clean myself up. Catch you later, Penn."
The Newman made her way through the groups of girls, eventually having her blue hair and orange hat disappear among all the other heads in the crowd. Despite the two being mortal enemies, Laney was happy that she found someone familiar in the crowd. It made her a little more relaxed knowing that she wasn't a complete loner, even if she did look like one. Regardless, the two meeting up again in such a large area was extremely slim. Carrie, if she was anything like Grojband's lead, would forget about the entire thing before she left the concert.
Once she was back in her place next to the stage, the last act came on. Their set up took far too long and the arm warmer they wore had Laney questioning just how much longer she would actually stay. The band announced their name and said the few songs they had to play rocked, but the bassist figured she'd leave early after the first two songs were about boys.
Making her way through the crowd, Laney was relieved to find the area near the fence to be relatively empty. There was a small group of girls not too far away, but they seem too obsessed with taking best friend selfies to really pay attention to Laney's actions. She put her hands on the cold medal of the chain link fence, enjoying the fresh air for a few moments before beginning her escape from this awful band.
She had only raised her foot when Carrie's voice rang out, "Hey, Grojnerd. Where do you think you're going?"
"Out of here, Ewman," was all she responded with. The band on stage was beginning their fourth song and Laney was really hoping to get out of there as soon as possible.
"Heard that one a dozen times," the guitarist countered. She stood in front of Laney and smiled, an expression of mild curiosity worn. "The band isn't done for another three songs, why leave?"
The girl raised her eyebrows, frowning. "Have you heard their crummy music? I don't want to stick around to hear about those Trina look-a-likes sing about all their woes and loves about their guys. Like, seriously, I get that it's a girl festival, but hearing a few more songs about standing up for yourself against sexism and stuff would be cool." Laney glanced up at Carrie, remembering the cold fence against her back. "Besides, I didn't even pay to get in here, dude."
"That is such a good idea," Carrie grinned. Laney would kill to have heard the same words from Corey at any point in the week. Before she could dwell on that, the Newman continued on, "But, what's got you in a funk about guys?"
"Corey." She could wonder how the guitarist picked up on that so easily, but it wasn't a secret that Laney wasn't very good at hiding her true feelings.
Carrie shook her head and rolled her eyes once more. "Really? You're letting Riffin ruin this music fest for you? Come on, Laney," the girl leaned against the fence, wrapping her arm around the shorter girl's shoulders and giving her an odd, sideways hug. "You really can't let some dude ruin this music for you. Even if the lyrics suck, do you hear those awesome bass tones? Or how that drummer is killing it up there? Come on, don't let Riffin mess up your good time!"
"I might let him do just that," Laney retorted blandly. Her crush on the boy had been dead for over three years now, with no possibility of recollecting. Dealing with a constant feeling of rejection had gotten old after the first year, so by the time Laney was fourteen it had vanished. Now, the girl was seventeen-years-old and just wanted more respect and acknowledgement as a good friend than anything more.
The guitarist raised her eyebrows while Laney remained deep in thought. She had left her arm wrapped around the girl, but the bassist found the warmth both distracting from her troubled thoughts and comforting, so she wasn't going to complain. "Are you still into the dude?" Carrie asked bluntly.
"No," Laney answered casually.
Carrie hummed and nodded her head, staring off at the band on stage. There was another soft silence between them, but the guitarist quickly broke it by announcing, "Y'know, I always thought you were super pretty."
"No way." The words 'shut' and 'up' almost followed; Laney was not in the mood to receive flattery that she knew was false. The idea of being pretty to anyone had vanished after years of being called a guy. Granted, her self-esteem wasn't low, but when it came to body images she tended to ignore herself. Which was probably why she was dressed in an overly large sweater and needed a belt all the time. "Come on, Carrie, I'm not going to feel better just because you tell me some junk that isn't true." Laney smiled a little, hoping that the fake grin would deter the guitarist from going further.
She was wrong. "I'm not saying anything that isn't true, Laney!" The way Carrie pronounced her name made her cheeks heat up, but she ignored that. Luckily, so did the taller girl. Still looking at the band on stage as they played another lame song, Carrie went on, "I know you heard it a bunch, but when you were thirteen I was pretty sure you were a dude, too. I don't know what happened when you were fourteen and fifteen, but around that time I started to think, 'Wow! Grojband has a really hot bass player,' and... sure enough, two years later, you're still rocking it."
Pretty and hot? Laney's cheeks heated up even more. She had rarely ever been described as anything more than "cool" by Corey, Kin, and Kon. Having such compliments thrown at her all at once left her flustered and a tad confused. "Whatever, Carrie," Laney tried to play off her feelings. "Obviously, you're spewing that stuff 'cuz I'm in a funk about Corey."
Carrie shrugged and leaned further into the cold metal, "Perhaps. But, it's still true. I'm not about to lie to you, even if we are 'enemies' or whatever."
There was another soft silence between them, one Laney spent staring at the ground while she wished away her blush. The two minute process of willing away the red on her cheeks proved futile, as they warmed right back up when she felt something cold against them. Carrie was kissing her. On the cheek, sure, but still kissing all the same.
"Uh, sorry," the guitarist whispered. After the quiet moment, it seemed all too loud. Carrie was beginning to back away, but Laney grabbed onto her sticky, soda stained shirt and stared nervously into blue eyes.
She took a deep breath before admitting, "No, it was cool. Can we, um..." How would you ask that, she wondered? Laney wanted the same cold that was on her cheek to appear on her lips, if even for a moment. But, how could it be anything other than awkward to ask for that?
Luckily, Carrie seemed to catch her drift. "Kiss? If you're cool with that, we can." The Newman had a small blush of her own, but the redhead was willing to bet her own face was much redder.
Because of the feeling in her chest, Laney didn't bother with responding. She grabbed Carrie's shirt with both hands and leaned up to kiss her properly, but the result was a little more awkward than good. After years of the only kissing she had scene being on TV, Laney attempted to move her lips in the same way those romantic movies showed.
Carrie lightly pushed Laney away, but took hold of the redhead hand's to know that the rejection wasn't for the rest of the night. Embarrassed, the short girl avoided eye contact. The guitarist snickered, "I don't think you've had a lot of experience with this. How about I take over, huh?"
She glanced once more into blue eyes. "Please do," Laney mumbled.
Tonight was obviously far weirder than the girl would have ever expected it to be. She was terribly embarrassed and flustered, more than ready to sprint out of there and ignore the words Carrie would end up saying about their awkward experience. Laney's thought process would have carried on had the guitarist not pressed their lips together again.
This time, it was definitely different. Laney got to the appreciate the cold of Carrie's lips, finding herself more distracted with that than being pressed into the fence. The sensation was weird, though. She hadn't expected to feel a tongue slide over her bottom lip, but when she opened her mouth slightly she didn't regret it at all. The feeling was almost alien; Laney pressed up into Carrie and shivered, thoughts of being stared at or if she even liked girls leaving her mind one by one. It felt nice and it had Laney feeling hotter than she had ever felt before, as if she could melt in Carrie's hands then and there.
The reason they broke away was Candy Jam's fault. Once that voice hit her ears, Laney was brought back down to Earth. Carrie was staring at her, wide eyed and grinning, the expression of mild curiosity she had worn earlier replaced with excitement. "Sorry," Laney muttered. "I have to go, if I stay around for one more minute to hear that thing up there talk, I might puke."
Carrie laughed, removing her arms from around the redhead. The sudden lack of warmth was almost scary, but Laney kept that to herself. "Alright, I feel the same way. My car is in the other parking lot," she threw her thumb behind her to indicate the area. "So, I guess I'll see you on the flip side, Grojnerd?"
"Yeah," Laney found herself ignore the jab once again. Her hands were sticky from grabbing Carrie's shirt and she hated the feeling. "But, uh, are we... doing that? Dating?" The verb sounded like a curse leaving her lips. Laney took a gulp of breath and held it, waiting for the guitarist to respond.
"I dunno." The phrase was terribly anticlimactic, but Laney should have seen that coming. "But, I would like to do that sort of thing again, so I'll definitely be seeing you around."
With that, Carrie was walking off to the other parking lot and Laney was left staring at her back, distantly listening to Candy Jam's dishonest music. Laney's atmosphere felt a ton lighter; she didn't even care about tripping off the top of the fence and having to walk through mud to get home. The bassist couldn't say just what the feeling in her chest was, but it was entirely different from anything she'd ever felt before. Later, in bed, she would think of it as almost being homesick. But, Carrie wasn't a home and that kiss wasn't an open door and that concert wasn't an unlocked window into something more.
She fell asleep with her mind running and her heart beating.