Chapter Text
Red was all she saw when Regina stormed out of her house Friday night, and red were his lips when he stood inches away from her face.
She came home after school, and was surprised by the site of both of them being home. Her father was hardly ever home — always away for business — so she knew something important must be happening. Never in a million years would she have guessed that they were sitting her down to discuss marriage. She couldn’t believe it. Regina hadn’t even turned eighteen yet. She suddenly understood why Jo March from Little Women hated the idea of marrying a man so much. Her parents basically took away her freedom to choose for herself and for the first time in a really long time, she felt powerless. So, she did the only logical thing left for her to do; she ran away from home.
Regina grabbed her purse, got in her car, and drove off. And maybe, because she was furious with them and wanted to make them as upset as she felt, she drove to the part of town her parents always forbid her to go to, also known as the “bad” side of town. If North Ridge was the perfect paradise for all the Prada wearing Porsche owners, South Ridge was the complete opposite, the perfect dumpster paradise for raccoons, or at least that’s how Regina’s parents always made it appear. What Regina failed to realize was that what her parents really meant was South Ridge was unlike North Ridge because that’s where everybody else who wasn’t crazy rich lived, but she could see how for people like her parents, this and a hot flaming pit of garbage were synonymous. There were definitely a lot more places here that she wouldn’t usually see on her side of town, like small side markets, busy bars, and random gas stations that were neither Shell nor Chevron.
After driving around for a bit, she found a place to park in front of a dive bar. From outside, she could tell it was absolutely packed in there this evening, people practically spilled out of the door. From the sound of it, there must have been a band playing tonight. Even from inside her car, she could hear the banging of drums and electric guitars blasting. Were all these people here for them? Regina couldn’t wait to find out for herself. She grabbed the black velvet hoodie she kept in the back and put it on, bringing the hood up to cover her face along with a pair of sunglasses. She hoped this would be enough to not be recognized. The last thing she needed was for someone from school to recognize her.
The first thing she noticed when she entered was the lighting. It was pretty dark except for the overhead spotlights facing the stage and the contrasting red mood lighting. She could have gagged. She pushed her way through the crowd and headed straight for the bar. Regina would never drink a beer, too many calories coming from carbs that would go straight to her stomach (and she learned her lesson with carbs last year), but she could really go for a few shots of tequila. Good thing she always kept her fake ID on her. It never failed to get her a drink somewhere, which it really shouldn’t, because she paid good money for that thing.
“Two shots of tequila, please.”
“ID?” Regina handed it over to the bartender. “Alright. Coming right up” She smiled her usual seductive smile and he smiled back. As he prepared the shots, Regina turned to try to get a look at the band performing on the stage.
“They’re good, eh?”
“Who even are they?” She looked back to see two shots sitting pretty on the counter for her. She handed him her card to open a tab.
The bartender grabbed a flier from behind the bar and slid it to her. In a funny, scribbled font it read, Löded Diper. What a silly name, she thought.
“I’m surprised you haven’t heard of them. They’re a local favorite down here in South Ridge, but I should have figured,” he paused to look her up and down, “You don’t look like you’re from around here. A preppy from North Ridge I gander.” She looked up and shrugged her shoulders at him. She didn’t really see the problem with being from North Ridge. Any of these people here tonight would kill to be in her position.
“So, are all these people tonight here for them, then?” Regina asked as she downed her second shot. She motioned for another two shots.
“You kidding? Now, this is how I know you aren’t from here. This place is never this pact. It only ever gets this way when Döded Diper plays. They’re truly incredible. And inspiring.”
“What do you mean?” She leaned forward.
“They’re still a bunch of kids. Seventeen, eighteen, all of them. And look at how big they’ve gotten in this part of town alone. Imma say it now, they’re gonna go big.”
Regina didn’t know how true that could be. She hadn’t even heard of them before tonight, but then again, she couldn’t lie, it took some time to get used to the loud noise, but once she did, the noise actually started to sound like decent music. Not many know this, but Regina George was somewhat of a fan of rock, specifically punk. But this was one of many things about herself that Regina learned quickly to keep to herself for the sake of staying queen bee at school, which meant way more than a few silly interests of hers.
Hearing that the band members were her age piqued her interest. She closed out her tab and slowly made her way closer to the stage. The closer she got to the front, the more hectic it got. People all jumping up and down, shouting the lyrics together. They really did have fans. She was hesitant at first, but eventually, Regina joined in on the jumping and let loose. Maybe it was the tequila shots on an empty stomach, or the horrendous red glow of the room, but she started to feel a lot lighter and almost forgot the reason she even ended up in this place to begin with. She felt free.
That’s when she locked eyes with the band’s drummer. He held her gaze, never looking away or missing a beat. It sent shivers down Regina’s spine, she had to look away. When she looked back up at him, she was a little disappointed to see that he wasn’t looking in her direction anymore, but she didn’t let herself think too much into it. The song was picking up, and he would have had to look away eventually anyway.
It was weird, the surrounding crowd was getting riled up in response to the music getting louder, but for Regina, the music seemed to have faded a bit. She couldn’t take her eyes off of him. She was mesmerized as she watched the drummer, his hands gripping his drumsticks, keeping complicated beats and rhythm, his messy dark hair bouncing around everywhere, all while his smoky eyes kept looking over at Regina to make sure she was still watching him and when he saw that she still was, he smirked — the kind that melted hearts. Good thing Regina didn’t have one, or at least that’s what she liked others to believe. He wasn’t her typical type, but there was something very intriguing about him in a mysterious bad boy kind of way, which she hated too much to admit. He was definitely not the type of guy her parents wanted her to be with, and that thought made him more appealing. They’d never approve. As she thought about what happened early this evening, this time, instead of feeling angry, she felt a wave a sadness wash over her, and suddenly the shots she had taken earlier and the heat of the room, made the strong cold breeze of the autumn night more appealing.
Through the hyped up crowd, she stumbled her way across the floor, back to the entrance. Once outside, she found a piece of sidewalk to sit on. The hard cement felt nice and cool against her burning skin. She sat there like that for probably half an hour, not really think about anything. Regina found a nice little leaf to stare at while she spaced out, and she found comfort at this moment. She thought about how grateful she was to have had this hoodie in her car. What would people think if they saw her moping around on the streets of South Ridge like this.
The music went quiet and people began filing out of the bar in numbers. Regina took that as her cue to get up and leave as well, but when she went to stand up, she lost her balanced and almost fell back. Thankfully, someone was there before she did.
“Woah there,” he caught her by the waist. “Are you alright?”
Regina looked up, just to be met face-to-face with the drummer who had been performing tonight, but now he was wearing a black hoodie of his own. Was he trying to hide?
“Hey, aren’t you –” Regina tried to ask, but before she could, he covered her mouth with his hand and pulled her off to the side down a poorly lit alleyway.
“Shhhhh!” He panicked. He checked over his shoulder, making sure nobody heard her. When they were in the all clear, he whipped his head back to face her. Regina angrily slapped at his hand, which was still placed over her mouth, and he quickly pulled it away, “Sorry, my bad.”
“Oh, my, gosh! Was that necessary? Don’t you know to ask before you grab a girl like that?” Regina screamed.
“Hey, hey,” he hushed, “Keep your voice down, would you? He got closer to Regina, making her have to step back against the wall behind her. She hoped he couldn’t hear the sound of her heart pounding in her chest. Up close, he was cute (in a lame, dorky way) and she could smell the scent of his twenty dollar cologne mixed in with a bit of his sweat (which she didn’t entirely hate?). She also didn’t hate how close her soft lips were to his which she absolutely hated.
“Ugh, this is why I don’t like guys like you.”
“Guys like me?” He was amused.
“Yeah, guys like you,” Regina pushed against his chest, “Stupid eyeliner wearing punk weirdos who think being in a band makes up for being a disgusting messy freak!”
Then he did something Regina wasn’t expecting – he placed a hand on the wall above her head and leaned in towards her. “Really? It didn’t seem like you were hating this eyeliner wearing freak while I was on stage earlier,” he smirked.
God, this boy was cocky. She rolled her eyes.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I would never go for someone like you.”
“So that wasn’t you in there watching me from the crowd?”
“No.”
“So what’s that?” He pointed down to her arm. Someone had stuck a Löded Diper sticker to her elbow, and she wanted to kill whoever did, but Regina wasn’t one to admit defeat – not to their face, at least. She peeled the sticker off and threw it on the ground.
“I’m sorry, who did you say you were again?”
“You’re kidding”
“What, am I supposed to know who you are? We just met.”
“Honestly, I don’t know,” he brought his arm back down to his side and stepped away from her, laughing from frustration. “I don’t know why I expected anything more from North Ridge’s pamper little princess.”
“What?” Regina was now confused.
The drummer looked at her disgusted. “You know, when I saw you here tonight, I thought maybe I was wrong about you. That, maybe, just maybe, you weren’t a pretentious self-centered brat like everyone seems to thinks, but no, I guess I was just being dumb.
“Do we know each other?”
“You know what? Forget it.” He turned around, finally giving Regina some room to breathe and actually think. It made sense to her that even in a place like South Ridge people would know of her, (because duh, she’s Regina George), but that didn’t explain why he was so upset. Whatever the reason, she decided that she had enough of this dingey place and it was time to go.
“Whatever, loser. I’m going home!” Regina started her way back to her car, stumbling her way back onto the main street where she caught the attention of passerbys.
“Not like that you aren’t,” the drummer chased after her and caught her again when she lost her balance. “You’re drunk. Where’s your car? I’ll drive.”
Before she could argue, from the direction of where her car was parked she heard a girl scream, “Oh my gosh! That’s him. That’s Rodrick!” Followed by a chorus of shrill screams.
“Shit,” he whispered under his breath, “Come on, we gotta go.”
“Excuse me?”
“Come on, we have to go, now!” Regina barely had the time to process before the boy reached for her hand and pulled her along with him as he ran back into the alley.
At the end of the alley, behind the bar, Regina saw a white van parked, with a giant Löded Diper logo painted onto the side. She tugged back in protest.
“I’m not getting in that!” She screamed. “What about my car? I can’t just leave it here over night. What if someone tries to steal it?”
“I promise it’ll be okay, and I’ll drive you back here in the morning to get it, but right now, I need you to trust me and get in the van.” Words Regina never thought she’d ever hear. She ignored every learned instinct about getting into stranger’s vans and got in.
He closed the door behind her before rushing to the driver side and slamming the door shut. Then, he reached over onto her side for the seatbelt and buckled her in, “Safety first, princess,” he smiled, “You’re going to want to grab onto something.”