Chapter Text
Wednesday afternoon, a little past 5 pm. Jeremiah sat on a wobbly stool at a deserted bar. The bartender was sweeping the floor between tables, and wearing bulky headphones. There was a woman apparently asleep a few seats away from Jeremiah. They marveled at her ability to sleep through the noise coming from the stage. Other than them, there were only a few other people around the room, and none of them were paying much attention to the entertainment. As such, Jeremiah felt obligated to at least look like they were listening. Otherwise, Nari might throw a fit.
Honestly, they were only watching this show as a favor to Nari. Watching and—more importantly—listening to their cousin sing on that stage was more painful than actually enjoyable. The only decent thing about the set was the tall, red-headed accompanists' guitar playing. Nari stood center stage, hands cupped around the microphone as she belted her heart out in a Taylor Swift cover. She was dressed in a sparkly purple skirt and black crop top with a gaudy rhinestone star barrette pulling back her hair. She looked like a pop star all right, the setting just didn’t match the image. Behind her, the accompanist was mostly focused on his playing, but occasionally he cast exasperated glances at Nari when her voice clipped the microphone or she ended a shaky run in a flat note. Nari was apparently oblivious to his existence or anyone else’s.
Jeremiah winced as piercing feedback screeched out of the speakers. God, I wish I had my earplugs, they groaned to themself. Or a decent drink, they silently bemoaned as they took a drink of their water. But with work the following morning, they needed to restrain themself. Another whine of feedback left Jeremiah’s eye twitching irritably.
They only had to sit through 20 more minutes. Could they survive?
When the musical duo finally climbed off the stage, Jeremiah heaved a sigh of half relief, half lament over the wasted evening. Their cousin bounded over to them excitedly. “Joey!” she exclaimed. Before they could correct her, Nari threw her arms around Jeremiah’s shoulders. “I’m so glad you could make it. What did you think?” she asked as she stepped back from Jeremiah, who had gone very stiff.
They forced a smile. “You guys were great. I… loved the songs you chose,” they offered half-heartedly. That was a lie, Jeremiah was very indifferent to pop music, bordering on averse.
Nari smiled broadly, apparently missing the stilted tone in Jeremiah’s voice. “Thanks!” She turned around and yanked her guitarist forward by his elbow. “This is Tiberius. I found out he could play guitar, and he agreed to come and play with me, isn’t that nice?” Tiberius gave a half-smile, but Nari cut him off before he could say anything. “This is my cousin, Johanna,” she told him.
The name caused a flare of annoyance in their chest. They’d gotten past the stage of feeling hot and embarrassed when someone deadnamed them, everyone in their life knew better now. Or at least they should have known better. “Jeremiah,” they said in a clipped voice.
“I mean Jeremiah, sorry,” Nari blurted out as she scratched the back of her head in a performance of sheepishness.
Jeremiah rolled their eyes. “Maybe you should change my contact in your phone, that might help you remember.”
Nari blinked at them. “Oh! Sure, good idea.”
Jeremiah glared at her. “Uh,” Tiberius piped up, “hi, nice to meet you.”
They shifted their attention to him. He was tall—he had a good 6 inches on them—and thin. His hair was bright red and fell around his face in waves with a few tiny braids scattered randomly through it. Jeremiah nodded at him. “You, too. Are you her new boyfriend, or…?”
“Oh no,” Nari said with a laugh. “He’s just a friend. He works at the place where we stable our horses.”
“I don’t work there,” Tiberius added. “I mean, I do, but… My family owns the stables,” he clarified clumsily.
Jeremiah lifted an eyebrow, amused. “So you asked your stable boy to play a gig with you?” she asked Nari.
Tiberius looked affronted, but Nari just shrugged. “It’s more professional than just having a backing track, you know?”
“Sure, I guess,” Jeremiah said, unconvinced.
Their conversation was cut off by Nari’s phone ringing in her pocket. “Oh!” she exclaimed, her face lighting up, “it’s my mom. I’ll tell her you said hi,” she said. She moved to leave the bar with its loud speakers now playing the radio or some playlist. Jeremiah considered telling her not to bother, but let it go as Nari was already too far away with her phone by her ear.
They heaved a sigh and picked up their water to finish it off. Tiberius stood and stared at them silently. They threw him a questioning glance and he seemed to shake himself out of his thoughts. “Sorry. I just thought that you looked familiar.”
“Maybe I look like Nari,” they deadpanned. They knew very well that they barely shared a resemblance with their cousin. Nari was tall with a graceful hourglass figure, with long auburn hair and a sunny face. Jeremiah was short with dark brown hair chopped off bluntly at their shoulders, and their complexion was more tanned and sandy than Nari’s soft pink skin.
Tiberius laughed uncertainly, “yeah, maybe that’s it.” He stood silently for a few more seconds. Jeremiah simply stared at him to see what he would do. “I should probably go, I’m babysitting tonight,” he said after a while and visibly cringed. “Uh. See you around?”
Jeremiah shrugged and turned away. “Probably. Town’s not that big.”
Tiberius muttered an unsure agreement, adjusted his guitar’s strap and left.
Jeremiah gathered their jacket from where they’d draped it over their stool, and fished out their keys. On their way out, they passed Nari, talking energetically into her phone. Nari spotted them then and waved them over after hanging up the phone. Jeremiah considered pretending they didn’t see her, but it was too late.
"We're doing another gig next week," Nari said as soon as Jeremiah was in earshot. "Tiberius is going to teach me some chords on the guitar so we can play together," she went on.
"I'm busy," Jeremiah interrupted. One of these was enough.
"I didn't tell you when the gig was," Nari said flatly.
Jeremiah looked dead into her eyes. "I have a job. I took tonight off. I'm not doing it again."
Nari stared at them for a minute. "Okay then. The next one, though?"
Jeremiah blinked. They sighed. "Sure."
There was no next show. The last thing Jeremiah heard about their little music duo was that Nari had learned some guitar thanks to Tiberius, and she wanted to try for a solo career. Jeremiah bit their tongue and decidedly did not ask her "what career?"
On a whim, with nothing but her guitar, her voice, and her trust fund, Nari hopped on a plane to New York City. And with her gone, Jeremiah all but forgot about his cousin’s stint as a musician, and their life went on as normal.