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Basement shows will always be a staple of New Jersey, and New Jersey will always be a part of Kay, so obviously basement shows happened to be a part of her too. There was always someone new to meet at a show, but it was quite rare for a girl as beautiful and angelic as she was.
Frankie always dragged Kay to any show she went to. Usually shows like these ones were hot and sweaty, full of these weird old men trying to relive their metalhead days, and somehow Kay always ended the night with some kinda alcohol in her hair. So she was less enthusiastic to go to this one, but Gee was going, so obviously she was dragged along.
The only thing that took Kay by surprise that night was the drummer of this weirdo wanna be hardcore band was a girl, and a totally rad girl none the less. She was fucking crazy up there, one of the best drummers Kay had ever seen. In between songs she would push her glasses back up her nose (which Kay could relate to) and immediately get back into drumming like the wind.
Kay was so mesmerized she didn’t even realize the whole person she had just ran into trying to walk to the bar while staring at the stage.
“Oh shit dude I’m so sorry,” she said immediately, snapping her head in the direction of… woah.
“Oh my god you are so pretty,” Kay said before she could even THINK of what she was saying. Oh god she totally just said that out loud. To this stranger she just ran into. This stranger who just so happened to have total scene hair. Black and long with red extensions in her fringe. She was wearing shorts and a top that showed off her tattoo right above her waist band, a heart with bat wings. Kay was basically drooling.
“Oh no you’re totally good. Also thank you! Are you uh, here to see anyone specific? I have no one to hang around,” she said rubbing her arm awkwardly, “I was supposed to come with the rest of my friends to see Andy, she's drumming for these weirdos, but everyone ditched last minute and I hate being at shows alone and… I’m talking too much.”
“No no you're not. Yeah ill hang around,” Kay tried to hide the excitement in her voice. A hot girl is asking to hang with her, act normal.
…
Holy shit Penelope was a mess. A girl runs into her, says sorry, and suddenly P is just talking. She probably woulda told this girl her whole life story if she didn’t stop herself. There was just something different about this girl.
P owed Andy like, the entire universe for dragging her to this show. Here stood what P wanted to be her future wife. She had brown hair and white glasses and these pants that were quite clearly too small and this shirt that hugged her body so well that had the album cover for Siamese Dream on it. Oh my god, P was ruined.
P was like a moth drawn to light. This girl (who she didn’t even know her name yet by the way) just clicked with her in a way P had never experienced before. It even took her months to actually gather the courage to ask Trick to be friends with her, and they were so close people commonly mistaken them for a couple.
P learned she liked the Misfits and The Pumpkins and The Smiths. She learned she also played bass and was in a little emo band with her friends. She was just so P, and P was just so her. And god she was just so hot.
“Can I like, buy you a drink or something?” Was all P had the courage to ask, which probably wasn’t the best thing she could have asked in this scenario. Could have maybe asked.. I don't know her name? But no, alcohol!!!! Or not alcohol, P didn’t know.
“Actually, a rum and coke would be really good, thank you,” she said looking down at her phone, “ugh, my sister is being a pain in the ass right now.”
Except, P barely heard that last part because she was now on a mission to get this rum and coke and get it back to this goddess of a woman. But she also needed to text Trix like, now now. Immediately, as soon as possible.
PENELOPE: TRIX wen i tell u im talking 2 the cutest prettiest grl rn at andys show
PENELOPE: im gonna die idk wut 2 doooo
TRIX: dude chill
TRIX: wuts her name?
PENELOPE: IDK…
TRIX: …
TRIX: r u fr rn?
PENELOPE: I HAVENT ASKED YET MB
TRIX: yeahhhhh go ask 4 her name then get back 2 me on that
Ugh what an ass.
…
Holy shit holy shit holy shit. Kay was actually so in love it was crazy. This girl was buying her a drink right now. Kay couldn’t remember the last time someone had bought HER a drink, let alone the last time a cute girl had bought her a drink. The only thing that could ruin this is-
“Kay!” God dammit. “Kay! We need to go like, now” Gee ran up to her, resting hands on her knees when she finally got over to Kay.
“What? No,” Kay glared at Gee, “Whats the rush dude?”
“Me and Frankie may or may not have been talking shit about the first band while we were out back smoking, and then these huge guys who turned out to be the band come up to us being all ‘are you trying to start shit im not afraid to hit a girl’ blah blah blah, anyways, Frankie is already getting the car. Let's come on quickly now.” Gee rambled on, grabbing at Kay's arm and dragging her along.
“Gee!? What the fuck?” Kay squirmed under Gee's grip, “I was waiting for someone dude let me go.”
“Just text them or something I don’t know. I'm not leaving you there. I would be a bad older sister if I did and I think Grandma would kill me anyways,” Gee tightened her grip. God fuck.
Kay totally lost this girl. She didn’t get her name, her number, her tumblr… anything. She got nothing. God that poor girl probably thought Kay wasn’t interested or something. It sucked she was so perfect. Her and Kay just clicked, and now she was just gone. Kay's dream girl, gone because of her idiot sister.
“I hate you”
…
P looked everywhere. She went around the whole venue asking anyone she knew if she had seen a pretty girl with brown hair and white glasses to which she obviously got no helpful answers. Well shit, she was just gone. Now P was stuck with the memory of this girl and a rum and coke with the ice slowly melting in the cup in her hand.
God this sucked.
At least Andy was finishing up her set and P was gonna be able to complain to her about her tragic love life. Maybe P had talked too much and scared her off. She definitely wasn’t at the venue anymore, P had looked everywhere at this point, so she had definitely left while P was getting her a drink.
P made her way backstage to go see Andy. It was pretty easy to get backstage at this venue, no one really tried to stop her if she acted like she knew what she was doing. Once she found Andy, she flopped down onto a nearby sofa and sighed loudly.
“Whats wrong with you tonight?” Andy said, looking up from whatever she was doing. Something with a drum, P didn’t know, she didn’t play the drums.
“I met the girl of my dreams and then lost her without even getting her name,” P sighed dramatically, flipping over onto her stomach to text Trix.
PENELOPE: can i come over l8r :(
PENELOPE: ill tell u about it when i get there
“How do you lose a whole girl?” Andy glared up at P from her place on the flood. “Like, seriously P, It's not a big venue. Did you lose her in the pit? It was kinda fucking wild in there.”
“I lost her while I was getting her a drink,” P sighed loudly, “One moment, I saw her across the room while I was getting a drink, the next she was gone. I think I scared her off, I was kinda talking a lot.”
“Oh shit she like, irl ghosted you. Thats kinda a douche bag move if im being honest P,” Andy gave her a look of concern. Andy could say a lot through just a look, that's just how she was and honestly, it scared the shit out of P.
“I don’t know. She said something about her sister when I went to get her a drink. Maybe she had to leave with her sister or something?” P was grasping at straws at this point. Anything to prove to herself she didn’t just get left. ‘Irl ghosted’ as Andy had put it. It was kinda really eating at her and it had been maybe an hour tops. She couldn't wait to see how she felt tomorrow morning.
She should have probably expected it. This happened pretty often. P always found someone who she thought was really cool and then they would leave or just ghost her and never text again. It just kinda hurt a little move when this was quite literally the girl of her dreams. She hadn’t looked like P was annoying her or was sick of her rambling, She just seemed quiet. She had this look in her eyes that gave P the little bit of hope she had, and then she was gone.
“God Andy i’m hopeless,” P sat back up and put her head in her hands.
“Ok well, can you at least wait till we get to Trix's house, and then you can be as hopeless and miserable as you want,” Andy looked back at P with sympathy in her eyes, “We’ll find her P. I’m sure it was just a misunderstanding.
P stood to walk out with Andy. Andy said something sarcastic about P not helping but she couldn’t care less. She needed to text Trix back anyways, and that was much more important than caring drum heads.
TRIX: andy alr told me
TRIX: just come over w her wen ur done
P was hopeless.
…
What do you do when you accidentally abandon a really hot girl at a venue because your idiot sister and her friend always have to talk shit. Complain as much as you can obviously!
Kay was laying on Gee’s floor sulking. She was never gonna let Gee live this down, she decided. It was technically Gee's fault for making her leave and pulling her away from the girl of her dreams. This was awful.
The girl probably thought Kay wasn’t interested and left to avoid her. That was not the case at all. She had never met someone so perfect who just understood Kay in the way this girl did. Maybe Kay should yell at Frankie too, she probably was the one who started shit.
“God Gee this is like, worse than that one time I was talking to a girl and you came up and told her about my enjoyment of unicorns,” Kay groaned from the floor.
“Hey unicorns can be a good conversation starter. I was just trying to help! I didn't know she was just going to walk off,” Gee shot back from her bed, “You will find her again Kay, then you can like, explain to her your dumbass sister got herself into shit and you had to leave or something.”
“What if I don’t though. What if she's from like, far away and was only in town for her friend last night. Then I won't find her again,” Kay sighed, “Just admit it Gee, im hopeless.”
Gee just shook her head and went back to her comic book, which prompted Kay to go back to her own room to sulk. Maybe if she looked hard enough through social media she could find this girl, or find someone who knew her.
But alas, the world wide web was a little too wide to find this one girl.
Then the thought his her. The band they had seen last night. The girl had mentioned the drummer was her friend, maybe she could find out her name through the band and then message her and ask for the girl.
“GEE,” Kay yelled, she couldn't be bothered to walk the 10 feet to her sisters room, “WHAT WAS THE LAST BAND WE SAW LAST NIGHT”
“LOCAL TERRRORZ WITH THREE Rs AND A Z” she heard come back.
Ok, home stretch, find the drummer, find the girl.
She was a fill-in drummer. Not in the band, not even mentioned on their twitter.
FUCK
…
Sitting on Trix's living room floor never failed to make P feel a little better. Trix house in general just felt calm. She had plants and guitars and posters scattered around the house. Everyone being at the house just made P feel even better.
Jane had already been there by the time Andy and P got there. Jane was sitting on the couch, legs out in front of her scrolling aimlessly on her phone. Trix was on her computer doing… actually P wasn’t sure what she was doing, but that was okay because at least she was in the same room. Andy was in the kitchen making a late dinner for everyone. It was nice, everyone was in the same place. They were going to have a spur of the moment sleepover and P was pretty sure it was so everyone could watch over her and make sure she didn’t drink herself into oblivion.
“Okay guys,” Trix said, turning around from where she sat at the kitchen counter, “gig on friday at that one weird venue. Y'know the one with the really small stage.”
“Thanks for asking first,” P said sarcastically from the floor.
“Wait P, isn't that where you and Andy were tonight. You could see if your mysterious disappearing girl is there,” Jane sat up at her spot on the couch. Wait, yes. Why hadn't P thought of that. Maybe she went to see music at that venue every night whenever there was a band playing, no matter the genre.
The bands playing tonight were not the girls music taste, but P could understand going to a show to just see some live music. It was a very good change that she could be at their show Friday night. Then P could apologize for being annoying… oh yeah.
“P you had a switch reaction. You looked really happy then really sad, what's that for,” Andy said from her spot behind the kitchen counter. Of course Andy noticed.
“She probably wouldn’t even want to see me again. She left for a reason. I was probably annoying her or something,” P shrugged.
“You may be an annoying son of a bitch P, but I don't think you could annoy someone into just ditching while you were going to buy her a drink. I'm sure there is some actual reason she left,” Jane said, getting up to sit beside P on the floor,”Plus you're incredibly hot. If I didn’t already have a girlfriend I would have gone after you ages ago.”
“Youre disgusting,” P laughed pushing Jane away from her, “I guess if I see her I'll ask her out or something, but if she rejects me im locking myself in my bedroom and not coming out for a week.”
That wasn’t a lie. It would be humiliating if P asked her out and she said no. It would be even worse if she said no because P was annoying.
Whatever, she wasn’t going to think about that tonight. She was going to enjoy dinner with her friends and then she was going to sleep cuddled up next to Trix like she did every night she stayed at her house. She could worry about her little crush Friday night before the show, and then if got rejected she could worry more.
It was gonna be okay.
…
It had been four whole days since Kay had posted her plea to her Tumblr trying to find her mystery girl.
kaysmashespumpkins:
I'm putting out my plea to any1 who lives in the north nj area. i recently met a girl at the venue on 4th n left without getting name, number, anything. i know this is a long stretch, but if any1 knows who she is i would be internally gr8ful. she had black scene hair with red streaks in her fringe, brown eyes, and a tattoo of this heart w bat wings on her stomach. pls n ty
Four days and no reply from anyone. Kay had finally lost hope. She had met someone so perfect and now she was gone forever. As much as she tried to blame Gee and Frankie, it was really her fault. She should have waited for the girl to get back or went to the bar and told her she was leaving. Hell, she should have asked for her name in the very beginning. She should have gotten her number, or her twitter. Anything.
Four days of not leaving her room was also slightly pathetic. Gee came to her door asking if she wanted to go out or have dinner with the rest of the family. Obviously she didn't come out, but after four days of rotting in bed and doing nothing productive it was starting to get boring. You can only sulk for so long before starting to lose your mind.
“Kay,” Gee knocked at her door, “Frankies here and Ray is coming over later if you wanna like, come hang out. I get it if you don't, just figured I should ask.”
Kay sighed before rolling out of bed. Frankie and Ray would be a good switch up. She could probably get away with laying on Gee's floor and sulking. She was in a new spot, sulking sounded great again!
“Okay I;m sick of this,” Frankie stood up from the bed, “We are going out tonight and that includes you Kay. I'm tired of you sulking around over a girl you don't even know.”
Kay sighed, “Frankie I don't want to go anywhere. Partying sounds absolutely miserable right now.”
“No Kay, I'm with Frankie on this. You have been locked in your room all week. It's Friday night, we can like, go see someone play tonight,” Ray looked up from his phone.
“God you guys are against me! Gee, fight for me please!” Kay begged.
“I'm sorry Kay, but I do think it would be good for you to get out.”
“Traitor! Is this why you all came over? It's like you guys are having an intervention for me!”
What absolute evil people Kay called her friends. Maybe she should go lock herself back in her room. Just excuse herself to go to the bathroom or something and lock the door to her bedroom so they couldn’t drag her out. Or she could just… walk out. Yeah, she gonna do that now-
“Where do you think you're going?” Frankie said as soon as she stood up. Dammit. She sank back down to her spot on the floor and went back to staring at the ceiling, “Ok guys, there's a band playing at the normal venue called Fall Out Boy. It's these badass chicks who just released their first album. We are going to go out, have a fun time, and if you are still depressed or whatever afterwards you can go back to hiding in your room Kay. I doubt you will want to afterward because the bassist of this band is like, total smoke show, right Gee?” Frankie looked to Gee.
“I kinda thought the singer was prettier, but the bassist definitely had something going on,” Gee said, barely looking up from her comic. Frank glared at her before looking back at Kay.
Kay sighed, “Ok fine. I'll go, but if you’re wrong about this bassist I'm gonna like, spike your water or something I don't know.”
“Your threats are weak. Go get ready to go, you look like you haven't brushed your hair in a week,” Frankie shooed her out the door.
Okay, whatever, this will be fun.
Hopefully.
…
The band was good. Really good actually. The lead singer was super good at singing and the drummer was as good as the drummer from the other night. Despite this, Kay thought the entire night was lame. Too many people showed up for such a small venue. It was loud, it was sweaty, and worst of all Kay hadn’t seen her girl all night. She hadn’t really tried to look, but what was the point? There were so many people and she could barely hear herself think because of the music, there was no way she would be able to talk to a bunch of people and ask around for her person without yelling. It was stupid.
“Kay!” She heard her name yelled over top of the music. Ray came and stood beside her, obviously being the source of the shout.
“I would have assumed you would be out in the crowd. What's up?” She fiddled with the cup in her hands. Something Kay always noticed about Ray was she never held still. She didn't move like Frankie did, but she always was moving. Shifting her weight from each foot, picking at the skin around her fingers. Small things.
“Just don't really see the point. She's not here, no point in having fun,” Kay shrugged, looking back at the crowd in front of her.
“Nonsense. Go dance, just for a minute at least. Get a look at the band, decide if Frankie and Gee are right about the attractiveness of the bassist and lead singer. Just go try to have fun. If you decide it's lame I'll take you home, but I'm not leaving till you get out there for a little bit,” Ray took the cup out of Kay's hand and practically shooing her away from her safe spot on the back wall.
Kay rolled her eyes. She would go out for one song, survey the band, not have fun, and then go home with Ray and force her to watch whatever was on the TV till Frankie and Gee came home.
One song.
The bassist was turned back to the crowd fiddling with her amp. Kay could see Gee's interest in the lead singer, she was pretty in the nerdy way, just what Gee liked. Orange hair and Buddy Holly glasses. Her face matched the voice.
Then Kay noticed the drummer. It was Her! The drummer who filled in for that weirdo metal band. The Girl who knew the other girl! Holy shit Kay actually had a chance. She had to somehow talk to her… fuck.
Of course Frankie would think Kay would find the bassist hot. It was her. Like, Kays girl. The girl Kay left, the girl Kay had thought about for the last week to the point she couldn't sleep. There she was, with her lowrise jeans and her bikini top and her red fringe and her stupid stomach tattoo. Kay's eyes went wide.
…
The show was like every other one. It was loud and packed and too hot. P didn't see her girl, obviously. Mostly everyone in the venue was gathered as close to the little stage as they could, and P was pretty sure her girl would have been up front in the pit. P looked all throughout the venue as much as she could see from the stage but nothing.
It was hopeless.
P was never going to see her girl with the long brown hair and the white glasses and the almost too small jeans. Her girl who liked The Pumpkins and The Misfits and horror movies. The girl who didn't seem bothered by P’s ranting. Well, at least that's what it seemed like before she just left.
They were halfway through the set. Homesick At Space Camp was next, meaning she had to tune her E sting down. She turned to her amp to hopefully give Andy a pathetic look that said ‘I am drinking so much once I get home and nobody can stop me’.
Andy gave her a look back that said… Well, P wasn't entirely sure what it meant, but she did know she was gesturing back to the crowd trying to get P to also look back. She glared back at Andy trying to say ‘I'll look back once we start the song god’.
P stood back up and turned around, ready to start the new song when… oh my god. She immediately turned back to Andy. ‘She's here!’ she mouthed to her in which she earned a smile back. She was here! P’s girl was here with her almost too small jeans and her white glasses and her brown hair. She was looking at P with big eyes, an almost pleading look.
Holy shit holy shit holy shit. P was about to just jump off the stage and go like, kiss her stupid face. Except she was pulled back to reality by Andy starting the song. Okay, after the set she was going to jump off the stage and go, god she didnt even know. Learn her name first of all.
…
The set finished and P was practically vibrating with excitement. Her and Her girl had been looking at each other the entire rest of the set. P tried to give her friendly smiles to which she always looked away for a second before looking back. She didn’t even have a second thought when she handed her bass off to Trix and jumped off the side of the stage, pushing her way through the crowd.
She had practical tunnel vision, elbowing people till she was finally to the back of the venue, till she was in front of her girl, looking up at her.
“Hi im Penelope, but you can call me P do you want to go out on a date with me,” P said over the noise of the venue. She was here, no going back now.
“Hi P, im Mikay but you can call me Kay, i would love to go out on a date with you and I would really love to give you my phone number,” she, Kay, smiled down at P, “god im so sorry for ditching you the other day. My stupid sister dragged me out and wouldn't let me stay back and it was just a mess.”
“It's okay, I understand. Can I like, actually buy you a drink this time? You wont dip yeah?” P joked, still looking into Kay's eyes. God she was never going to look away. In P’s head, if she looked away Kay would disappear again, and she would only know her name.
“How about I buy, as an apology,” Kay grabbed onto P’s arm before she had time to protest and dragged her over to the bar, “oh and before I forget” she pushed a piece of paper into P’s hand before going to order at the bar. P unfolded the piece of paper.
Kay :)
Xxx-xxx-xxxx
I wont disappear this time
The end.