Chapter Text
PROLOGUE AND NOTES
“So, do you have a name, arsonist?” Eleanor never expected the stranger on the other side of the fence to tease her—not after years of solitude. She never expected to feel something she’d only ever heard about in songs. Not for a girl in khaki boots. Not for anyone. But Eleanor is tired of being needed, and Lori has never had to lift anything heavier than her own expectations. They were never meant to meet.
1991
“Can you read my mind? I've been watching you”
Eleanor Cooper first heard the song on the radio on an early Sunday morning. Rich rays of sun were only beginning to push through the cluster of trees that separated her farm from the next. “I’ll piss him off till he hates me.” Eleanor’s lips curled into a smile as she listened to the coarse whisper distort through the radio. The song felt so familiar, she could predict the next line. “Yeah right, he fucking loves me.” A chipped glass of Winn-Dixies own brand milk watched from the kitchen counter as Eleanor pulled a week-old cookie out of the tin. The perfect 6am snack. “There you go ladies and gentlemen!” The jockey’s voice a broken engine compared to the song’s perfect lyrics. “Ethel Cain with her new single “Crush”.”
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Eleanor (Nell) Cooper (15) – “She looks like she works with her hands, and smells like Marlboro Reds.”
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Lorelai (Lori) Lee (16) – “She hasn't tried coke, but she's always had a problem saying no.”
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“You’re from the farm next door,”
“You’re staying with your uncle on work experience.”
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It’s 1991. Ethel Cain still gets her heart broken by Willoughby Tucker, but she changes her story. After releasing her single “Crush” she becomes a massive hit.
I do not own the character Ethel Cain, her original story, or her song “Crush”; however, I do own Eleanor Cooper and Lorelai Lee. “Parched” is a story based around “Crush” and the overall vibe of Ethel Cain’s music. Hope you enjoy!
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Soundtrack:
Crush – Ethel Cain
Here – Pavement
Lost Time – Lucy Dacus
Cico Buff – The Cocteau Twins