A/N:
Song(s) used in this chapter:
Anthrax - Got The Time
"Come on Max, you have to come!"
"I d-don't know Dana…" she mumbled as her hand grasped her elbow. "I'm not really a party type."
Dana rolled her eyes as she placed her hands on the brunette's shoulders. "Max. Live a little! It's not going to be a party either, just a small concert. You don't even have to socialise with anyone, just listen to the music."
"It's not my taste either," she continued to list off her excuses to not attend. Max wasn't a social person, she wasn't made for these things. "I don't listen to punk rock or whatever."
"You don't have a taste Max," Dana said and squeezed her shoulders. "I've heard what you listen to, it's all over the place-"
"Hey!"
"-which is why you need to come to this thing. Come on, don't make me beg on my knees." Dana threw up a pouty face coupled with puppy eyes. "Pleasee?"
Max looked at Dana for a few seconds before she let slip a sigh. "I'll consider it, how about that?"
Dana scanned her features for a second before she smiled. "That's all I'm asking for Max. This isn't a Vortex party, you don't need to be afraid of assholes hitting you up," she assured her. "Besides, you'll be with me - I can be your pretend girlfriend!"
"Oh."
"I'm kidding, Max," Dana said and rolled her eyes again. "Unless-"
"No, no, no, it's okay Dana," Max quickly shook her head and flashed an awkward smile. "You just caught me off-guard, that's all."
After another smile, Dana pulled Max into a hug. "Thank you Max! I didn't want to attend this thing alone, and since Juliet is busy with Zach I had nobody to go with."
"Wait, I didn't say-"
"I'll meet you around 8PM tomorrow, okay?" Dana interrupted and ushered the flustered Max out of her room. "Bye!"
Max winced as the door was slammed in front of her face.
Come on Max, she thought to herself, You can do this! It's just a concert, nothing else. You came to Blackwell to break out of your shell, not delve deeper into it.
After a momentary pause, Max sighed and walked back to her room to wallow about everything that could go wrong tomorrow.
What Max certainly didn't expect was the locale where the concert would take place.
"Dana, what the hell?" she asked as they walked through the gravel parking lot in the middle of the forest.
"Relax, Max! There isn't many places in the town to host these things without too much attention, which is why," she paused and pointed at the large building, "they host it here! Isn't this cool?"
Max looked at the rather imposing, decades-old lumber mill looming between the trees. From the sounds of things, there was already a concert in progress.
"Yeah, try creepy instead," she mumbled and pulled up her hand to her elbow again. "I'm not sure about this Dana-"
"You promised!" Dana lied and put her hands on her hips, pouting again. "Don't leave me hanging now…"
Staring between Dana and the lumber mill a few times, Max finally nodded. "Fine."
"Yay!" Dana threw up her hands and pulled Max into a hug. "Thanks! You're the best Max."
Nodding quietly, Max allowed herself to be dragged towards the double doors leading inside.
"I told you this was chill!" Dana exclaimed over the loud punk music.
Max sat at the bar beside her friend, one hand nursing an energy drink as the other hovered over the top; just like Dana had taught her beforehand. "I'm not sure your definition of chill matches mine!"
Dana giggled and took a sip of her beer. "Maybe not," she admitted and looked around.
"I didn't figure you for a punk," Max said as she played with her can. "Thought you were more of a raver type, considering you're part of the Vortex Club and all…"
"Max, just because I'm part of it doesn't mean I like it," Dana replied and looked at the brunette. "Do you see me hanging out with Victoria and her drones?"
"No, I don't."
"Exactly. I'm only part of the club so I get the invitations to their parties - that's it. Personally I think Victoria is awful," she continued and tapped her fingers on the counter.
"You and me both," Max mumbled, her comment eliciting a giggle from her friend. "So you're here just for the party?"
"Mostly, yeah." Dana nodded. "I like to live, party and all that. Life is no fun sitting in your room all day, doing homework or whatever," she teased.
"Hey!" Max protested and playfully punched her. "I do other things than just homework!"
"Like what?" Dana questioned, her voice monotone; she wasn't impressed.
"Like… photography! I listen to music too. Watch TV… uhm… play games?" Max shrugged and took a sip of her energy drink.
"You should stop before you prove my point further," Dana spoke up with a wink.
"Okay."
Dana laughed and sipped from her bottle. "I've only been to a few of these, I started recently. It's… surprisingly more fun than Vortex. You don't get creeps like Nathan constantly hovering over your drink, nor the lewd comments from the other jocks. The people here are chill - everyone just wants to have a good time, you know?"
Max nodded and looked towards the stage, watching the last few riffs of a song being played out.
"Oh - hey!" Max exclaimed as Dana grabbed her hand and started dragging her towards the crowd. "Dana!"
"Come on Max, let's dance!" Dana laughed as she led the two of them past the small divider separating the bar from the mosh.
Max was a terrible dancer. Swaying slightly side to side, she tried to do something with her hands to make it look like she was 'thrashing' but instead she made herself look like a dolt.
"Max, you have to let loose!" Dana exclaimed as she had been doing her own routine beside her friend. "Just… allow yourself to have fun! You're all stiff and nervous, drop that act!"
"Dana…"
"Don't Dana me! Come on buttercup!" Dana took Max's hand into her own and begun to swing them side to side wildly. "Just dance!"
As her friend continued to swing her limp hands side to side, Max sighed internally and finally nodded. So what if she makes herself look like an idiot? This is herfirst time here, and probably the last - nobody is going to remember her.
"That's it!" Dana shouted and laughed as she saw Max begin to move on her own, finding a rhythm to the music. "Just do whatever! Nobody cares, we're here to chill and have fun!"
"Okay!" Max nodded and found herself falling into some sort of dance.
Looking around, she spotted a few groups thrashing together - heads and all, bodies colliding without care. Wowsers, she thought.
Max tried the head bang thing herself, but quickly found that if anything it'd just made her dizzy.
As the song ended, the crowd cheered and watched as the host walked onto the stage with a mic in his hand.
"Are y'all ready for the head act?" he asked, receiving a loud cheer of approval in return. "I present to you… MADHOUSE!"
Dana cheered with everyone else, bumping shoulders with Max to get her to cheer as well. Max did, but not because she was excited but because she was pressured by her friend. Max didn't work well under pressure, no matter how small.
"Hello you beautiful people!"
Raising her eyebrow, Max tried to stand on her tiptoes to see that stage as her sight was blocked by a group of punks. Where had she heard that voice before?
"Are you all ready to thrash?"
When the crowd cheered in return, the voice broke into short laughter.
Moments later the place shook as the guitars came to life, followed by the sharp introduction of the drums a few seconds later.
"Woo!" Dana cheered as Max continued to struggle to look at the stage.
"Wake up, got another day to get, through now, got another man to see, gotta call him on the telephone a-yo, gotta find a piece of paper," sang the voice, low and husky; almost trying to imitate the original tone of the singer. "Sit down, got another letter to write, think hard, gotta get a letter just right, little ringin' on the telephone oh no, gotta write another letter."
As everyone had once again begun to dance, thrash, mosh - Max was still trying spot who the singer was, using Dana for support.
"No such thing as tomorrow, all we want, two, three, go!"
Guitars and drums burst into an even faster riff.
"Time, got the time tick tick tickin' in my head!"
"TIME!" the crowd bellowed.
"Time, got the time tick tick tickin' in my head!"
"TIME!"
"Time, got the time tick tickin' in my head!" the voice continued, "tickin' in my head, tickin' in my head, tickin' in my head!"
Max stopped as the group in front of her moved out of the way, revealing the stage and the lead singer to her.
Chloe Price.
Short azure-blue hair, sleeveless leather jacket with spikes, full sleeve tattoo and face caked in dark makeup; most notably heavy eyeliner and two black stripes on either cheek.
Yet Max could recognise her best friend, ex-best friend, even after years of no contact.
Dana grabbed Max's hand and dragged her out of there.
"Thought you needed a timeout," Dana said with a smirk once they'd sat down at the bar again. "You looked pretty intense back there."
"Uh… y-yeah," she mumbled and looked down at her knees. "Dana? Who was that?"
"Madhouse."
"No, I mean-"
"Chloe Price?" Dana said and saw Max give her a timid nod in return. "How do you know her?"
"Huh? What, I didn't-"
"I mentioned her by name and you nodded, you've never been to these concerts - obviously you know her somehow," Dana pointed out and put a hand on Max's knee. "You can tell me Max."
"She… she was my best friend before I moved out of Arcadia. I… I didn't keep in contact, haven't seen or heard from her in five years," Max mumbled and looked at her friend. "How do you know her?"
"She used to attend Blackwell, was expelled about two years ago for a whole bunch of shit," Dana spoke with a shrug. "She was cool. After Blackwell she moved onto music, formed Madhouse - they're pretty big in the underground scene. In Arcadia, at least."
Max turned her head towards the lone door leading into the backstage, watching as the door opened and revealed Chloe coming out and waiting patiently - foot tapping away at the wooden floorboards.
"Want to talk to her?" Dana asked, looking at her friend.
"What? No! I mean, no, not now. I… I'll do it later."
Following Chloe was a blonde girl of similar age, slightly shorter - if Max had a guess they were both roughly the same height. Flannel shirt, torn jeans, blue feather earring.
Her heart thumped in her chest as she saw Chloe lean in and leave a hungry, wanton kiss on her lips.
"Oh."
Dana choked back her laughter as she watched Max's face. "...and that's Rachel Amber, her girlfriend."
"Rachel Amber?" Max looked at Dana in surprise.
"Yes, the one that's suspended Max." Dana rolled her eyes. "Rumour is she was caught on campus with a package of drugs, police got involved, she was fined and suspended by the principal."
Max looked back towards Chloe and Rachel, noticing the two of them making their way out of the dingy venue - Chloe's arm draped across Rachel's shoulder as they were both involved in another hungry looking kiss.
"You got the hots for her?" Dana teased and wiggled her eyebrows.
"Huh? No! I just… I didn't… I didn't know she was…"
"Lesbian?" Dana finished for her.
"Lesbian." Max repeated. "That's… wow. I never knew."
Dana glanced at her friends for a few more seconds as the brunette simply stared at her knees awkwardly. "Okay, I think that's enough action for us today. Wanna head back to Blackwell?"
"Y-yeah. Lets."
Max promised herself that this would a one time thing, but now she was pretty fucking sure she'd be back here soon enough.
A/N:
Hiiiiii!
ANOTHER ONE!
Always wanted to write a rockstar/band AU, so here it is - I'll try to keep it short-ish? It ain't gonna be fluff (mostly), let me tell you that straight up. Except some heavy themes, though I'm no master at writing them - heads up.
Hope ya enjoy, and as always thanks for your continuing support!
ps. im actually amazed at myself at how i can juggle all these fics somehow :/
- :) WinTTY