My Tourniquet

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West Island, Orb, Summer CE 73:

Kara was insistent that she join the after party, so Lacus found herself at the party, held at a secluded area of the park unclaimed by the festival. It seemed like everyone was celebrating. The shops and other vendors were closing down for the final time and returning to wherever their home base was. Em had arranged a barbeque complete with loud rock music and alcoholic drinks. Lacus, thrown by the underage partying, stuck with her soda.

She spent more of her time on the side with Kara or Deanna. The Goth girl definitely liked keeping to herself where it was quieter. The only time she wasn't sitting was when Paul snatched her up by the arms for a random dance. It always lasted less than a minute.

After she left the guitarist with a particularly nasty red welt on his face, she began making small talk with Lacus. Most of it was music related but it was pleasant. Her dark style was deceptive. They had plenty enough in common. Deanna actually loved white roses like her, and just hanging out in quiet gardens or nature spots. She also had a knack for scribbling in her notebooks, little cartoons or figures.

Despite the conversation, her eyes were mostly glued to Kira. He spent most of his time between the guys kidding around or with Celeste. More than she wished to admit to herself the sight irritated her. Whether it was jealousy or something, Lacus didn't know. A few times he caught her gaze and smiled, but never came over.

"So what did ya think?" Kara asked, plopping down on the grass beside her with two plates of food. She handed one to Lacus who was thankful for the distraction.

"Wild? Loud?"

Kara laughed. "Yup. That's how we like it. Nothing like some hard rock and snacks to loosen up for the evening."

"Wouldn't you get in trouble? For the beer?" Lacus asked nervously.

The cheery girl didn't look concerned. "Nope. People around this neighborhood tend to disregard that rule. It's not like we're getting smashed or anything. We behave and there isn't a problem. But what did you think of the show?"

"It was really good," Lacus replied. She glanced over at Amy. "She seems thrilled."

Her new friend just rolled her eyes. "You have no idea. We've been dealing with a pissy Amy ever since Steena started moving in on our gigs. Not fun times. Now we get a pleasant happy Amy for a while. I doubt even Paul could ruin that mood."

"You just jinxed it," Celeste said flippantly as she joined them on the ground. She brushed her hair away from her round face and then looked over to Lacus. "Kira said you like to sing."

The other girl did a double take. "He did? That was a few years ago."

"Hard to outgrow passions," Celeste replied. "Me, I've always loved playing guitar. Krys and I decided to start a band since we love it a lot. You think it's your thing?"

Lacus didn't have to think about it. Her father and stepmother had ensured she had the best voice lessons possible and took every music class there was to be taken in school. She was determined to be a singer despite the risks and difficulty of the career choice. "I hope so."

The girlfriend nodded. "Cool. Hey, you mind if we scoot for a minute?"

Lacus was confused as to what she meant until the girl dragged her up by the wrists away from the main party. Just out of earshot of the small crowd, Celeste let her go.

She now stood facing Celeste, comparing the petite rocker in her mind. The American girl was pretty, uninhibited, and so far very sweet. She was even stylish, with her washout cut raven locks streaked with color and punk-goth clothes. Most of all, the princess knew the girl was unbound, unafraid of the world around her, willing to take chances she dared not to. Celeste wasn't a politician's daughter, or even someone the cameras were haunting. Lacus knew Kira preferred his space and privacy, off the radar. Then the girl sighed and stood up straight, arms akimbo on her round hips.

"See anything you like?"

Lacus gazed at the girl. "Excuse me?"

"My boyfriend?"

"We're old friends," Lacus quickly said. "We haven't seen each other in a couple of years."

"Very lusty for old friends," Celeste retorted. She wasn't really upset. "You like Kira."

Lacus just kept gazing at her, trying not to feel intimidated by the other girl.

"You were staring at him all yesterday and all today," she added.

"Sorry…it's just…I haven't seen him and…" Lacus trailed off on her explanation, not really sure what she was trying to say.

Celeste relaxed a little. "Look, Lacus, I like Kira. He's a nice guy, something you don't find easily around here. At much as I like him, I go back to America in a week. I don't do long distance, no thanks. He's all yours. 'Sides, he's totally into you."

Blinking in stunned silence, Lacus stuttered, "W-what?"

"He. Likes. You," Celeste repeated slowly, punctuating her words. "I don't have any problem with you moving in on my guy, okay? He's amazing when he smiles. Maybe you'll get him to keep smiling after I leave."

"Uh…"

"Next weekend, us girls were going out," Celeste continued. "You should tag along."

"Really?"

"Kara's idea actually," Celeste admitted. "Ask her. She already got the brunt of my jealousy fit. No biggie. Even I noticed how Deanna and Amy like you. That's a feat in itself."

She thought back to her limited encounters with the gothic woman and her hot headed companion. "What gives you that impression?"

"Deanna hardly looked at me when we first met," Celeste said. They began strolling back towards the crowd. "A day in and she's chatting with you. Not to mention Amy's been pretty nice, too. She's usually making embarrassing jokes about me. Scowled most of our first meeting."

"I don't see why they would like me," Lacus sighed. "I just met them and we really don't have much in common. You seem to fit in better than I do."

"I only got in easy because of Kira, believe me," Celeste said. "You'll fit in more than you think. Let's get back to the party because they commence search and rescue."

"Sure."

Capital City, Orb, Summer CE 73:

"I'm back," Lacus called as she entered her home. Lorene immediately made her appearance from around the corner to embrace her stepdaughter.

"Welcome back!" she bubbled. "Now, tell me how it went? I want to know everything."

"Let her get in the door, dear," Siegel chided his wife from the living room.

Instead of heading for her room, she joined her parents in the family room. "It was amazing. A friend gave me a copy of the band performances and festival."

"A friend, huh? Don't keep me in suspense!"

"The first day I met a guy named Em and his girlfriend Olivia. She ran a custom clothing design booth. They're about my age but Olivia's designs are very beautiful." Lorene asked for her camera's memory card so she could plug it into the laptop she was shopping online with. The page on display before the photos came up was a flowers arrangements service.

Lacus flipped through to the photos she had snapped of Em, Olivia and the two little girls at the vendor's alley. Lorene was saddened by the appearance of the older girl Lyra with her blinded eye. But the rare smile she managed to catch made her seem much happier than usual. There were a few photos of Olivia's dresses that Lacus thought were lovely. Lorene agreed they were exquisite for a young seamstress like her.

"You won't believe who was there in the winning band?" Lacus smiled brightly. She showed a couple photos she managed to get of Kira on stage.

"Kira! What a coincidence," Lorene gasped.

"Em's good friends with him and the band," Lacus explained. "He introduced me to the band after the show. They're an interesting group."

"So what did you and Kira have to talk about?"

"Not much really. We caught up a little bit but he…had a girlfriend and his band just won so they were celebrating. Kara invited me along and wants me to come with them next weekend on a shopping trip. They also gave me their emails and phones numbers."

"I'm honestly astonished, Kira in a band," Siegel shook his head. "You have the performances on that disk?"

"Yes," Lacus said. They decided to zip through her pictures where she introduced the band members in all of their misfit entirety. The dark street look was greatly diminished by Amy's playing with Emmaleigh or Paul and Dave fooling around with squirt guns. There were a couple video snippets of the group horsing around. One particular bit was Paul spilling his BBQ on Deanna's new pants and her chasing him out of the scene. After they ate dinner the three sat down to watch through the festival recordings Kira snagged from Jeroge, one of the people running the entire event.

The two adults were impressed the entire event was put on by a few high school kids and local shops. The quality of the band footage was very nice for a high school AV club and enjoyable. Most of the bands were decent enough but a couple they fast forwarded through. Like she was, her parents were amazed to see and hear just how good the leading bands were.

"So, is this something Kira's going to stay with?" Lorene asked when it finished.

Lacus couldn't remember how much they spoke about their future activities. "I don't know. It sounded like they were interested."

When she was finally free for the night, Lacus withdrew to her bedroom and logged into her computer to upload her photos. A few she sent to the band. To her surprise, Kira came up on her chat box as did Amy, each in their own window.

Apparently both were in their respective rooms enjoying peace and quiet since the other guys were out. Amy was confirming her attendance in a shopping date next Saturday while Kira simply talking recent events and music. The band had been approached by some music contracts and was considering going all the way. Before she could sign off for the night at nearly one in the morning, Amy asked if she was interested in hanging at a band rehearsal and doing some tag teaming sometime. Suddenly, she felt as if the summer holiday couldn't be long enough.

West Island, Orb, Summer CE 73:

It felt like an eternity before the weekend arrived for Lacus. It wasn't the shopping as much as getting out of the house. The weather had been awful most of the lonely week. It was finally just overcast, maybe looking at partially sunny. At the appointed time, Lacus met the girls at the ferry docks. Kara and Celeste were arm-in-arm, gossiping like girlfriends while Amy and Deanna sauntered along through the crowd.

"Hey," Amy nodded. "Ready?"

"Yes. Where'd you have in mind?" They didn't specify where they were going or what they were looking at. Just shopping, which was very vague in the Capital.

Kara shrugged. "We know this great street with tons of sweet shops and markets. Let's start there. Toki Street?"

"I don't know it," Lacus shook her head.

Amy rolled her eyes. "You wouldn't, Princess. Let's rock already."

On foot, the group leisurely walked to the aforementioned street while chatting. Deanna lagged behind quietly, which left Lacus to converse with Amy while the other two walked ahead of them. In the 45 minutes it took to talk the distance, Lacus had learned some things about the singer. One, she was not afraid to speak her mind and be a bitch. Second, she was rather protective of her group. No one messed with her team. Thirdly, she used to love the color pink until mid-middle school. Now she preferred bright blues or black.

"Okay, where do we start?" Kara asked, stopping at the cross walk. The street was busy and full of shops as promised. Further down were the local vendors and markets.

"Go down one side and up the other?" Amy shrugged.

"Hot Trends first!" Deanna voted. It was a few shops down from where they stood.

Inside was unlike any of the other clothing shops Lacus had ever been in. Then again, she always shopped in bright department stores with the brand Prada names. It gave the impression of dark street and dinginess despite being very clean and organized. Loud metal rock blared over the speaker while over pierced employees did their work. Just being in her pink skirt and white blouse made her feel sorely out of place against the clothing.

"How sweet," Kara grinned, looking at a Lolita style dress.

Like a nice big sister would, Amy dragged Lacus around the store. There was a sale going on so they were picking through the piles and trying things on. They picked through the music, finding Lacus knew essentially none of the main voices in their world. So after promising to lend her a few CDs later, they moved back to the clothing.

"Now wouldn't that be cute?" Celeste held up a black and white puff sleeved dress against Lacus.

"Too maidy," Amy scrunched her nose. "You keep finding shit like that, I'll never shop with you again."

"Bitch," Celeste muttered, putting the dress back.

"You should so try this on," Deanna spoke up, holding up a cute blouse. It was a pink, black, and white ¾ sleeve blouse and it was cute. Determined to have some fun with the rest, Lacus tried it on. Kara added black skinny jeans as well. A couple minutes later, the girls were giving thumbs up.

"It's awesome," Kara grinned. "You should so get that one."

She gave in and did along with a couple other cute tops. The girls found their usual attire plus some accessories. Then it was on to the next store. A couple later they were back to playing dress up with Lacus, who had to admit a few of their suggestions were very lovely.

"Question," Amy asked. "So everyone in high society wears fancy, expensive clothes?"

"Usually," Lacus nodded, sifting through the rack of shirts.

"Huh. Why? I mean, you could get similar clothes for less. Why the expensive shit?" Kara wondered, throwing a pair of slacks back to their pile.

Lacus never really thought about it. They always just shopped at the brand names. "I'm not sure. It's just what everyone does."

"It's the whole status thing," Celeste added. "The fancier and pricier the clothing, the richer you obviously are. Money is power philosophy at its best. Back home, we see some of the same rip-off designs for cheap and they're basically the same. I think the store and name tag is all that's really different."

Amy smirked. "So unless they see the tag, they really don't know. They just assume. Fun."

"Wanna test it out?" Kara suggested, holding out another outfit. "I'm very curious to see if people are that stuck up."

"I don't know…" Lacus began hesitantly.

"I bet 10 that they'll think a dress like that was some super fancy brand," Amy laughed.

"Come on, Lacus," Kara pleaded. "It'll be fun."

What was the harm? They found a very nice dress that was, as Lacus said, less than a fraction of most of her usual dresses and just as nice looking.

The rest of the day was passed with arcade games, more shopping, sampling the local cuisine and messing around. The girls made it back to the docks in time for the last ferry. Lacus was invited to spend the afternoon with them in rehearsal on Monday.