The song that Bea sings is in fact The Lighthouse by Halsey. If you haven't checked it out you totally should! It's so badass! It made me think of Mae a lot.
To the surprise of neither of them, Mae didn't wake up.
Even after he'd helped Bea load up and then unload the desk, which was small and fairly maneuverable, and then she dropped him back off before having to get back to work, Mae was still asleep. Trent had made sure to give Bea her cut, a hundred and twenty five bucks, which she still seemed conflicted about, but ultimately had accepted.
From there, Mae had eventually awoken, and they'd hung out, with her playing games and him writing away at his fan fiction idea, as he was feeling particularly inspired, and felt like he needed to write something to sharpen his skills back up before actually tackling something serious, and then they'd headed out to band practice.
"I have to get a car, like for real," Trent said as Mae got the door to a place calling itself the Party Barn open. Or tried to.
"That'd be so cool. We could fuck in it," Mae said. "Ugh, this fucking door!"
"Here, let me."
He grunted with effort and finally got it open.
They walked inside and found a messy but surprisingly cozy interior. It was cold but not unbearably so. Mae walked over to a little space heater set on the stage near the middle of the room and turned it on.
"Bea brought this," Mae said. "We all chipped in. Me and Gregg and Angus all have fur, but she doesn't, so it was only fair. Everything's battery operated, since there's no power."
"What is this place? How much does it cost to rent?" Trent asked.
"No idea. Gregg got the key and made copies. This was a party store like awhile ago, but it went out of business and they left some stuff, but not much. I don't know how Gregg got the key," Mae explained as she picked up the bass.
"Wait, so, like...are you actually renting this place or just squatting?" Trent asked.
"I dunno."
"Huh…" He looked around, then shrugged. "Whatever, I guess."
"Yeah, no one's had a problem with it, and you can like see our shit in here from the street. I'm surprised no one steals it. I keep thinking I should bring Gregg's bass home. But then I forget every time," Mae replied.
"It's all probably safe here, if it's been here that long," Trent said. "I...uh…" He paused as Mae put the bass on by the strap and strummed a few notes, then turned on the amp.
"What?" she asked, still looking down, frowning in concentration as she played with the instrument. When Trent didn't respond she looked up. "What the fuck, dude? You look like you saw...I dunno, something...good?"
"You look awesome with that," Trent replied, sitting down on a milk crate.
Mae laughed. "What? For real?"
"For real. Wow."
"You really got a thing for chicks who play bass, don't you?"
"Yeah...although I mean it could be any instrument."
"Oh so I'd get this reaction with, like, a flute?"
"Hmm...okay, maybe bass takes higher priority. I don't know what it is, you just look really kickass with that."
"You're gonna fucking nut in your pants when I start actually playing," Mae replied, giggling. "Fucking weirdo."
They glanced over as the door opened up. Bea, Gregg, and Angus walked through. Gregg was grinning. "I'd say I wanna get me someone who looks at me like Trent looks at Mae, but I already did. And so has Bea...apparently."
"Oh shut up," Bea replied.
"I had a dream you two were doing it hard," Mae said.
Bea sighed and rolled her eyes. "Maybe it wasn't such a dream," she muttered.
"Wait! You did it!? Right next to me!?" Mae yelled.
Trent laughed. "Yeah, right next to you. You didn't wake up."
"...eh, whatever," Mae said, relaxing. "I've already seen it. Not that I don't wanna see it again."
"You're embarrassing me," Bea murmured.
"Sorry," Trent said.
"I'm not, I'm embarrassing. You gotta live with it," Mae said.
Bea sighed.
"You know, I'd say it surprises me that you're into a polyamorous lifestyle, Mae, but honestly, it doesn't. It kinda just fits with you. Now, with Bea it surprises me. A lot," Angus said.
Bea groaned. "I'm not...I dunno, man. Is it my fault this fucking awesome guy who's super compatible with me and nice to me and takes care of me also happens to be dating one of my best friends?"
"Wait, so...are you like dating-dating?" Gregg asked.
"Quietly, on the down-low," Bea replied after a moment.
"Wait, seriously? When the fuck did this happen!?" Mae cried.
"Oh...yeah. Shoulda actually mentioned that," Trent said.
"We should celebrate!" Mae yelled, jumping on the stage a few times. "This is awesome!"
"Okay, okay, guys. Everyone. Just...chill," Bea said, raising her hands. "Like...it's on the down-low. Okay? I really need to stress that. No one else can know. Like at all. Seriously, it could fuck things up for me or my dad. So...please?"
"As always, I promise discretion," Angus said.
"Yeah, yeah, don't worry dude, I know. Zipped lips," Gregg replied.
"Don't worry, Bea. You know I love you and I wouldn't let bad things happen to you," Mae replied, fiddling with her bass again.
Trent happened to be looking at her while Mae said that, and saw a surprising look of anger flash across her face, but it was gone very quickly. She realized he was looking at her and an awkward expression came then. She cleared her throat. "I was hoping we could, uh, do something different after we practice a song or two."
"Yeah, sure, what?" Mae asked.
"Like...so I've been practicing a song on my own, and I wanna try it," Bea said awkwardly, looking uncomfortable but oddly determined.
"Really? Cool!" Gregg replied.
"Yeah! This sounds awesome!" Mae replied. "Are you gonna, like, play an instrument?"
"I'm gonna sing, I'm gonna 'play' my laptop," Bea said dryly.
"Sorry," Mae said. "I didn't mean-that's cool."
"It's fine. Uh...I'm ready to practice if you guys are," Bea replied.
"Let's go! Let's show Mae's and Bea's new boyfriend how fucking awesome we are!" Gregg yelled.
Mae let out a laugh and held her bass like a machine gun. "LET'S ROCK!" she screamed.
"Oh my God, you know Aliens," Trent said.
"Duh! Who the hell doesn't!? Vasquez fucking rocks," Mae replied.
"She is super badass," Bea agreed.
They got up onto the stage and Trent watched them get set up and then warmed up. He felt an energy on the air, an excitement. He'd known people who were in garage bands or practiced instruments semi-regularly, but he'd never actually been involved in something like this. It was awesome. And he was the only person here watching. He suddenly wondered if he could find other people to check this out.
Mae had mentioned that Germ dropped by sometimes, and he bet he could absolutely convince Ann to come here and check this out.
"What should we do?" Gregg asked.
"We should do...Die Anywhere Else. We've been avoiding it," Mae said uncomfortably. "But we should do it."
Gregg sighed. "It hurts now…"
"I know, but it's supposed to, dude. Like...we loved him, and he loved us. And now he's gone. But that's how you're supposed to feel when you miss someone. It hurts. You can't hide from it, you shouldn't hide from it. We should let it hurt."
"...you're right," Gregg said. He sighed and shifted around, holding his guitar.
Mae looked at Trent and smile sadly. He smiled back, unsure of what to do or say. He hadn't expected it to take this dark turn, but...she was right. Caring about someone meant making yourself vulnerable.
Inevitably, it led to pain.
But pain was a part of life, and pain meant something because you cared. Because they had impacted your life, usually in good ways.
They spent another moment warming up, and then set to it.
As he listened to them begin playing, he could tell they were pretty decent. Gregg was good at his guitar, Angus had a good voice and clearly practiced singing, Bea had learned how to program drums pretty well, and Mae…
Quickly drowned out the rest.
She looked amazing.
She was clearly into it, zoning, and good at what she was doing. Her hands and fingers moved smoothly as she played the bass, pick working overtime during some parts of the song. He was right in that the attraction skyrocketed as he saw her actually in action. He had no idea what it was, but women rockers, in whatever capacity, were fucking awesome. And Mae was definitely rocking. The song was pretty upbeat, though he could tell it was having an effect on all of them. Mae and Gregg the most. He felt for them.
Some of the people he'd known had died earlier in his life, and it was always awful.
By the time they were finished, Mae reached up and wiped at her eyes, sniffing. "Aw, shit...how was that, boyfriend of mine?"
"Amazing," Trent replied. "You guys are really good."
"Thanks," Angus murmured.
"Yeah...lotta fun," Gregg said. He cleared his throat and looked up at the ceiling for a moment, blinking several times. A moment of silence passed, the air still heavy with raw emotion. After a bit, they picked another song and started playing. He listened, watching them play the song, listening to it, enjoying the experience, the ambiance.
The raw hotness that was Mae playing bass and rocking out.
By the time they were done with their second song, the atmosphere had shifted. Everyone seemed happier, more jubilant, also a bit more relaxed.
"So, how'd we do?" Mae asked. "Besides Germ, you're like the only person who's actually experienced our songs."
"You all are really good," Trent replied. "Like, all of you. Awesome. Those were great."
"You're not just being nice cuz you're humping Mae, are you?" Gregg asked.
Mae giggled and rolled her eyes.
"Uh...no. I promise. I'm not. Definitely being real," Trent replied.
"Cool."
"Okay everyone, clear the stage," Bea said, retrieving a backpack she'd brought with her. She pulled a pair of decent-sized speakers out of it and hooked them up to her laptop, then got them situated on twin pairs of milk crates stacked up.
"I am so excited for this," Mae said as she set her bass down and hopped off the stage, then retrieved an old fold-out chair and sat down next to Trent.
"I admit, I'm very curious," Angus agreed as he and Gregg did the same.
"Just don't make fun of me," Bea said. "This is hard to do, but I've decided I should do it." She finished setting everything up and then turned to face them. "I've been practicing singing for awhile. I took whatever classes I could in middle school and high school, so I at least got the basics down, and I kept practicing here and there, looked up some stuff online. But I've never actually like sung in front of other people. I mean, beyond those classes, but those were years ago. So, anyway. I felt weird, about not being more involved, and I learned a lot about music composition. So I wrote a song. It's called The Lighthouse."
"Ooh, what's it about?" Mae asked.
"It's about me...and you...but mostly a siren," Bea replied.
"You wrote a song about me?...wait, like a cop siren?"
"No, like a mermaid siren?"
"Oh! The sirens who, like, sing and lure sailors to their death? They're so cool! I wanna be a siren, or a banshee!"
Bea laughed. "Yeah, this is half for me and half for you, Mae. Maybe more than half for you. I was thinking a lot about you when I wrote it. So, uh, you ready?" she asked.
"Ready," Gregg replied.
"Okay. Don't laugh. Or I'll be mad."
"We won't, babe. You got this," Trent replied.
She giggled awkwardly and blushed, rubbing the back of her neck. "Still weird to hear you say stuff like that...but really cool. Okay, okay."
She checked the mic and then hit play on her laptop and hurried up to it. A whine of curious feedback began coming out of the speakers, and then a heavy-hitting song started playing. Bea gripped the mic stand and started singing.
"From a tender age I was cursed with rage, came swinging like a fist inside a batting cage…"
Oh yeah, this was absolutely about Mae.
Trent found himself instantly mesmerized as she sang her song. Bea was amazing. She had an incredible voice, smoky and sexy and kind of rough.
"There is a lighthouse in the...middle of the deep and I'm still...stranded on the shoreline…"
A quick glance at Mae revealed she was just as enthralled. She stared with wide eyes, her mouth hanging open, leaning forward.
He knew how she felt. Bea seemed to have dressed for the occasion. She had on her black stockings and her black dress with the white ankh, her black boots and fingerless leather gloves, her black choker collar, her makeup more noticeable today. All of it clean and smooth. She almost seemed to absorb the light and it outlined her.
"...he's laying in the water, begging god to let him drown, so I showed him all my teeth and then I laughed out loud 'cause I never wanted saving, I just wanted to be found…"
Bea had a presence to her. An energy. A power.
It wasn't so much the quality of the singing, although she was good, or even her voice, smoky and sexy though it was. It was more just...her raw emotional investment in the song. She was so intensely into it, gripping the mic stand tightly, eyes closed, swaying as she sang.
"Well that should teach a man to mess with me. He was never seen again and I'm still wandering the beach…"
They listened in dead silence through the whole thing, and when she finished singing and finally opened her eyes, she jumped a little, looking startled. Awkwardly, she reached back and hit the pause button, then cleared her throat and walked forward until she could sit down on the edge of the stage. "Uh...you're all just staring at me. Like...so...how was it?" she asked.
"Bea...that was AMAZING!" Mae whispered harshly.
She laughed nervously. "For real?"
"Bea. Yes. For real. That was incredible. You really wrote that?" Trent replied.
"Yep."
"Bea, you are very good," Angus said. "Like...really. Very good. High quality."
"Yeah that was fucking awesome!" Gregg cried. "Like, whoa! I didn't know you could do that! That was almost pro!"
"Really?" she asked.
"Really!" Mae cried. "Bea, that was about me? And you? And a siren!? Like, wow! I love it so much! No one's ever written a song about me before!"
Bea laughed. "I wasn't sure how you'd feel about it." She shifted. "So...thanks. I was hoping it sounded as good to other people as I thought it did to me, but I couldn't be sure. And you're, like, the only ones I trust to listen."
"I know it isn't a topic we like to discuss, but when we leave, Bea, you can most definitely take over singing duties," Angus said.
"Yeah…" Mae replied awkwardly, then sighed. "I guess it's just a thing that's going to happen, huh?" Before either Gregg or Angus could answer, she spoke up again. "No, it should happen. I'll miss you guys, but, like, you deserve to live somewhere awesome."
"Thanks, Mae," Angus replied. "You know you can come visit us."
"Yeah, that's true. Especially now that I've got a boyfriend who has a driver's license!"
"Just need a car," Trent said.
"It's kind of a road trip," Angus admitted. "About four hours to get there."
"Oh. Well...if it's important to Mae, we can make it work," Trent replied.
"You're a good dude," Gregg said.
Trent laughed uncomfortably. "You know, I try."
"That's what Angus always says," Mae said.
"Well, I do try," Angus said.
A moment of silence passed.
"Well now what?" Bea asked.
"Wanna do another song?" Gregg asked.
"Yeah, one more, and then we should probably get home," Angus replied.
Bea sighed. "Yeah, I've got stuff I should probably do. Hmm. Maybe you two could join me at my place, and I can get it done, then we could go to your place and have fun?"
"I think I know what 'having fun' means," Gregg whispered loudly. Bea sighed. He grinned one of his huge grins at her.
"I'm down for fun," Trent replied.
"Yeah! More time with Bea is better time spent...or something, I dunno, that made more sense in my head. But yes!" Mae cried.
"Okay, one more song, let's go!" Gregg yelled, jumping back up.