by Mia Archer
Contents
1: Not So Exciting News
2: Concert Night
3: Poor Little Rich Girl
4: Pre-Concert Snack
5: Into the Arena
6: Warm Fuzzies
7: Getting Textual
8: Star Struck
9: Changing Plans
10: Backstage
11: Luckiest Girl in the Arena
12: Meet and Greet
13: Tour Bus Tour
14: Escape
15: The Morning After
16: Bragging Rights
17: Back to Reality
18: Mandatory PTO
19: Lunch
20: Shopping
21: In the Changing Room
22: Retail Escape
23: After Dinner
24: Explosive
25: An Offer
26: All Over
27: Jessica's Song
28: Pre-concert PR Blitz
29: Crazed Fangirls
30: The Concert
33: Backstage Again
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1: Not So Exciting News
Alice looked so excited that I was immediately on guard. That was the sort of smile I saw back in middle school when she was about to get us in a hell of a lot of trouble with one of the nuns. That was the sort of smile I saw on her face in high school when we'd made our way to public school and she was about to do something that could get us expelled. That was the kind of smile she had on her face in college when we were about to do something that was going to give me a serious headache and a case of regrets the following morning.
In short I was so fucking stoked to find out whatever it was that put that stupid grin on her face.
"Okay, spill."
Alice paused for a dramatic moment and looked around the restaurant. It was a nice enough joint downtown that had decent prices for the business lunch crowd. That's all I cared about since I was still new enough in my job, fresh out of college, that I tried to scrimp and save wherever I could.
As Alice looked around I got even more excited. She was starting to look downright conspiratorial. It was looking like I was about to have an adventure the likes of which I thought would never happen again when I got my diploma and found myself plopped directly into corporate America.
God how I needed some excitement after all the crap I put up with at work. It was still one hell of an adjustment going from summers spent at the beach partying to dealing with a job where I was actually expected to work like I had, well, a job. Not that I'd never had a job before, it's just that I was used to having a summer job that also allowed me time to have fun.
"Well you know how I've been going on about the sold-out Sleepwalker reunion tour that's coming to town?"
"Yeah…"
Suddenly I was a little less excited. My grimace must've shown on my face because Alice rolled her eyes and let out a disgusted noise of her own.
Sleepwalker. Ugh.
Even back in the day I'd never been obsessed with America’s favorite girl power group like everybody else. They happened to hit when I was going through my middle school contrarian phase when I hated anything that was popular, and by the time I came out of it they’d imploded for some reason and weren't the big thing anymore.
Of course there was no avoiding them when they were big so I'd been forced to endure some of their music. On the radio. People playing them in class and getting in trouble. Alice forcing me to listen to them when she gave me rides. Hearing them at school dances. They were everywhere.
Until they weren't.
I'd been happy when they weren't anywhere anymore. This reunion tour had been a thorn in my side ever since Alice heard about it. She wouldn't shut up about it.
“I don’t understand why you’re so down on them,” Alice said with another frustrated sigh. “I’d figure someone of your persuasion would appreciate a group who pretty much got famous championing your lifestyle choices.”
I rolled my eyes. Sure I’d tried explaining this before, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to rehash the conversation one more time.
“Let’s just say I’m annoyed with them precisely because their lead singer pretty much exploited pearl clutching in the media over her implied sexuality to rise to the top despite a lack of anything approaching musical talent,” I said.
Alice sniffed. She never did like it when I started laying into her favorite girl group, but I figured all was fair if she was going to bring it up now. I cocked an eyebrow.
“Why are you so into them anyways? Do I need to take you around to some of our coven meetings? Introduce you to some of my special lady friends?”
“Coven meetings? What the hell are you talking about? You’re a lesbian, not part of some secret society,” Alice said, sticking her tongue out.
I wiggled my eyebrows. “Maybe, but I know a few girls who wouldn’t mind you pulling that move on them. Pretty little straight girl like you? Yeah, they’d be all over that!”
“Shut up. Besides, I don’t have to swing your way to like a group’s music. If that was the case no straight person would ever be able to go to, like, any Broadway show ever.”
I shrugged. “Fair point. So why are you bringing up Sleepwalker? Like you said they're sold out."
"That's what I'm so excited about!" Alice said.
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes as she clapped and squealed. I started to worry. Alice wouldn't be this excited about that concert if it was sold out and she didn't have tickets. Which could only mean…
"I won tickets in a contest! Can you believe it?"
"You won," I said.
My voice was flat but Alice didn't seem to notice. That or she was ignoring my tone. That was more likely. She didn't miss much.
"Yes!"
Her squealing was so high pitched I felt like I needed to cover my ears. It reminded me of exactly how we'd been, well, back in middle school when Alice was obsessed with Sleepwalker. Her obsession with them coupled with my avoidance of anything that was remotely popular at the time had caused some friction in our friendship. I was starting to feel a little bit of that friction returning. Weird. I thought all of that was buried in the past.
"Well that's great for you Alice!"
"Oh no," she said. "You're not getting away that easily. You're coming with me!"
I put my fork down. "I don't think so."
"Come on Jessica!" Alice whined. "I need somebody to go with me and I can't think of anybody better than my best friend!"
I arched an eyebrow. "Did you honestly forget how I felt about them or are you just screwing with me?"
Alice shrugged and smiled. That was a smile that said she hadn't forgotten. Not at all. No, she was just fucking with me now. I sighed.
"I hadn't forgotten," she said. "Not exactly. But have you forgotten your promise?"
Damn it. I thought we were beyond that. I thought that promise was so far behind us that Alice didn't remember it. Only it was starting to look like she had one hell of a better memory than I'd ever given her credit for.
"Are you really bringing up a stupid promise you made back in middle school?"
"I'm going to make you love Sleepwalker!" Alice said. "I don't care what it takes! And I think front row tickets where we'll be close enough to see everything is exactly what you'll need!"
I rolled my eyes. "Barf!"
Come on. I get to hear some music I like and you get to see a prett
y girl running around onstage. Ear candy for me and eye candy for you. What’s not to like about that?”
“Have you even seen pictures of the group lately? They're probably all old, wrinkled, and so overweight that they need roadies to hold them up when they climb on top of groupies so they don't accidentally crush them!”
"I have seen their pictures thank you very much," she said. "And they look quite nice if you’re into that sort of thing. I know Gareth still looks plenty yummy."
I was going to injure my eyes from all the rolling they were doing in this conversation. Assuming it was possible to injure your eyes from rolling them too much. I didn’t know enough about anatomy to tell one way or another.
What I did know is that the token male lead guitarist of the infamous girl group was probably the real reason Alice had been so into them for so many years. Not that she’d ever admit to anything of the sort. No, it was “all about the music” for her, even if she did have a poster of him over her bed standing shirtless and caressing his guitar with the sort of look most men usually reserved for the women in their lives.
Or the men, though I was pretty sure he was the one member of the group who kept things on the straight and narrow. Seemed only appropriate that everyone in that band should be into girls considering the way they’d parlayed that one novelty into a brief but massive career.
"Oh yeah? Does Gareth still looked sexy posing for publicity photos with his walker?"
"You know they're not that much older than we are," Alice said. "Gareth is only five years older. I figure I totally have a chance!"
"I'm sure Gareth is married and spoken for by now. Surely some lucky groupie locked him up back in the day."
Alice shrugged. "I don't know. But even if he’s married, I'd be happy to be his one night stand!"
"You slut!" I said with a giggle.
I thought back to some of the pictures I’d seen of the girls in Sleepwalker. I wouldn’t be able to pick any of them out of a lineup even back then, but I did remember they were pretty good looking. Maybe it wouldn’t be the end of the world to provide a little moral support for my best friend, even if it did put me in the weird situation of accompanying my straight friend to a concert put on by a famously lesbian group that I didn’t care for in the least despite swinging the same way.
“I’d be anything for Gareth,” Alice giggled. “And I’m pretty sure you’d melt for Ivy.”
Ivy?”
“The lead singer. I’d be a slut for Gareth and you can be a slut for Ivy. God knows you could stand to get laid!”
And with that turn in the conversation the weird tension from a decade old argument we hadn't brought up in years was broken. We were giggling like a couple of schoolgirls. God it felt good to do that after dealing with all the boring seriousness of working and the adult world for a few months. Alice was the only person who could still have that effect on me.
Alice locked eyes with me. "You're coming with me. There's no question. You're the only person I'd want to take to this concert!"
"The only reason I'm the only person you'd want to take is so you can torture me!"
Alice smirked. I sighed. I knew when she had me beat. And she had me beat now. The one thing she could do to drag me to a Sleepwalker concert was play the friend card. We'd known each other for so long that I could barely remember the first time we met back when we were little kids going to the babysitter together. She was the closest thing I had to a sister in this world, and there wasn't a chance I was going to leave her in the lurch.
"You really are sneaky. You know that right?" I asked.
Alice’s grin got even broader. "So does that mean you're going?"
"Of course I'm going! I can endure a night of auditory torture for you. Besides, the eye candy might be worth it."
Alice squealed and clapped her hands. Then she surprised me by coming around the table and enveloping me in a hug.
"Thank you! Even if you don't fall in love with Sleepwalker, I promise you'll have a good time!"
I pulled away from the hug and smiled a sardonic half smile. "We'll see."
I suppose it would be a nice trip down memory lane even if there wasn't much of a chance of me enjoying the concert. I'd heard plenty of their stuff on the radio and at awkward dances back when I was still lying to myself that I was into guys, so I'm sure I'd have a good time as long as they stuck to some of the more mainstream stuff and didn’t have any new material to show off.
There was nothing worse than a once famous band trying to show off their new material instead of sticking to the old playlist everyone in the audience actually gave a fuck about.
I thought about going home and looking them up. Maybe getting a look at the girls, and one guy, today to give me fuel to toss barbs at Alice, but as I looked at her smiling face, as I saw how ridiculously happy she was, I decided I wasn't going to do it. She was obviously enjoying the idea of dragging me to the concert and I wasn't going to ruin it by coming up with a bunch of preloaded sarcastic comments about her favorite band ever.
Or at least her favorite band ever back when we were thirteen and she didn’t know any better.
No, I'd suffer in silence for the sake of my best friend, but there wasn't a chance in hell she was ever going to follow through on that promise to make me love that band. There was absolutely nothing in this world that could make me love Sleepwalker.
Nothing.
2: Concert Night
A knock on my bedroom door interrupted the finishing touches on my makeup. I pulled it open. Alice stood there with a huge smile on her face that immediately turned to a frown as she saw me.
More specifically as she took in what I wore.
"No. No way," she said. "You're not sitting next to me front row looking like that!"
Well. Fuck you too Alice!
I didn't give voice to that particular nasty thought though. Mostly because she was right. I'd deliberately dressed down for the occasion. Call it my own form of protest.
If she was going to drag me to this thing, if she was going to talk about front row tickets as though they were a magical ticket to catch the band's attention and get backstage passes where we were going to fall in love and live happily ever after, then I figured I was going to dress down and annoy her as much as she was annoying me.
Besides, I wanted to put on frumpy clothes. I wanted to act like the complete opposite of every woman who’d ever bought into the hype that Ivy chick tossed around. I figured it was striking a blow for every unsuspecting girl who’d ever thrown herself at the band. I'm sure it would confuse the hell out of them if we did by some miracle end up meeting one of them.
It was obvious Alice was having none of it.
"There's no way you're going to the concert with me dressed like that," she said. "Honestly, even if you're willing to embarrass yourself you sure as hell aren't going to embarrass me!"
I sighed. "Fine, makeover?"
"You bet your ass!"
Alice descended on me. I don't know why I thought I could get away with this. It's not like Alice would ever in a thousand years allow me to go out anywhere dressed like I was. Why would it be any different now when she expected me to dress like the perfect little groupie? She couldn’t be the perfect little groupie if her friend didn’t look the part, after all. Even if her friend had no interest in playing the part. But boy was she already dressed for the part!
Damn it.
And so I found myself back in my bedroom where I'd spent time meticulously going over my wardrobe trying to find the perfect combination of clothing that would be acceptable for going out while clearly communicating to a bunch of girl power wannabes trying to go back to the well one last time before they faded permanently into pop culture obscurity that there wasn't a chance in hell they were going to have a chance with me even if my friend was open for business.
Well, she was open for business for Gareth, at least. Something told me the results would be very disappointing for any of the female members of the b
and trying to hit on her.
It felt like Alice rummaged through everything in my wardrobe looking for an outfit that screamed the exact opposite of everything I wanted my original outfit to scream. I wasn't surprised, but I was a little disappointed I didn't get away with my scheme.
"Damn! Don't you have anything halfway slutty in here?" Alice asked.
I sniffed. That wasn't a very charitable assessment of my wardrobe. Then again, she was looking in the complete wrong place if she wanted to find any of my "slutty" outfits, as she so eloquently put it.
I sighed. I could continue to protest, but really this was ruining Alice's night. This wasn't being a very good friend. I'd put up my token resistance, she'd shot me down, and that was that. There was no point in continuing to resist.
"You're looking in the wrong place," I said.
Alice turned and blinked at me. "I am?"
"Look in the dresser. Top right drawer," I said.
Alice arched an eyebrow at me, but she followed my directions. Her eyes went wide as she saw what was waiting there.
"Damn!"
"What can I say? I was optimistic when we moved to the city."
Optimistic that I'd actually have time to go out. Optimistic that I'd have time to hit the bars. Optimistic that I'd be able to do all of the fun night life stuff that young twenty somethings fresh out of college were supposedly flocking to the city to have close by. Maybe meet a nice girl, or a nice couple of girls, and sow some wild oats now that I had a little disposable income to throw around.
All of that was before I discovered the joys of office work. The joys of being so damn tired when I got home that the only thing I could consider was heating up some dinner before I crashed.
Ironic that I finally had the money but not the time or the inclination. The opposite had been the case in college. I’d had a lot more fun back in college, for that matter. Now I was in the middle of a dry spell that felt like it would never end.
But I still had a wardrobe from those days when I'd been slightly more optimistic about my chances for having a social life. Even if that optimism hadn't paid off in the broad strokes, at least it would allow Alice to have a buddy who was dressed appropriately tonight. I suppose that was a small bit of consolation.
