a story for me & my friend's enjoyment while in quarantine

3

About a month had gone by since the Pencey Prep show, and after hanging out more and getting to know each other, Claire and Joe had struck up a romantic relationship.

A fact which excited the two of them, as well as Ernie.

She was a little weary about Joe at first. She had no reason to be, she just wanted to try and intimidate him for the sake of her best friend's feelings.

Once she decided she liked Joe, they became fast friends, despite the fact that he annoyed the absolute hell out of her sometimes.

The girls had also been introduced to Joe's room mate and best friend, Ben, and they all quickly became friends too.

Claire tried to bug Ernie for a while to go out with Ben, and while she agreed he was a good looking guy, she just didn't see him as anything more than a friend - a brother even.

For the first few days after the Pencey Prep show, Claire tried to bug Ernie about Frank too, but eventually Ernie got it through Claire's head that it was never going to happen and the topic just kinda faded.

And it was unfortunate that it did too, because had it continued, it may have made a certain bouncer and a certain guitarist's lives a little easier...

- A few days after the show -

"Did you see that blonde girl at the show the other night?" Frank had asked Joe while out for dinner.

"You're gonna have to be a bit more specific. I looked at like a hundred people's IDs that night," Joe replied.

"Nose piercings, a bit of pink in the hair, plaid pants-"

"That doesn't narrow it down at all. Did you see how everyone there looked that night?"

Frank rolled his eyes. "She's the one that went ape shit in the pit. The one that cut herself and was bleeding a bunch."

"I can't really picture a face, but I remember seeing you helping someone," Joe thought aloud.

"That would've been her."

"So...what about her?"

"Well, I was gonna ask if you knew who she was at all, but clearly that's out of the picture."

Joe just gave his friend a knowing look.

"What? What is that?" Frank asked, resting his head in his hand.

"What's what?" Joe playfully smirked, Frank replying by doing his best imitation of the facial expression.

"That. What does that mean?"

"You're interested in her?"

"I don't know if I'd say that-"

"Oh, shut up, I know you well enough to know I'm right," Joe laughed, earning a nervous eye roll in response. "Well, What was her name? Who'd she come with? Maybe we can ask around. Everyone there that night kinda knew everyone."

"Joe, I have no idea. I didn't get to talk to her that much," Frank told him. "I just know I noticed her while I was playing, later on I bandaged her arm and then she left with her friend."

"Well, who was the friend?"

"She had brown hair, wasn't dressed as dark as the bleeding one..they mentioned a name at one point.....Erika? Eve?" Frank thought aloud. "Something with an E."

"The friend or the bleeding one?"

Frank thought about it for a second. "I don't know."

"Seriously? So you're infatuated with some girl that hurt herself at your show and you have no idea whether her name started with an E or if it was her friend? And your best descriptor is that she had blonde hair and a nose ring?" Joe asked, almost laughing at the situation.