"Shout At The Devil" had done amazingly well compared to "Too Fast For Love". While she heard songs such as Live Wire and Take Me To The Top now and then, Harley was now hearing Shout at The Devil and Looks That Kill pretty often.
It was a weird feeling. She had started to be recognized out on the LA streets, and while she generally was well known on the Strip, not many knew of them outside of their bubble.
Harley didn't go out much on her own, if she did go out she was usually with Jeanie or the boys. It was an even weirder experience when the boys were with her since everyone would be freaking out over the fact that Motley Crue was right there. They would only really recognize Harley if they liked her.
And apparently, it was hard for people to like Harley. They still had the stigma connected to her that girls couldn't do rock and roll, despite Harley and so many other girls before her proving them wrong. She typically ignored them since they were usually misogynistic men.
It was one of those rare Saturday nights where the whole band were together, along with everyone's girlfriends - except for Mick and Harley's (Harley because she was still scared to be outed, and Mick because he had just broken up with his girlfriend) - mainly as a celebration for them going off to tour and for an album release party.
She sat by herself most of the time, except for the few times Mick was by her. The two usually stuck together on their outings, as the two anti-social members of the band. Unless she was in a good mood, Harley would go and socialize with everyone else, but today she still felt tense over everything.
Harley's mind was constantly beating herself with the fact that she couldn't bring Lela with them, while everyone else could bring their girlfriends. She could technically rule this one out since Tommy was the only one bringing his girlfriend. Even if Harley could without the homophobia standpoint, she wasn't sure if she wanted to - just because it would be extremely awkward when Harley, Lela, and Nikki were in the same room.
So she figured it was best that she didn't bring Lela, to avoid awkward situations and so she wouldn't have to avoid Nikki.
She picks up her drink and takes a long sip as she peers over the edge of the bottle at everyone, sulking slightly as it looked like they all had a good time with their girlfriends. As she watches them, Harley thought it was weird that she never really formed her own opinion on Tommy's girlfriend Honey. Of course, she had her thoughts about Beth and Lita, but Harley hadn't interacted with Honey as much. Maybe she'd get to know the girl more on the tour.
And speaking of the tour, Harley was both excited and not so excited about it. She was excited about the new opportunities, like meeting new people and traveling around the world more. She was also pretty excited to meet Ozzy and his band, Harley wondered what they were like in person. The only negatives were the touring side; of traveling and not being home in months. Harley would miss home and the people that made home what it was, and little things along LA.
Harley sighs to herself, figuring that she might as well try and have fun if she's just going to mope around the bar all night. Grabbing her drink, she stands and grimaces as her vision jolts forward. She made her way to the pool table where most of the group were, while some of their group were scattered about. While she could see Mick at the bar, she couldn't see Nikki and Tommy - but she could safely assume the two were off causing chaos somewhere.
At the table were Vince, Lita, Beth, and Honey - and Harley was surprised Vince wasn't off fucking a girl, but she guessed with the fact that Beth was here and that he was already surrounded by girls that it kept him in line. She leans against the table between Vince and Lita.
"Who's winning?" Harley asks, watching the balls roll across the table.
"Vince is. Probably because no one better than him is here." Lita responds, using her stick to support herself.
"You're just jealous that you're in second place." Vince retorts, readying his stick to shoot it.
"We should get Mick in the game, he always wins." Harley comments.
"Do not! And shut up, I'm trying to focus."
Everyone watches as Vince shoots his shot, and gets the points. Honey rolls her eyes as he gets it, and Vince's fist pumps into the air.
"Take that, you fuckers!" He exclaims, pointing his stick at the girls as Harley laughs. She abandons the table for a moment and walks over to the bar where Mick sat. He was by himself despite being surrounded by people.
"If you're in a pool playing mood, we could use you to knock Vince's ego down a few pegs," Harley tells him, leaning against the bar counter.
"All these kids need their damn egos down a bit." He shrugs and glances over at the table. "Right, I'll be over there in a minute." Harley grins to herself as Mick finishes the rest of the drink and she bounds back over to the table.
"Vince might be winning now but he won't next round since Mick is joining," Harley announces to the group.
Lita grins at that. "Hell yeah, I'd like to see him lose."
Harley grins too. She could consider retracting her previous statements about Lita - Harley could always put aside thoughts about a girl to bring a guy down.
"What?" Vince glances over his shoulder to see Mick walking over and he groans. "Fuck you, Harley."
"Of course, just pick a time and place." She smirks cheerfully at him, as Vince rolls his eyes. His mood returned to its excitement as he finished the game and continued to win the round.
They started up a new game, putting Harley and Mick into the round as Beth dropped out of the game.
"Are we betting in on the game?" Honey questions, glancing among the group. Harley shrugs.
"I mean, I would, but I already know who's going to win." She said.
"Could give us more motivation to play better." Lita points out.
"Yeah, I guess so. Why not? Um, I don't typically carry cash but we could each do a 5?" Harley questions and everyone nods in agreement. With a total of 25 dollars on the table now, everyone prepared their best shots.
Halfway through the game, Nikki and Tommy returned to the group. They were too far into the game to quickly throw them in, so they decided to hang around the table and make comments about everyone's shots. Harley was much too focused on the game to care about the way Nikki had his arm slung around Lita's shoulders whenever she wasn't playing.
"Ya'll are betting money on this? Man, I would've come over and play if I knew." Tommy says, squinting at the 25 on the table.
"Harley says Mick's going to win so based on that I'm guessing you wouldn't even come close," Lita tells him.
"It's true, he's won every time." Harley shrugs.
The game carried on a bit longer to the final rounds, in which Harley was correct and Mick did win. Even though Mick had an excellent poker face, Harley knew he was happy to win the cash, probably to buy more drinks that night.
After the game, most of the group left the building with it being pretty late in the night. Beth had left sometime in the middle of the 2nd game, so Vince had gone off and done whatever he could now that Beth wasn't around. Tommy and Honey had left and Mick left right after collecting his winnings, leaving Harley, Nikki, and Lita alone at the bar.
Harley noted that it didn't feel as awkward as before, maybe because this time she knew Lita was actually pretty cool, and that Harley was just the one being a bitch because of the Nikki situation.
While Nikki had gone off to the bathroom, Harley had seized the opportunity to try and mend their relationship.
"Hey, um, I kind of wanted to apologize," Harley says, turning to Lita as the two girls sat by themselves at the booth.
"Apologize? For what?" Lita asks.
"I've been kind of being a huge bitch to you and it wasn't cool, and you're actually pretty cool, so, um, sorry for that." She says, scratching at her arm and slightly avoiding Lita's gaze out of awkwardness.
"Oh. Honestly, I didn't notice. I mean you have said just a few snippy things before but I figured it was just a bad day." Lita admits, shrugging. "Can I ask why you ever thought you had to apologize?"
To be honest, Harley was slightly relieved Lita hadn't noticed it.
"Um, it's nothing. Just... I dunno." Harley shrugs. So that confirmed her questions on if Lita had any idea about Harley and Nikki.
Lita studies Harley for a bit before nodding. "Okay, cool."
"So we're good?" Harley questions, staring at the blonde in front of her.
"Yeah, sure." Lita shrugs. Harley grins and nods to herself, proud that she had owned up to her mistakes, and apologized to Lita. Although she had an even bigger mistake that she yet had to apologize for - but she figured this one would be harder for Lita to forgive her so she chose to not acknowledge it.
"Okay, I have to ask - you probably get this all the time," Harley starts, and Lita looks up at her questioningly. "You were in the Runaways, right? How was it?"
Lita laughs at the question, smiling slightly. "You like the Runaways? I don't get a lot of people asking about it."
"Yeah, I loved your guys' albums." Harley grins.
"I mean, it was alright, it was a mess since it was an all-girl band. You know how girls are, imagine that in a band and cooped up on the road all the time. And Kim's a bitch, don't let others tell you anything else." Lita tells her.
Harley nods, keeping every word. "What about everyone else in the band?"
"Oh, the girls? Sandy is really cool, but she kept to herself or hung out with Joan a lot. And Joan is Joan, with her 'bad reputation'. Cherie was kind of a handful, usually trying to make everything about her." Lita says, and Harley listens to her stories of the band and the people she met on the way.
Eventually, Nikki returns to the two and plops down next to Lita.
"What are you guys talking about?" He asks, glancing between them.
"Harley was asking about when I was in the Runaways," Lita tells him, smiling slightly as he returns.
"Right. Are you ready to go?" Nikki asks.
"Yeah, we should probably head out." Lita agrees. "Are you coming, Harley?"
"I suppose so." Harley shrugs, getting up and joining the two as they make their way to the door.
a / n ; i apologize for changing the cover & fancast for harley so much. i can promise this is the last harley change.