you perform a song and a story, musician au
not the best thing ive written but oh well
Now Playing: It's Not the Same Anymore - Rex Orange County
"So, I heard that you guys wanted to listen to a story." You were in front of a crowd, guitar in your lap. "You know that's really weird to ask at a concert." You laughed, adjusting your earpiece. "But I think I figured it out."
The screen behind you started to change as you started to pluck at the strings. "Hey guys!" A you from not too long ago sat in front of a desk. You feigned shock, pointing at the screen. "Since our night together is coming to a close, we have one more song." You hoped that the crowd couldn't tell the tired look in your eyes, you hadn't slept in so long. "I'll be telling you guys the story all the while. But it might take a little while."
Loud cheers erupted from the audience. "Alright, let's start?"
"There are three girls in this story." The you in the screen let out a hum. "Let's call them; Max, Scottie, and Katie."
You were going through old boxes, picking up a picture frame. You blew on the dust, wiping it a little. The picture was visible with three girls, each with a big grin; Mikey looking at you, you were in the middle with a big grin and leaning towards Jenna.
It wasn't clear then, but it's clear now. You hadn't looked back in years since you left, you couldn't look back.
"Scottie and Max had been friends for a long time, since they were twelve. Within those years, Max realized that she was falling for her dear friend. But she couldn't. Scottie never knew of Max's feelings for her, and those feelings were never reciprocated because Scottie relied too much on Max that she couldn't feel any sort of romance towards her."
There was a clatter, making you turn towards the sound. It was an old diary. You picked it up, flipping through the pages. You coughed a little at the dust, but on the faded paper was your messy handwriting.
You could barely make out all of the words, but seeing the dates, you had a sense of what you wrote about. You could see the tear stains wrinkling and marking some of the pages. A wave of nostalgia hit you as you remembered the days that you would cry to Mikey about anything and everything.
"One day, Max ended up working with Katie, introducing the girl to Scottie. She thought nothing of it, all she could hope is that it would be for the best. Katie knew about Max's feelings for Scottie, but she never knew how Scottie felt."
"Hey! Y/n!" Mikey waved you over, making you laugh and jog over to the girl. "This is my friend, and castmate, Jenna." You smiled Jenna, holding out your hand for her to shake. You couldn't deny the fact that she was the most beautiful person you had ever seen. You weren't sure if it was just your big gay lady boner, but you felt sparks.
"Nice to meet you." You ran a hand through your hair as the three of you fell into conversation, mainly you and Jenna getting to know each other. Mikey had a dreamy smile plastered on her face as she watched you excitedly get to know her friend.
"As time went on with the three of them, Scottie found herself slowly falling for Katie and since Scottie can't keep shit to herself, she told Max. It killed Max to hear that. But the thing about Max's feelings, she loved Scottie so much, she didn't care about being loved back, all she's wanted for Scottie was to be happy. So she helped the girl subtly hint at Katie, just to see if they could figure out if there were feelings being reciprocated."
"Mikey," You groaned, flopping into the other girl's arms. Her eyes widened as she felt her heart flutter. "Am I like, not taking a hint? Am I being oblivious?" Mikey almost let out a laugh at the irony, but she didn't.
"If you were, I would've told you." She brought you over to take a seat. "Maybe she's the one who's oblivious?" You shoved your face into the crook of her neck, not really sure how to feel about this whole ordeal. Was there something that you weren't seeing? Was Mikey hiding something from you?
"Mi-Max never realized how much of a big mess that it was, Katie knows about Max's feelings for Scottie, but didn't know about Scottie's feelings for her. Max has feelings for Scottie, but Scottie doesn't know that, there's also the fact that Max is fully aware of Scottie's feelings for Katie. It's a messed up triangle."
"That's such a fucking wack situation." Jasmin took a sip of her drink. Mikey had just spilled everything to the girl, she just couldn't keep it to herself anymore. "You know, Jenna's been texting her a lot recently."
Mikey furrowed her eyebrows, tilting her head as she began to be more curious. "And telling me that is important, why?" Jasmin shrugged before taking another sip.
"There's two possibilties, they're getting closer, or Jenna's reciprocating feelings. I think it's the first though, even if they're texting all the time." Mikey knew you well, so well, that she knew that you were going to get attached to you and Jenna texting all the time.
"Max had to watch her best friend grow attached to her and Katie texting, but she knew what was going to happen. Eventually Katie was going to pull away, and it was going to hurt her, but there was nothing that Max could do."
Your eyebrows were knitted together, your phone blank, nothing except for a few texts from Mikey. Your message was left on delivered. You decided to call Mikey. "Hey," From your tone, she could tell you were upset about something. "Um-" She already knew why you were calling her.
"Don't worry about her, y/n. She's just filming." It didn't ease your nerves.
You were leaning against the wall, head back as you glued your eyes shut. "Has she been filming for the past two days?"
Mikey sighs, seeing you slowly break down wasn't something that she wanted to see. "Y/n..." You didn't even notice how a tear managed to escape out of your eyes.
"No, no, she's probably tired from filming." You were lying to yourself, you both knew it. Mikey had no idea what to do. "I've been talking about her too much, what's going on with you?"
"One day, Scottie decides to visit them at their jobs, not just to check in on Katie, but to see her best friend." It was clear that you were thinking about it, a slight distressed look on your face. "She's at her final point, she can't keep going through this emotional rollercoaster. She's going to tell Katie about how she feels."
"Hey guys!" You smiled, greeting the cast. Most of them had a sense of why you were there, they were pitying you for what you were about to find out. "Where's Mikey?" They told you that she was at her trailer, so you surprised the girl.
Mikey opened her trailer door to see you, in the flesh. A wave of guilt washed over her as she engulfed you in the tightest hug. "I have to tell you something." She mumbled against your neck. You furrowed your eyebrows as you waddled into her trailer.
"Wait, I have to tell you something." She nodded, wanting you to go on. "I was thinking, I'm gonna tell Jenna." Her face changed, it was clear that there was something off now. "What?"
Mikey chewed onto her bottom lip. "About Jenna." Your phone pinged. You pulled it out to find a text from said girl.
'I'm a little busy. Could you come another time?' Was what it said. You and Mikey made eye contact.
'Ha, uh too late?' You responded, Mikey was watching you. 'I have to tell you something btw' There was no reply, only a small word at the bottom was there. 'Read at 14:54' You sighed, shutting off your phone and paying attention to Mikey again. "There's a reason why Jenna hasn't been texting you."
"Why?" Your voice low. You knew what the answer was, well you had a good guess.
"It was then that Max knew just how much Scottie truly loved Katie. When she would look back to all those times together, she finally noticed the glimmer in Scottie's eyes when she saw Katie, she noticed the way that she would talk about her."
"Oh." Your voice was shaky, you were on the verge of tears. "That makes a lot of sense." You smiled weakly, breaking Mikey's heart in the process. "I'm going to- I need to get home." You stood up, but Mikey stopped you by grabbing you by the wrist.
She pulled you towards her, kissing you softly. This was the one thing she's been wanting for years, but it doesn't feel the way she anticipated. She pulled away. "I'm sorry." She whispered, holding you tight before you broke down into tears.
"The worst part of it all wasn't the fact that Max's feelings wouldn't be reciprocated, like I said, all she's cared about was having Scottie happy. She could live with her feelings for Scottie being unreciprocated, she can't live with Scottie's feelings being unreciprocated."
"I'm an idiot." You were crying to Mikey once more. The girl held you close, not wanting to ever let go of you. "I'm such an idiot."
She rubbed your back softly. "It's going to be okay." She continued to repeat and comfort you.
"Because no matter how strong or how much she loved Katie, it'll never change the fact that she doesn't like girls."
The song came to it's close as the screen slowly turned off. You placed the guitar down. "Thank you so much for having me tonight!" You bowed before going off stage. You knew you were being obvious with the story, but no one would decipher the truth.
You were already getting calls and texts from everyone who was at the concert, but you turned off your phone.
Jenna sat in the crowd, unsure how to react. It had been years since you and her talked. She hasn't tried texting you since, and she was pretty sure that you weren't speaking to Mikey either.