Chapter 1
Crystal isn’t the biggest fan of concerts to begin with. She had never entertained them before that night when Jan begged and pleaded at her door step to come. One Night in Miami, the event had been called and Crystal could not have dreamed for anything less. One night was far too long to spend around that many people, around that much loud music. One minute she was stood in the hallway of her parents’ house in a nightgown and slippers, and the next she was wearing an unbreathable black dress stood at the bar and gripping onto Jan for dear life. It had all happened so fast, persuaded by the notion that Crystal always missed out on things because she was far too lazy to attend. Jan could not have been more different than the young Brunette , thriving independently from social interaction and living on her own two miles away on the outside of Seattle. They had only been friends because Crystal drove to pick her friend up from a party that Jan happened to be at. She threw up in the back of Crystal’s car on the other friends lap and slept in Crystal’s bed. They’d been there for each other ever since. All of this had more than lead up to the night of the concert, the night that would change Jan and Crystal’s lives forever, and the night that would ensure nothing was ever the same again.
“So, why are we here?”
“We’re here to see Excalibur.”
“I don’t know who that is.” Crystal sighed, taking her drink from Jan. “What’s this?”
“Doesn’t matter, Crystal, stop with the questions.” Jan gently touched her friends face. It saddened her that Crystal had to be forced to enjoy herself but saddened her even more that Crystal had not long entered her twenties and had no memories, and no stories to tell.
“You look so pretty.” Jan smiled. “Just enjoy your night.”
Crystal sighed and looked back out into the crowd she had just came from. Everyone had already grouped together at the centre of the stage, all sweaty and congregated. It wasn’t her place to be here, she thought, suddenly experiencing another calling for home.
“There’s a band on tonight I think you’d like.” Jan suddenly brought up, pulling out the concert flier. She un-crumpled the piece of paper that had been in her jacket pocket for days and pointed at a name that stood tall directly in the middle of the page.
“The Campers?” She asked.
“Yeah. They’re kind of indie punk.” Jan replied. “I think you’d like them a lot.”
This did not increase Crystal’s desire to stay even microscopically. Her drink tasted like gasoline and the chanting had begun. The smaller woman leant her head on Jan’s shoulder and sighed again.
“Come on, beautiful.” The woman chuckled, snaking one arm around Crystal’s waist. “try and enjoy your night. After this, we can go Chic Fil A.”
This notion held Crystal over the night until they had pushed themselves the front of the venue and managed to grasp on for dear life at the barrier. Jan had been dancing and enjoying herself with every other person in the entire world that night, and Crystal supposed she felt more alone than ever. It felt like the room was divided, and she was on whatever side was having less fun and only wanted to go home.
“Hey, Cris!” Jan shouted down the girl’s ear. “It’s that band you wanted to see!”
Crystal, who had been moping over the barrier like a small scolded dog, glanced up to see a black-haired woman fill the stage with her band and a small stand of guitars. Suddenly, she stood correctly and was interested. Suddenly, she cared. This girl, whose looks the whole band could rely on, was the most beautiful person Crystal had ever seen. She was a tallish build, with a long, dark face that was both handsome as it was delicate. And the way she carried herself, Crystal could not believe everyone in the room that night wasn’t there just to see her.
“You guys are fucking beautiful.” She moaned into the mic. Her voice was deep and raspy, and sounded to Crystal the way kisses felt. It was not often she was affected by someone, but it was easy to say that she was simply enthralled by the woman before her. Everything about her just filled the room. “We are The Campers.”
The music she played didn’t matter much to Crystal. It was enough to watch her dance around the stage and strum on her purple guitar, breathing her words and giving the crowd what they came for.
“I wanna see you go all kind of crazy tonight.” she breathed again, gripping the mic with her left hand and keeping the neck of her guitar in her right. Crystal had heard about the phenomenon many times before, how you can see someone and know your life is going to be different forever. She never imagined it would be like this, however, with thousands of different people but feeling like the only person in the entire world.
The train of thought Crystal had created in her mind about the mystery that danced and swayed in front of her was cut short when Jan grappled her arm. The larger woman even leapt out to her side in an attempt to stabilise the small girl, but it was already much too late. Crystal had already taken the punch to the face and was lying flat on the ground, wondering what just happened. She didn’t remember much from that point, only the pattern on the stars in the night sky and the vague sense of throbbing around her temples and nose. All of this clouded her memory, along with Jan’s pleading to make room.
“Crystal, are you okay?” She heard over the screech of the crowd. “Oh God, she’s bleeding! Get security! Get someone, fucking quickly!”
“Is she okay?” Gigi had stopped the show and had since climbed up onto a speaker to see out into the crowd. She would be lying if she said she had not noticed the girl standing in the group of dancing maniacs, doing not much but standing still. She was pretty, yes, but was even more pretty now with her nose bloody and tears on her face.
“Get her out!’ The taller girl screamed from the stage. “Get her out! Make some fucking room, get her out!”
The small Brunette , faint as she was, was easily hoisted over the shoulder of the barrier security and was dragged away, pushed and shoved through four different large men.
“Hey!” Gigi shouted again. “Don’t push her. She’s fucking hurt. No-one gets treated like that at my shows.”
The dark-haired girl stepped down off the speaker in time to see Crystal walk in the arms of much taller man into the under area of the stage. She was left in the remnants of the girl’s presence, wondering if she was alright and wondering if she would ever see her again in equal amounts.
With Jan back in the crowd, Gigi tried to let the moment go and tried to keep up her act. She persisted with the fact that she had done all she could do and the girl just off hand would be fine. The images of the girl she had just saved consumed her, she had been so beautiful and so concerning. Her disorientated face as she had been yanked from her surroundings. It was all Gigi could think about. She couldn’t play, and she couldn’t even think about her words. So much of that room was Crystal now.
“Gigi!” Heidi spoke through gritted teeth, prancing over with her guitar in hand. “You’re fucking everything up for us. What’s going on with you?”
“Heidi, I gotta cut this short. I’m sorry.” Gigi covered her microphone and ducked under her guitar, placing it on the floor.
“Gigi, stop!” Heidi shouted for her as she ran off, waving to the crowd. She knew the band would have no idea what to do without her, and to be honest, Gigi had no idea what she was doing either, driven entirely by passion.
“Woah, woah, Gigi.” a man leapt from the wing and grappled the woman who immediately struggled to be free. “You’re supposed to be on stage.”
Gigi didn’t even look to see who it was holding her down, knowing that each second she was stood back there was another second of this mysterious girl slipping through her fingers.
“I need to see that girl that just left. Let me go.”
“I’m sorry, you’re booked to perform for another half hour. You need to finish the set.” He came again.
“Let me do what I’m fucking doing.” She shook him off with force and barged her way across the stage, letting everyone in a small radius knowing she had something to do and somewhere to be. Crystal stood at the very corner of the backstage area alone, and when Gigi caught sight of her, the entire world stopped around her. The whole world reduced to that room, and to that moment. Gigi earnestly had no other intentions in the world.
“Hey.” She smiled, gently as not to startle the girl. “I saw you get pretty bashed up before. Are you doing okay?”
“Were you the one that hit me?”
“No.” Gigi chuckled. “I was performing, actually. I didn’t think I could let you go home without a sincere apology.”
“Oh.” Crystal sniffled, moving the bloody tissue under her nose. “Well, I’m okay. I’m apparently concussed, whatever that means. I don’t think I got hit that hard.”
“Your bloody face says different.” Gigi shoved her hands into her pockets, only to have to remove them quickly to catch Crystal as she gently stumbled forward.
“I feel a little dizzy.”
The brunette smelt like vanilla and good ideas, Gigi thought. There was the immediate impression that when she wasn’t suffering a head injury, she was a sensible girl who looked after her friends, and who had no idea how to act without them.
“Come on, let’s get you some fresh air.”
For years after this incident occurred, Crystal was more than glad that her concussion was all she could think about. If she’d have put any thought to the way Gigi was holding her, the way she kept touching her by accident as they walked side by side, the world would’ve fell apart around her.
Gigi had lead Crystal outside to the smoking area where no one was stood, and where the flood lights held remnants of cigarettes long smoked and conversations long had. The small brunette took her designated space on the little wall, feeling sickness wash over in two separate waves. She had no idea what time it was, or what time it had been when she arrived, but did know that the sky had long turned black and the night was coming alive with a strange elegance. She could feel this even through her illness.
“Here, let me get that.” Gigi sat on the floor with a cigarette in one hand, reaching for Crystal’s bloody tissue with the other.
“You smoke?”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.” Crystal replied, making Gigi giggle. “What’s your name?”
“Gigi.”
“That’s a strange name. Is it real? like from your parents?” “Yes, it’s real.” Gigi laughed again. “What’s your name?” “Crystal.”
“That’s a really pretty name.” Gigi suddenly sat up on her knees to be closer to the girl’s face. Her eyes were deep set into her circular face, and her cheekbones were set high. She looked like a model under the lights, Gigi thought, and nothing was nearly as pretty as she was right now.
“Thank you.” Crystal sighed, allowing one of her hands to rub her temple. “It was the most common name in Seattle the year I was born.”
“Oh, so you’re from these parts?” “Yes. You’re familiar?”
“With Seattle?” Gigi questioned, removing the tissue from under Crystal’s nose. “You should be alright now. Yeah, I would say so. I’ve been a couple of times with this band, a little more with the last.”
“The last?” “Well, before this whole thing, it was just me and Heidi in my dad’s basement, travelling back and forth between Seattle and Pennsylvania to do local shows.”
Crystal noted how Gigi’s eyes lit up when she was talking about her band, and how noticeably from the outside she loved what she did.
“That’s really interesting.”
“it’s a fine fact.” Gigi watched as Crystal tried to remove the dry blood from across her face, probably wondering how it had gotten there in the first place. “So, tell me, Crystal, what do you do?”
“I recently quit my job.” She sniffled. She felt disgusting, honestly. But Gigi was looking at her with such delicate precision that was undeniably comforted by the moment they were sharing. “I was a secretary. A secretary to the CEO of a clothing company. It was bad, and I wanted to have the best summer of my life, so I quit.” “Sounds like a bold move for a girl like you.” Gigi rested back on the wall.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Crystal gently shoved Gigi’s shoulder in a giggle.
“Nothing.” Gigi smiled. “You seem very reserved. Even before when we were on stage, you weren’t dancing round like your friend….uhm…” “Jan?” Crystal asked.
“Yeah, I think so.’ “She’s a lot livelier than I am.” Crystal sighed again, as if she had faced this occurrence many times before, and as if she was about to have Gigi ask for Jan’s phone number instead. “We’re very different people.” “You don’t see yourself that way?”
“I’ve never told anyone this before, but I envy Jan for everything she has ever been.” Crystal watched her fidgeting hands writhe about her lap. “She says everything right and could have anything or anyone she wanted out of life. She’s beautiful, and she’s charismatic. I would kill to be like her.”
“Hey.” Gigi smiled softly. She clambered back up onto her knees between Crystal’s legs, and moved a strand out of hair out of her eyes. “You’re a lovely girl, Crystal. I think you have more than enough charisma to get what you want out of life, who you want out life.”
“I feel like I’ve known you my entire life.” Crystal accidentally sighed, in the intensity of the room. They would have kissed, as the universe no doubt had planned, if Heidi had no abruptly swung the door open and sighed at the girls who sat no more than four meters away.
“Hello stranger.” “Hey, Heidi.” Gigi coughed, getting to her feet. “Good show?”
“Shut up, Gigi, you asshole.” The other woman laughed. “Come on. It’s tour bus time.”
“Wait, Gigi.” The Brunette suddenly grabbed for the other woman’s hand. “Don’t go. Stay in Seattle with me.”
Gigi chuckled looking at the girl who clung onto her hand as if her life depended on it. She wasn’t one for settling down, and perhaps it was the strange turn the night had taken, but it is Gigi’s largest regret that she did not agree to stay in Seattle that night. Things could have been so different for both of them.
“You know I can’t do that.” She laughed.
“Bring her with. We can just drop her off tomorrow. God knows we’ve got enough time on our hands.” Heidi butted in, crossing her arms and leaning in the doorway. It was not often Crystal got chances like this and was ready to cling to anything that gave her the idea of joy.
“Don’t walk away without me.”
“Okay, Crystal, come on.” The taller girl pulled up her smaller component and began to walk back through the building. “Do you need to call someone? Jan? Your parents?”
“No.” Crystal answered. “They trust me.”
“One night with ‘The Campers’.” Heidi chuckled. “We could have sold something like that in the newspapers.”
The tour bus sat cool in the parking lot of the venue. It was nothing like Crystal had ever seen before in her life. She had heard about things like this in magazines, and in books, but never imagined it could be happening to her on a Thursday night in the middle of her hometown.
“Mind your step, sweetheart.” Gigi kept tight hold of the Brunette ’s hand as Crystal followed Heidi up the steps and onto the bus. The sad knowledge that she would have to go home tomorrow, and the pair would be left on a light romance brought the night to its bittersweet ends.
“Jackie, Widow.” Heidi announced as the shorter girl stumbled aboard the bus. “This is Crystal, Gigi’s new wife for the evening. She got punched in the face and now Gigi is indebted to her forever.
“Heidi, shut up.” Gigi snapped, playfully. “She had nowhere to go and I couldn’t leave her at the venue.”
“And I have a concussion.” Crystal interrupted, causing Jackie to stifle a laugh from her position on the couch just diagonal.
“And she has a concussion.” Gigi repeated. “I think we’re ready for bed.”
“You do this every tour.” Jackie sighed. “I give it less than twenty four hours.”
“I’m being helpful.” Gigi excused, pushing Crystal through to the bedroom just in time to not hear the other girls reply to the statement. Her room was messy, and her bed unmade, but the current state Crystal was in had Gigi believing that she couldn’t have cared less, and just wanted tonight to be over.
“If you need me, I’ll just be on the couch outside.” She watched the girl clamber into the bedsheets without hesitation. Gigi’s heart was beating out her chest just watching her, she began to wonder if everyone else on the bus could hear it thumping her ribcage down.
“Gigi?” The brunette came quietly, just as the other girl was ready to leave the room.
“Yes?” “Thank you for saving my life.” “I wouldn’t go that far.” Gigi laughed.
“Just say you’re welcome and stop interrupting my sleep.”
“Okay. You’re welcome. I’m sorry.” She held back a laugh and left the room, leaving Crystal sound asleep in her bed. That night, Gigi couldn’t remove the thoughts of Crystal. They stained her entire thought process, and left her there, on the middle of a tour bus at 4am on a Friday morning, just begging for something more to come of it, even if no one around her believed it was going to last.