White Carnations (Again)
Later that day, Lynn texted Ashley a link to the song. “here’s the song I played you earlier, in case you wanna listen to it again sometime,” she typed, and attached an image: a scan of a flyer for her next show. It would be nerve-wracking to have Ashley watching her perform, but since singing was an important part of Lynn’s life and she thought Ashley might enjoy the show, Lynn went for it. A few minutes later, her phone beeped and Lynn saw a message from Ash: “thanks babe! i’ll be there for sure.”
Lynn practiced hard, even scheduling a couple extra rehearsals over the next week so that the show would be perfect. When the day finally rolled around, Lynn was full of anxiety for her entire shift, and it didn’t go away afterwards, while she got ready for the show. It was stupid, really. Ashley liked the first song Lynn showed her; there was no reason to believe she wouldn’t like the rest. Of course, this didn’t help very much.
An hour or two later, Lynn was backstage, desperately trying to track down her bandmates before they went on in fifteen minutes. If they could just stay backstage, but no, they had to go out into the audience to enjoy the other bands. Well, if they weren’t back on time, that was their problem. Not that Lynn could really do much without a band. As she debated between rounding them up and hauling them into places and saying fuck it all, she felt a hand on her shoulder.
“I hope it’s okay that I’m back here,” Ashley said, holding a bouquet of white carnations, the same kind Lynn had gotten the very first day she met Ashley. “These are for you, although it’d probably be better if I held onto them until after the show.” Ashley laughed, and Lynn leaned in and kissed her. She relaxed into Ash’s arms, ignoring the rest of the world, even when her guitarist started throwing crumpled paper at her and talking about how there were 5 minutes until they went on. Finally, Lynn broke off the kiss, squeezed Ashley’s hand, and walked onstage.
The microphone was intimidating, but Lynn walked up to it like she had been playing shows her whole life, although really they’d only started doing public gigs a few months ago. She looked out to the audience for a second, then glanced backstage at where Ashley had been standing.
“Hello! Before we start our show tonight, I wanna dedicate this to anyone who’s out there and who’s thinking about how in love with someone they are, cause that’s what this first song is about. This is called Aqua Blue.” The intro to the song started, and Lynn took one last look into the audience. Ashley was there, smiling so beautifully that Lynn had to look away for fear that she’d forget how her own song went.
Throughout the show, Lynn caught small glimpses of Ashley during the set. She was so beautiful, and Lynn was so in love. As soon as the show ended, Lynn rushed off stage. She packed up her equipment and walked over to Ashley.
“That was amazing!” Ashley was talking loudly to be heard over the next band, and Lynn didn’t even bother replying. She just kissed Ashley, picking up where they left off before Lynn went onstage. Throughout the night, they spent more and more time getting physical with each other, until they left together. Ashley’s apartment was only a few blocks from the club, so they walked, holding hands excitedly until they were inside.