Staged (a Clairo fan fiction)

Ulterior Motives

"So what are you planning on doing here." I ask while we fly down the street. She had taken the roof of the convertible down this morning, so my hair is plastered in every which way on the seat.
"We're going out, what else." She yells over the roaring wind.
"So what are you trying to do, you know i'm not twenty one."
"Don't worry baby girl, I'll handle it all."
"But YOU'RE not twenty one either."
"Who said I have to be twenty one to have fun?" She says with a smile

I sigh and lean back into my seat. I haven't seen her in a while, but I remember this at least. Hanna has always felt likes she's above the law. Looks like that hasn't changed.

"Hanna, our nineteen year old asses aren't getting into a club or a bar."
"YOUR nineteen year old ass. I'm twenty. And who said anything about a club or a bar?"
I sigh again and lean back. Whatever she's pulling isn't going to be good.

We get closer to our destination as I start to pick up blaring music; I can't make out any words, but the music beat is really familiar. The sound of screaming people enters my hearing range. Oh great, a house party. But during the day? I squint to try and see what awaits us, as her car turns into a neighborhood. After a minute of driving through the cookie cutter houses, the music starts to become more clear, and I realize why I recognize what they're playing.

"Oh my god. Hanna. You didn't!"
"I did." She responds coyly with a smile
I throw my arms around her, and she squeezes back for a second before hurriedly throwing me off.
"Calm down cowboy, I still have to drive us there."

I bounce up and down in my seat while the lyrics I wrote and melodies I recorded pour out of the speakers, perfectly unfolding in just the way I intended. I don't know how she did it, but people are blasting my unreleased album. And from the sounds of laughter and screaming, it seems like they're liking it.

As soon as she stops, I jump out of the car. The house is large, with people spilling out of every edge. Everyone is dancing and talking; it seems like a fairly tame and normal party. Well, as far as I know. I haven't really been to many.
Any other details about the house and it's guests went unnoticed because I could only focus on my voice in the air: my words in everyone's ears.

"Come with me Eve."
Hanna grabs my hand and drags me into the house. I let myself be pulled along. We pass the front hall and enter a large living room with an impressively large fireplace in the center. She takes me in front of the fireplace where another girl is sitting.

"Kira!" Hanna yells
"Hanna, your back! Is this your girl?"
"Yep, In the flesh!"
"Hi, I'm Eve." I awkwardly put in.
"Get her up here." She says to Hanna, ignoring me completely.
I am grabbed again and yanked onto the hearth, where a microphone is shoved into my face. The volume of my music is turned down when Kira starts to speak.

"How we feeling tonight?" Kira screams into the microphone. Everyone cheers.
"Are we enjoying the music?" Once again, the crowd responds with screams of joy. A smile creeps over my face.
"Well what if we told you, that the singer was here with us today?" Hanna announces. The crowd goes wild, "everyone, meet Eve!"
She hands me the mic as the group explodes with noise and applause, but I can no longer hear them. All I can hear is the sound of my heart beating. Doesn't Hanna know better than to stick me in front of a crowd without warning? Why didn't she tell me Kira would make me do something like this? My breathing intensifies as I look into the crowd of curious faces.

"Say something!" Somebody shouts. I open my mouth but nothing comes out of it. My breaths stagger, and I can't help but shake. I look over at Hanna and Kira for guidance.
"She's a little bit shy." Hanna says quietly into her mic. Kira puts her face in her hands.
You can do this Eve. Focus.
I hold my eyes shut tightly for a moment.
An opportunity is only an opportunity if you take it. I have to take it.
"Hi. I'm Eve. I'm here in LA to work on music, and my friend Hanna here dragged me to this party." People giggle. "I'm going to put out new music very soon, which you guys can check out. A lot of it, you've heard here today. You've been partying to a a bunch of my unreleased music. Who thinks I should it all put out on an album?"
Everyone goes wild.
Kira glares at me. Time to finish up I guess.
"Okay, well, enjoy!"

"What was that." Kira snaps as she pulls me off the makeshift stage, the first time she's acknowledged my existence.
"Uh, I talked to the crowd?" I respond, warily
She rolls her eyes. "You seriously thought you were just supposed to talk to the crowd? Hanna you told her, right?" Hanna glances over at her guiltily.
"You didn't tell her did you."
Hanna shakes her head slowly. No, she didn't.
"You didn't think i'd throw a whole ass party just to play the songs of some nobody, did you? The plan was for you to come up here and talk about Clairo. Talk about her now, get her to play at my next party? Is none of this ringing a damn bell?" Kira spits
"Clairo?" I've never heard that name before.
"Oh my god. You didn't even tell her." Kira repeats dumbfounded
"What didn't she tell me?"
"The headliner of your show is CLAIRO!"
"Huh?"
"Oh my god, you don't even know who she is. Of course you don't. Hanna was lying. You can't get clairo to play for us. You don't know her. What a fucking waste of fifty bucks." Kira finishes as she walks away. The music quickly changes from mine, to some generic radio station.

"What the hell is she talking about Hanna?"
Hanna bites her lip.
"She just wants people to think she's popular." She stammers.
"Oh my god I'm so confused Hanna, I don't understand."
"She said that she'd play your music for hundreds of people! That's all I heard! The rest doesn't matter, all these people liked it! Isn't that the only thing that's important here?" Hanna explains. Then it all starts to make sense.
"You sold me out? On the off chance I might know some Clara girl or something? This is the opposite of the fresh start I wanted here! How could you?"
"I'm sorry... Eve, I-" I don't let her finish, I just walk away towards the door. When I actually thought she was doing something nice for once. No, she's still the same old selfish Hanna, looking for whatever small payoff she can get.