paper rings- phoebe bridgers

act, 1 ch: 1

May 21st, 2021, irl, (744 words).

☆★☆★☆★

The sound of a guitar and banjo rang throughout the bar. 3 women stood center-stage, the tallest had black hair and lips adorned with bright red lipstick. The shortest had tattoos that ran up both her arms, and a banjo that she held closely to her chest; plucking the strings as a platinum blonde played the guitar. She had a pair of sunglasses that sat on the bridge of her nose. The blonde one was definitely the prettiest of them all (in Val's opinion), but Thea would argue that the blacked-haired one took the spot.

By the time Scarlet and Benji had signed their band in, the 3 women seemed to have finished their set. So the midnights walked up to the stage, Val couldn't help but blush when the platinum blonde stuck out her hand.

"You guys were great," Val praised, shaking the girl's hand.

"Thank you; you performing?" the mystery-girl asked,

"Yeah, with my friends."

"Well good luck." she shook Val's hand and left with a smile.

♪♫♪♫♪♫♪

"You guys ready?" the blonde asked, standing on a make-shift stage the staff at the bar had made. She watched as Benji nodded, so they all got into places and wanted for Tom to pick the opening chords for 'State of Grace'. She couldn't help but watch the pretty girl from earlier, she had taken off her sunglasses and was making it painfully obvious that she was watching the blonde. But honestly? Val didn't care, because in that moment it felt like her boyfriend didn't exist and she didn't care that he was at home waiting for her. He was an asshole anyway.

♪♫♪♫♪♫♪

Once the set was finished the midnights walked up to get some drinks and something to eat only before the tattooed girl from earlier called out to them.

"Hey! Come over here!"

She walked up to them before slinging an arm around Thea.

"I'm Julien, That's Lucy," she pointed to the black-haired girl.

"And this is phoebe." She then pointed at the pretty girl.

"Well, I'm Benji or Ben. You've got your arm around Thea. This is Scarlet, Tom- her younger brother. And standing next to you is Valerie."

They all waved to each other, not really knowing what to talk about until Valerie finally spoke up,

"You guys want something to drink; On me." she asked, trying anything to make it less awkward.

The group gave their orders which gave Val the chance to escape, she always hated meeting people. Being friends with them wasn't a problem but going through the first stages for meeting someone; the small talk, not knowing what to talk about.

When she came back they were talking about the new album that her band had released.

"It was just released a month ago, and we couldn't be any prouder." Benji admitted while helping Val hand out the drinks.

"You guys have been in the industry long?".

Phoebe then spoke up, "Yeah, my debut was released in 2017, jb's in 2015 and luce in 2016."

The midnights all nodded, feeling grateful that they were talking to people who were so experienced.

"When'd you guys meet?" Tom questioned feeling genuinely curious about the group before him.

"Me and Jules met in 2016, and she met Phoebe like a month later. We went on tour together and formed Boygenius in 2018." Lucy said, watching the people before her.

The group then sat at the bar for what seemed to be hours, they talked about any and everything. They all talked like they were good friends, like they had known each other for years on end. Lucy's laugh could fill a room, Julien talked like she was a professor and phoebe? Well, phoebe was like an angel walking on earth.

After a couple hours (it only felt like a couple minutes), Scarlet could feel Thea's head resting against her shoulder, Tom saw this and decided to speak up.

"We should probably get going now. Maybe we could get your numbers?" Tom asked, trying not to be creepy or seem weird. Phoebe laughed before handing him a piece of paper, it had a couple numbers written on it.

"Message me when you guys get back and I'll add you all in a group chat."

And that was that. He took the number and smiled, the group then walked off. Taking their instrument's and Thea taking Val's mic.

☆★☆★☆★

Lexi's Lane
AHHHH!! the first chapter is out ofnchjfcujduchdh, so excited for y'all to read this omfg. also thanks for 195 reads wtf??