Girls Who Play Guitars

•who's a sooky la?•

~A COOL ALTERNATIVE SYDNEY RECORD STORE~

The crowd in the stuffy record store bustled in front of the table in an excited but orderly fashion. Slider's album pumped through the speakers and there was a general buzz of enthusiasm.

Ellie, Meg and Kim had been signing CDs, posters and body parts for three hours straight. Ellie's face ached from smiling and her ideas for meaningful comments and conversation ran out thirty minutes after they started. She had so much going through her mind; no time to organise her thoughts. They'd landed in Sydney and rushed from the airport to interviews and photoshoots and were now signing autographs before their Glue support slot that Ellie dreaded after reading the reviews.

Ellie smiled up at a girl with a pierced eyebrow and blonde cropped hair similar to her own.

"What's your name?" Ellie asked as the girl handed her a copy of Slider's 'Green' CD single with a shaky hand.

"J-Jules," the girl stammered, her cheeks turning a cute shade of pink. "I  ...  I love this song so much."

"Thank you," Ellie said, ready to scribble her name on the cover of the single in thick black pen.

"You guys are so cool. You  ...  you're so cool," Jules continued, finding her confidence. She pointed a trembling finger at the CD single. "Can you leave room so Kim and Meg can sign it too?"

Ellie scribbled her name in smaller text across the song title and handed it back.

"Thanks," Jules gushed, gripping the single to her chest as she moved to Meg, who sat next to Ellie, slamming down coffee after coffee.

Meg was totally wired and trying not to get grumpy with the fans, but it was wearing thin. "I'm busting for smoko," she grumbled, scrawling her name on the CD Jules handed her. "Hey, cool piercing." She grinned up at Jules. "Got a cig?" Jules blushed a deeper shade of pink and she pulled a crumpled packet of Marlboro Lights out of the pocket of her black jeans.

"Legend," Meg breathed, grabbing the cigarettes and pushing her chair back. "Kim, come outside for a cig with me and—" she glanced up.

"Jules."

"Come for a smoke," Meg said to Jules, before turning to Ellie. "We'll only be five. Sign our names for us."

Kim pushed her chair back and left with Meg without speaking to Ellie, who watched as they sidled out through the back door, an awestruck Jules trailing behind.

Ellie turned back to the growing queue and waited while a guy with a shaved head dragged his Slider t-shirt off over his head. He laid it out on the table, flattening the creases out with his tattooed hands. "Mate, sorry, sorry, it's all I've got," he grinned at Ellie. He had a huge tattoo of the Australian flag across his chest. Ellie chuckled, signing the t-shirt as best she could with the pen she had. The guy picked up the t-shirt, admired it, then pulled it back over his head. Ellie smiled as he stepped away, giving her an awed grin, smoothing his t-shirt with both hands.

A cassette tape appeared on the table in front of her.

Another copy of the rare Slider demo tape they'd seen the other day - with Jessie on vocals. It had three songs: the very first—and very unproduced—versions of 'Green', 'North' and 'No Absolution', their biggest hits.

"Oh, hey, weird." Ellie turned the tape over in her hands. "This is the second one of these I've seen in two days. Where'd you get it?"

She pulled the cap off her pen with her teeth, lifted her eyes and her entire body shuddered.

Everything about Jessie was exactly as Ellie remembered. Dressed in a long, silk slip-dress in a shade of pink that reminded Ellie of Meg's childhood Barbie collection, Jessie's white lace bolero top accentuated her curvy figure. She was striking. Luminous. She always had been. Candy floss lips and girl-next-door innocence in a voluptuous package tied up with pretty pink bows, but underneath was a savage narcissist, waiting to sink her fangs into unsuspecting victims.