geed | clairo

fourteen

jesse was once again our designated driver and joanne met us at the boot, with amelia and echo in tow. spencer and i were at the bar part of the club where we saw brady chatting up a bartender, most likely about golf since brady was wearing this year's golf team polo and was using his hands to do most of his talking for him.

"brady! what's poppin' bro?" shouted spencer from about ten feet away from brady. brady rushed over to us and gave us both hugs with his free arm.

"not much bro. paul, how you been?" returned brady.

"not too bad. i see you're quite ready for tonight," i joked, seeing as he was somewhat plastered already and had a drink in his hand.

"fuck yeah, i am! where's jesse?"

the three of us went to where jesse was before we left him only to see him dancing with joanne while amelia and echo were standing awkwardly together a few feet away from them.

"yo, that blue haired chick is the chick who organized that weird animal protest," slurred brady, pointing directly at echo. echo tucked a lock of hair behind her ear while avoiding eye contact with us.

"yo, i wanna talk to you. i'll buy you a drink!" continued brady, moving towards echo.

"hey, tell your friend to back off," said amelia, shifting herself to provide a shield from brady. spencer and i were speechless and unsure of what to do next.

"bro, chill. i-i wanna talk about the animals!" shouted brady.

"fine. if you buy me a drink, we can talk about the animals," said echo, shifting past amelia and walking towards brady. the two of them headed towards the bar, while brady kept rambling unintelligibly.

"god, if i had known being a drunken idiot would get girls to like me, i would've destroyed my liver by now," remarked spencer. we were left alone with amelia, who was wearing a cropped white t-shirt and black skinny jeans with adidas.

"so you're paul right? and you're spencer?" she asked, moving her finger as she said our names.

"yeah."

"spencer knight. and you are?" retorted spencer.

"amelia. you're the guy who used to sneak in through the back window and drink all of our chocolate milk," replied amelia, focusing on spencer before she turned to me.

"and you're the guy who ate all of lara's cupcakes and drives her to her performances," continued amelia.

"i think it's wonderful that we're all acquainted now," i said sarcastically, a small smile forming on my face.

jesse dropped me off at lara's house and per her text messages, i opened her front door and locked it for her and began the trek to her bedroom.

it was 1am and her room light was still on. lara sat on her bed, a journal in front of her and her guitar on her knee. she was wearing the same sweatshirt she had on last weekend when she spent the night at my house and a pair of blue striped pajama shorts. as i got closer to her, i realized that her eyes had dark circles under them and she looked incredibly sleep deprived.

"paul! come look at this!"'exclaimed lara. i took off my shoes and sat on her bed, holding her journal.

"that, um, record exec. he said he liked ladybug but he wanted me to make it longer, and-and check it out!" i began to read the extra lines and nodded in approval.

"i like it. a lot."

"paul, if i get this opportunity, i-i, it would be perfect! i can do what i love, i-i could travel and people could listen to my music. what's your dream?" rambled lara.