I guess I should start at the beginning. My name's Samantha, but everyone calls me Sam. I'm from a small town in rural Wisconsin, and had a pretty normal life. I was born in the 80s, so I was a true 90s child, not like these fake 90's kids I see. You'd think growing up in rural Wisconsin that I was some type of country girl, but that couldn't be further from the truth. My style was always darker, some call it goth, some call it emo. I guess when you grow up with nothing around you and your life seems bleak and depressing you fall into that group, wearing dark clothes, chronically depressed, listening to emo rock bands of the early 2000s.
I never really fit in at school, since most of the people were either preppy bitches trying to be the blond valley girls from Cali or the athletes. And on the other side were the country people who just didn't get any other type of lifestyle. In between was me, geeky little Sam. Luckily I had a couple of close friends who shared my style and outlook on life. Despite what both of those groups thought, just because we were emo, didn't mean we went home and cut ourselves. We just wanted to live a different life than the one we had and we looked for ways to escape our reality.
One of the things my friends and I always enjoyed doing was going into the city for concerts and underground raves. I didn't have my license through highschool so I always had to hitch a ride with my friend Rachel. She came from a well off family, and had her own car since she turned 16. So all throughout highschool, she was the chauffeur, and most days you could find us driving around the country roads shouting along to our favorite bands, smoking cigarettes or the occasional joint if Rachel could get any from her older brother.
Anyways, I'm getting side tracked, concerts! We went to so many concerts. Despite having to drive over an hour away to get to the city, it was always worth it. My parents were so strict, and I often had to lie that I was staying at Rachel's. But the fact that one of our favorite groups was playing a Friday show was a real treat. Normally the smaller no-named bands played during the week, which made it harder to see them on school nights. And when the head liner didn't start until 10pm, you knew you weren't going to make it home until 2 or 3am. But being a weekend show, it was much easier to convince my parents that I would spend the weekend at Rachel's.
We drove into the city first thing after school let out, leaving behind all of the hicks, who gave us weird looks, wondering why we were so happy. Rachel and I did our typical concert routine and smoked a celebratory bowl on the way down, trading off playing songs, making sure not to play any from the band we were seeing that night! When we finally got into the city we had to park in the sketchy part of town because there wasn't much parking near the concert venue. We didn't mind as long as we were together, but I don't know if I could have done much to protect Rachel, or her much to protect me. I was barely 5'2" and weighed less than 100 pounds, Rachel was a little taller at 5'6" but somehow I suspected we wouldn't do much to any would be attackers.
As we approached the venue, we saw other concert goers, mostly highschool and college aged boys and girls, wearing various band shirts, dyed hair, dark makeup, piercings, tattoos, you know the lot. I was wearing black vans, my favorite pair of low riding skinny jeans and a black 'Underoath' band shirt that was a little too small and hugged my chest and exposed my midriff slightly. Normally I don't wear that tight of shirts, but it was the last shirt the merch counter had at their last show, so I had to get it. Other girls would probably say it fit just right.
We lingered around and checked out what merch was available at this show, and what we would have to come back to buy at the end of the night. The first two opening bands were ok, we listened and got in the mood, but we really were there to see the headliner, The Devil Wears Prada.
Rachel pulled me aside, "OMG Sam, I see Dylan over there." Dylan was Rachel's ex. Just as I looked over where she was motioning, I saw Dylan look my way and acknowledge us, he smirked and gestured to a guy standing next to him.
"Rachel he's coming over here!"
"Ughhhh... ok act like we didn't notice him." It was never clear to me if she broke up with him or if he broke up with her. Dylan worked his way through the crowd with the other guy in tow.
Dylan came up behind Rachel, wrapping an arm around her stomach and pulling her back against him. "Hey babe."
"Omg, Dylan, you didn't tell me you were going to be at this show." Rachel turned around acknowledging him, talking directly to him, as he slid his hands around her hips pulling her to him. Dylan leaned down and kissed her neck, in a more than friendly way. I guess they worked things out?
"You know that The Devil Wears Prada is my favorite Band, you got me into them."
I cleared my throat, a little disappointed that Rachel so quickly forgot she came here with me. "Oh hey Sam, how you doing?" Dylan nodded to me. "This is my friend Zach, he lives here with a bunch of dudes and is having a house party after the show. You girls should come by."
Just now I remembered that there was another person here, Zach. As my eyes caught his, I was a little embarrassed. He was clearly a little older than us, he had a short solid scruff of facial hair and I could see a sleeve of tattoos peeking out from his shirt. His shirt was a simple black T, but I could see he was fairly muscular underneath. He must have been in college at the university here. As I was lost in thought, I snapped back to reality, and the three of them were staring at me. Apparently Zach had reached out his hand and was introducing himself, and I was just standing there staring at him.
"Oh, sorry, I'm Sam, Rachel's friend."
"Pleasure, I'm Zach. You girls enjoying the show so far?"
"I will once TDWP comes on."