Song: Kaleidoscope - Chappell Roan
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My body was dripping with sweat as I ran down from Cinema 18's low-side to high-side hallway. Outside, the storm continued to boom, and the emergency lights flickered on in the building.
I weaved through the crowd of angry guests and rushed into auditorium nine. The screen was off, and the crowd of customers there were rising up from their seat.
I pulled out my walkie and spoke into it. "Picture and sound are off in nine."
Then I turned to the guests.
"Everyone, please remain seated!" I said loudly but firmly over the noise of dissent. "We are working to get the screens up and running again. We appreciate your patience."
"Working on nine now," Katie, one of the three assistant managers on shift, said over the walkie.
"What's the status on seven?" Owen, my usher partner for today, asked.
We waited for a response, but none came.
"Who's working on seven?" Katie asked.
"I'm on eight right now," Lewis, the second manager replied.
The screen turned on, and I winced at the boom of sound that cracked on. The audience began shouting demands, and I gestured for them to lower their voices.
"Sound and picture are back on in nine," I said into the walkie. "They want to rewind back fifteen minutes."
The screen blinked off for a moment before flicking back on to an earlier scene. The customers erupted into cheers and claps, and I rushed out of the auditorium and into the next one.
"Fuck, Lloyd was supposed to be on seven," Lewis said.
Lloyd was the lead assistant manager, but he was also the most useless one.
"Well, where is he now?" Katie asked irately.
"Not here," Lewis answered. "Hold on, I'll get seven after eight."
"There's picture in ten but no sound," I said and looked around the auditorium. "No guests though. I'll move on to the next."
About forty-five minutes later, all the screens had been fixed, and all that was left to do was to deal with the angry guests in the lobby. Lloyd had come back half-way through, claiming that he was on a smoke break. Based on his red shot eyes, we knew it wasn't just a regular smoke break.
"You're going to be about thirty minutes behind for each finish time for the next two hours," Katie told me in the managers' office after we were finished. Lloyd and Lewis were off doing damage control while Katie was drawing up a report in the office.
"Great," I said dryly.
"Grab one of the concession people if you need an extra hand," she said and then sighed deeply. Her fingers were pulling at her blonde ponytail, a sign of her distress.
"Hey." I spun her chair around, and she closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. "You're doing a great job."
Katie was the most competent managers out of the six that we had, but due to connection, Lloyd took the role of the lead assistant manager. Everyone knew Katie deserved the title, and we all treated her like it. She was everyone's favorite manager, but I, of course, had more reasons for it.
"Lloyd is such a fucking ass," she muttered.
I laughed and then leaned in and kissed her lips gently. She pressed hers firmly against mine and reached up to caress my cheek. I was aware of how unprofessional it was to be kissing my boss, who was also ten years older than me, but she was so attractive with her straight blonde hair and heart-shaped lips. The first day here, I had looked into her light brown eyes, which had been filled with so much warmth, and immediately knew I was fucked. I just didn't expect her to like me as well, but it had only taken five minutes, locked in a dark closet during a power outage for me to find out.
"Will you be able to stay back tonight?" she asked after I pulled away.
"I have a show tonight, but I can come by afterwards. Noah's spending the night at a friend's," I said.
"Good," she murmured and leaned in for another kiss.
"The lights in the kitchen are doing a weird thing," Lloyd's voice rang through our walkies. "It just turned off."
Katie sighed against my lips. "I hate him."
"There's a button in the back," Lewis replied. "Just hit the--actually no, I'll do it. Don't touch anything."
I chuckled and then backed towards the door. "I'm gonna go do my job now."
"Yeah, yeah." She waved me off with a smile. "I'll see you tonight."
I gave her a wink before heading out into the mess that awaited me.
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As soon as my shift ended at six, I changed out of my uniform and into my performance clothes, which consisted of loose black trousers tightened with a black belt and a black vest buttoned over a lacy bra.
I drove to the Killer Whale bar, which was my band's performance spot for the night and fixed up my makeup in the car while I waited for my band to arrive.
They arrived not too long after. I grabbed my electric guitar and met them at the van.
"How was work?" Sadie, the drummer, asked. She had decided to keep her curly hair down today and wore a blue flannel over a simple tank and loose jeans.
"Hell," I answered. "The power went out."
"Again?" Laura, our bassist, said. She was also my ex. "Isn't that like the third time this year?"
"Fourth," I said as I helped unload equipment from the van.
She raised a brow, and I shrugged. Our on and off relationship had gone on for two years before we ended things after a long overdue explosive argument. She had been my first serious relationship but also the most tumultuous, and when we ended things finally, the band had almost fallen apart. It only took Sadie locking us in Alex's basement, where we did our practices, for Laura and I to talk things out and settle on being friends. After we argued and threw things around for an hour straight, of course.
She was still stubborn as shit and wild like fire, but I was glad to still have her as a friend. A friend that I slept with sometimes, though not for the last seven months now that I was having sex with Katie.
My love life was a mess.
"Dude, that place is like bad luck," Alex, our second guitarist, said as she climbed off the van with her guitar in hand. Her wavy, blonde hair was streaked with pink and braided into a long tail behind her back. She was dressed in a pink crop and black leather pants. "Like really bad luck."
"I'm actually surprised the place hasn't caught on fire," Sadie said casually.
My eyes widened, and I snapped my head towards her. "Please don't say that."
She merely smirked and wheeled her drum set into the bar.
"Don't worry," Laura said as she followed Sadie. "If the building catches on fire, then at least the rain will put it out."
I glared at her, and she laughed. Alex opened her mouth, but I put my hand up. "Please don't say anything."
She closed her mouth, and smiled sheepishly before heading inside. Sighing, I followed them.
-----
The Killer Whale was brimming with weekend energy as we set up on stage. There was already a steady stream of customers coming in and out of the bar, and I felt my body growing with excitement.
Performing always gave me a thrill, and despite whatever I felt before, it was always swept away by that thrill. I knew my bandmates were also growing excited by the large crowd.
We had agreed to a three-hour session for tonight, and I ran over the setlist one more time as I hydrated.
Then, when everything was set up, I stepped up to the mic with my guitar.
"Hello, we are The Daydreamers," I announced to the crowd. "This first one is called Sunset Holiday. Enjoy."
Then we began.
By the second song, we had the crowd's attention, and most of them had shifted towards the stage. By the third song, the crowd had grown larger as more guests entered the bar.
I glanced back at my group, grinning. They each shot me one in return.
With the fifth song, we were approaching the end of the first hour. It was a slower song, so I switched out the electric for my acoustic guitar. It was the one Maeve had given me all those years ago. I held it tenderly now as I sat down on a stool in front of the crowd.
"This one is called Everlasting," I said into the mic.
As I strummed the first couple chords, a particular memory came back to me. My chest tightened at the memory of the first time I played the song for Charlotte Simmons and our almost-kiss.
That had been ten years ago, but it still hurt every single time I played the song. It was my group's first song, though, and we played it at every show.
I closed my eyes as I got lost in the song. The memory of hazel eyes and soft laughter flickered through my mind, and when I opened my eyes at the end of the song, the memory faded.
For a moment, the crowd was quiet. I lowered the guitar and stared back at them warily. I glanced back at my group, who looked just as confused. Then, as I turned back to the guests, my eyes met familiar hazel ones in the far back just as the crowd burst into cheers.
My ears were ringing with noise, and my body had grown still. Despite that, I never took my eyes off her, and she didn't look away from me either.
"They fucking love us," Laura shouted into my ear over the noise, and I snapped back to the present.
All of the air rushed back into my lungs, and I backed away from the mic. She was still standing there, watching me, her expression blank. Could she actually see me?
It didn't seem that way, but she was staring right at me.
"Where are you going?" Laura shouted.
"I need a break!" I told them.
"We still have half an hour until then!" Alex said.
"We'll just go on an early break," Sadie said and stood up from her drum set. She gave me a reassuring nod. I shot her a small smile before rushing off the stage and out the back door.
Fresh air filled my lungs, and I collapsed against the wall. That couldn't have been her. It had been too dark, and she wasn't the only one in the world with hazel eyes.
But the longer I thought about it, the more uncertain I became. She had looked so much like Charlotte. I was almost sure that it had been her.
I sucked in a deep breath and exhaled it slowly.
No.
Charlotte was hundreds of miles away. It couldn't have been her.
I willed my heart to calm and for my mind to clear, and when they did, I opened the door to reenter the bar. But someone was standing on the other side, and all of the air left my body again when I saw who it was.
