The final note strums out from the bass guitar, and silence consumes the live house. The lead lets a giant smile crack it’s way onto her face as the final verdict is presented to them. They’ve passed, and the beginning of their musical career is just starting.
For Remilia, that day is so prominent in her mind that it feels like it was just yesterday. As someone who grew up in a rather low class family, to completely dedicate herself to something after suffering several losses, this acceptance is something so surreal to her. Taking a sleeved arm to her face and lazily rubbing her eyes, she pours herself a cup of freshly brewed coffee, making her way to the table to enjoy breakfast.
Placing down her mug, she sauntered over to the couch, picking up the remote and turning on today’s news. Before she heads back to the table, she throws open the blinds covering the windows, allowing the morning sun to leak through the apartment.
In retaliation to the bright lights, a soft meow can be heard from the couch. Letting a soft giggle escape her mouth, Remilia turns to her cat.
“Good Morning Scarlet, we’ve got a big day ahead of us today, so we’ve got to get started,” Remilia says.
Smiling fondly at her old cat she gently leans over to pet her, Remilia’s black hair dangling in front of the feline, enticing the small animal into trying to eat her hair as though it was a bird of some sort.
After a solid minute of battling her cat over her hair, she manages to free herself from her cats claws. Giving her cat a glare, she pets her one more time before grabbing the remote and making her way back to the table.
Turning the volume up, the news is going over current events of today, her bands tour making it onto the news makes Remilia all warm inside, a huge smile spreads onto her face as she puts some egg into her mouth.
She would have never thought that anything like this would be her future, or her career, but all she had to worry about at the moment was getting herself ready for her tour. After all, they had to get on board the plane around 3. Glancing at the clock, she noted that it was only 9, she had plenty of time to spare.
“It really would be so much easier to keep myself on track if I wasn’t so alone. Well at least I’ve got you Scarlet!” Remilia turned to her cat, just getting a sleepy-eyed glare in response.
Hastily shoving the rest of her breakfast into her mouth, Remilia jumped to her feet, bringing the dirty dishes to the dishwasher and loading them in. Stretching, she made her way to her bedroom to pull on some clothes that would be more comfortable for a plane. As she’s doing so, a loud buzzing noise erupts throughout her apartment.
Sighing, Remilia walks to her front door, her hair still a little out of place since waking up. Placing her hand on the keypad, the door unlocks with a click and she swings it open.
“Oh, It’s you. Honestly, I thought you were going to be the doorman from downstairs here to yell at me again for something I, once again, didn’t do,” says Remilia, “Well, I guess I’m glad to see you. Come help me pack?”
“No doorman, just me. For some reason, I have a feeling you would prefer the doorman over me. I’m right, right? Yeah, I’m right.” Lissandra sighs, crossing her arms, “Yeah I’ll help you pack. I mean, what else would friends be for?”
Remilia shoots her a big smile, packing was going to go much easier now that she has Lissandra with her. Lissandra was the pianist for the band, [Band Name], the band Remilia was the lead singer of. She was one of the first people who had supported Remilia’s spontaneous idea of starting up a band, and was the first person to join.
“Alright, so. I’m assuming the packing horror fest is going on in your bedroom, since your handmaid's hard work cleaning your flat is still present all over,” Lissandra said.
Remilia shot her a glare, not liking what she was insinuating about your organizational skills.
Lissandra could only smirk in response. She was right after all.
“Okay then! Let’s get to p-a-c-k-i-n-g!” Lissandra sang, striking an extremely cringy pose after her little show and dance.
“I will literally shower you in money to make you stop,” Remilia said.
Lissandra threw open Remilia’s closet doors, rummaging through her closet in an attempt to figure out exactly what she should bring on her tour.
“That took way to long! God! I thought I was going to die! I thought I was going to perish without even getting to see France!” Lissandra’s cries echoed through the apartment, throwing herself onto Remilia’s bed in defeat.
Remilia sighed, taking a look at her best friend. Lissandra’s crinkly, almost paper like, neon green hair curled in paths around her. Remilia could never understand why she had dyed her hair neon green of all colors, but it did look good against her cocoa skin tone. Remilia knew for a fact that if she had died her hair neon green, she probably would have looked like some poor child’s nightmare monster.
Remilia snapped out of her trance and stuck her tongue out at Lissandra the second the two locked eyes. Lissandra raised an eyebrow to her, but Remilia just shook her head and smiled.
“It’s nothing, don’t worry about it,” Remilia said.
The bright smile on her face wasn’t enough to fool Lissandra, as she immediately sat up and moved over to one of Remilia’s potted desk plants. She took a couple strands of her hair and placed them next to the plants leafs.
“They almost match. Kinda,” Lissandra paused, “Okay! Maybe if you squint or are just completely colorblind. Yeah! If you’re colorblind, then they match.”
Remilia snorted and shook her head.
“That mouth of yours is going to get you in major trouble sometime you know?”
“Oh come on! I didn’t even really say anything that bad. You’re just a bully,” Lissandra said.
Remilia just stared her down. What could she say? It wasn’t in her best interest to upset Lissandra, especially after she somehow used her magical Tetris powers to put her things into her suitcase perfectly.
Silence consumed the room, an awkward unspoken tension started to form between the two of them. Lissandra turned to her, her face completely blank.
“Have you decided what you’re going to do regarding your family’s debts? You’re not going to actually quit being our singer just because some useless loan sharks asked you to right? You have more than enough money to pay back your parents tenfold! Why are they asking you to quit?” Lissandra’s face, morphed into something of disappointment and concern.
“I’m not going to quit. I’m going to pay back the money, and I’ll get the police involved if I have to. I don’t want to quit, I’ve spent so much time getting to where I am, I could never just throw that away!”
Remilia’s eyes started to gloss over, the eminent tears forming in her eyes. Lissandra moved closer and wrapped her in a friendly hug. Remilia leaned in and closed her eyes. They stayed like that for a moment before Remilia pulled away.
“I’ve got some things to attend to before I leave. Do you mind if I have some privacy?”
Lissandra nodded and smiled, waving goodbye to Remilia as she grabbed her purse and walked out the front door, the door automatically locking behind her.
Remilia threw her face in her hands, sitting down in a chair as a loud sob escaped her mouth. How was she going to make back all that money for her parents? She could still remember, her father coming home smelling like smoke, the heavy scent of bourbon lacing his breath. He would always be in the worst attitudes when he came home smelling like smoke, it had meant he was somewhere he shouldn’t have been. Remilia’s father wasn’t a gambler, far from it. He despised places like that. He was a filthy cheater though, and could constantly be found in the more shadier parts of town with all sorts of women. Nothing Remilia’s mother ever did was good enough for him.
A timid meow snapped Remilia back into her reality, tears constricting her vision.
“Sorry Scarlet, Mom’s all better now, so leads make sure we bring you too A’s on time. We wouldn’t want you to have no place to stay huh?” Remilia smiled, picking up her cat and bringing it over to her little cat carrier.
Remilia slammed her fist on the door repetitively, smiling as she heard a loud groan from inside the room. Remilia took a step back and picked up her cat carrier, just almost failing to pick it up in time before the door swung open.
“Hey! I’m busy, come back some other ti-. Oh, no.” The man crossed his arms and frowned at the girl before him, giving her the once over before scowling.
“You look horrible,” he said, opening the door just enough for them to both slip in to the apartment.
Remilia inhaled deeply, the whole room smelling somewhat like smoke, as if she was in one of those saunas.
“You smoke around your younger sister? Isn’t that a horrible idea? You’re really going to tell me you’re not worried about her health,” Remilia said.
A turned to her, the resting look on his face made him seem unapproachable and cold, but Remilia knew better.
“She plans on moving out. Apparently, she’s moving in with some hotshot boyfriend. I don’t approve of him,” A moved a hand through his hair, clearly not walking to talk more about the whole boyfriend situation.
“Is that really why this entire place smells like smoke?”
“She’s moving her boyfriend in here, and I really don’t want to stay here if he’s here, so I’m trying to make him leave by absolutely destroying his lungs,” A’s face twisted into an expression of pain, his breathing turning labored.
“So you’re just going to allow yourself to get sick, and damage your lungs to drive some boy out?”
“I don’t want to be here with him. I don’t want him to move into this house, I’ll gladly move out, I just don’t want to deal with buying a new house at the moment. We’re going on tour afterall,” A said, walking over to the windows and letting in fresh air, trying to make the scent of smoke disappear even if the smoke rings wouldn’t.
Remilia leaned down and took Scarlet out of her cat carrier, letting the cat run around the apartment to find Ray and A’s cat. Stancing back up, Remilia turned to A.
“You do know you could always stay with me if you wanted to,” Remilia said. She faced her band member dead on, staring him dead in the eyes, a neutral expression resting all over her face.
He stared her down, watching her face for a single hint of a lie.
Sighing he turned away from Remilia, walking over to his guitar case and swinging it around his shoulders.
“Whatever works best for you. Although, I plan on taking you up on your offer though.” Grabbing his suitcase, he opens the front door.
“She already knows Scarlet will be here. Ray will be here shortly.”