Hmm so a bit of character info before we start...
Main character: Anna Lovell, 19 years old, attending college in Vancouver, B.C. (Canada) but her hometown is Seattle. Brunette, 5'7, works in a coffee shop, is a dancer. We'll find out more about her as we go. Picture ferr reference:
Other MC: Ryan Ross, 21, musician... you can find out all about him on the web, and I have no idea why you're reading this if you don't already know quite a bit. Picture ferr reference... [He's on the right]
I'll probably do more character bios later, maybe even a chapter for them or something. Too lazy at the moment.
Alright beginning!
Saturday nights in Vancouver, B.C. were always hectic, but this was one of the worst.
"I am so. sick. of people." Anna muttered through gritted teeth as she tried to navigate her way through a large crowd of girls. Her boyfriend, Ryan Allen, smiled sympathetically and kissed her on the cheek.
"Don't be so impatient, Annie."
"Easy for you to say." She retorted, frusterated. "They're all girls. I bet you're having the time of your life."
"No way. But i will be in about 45 minutes..." He said, raising his eyebrows and grinning. Anna smiled in spite of herself. Ryan, who was three years older than she was, with red hair and the cutest Canadian accent she'd ever heard, always managed to make her smile.
"If we ever make it back to your apartment." She replied, but in a much happier tone. "Which is looking unlikely. What's going on? I didn't hear about any shows."
"Some mainstream gig." He answered. "Big shot band from the states. I can't remember their name..."
Anna nodded her head at the large, light blue tour bus parked across the street. "It wouldn't happen to be something like Panic at the Disco, would it?" She said, laughing.
"Oh yeah, that's the one." He answered. "I heard some of their first CD. Don't think you'd like it."
"God no." Anna agreed, rolling her eyes. "I thought it was alright until my little sister started playing it about 500 times a day... c'mon, we're almost through."
The edge of the crowd was in sight when suddenly a surge of people rushed up from behind, flinging Anna about three feet forward and into a flimsy metal gate. While attempting to catch her breath, the cause of the excitement came into view: a couple of members from the band had just walked out of the theater and were heading for their tour bus.
Anna tried to shove your way out of the crowd, but she couldn't make any headway. Worse, she'd somehow lost hold of Ryan's hand and couldn't see him anywhere. Just then, the girls started screaming even louder, and, being at the front, Anna was completely crushed against the fence, gasping for breath.
"Ryan?" She called. "Ry, i can't breathe!"
He was too far away to hear, though, and Anna bit her lip, trying to take slow, even breaths. It was impossible.
Just as she thought she'd probably be crushed to death there, someone shoved the girls on either side out of the way and lifted her over the fence.
"Thank you," Anna said in between gasps, trying not to look as humiliated as she felt. To her surprise, she heard two voices reply: "No problem." Looking up, she saw the bald, rather portly man who'd lifted her out, and another person she didn't recognize.
"Sorry," The boy she hadn't recognized said. "I heard you say my name and I thought I knew you, so I asked Zac to get you out. Did you want to go back?"
"Are you joking?"
"Um, not really."
"Well, I definitely don't."
He looked confused for a second, and then defensive. "You can't, like, hang out with us, you know, we're just going to a hotel. So sorry, no fans."
Anna burst out laughing. "No, I don't want to stay here. I wasn't even at the concert. I just want to find... someone, and go home."
To her surprise, both Ryan and Zac started laughing as well. "She's gotta be the first person who's ever said that to your face." Zac said.
"Yeah. Not exactly a big ego boost." Ryan replied with a grin.
Anna blushed. "No, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it that way. I've just... had a long day. And Ryan's probably looking for me. My boyfriend, I mean, not you."
"Don't worry about it. Do you ha-"
Before he could finish his sentence, another boy had walked up to the group cut him off.
"Hey Ryan, who's your new girlfriend?" He asked jokingly.
"Don't know her name. But she definitely doesn't like us, Brendon."
Anna felt her face turning red. "No, I didn-"
"Dammit, really? First attractive girl I see all evening and she doesn't even like us."
"I wasn-"
"Yeah. Kinda sucks. She doesn't even like our music. Wasn't at the show."
"I never said that! I haven't even heard any of your 2nd CD." Anna said impatiently. "And could I please borrow one of your phones? I left mine at my dorm room."
"...not until you let me give you our 2nd CD." Brendon replied with a grin.
"Honestly, I don't really like anything like, you know... your music. I'm into The Beatles. And Harvey Danger."
"Give it a listen. Or... no phone for you." Brendon said, raising his eyebrows. Anna laughed reluctantly.
"Alright."
"Wait here then." He turned headed for the tour bus. Anna turned back to Ryan, Zac having left to try and calm the girl near the fence down.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to cause any trouble."
"Don't worry about it. Besides, you aren't causing trouble. Except for the fact that Brendon probably won't let us leave until he tracks you down, finds your phone number, and murders your boyfriend."
"Oh, shit. That's a problem. Well, I'll save him half the trouble." Anna rummaged around in her bag until she found a stubby drawing pencil and half a sheet of sketchbook paper. Scribbling down the ten digits of her phone number, she folded it up and gave it to Ryan. "Give this to him for me, will you?"
"Sure," Ryan replied, blushing, though Anna had no idea why. Just then Brendon ran back up to the two of them and tossed both his cellphone and a CD case into her hands.
"Thanks." Anna said with a grin, and dialed Ryan's number.
"Ry?" She said, once he'd picked up.
"Hey babe, where are you?" He replied, sounding worried. "I lost you in the crowd."
"Oh, I'm, um..." While she tried to think of something to say, she turned the CD over, reluctantly admiring the artwork, and saw that the case had been signed. "I'm up at the front. It's hectic."
"Alright..." Ryan replied. There was a pause in their conversation while Anna pointed to the signature, grinning, and Brendon grinned back and gave her a thumbs up.
"Oh! Sorry, I got sidetracked. Um, can you meet me at your bike in a minutes? I can get around the back pretty fast."
"Okay. Whose phone are you using?" He sounded suspicious, but Anna didn't notice, she was too busy laughing at Ryan, who was raising his eyebrows at Brendon, and Brendon, who had just shurgged and said, very defensively, "What? I can't give a CD away without signing it you know."
"Um, just someone's. I'll tell you tonight, it's a long story and I should get off their phone. I'll see you in a bit."
"Alright. See you."
"Bye."
"Love you."
Anna didn't reply to this, she had already hung up and was tossing the phone back to Brendon. "Right, so I'm assuming there's a way to get out around the back?"
"Sure. You don't have to go, though, if you want to come hang out with us..."
"Um, no. Not at all. First of all, Ryan doesn't want me to go back to your hotel with you... no fangirls allowed, he said. And an orgy would be pointless without him."
For a second, both of them looked offended.
"I never said that-" Started Ryan, sounding hurt.
"Why can't we just have an orgy without him?" Brendon added.
Anna burst out laughing, and after a minute they did, too.
"Alright, seriously guys, I have to go. I'm two minutes late for my date and counting. It was nice meeting you. Which way gets me out of here?"
"Straight back." Brendon said. Anna took a few steps before he grabbed her arm.
"No goodbye hug?" He asked, pouting."
"Fine." She said, sighing dramatically and giving him a quick hug. Then she turned to Ryan, hugged him, and kissed him on the cheek.
"Ohhhh, come on, I don't get a kiss?" Brendon whined. Anna turned to him, missing the blush that had crept up on Ryan's face.
"Canadian custom." She said to Brendon, her eyes sparkling. "When saying goodbye to an attractive boy, a girl always kisses him on the cheek." Then, laughing, she turned and ran as lightly down the back alleyway.
********
A few minutes later, Anna arrived at the street corner where Ryan, her boyfriend, had parked his motorcycle. He was leaning against it, arms crossed.
Oh, shit, Anna thought. He's pissed.
"Hey babe," She said, giving him a hug. "Sorry it took me so long."
To her relief, he smiled. "No worries. Well, except on my part. I was afraid you'd gotten kidnapped or something."
"Nope." She smiled. "Well, should we get going? We've got a busy night tonight..." They both laughed and Ryan gave her a quick kiss on the lips.
"Definitely." He said, and, after helping her on the bike, he climbed on.
Anna wrapped her arms around him as tightly as she could before they set off. Having grown up in the states, she wasn't used to the Canadian way of driving, (very fast, with little or no regard for anyone else's safety) nor was she used to Ryan's bike yet, never having ridden one at home. They bit her lip as they sped through a series of yellow lights, and they let out a small sigh of relief and buried her face in the back of his jacket when they arrived at a red light.
A loud honk made her start and look up. To her left, a light blue tour bus with flowers painted on it was stuck at the same red light. She smiled and waved at the tinted windows.
********
The next morning, Anna woke up to the first few notes of The Strokes' "Reptilia" playing on her cellphone. She dismissed the alarm quickly, then stretched and yawned.
Oh, no. She remembered suddenly. I have a double shift today. And I told Ry I'd meet him for lunch at 2.
"Ry," Anna whispered, shaking her still sleeping boyfriend gently. "Ry, I can't meet you for lunch today."
"Whaa..?" He said sleepily.
"I have to work 'till 4, I can't meet you for lunch."
"Hmm?"
"Nevermind. I'll leave you a note." Anna got out of bed and got dressed quickly, pulling on her work clothes: a pair of nice, black skinny jeans, a black t-shirt with a slight v, and a pair of black converse. Since she'd be working, she didn't put on any makeup, instead putting her makeup bag in her bag to use later, as she had promised to be at Ryan's show at the grange tonight. Dashing back over to her bedside table, she gave Ryan a quick kiss, then scribbled a note for him, put it on the kitchen table grabbed her phone, and ran out the door.
The coffee shop that Anna worked in was less than a block away from Ryan's dorm room, which was actually the reason that they'd met, and definitely part of the reason that she spent so much time over there. It was much easier to walk the five minutes from his apartment there than to drive for twenty minutes from her college campus on the other side of town. Of course, this usually lulled her into a false sense of security, and she nearly always had to run to make it to work on time- which is what she was doing now.
"Hey, Mary." Anna panted, running through the door at 5:35 exactly.
"5 minutes late... s'better than last time, at least." Mary replied with a grin. "You look tired."
"I am. We were up until at least 2." She replied, smiling back.
"Honestly, I don't know how you guys can keep going for that long..." Mary siad, rolling her eyes and laughing. Anna burst out laughing as well.
"It's an acquired skill. Want me to teach you?"
"Nah. Just go ahead and teach Jared." Jared was Mary's boyfriend, and one of Ryan's best friends, so when she and Anna had started working together they'd struck up a friendship right away.
"Well, I guess Ry will have to teach you then." Anna asnwered. "Speaking of Ryans, guess who I met last night?"
********
By 10:00, the time Anna's shift usually ended, she was aboslutely dead on your feet. Mary had been replaced by Katie, giving Anna a quick hug before she left with Jared, who had come to pick her up, and Katie, a nervous high schooler who had just started working there, wasn't half as much fun to talk to. At 11:03, since there was a lull in the amount of customers, Anna decided to take her break. Pulling off her apron, she told Katie "Be back in 15, alright?" and then set about making herself an iced vanilla latte. Scooping the ice into the cup, her hand shook slightly and she dropped an ice cube... into the v-neck of her shirt.
Dammit, Anna thought. This would so happen to me. Watch Ryan or Brendon come walking in right now... Why the bad karma? What did I do?
Just then the door opened, and four very familiar looking guys walked into the shop.
...fuck.
