Every teenage girl this side of the Atlantic would have strung Keeley up by her toes for her attitude right now. After all, who in their right mind would be granted backstage access to a Shattered Diamond concert only to skulk around with a face looking like… what was the phrase Fitz used again? Oh, like a smacked arse.
Any one of the fans lined up outside would have given their right arm to be where she was right now: in the wings and on the outskirts of the band’s soundcheck as they warmed up before their show. She wasn’t dumb enough to think that it wasn’t cool - just because she’d grown up around athletes who jumped into veritable rocketships, it didn’t mean she wasn’t prone to getting a little starstruck. The idea of teenage Keeley, shut up in her poster-wrapped bedroom back in the suburbs of Westchester, spending a prolonged amount of time talking to Diego Rodriguez without getting tongue-tied would have been laughable to her old fangirl self, once upon a time. Now, she took it in her stride. Diego was easy to talk to, Henry had a really dry sense of humour and Poppy had always been nice to her, with one of the best ACNH islands Keeley had ever seen.
Being starstruck around them wasn’t an option now, even if she did hesitate to call the band her friends. They only knew of her through Noah and the last thing Keeley wanted to do was overestimate her importance in someone else’s life. The past few weeks had been enough of a goddamn cautionary tale for her to make a mistake like that again.
She heard the strum of Diego’s guitar and, still enough of a genuine superfan to recognise the song, immediately felt her stomach drop. The intro belonged to a song that had been added to an Instagram post and more than a few stories she’d uploaded, all of them documenting Keeley’s freckly face pressed up against a smiling blond’s. It was Théo’s favourite song.
The same nausea that had been rolling around in her stomach for weeks reared up again and she dry-swallowed as best as she could. Choking out an excuse to Bobbie who remained in the wings, she took large strides down the tiny corridor until she found the first door there was. Immediately, she slammed her hands down on the exit bar and pushed her way outside, spilling out into the evening air.
A few other people were milling around. Roadies, the tech crew, and she could hear the distant shouting of fans as they lined up outside the venue. Puffing air out from her cheeks, Keeley looked around and decided nobody was going to question what she was doing here, too busy with their own jobs. If they did, she had her VIP pass attached to a lanyard and shoved into the front pocket of her shorts.
It was stupid to think the song wouldn’t have been on the setlist. God forbid the Diamonds skip past one of their most famous love songs at the unspoken request of Keeley. She’d just forgotten to mark it off as one of the many things in her life she couldn’t look at in the same way right now, or maybe ever again. Alongside her pink denim jacket, the Polaroids she’d ripped off her wall and the Togepi plush Théo had bought for her that was now shoved down in the very depths of her closet.
An ache pressed against the column of her throat as she tipped her head back against the brick of the building. Cigarette smoke filtered through the air and at least that was an unbiased enough scent for her nostrils to pull at. Théo had never smoked, so that was safe.
“Drag?”
She frowned, dropping her head down to stare at the owner of the voice. The guy in front of her was clad in a leather jacket and holding out a joint to her. A few seconds passed as she took stock of him. Tanned skin, dark curls, a hoop in his right ear, a piercing in his nose. She resisted the urge to nod to herself. Again, he was different and so he was safe.
Her eyes dipped down to the joint. She wasn’t much of a smoker, even if she’d taken an edible or two before. And she knew better than to take a drag of something someone else had rolled.
“You look like you need it,” the guy said, eyes glinting as he wiggled it in front of her face.
There was something about the way he was looking at her that excited Keeley. A smirk playing on his lips as he waited patiently. A hunger in his eyes that had never been in Théo’s. And Théo had never wanted her, not really, so maybe that meant this guy did. It felt like a pathetic act of desperation when Keeley eventually nodded and reached out, plucking the joint from his fingers and placing it between her lips.
“Thanks,” she mumbled, just as the door swung open behind her again.
