junearmstrcngâ:
@licmsloane
if you had asked june armstrong what her favorite band was eighteen months ago, she wouldâve said leech fragment. well, she wouldâve said gone girls, or actually rush, because she was supposed to hate leech frag, but if you looked at how many shows she snuck into to or how much time she spent making homemade t-shirts for them, the answer wouldâve been leech frag. without a doubt. sheâd been that girl, in the front row of every show (she had to be, if she didnât want to get lost in the sea of miscreants) screaming with the best of them, or at least bruising her way through the pit.
in the last year, though, she hadnât been to a single show, which left an unexpected void that only the dirty cacophony of music they made could fill. since the night at rosieâs and then the twilight zone christmas theyâd had, she couldnât help but think of those shows fondly. even if things between her and liam had turned sour for⌠almost the entire year of 2018, sheâd always had a ton of fun in the raw energy of their shows. and so far, 2019 was about doing whatever the fuck she wanted (she was sure that wasnât going to bite her in the ass any time soon), so when the sun set and she got off work at the trio, she changed into a mess of denim and black cotton and took to renegrades for what promised to be a night of hell raising and possibly losing her voice again.Â
leech fragment had never failed her before (collectively, as a band, at least) and they certainly didnât tonight. it felt kind of insane, to be in the front row again, watching liam playing and screaming into the microphone, not to mention the other dudes who were staples in her life now. somehow, though, even as things wound down and the show ended, it felt right to be back. it also felt right to be out back outside the warehouse, smoking with the same people sheâd smoked with while she waited for liam to pack his shit up when they were⌠she wanted to say together, but depending on how sorry for herself she was feeling, she had conflicting opinions on that. nevertheless, when the familiar figure of the bassist approached, she couldnât help the thousand watt smile that developed before she knew it. âthat was a great set, sloane,â she admitted, stepping down from the curb sheâd been balancing on. âand i only have one giant bruise to cover up at work, thatâs easy street.â
if you had asked liam sloane what his favourite band was eighteen months ago, he would have definitely said leech fragment. that answer hasnât changed since at all in the five years since him and xan had their first jam sesh. be your own biggest fan, right? except for a while there, he wasn't. they had a small but loyal fanbase of angsty teens and general dropkicks, but no one had ever backed them as hard as june had. her absence had been noted; not even just by liam. comments about the tiny rockstar shaped hole in their audience had met awkward silence at many band practices in the first few months following their break-up, if you want to call it that. however, life had gone on and until the last fortnight, it had become easy to forget to notice.Â
juneâs bedroom floor had always been the place for their late night conversations and locked-eye smiles through a two hour long queue of their fave tracks. the warm haze of that christmas night had dug all of those memories back up again and he wasnât quite sure what to do with them just yet. but tonight? renegades was lit up, and heâd had another week to dive into the band and ignore the world outside. this gig turned out to be different, they were only halfway through âmitochondriaâ when liam noticed june pushing her way to the front. watching her thrash around among deadbeats twice her size lit a fuse in liam that he had been so sure was burnt out by now.
after an hour of aggressive rock and secondhand weed smoke, he emerged from the back of the tin-can of a venue, guitar case in hand, to find june---- and more weed smoke. not that he was complaining, about either one. liam hadnât been sure that she was going to stick around, but the smile on her face was like sunshine to him, and he realized how glad he was that she had. shit. "had to send it, didnât i?â he started, pulling an aged leather jacket onto his shoulders. âto welcome you back properly.â liam grinned at her bruise talk. âonly one? donât tell me youâve gone soft, june.â












