Lara Raj has millions of fans, but only few people see her as just Lara. Unfortunately, the one who makes her feel the most like herself is the one she's been told to stay away from.
Ignoring the warning is easier than ignoring each other.
Warnings: smoking (mentions of vaping/marijuana use), kissing/sorta suggestive content, swearing/strong language (?), contraband, sorta implied underage use of substances.
Also I don't rlly smoke so my fault if I gt the terms wrong or Whtv
I'm so sad abt Mexico's game so here is my unfinished story that was supposed to have smut😔
Fame was strange and Lara Raj had learned that pretty quickly.
A few years ago, she was just another girl chasing a dream.
Now she was a part of KATSEYE, the global pop girl group who rose to fame a few months after their debut.
Being part of KATSEYE was everything she had ever wanted. The music, the performances, the fans screaming their names—it was unreal.
With fame came more hate, more work to do, less time to unwind, and more things to be careful about.
Which is why the girls tried their best to be private with what they could while also being open to their fans to create barriers and such.
For Lara Raj, those barriers felt paper-thin tonight.
The afterparty for Coachella was packed with influencers, friends of influencers, friends of friends, people who snuck in, and flashing lights from cameras.
Every smile she gave felt choreographed, every conversation felt like a networking deal, and she felt like all eyes were on her wherever she walked.
“Lara, come here! We need to get a picture together girl!"
“Lara, come say hi to this influencer?”
“My friend loves you so much if you could say hi to her-”
She smiled. She always smiled.
But tonight, the smile felt heavier than usual.
Suffocated by the heat and the constant, deafening thump of “PINKY UP”, Lara quickly slipped away from the rest of the girls, hunting for a place where she could just breathe for five seconds without a camera pointed at her face.
She ignored the questions from people passing by and pushed open a heavy metal exit door at the back of the venue, stepping into the hot night air of the alleyway.
The heavy door clicked shut behind her, instantly muffling everything that was overwhelming her earlier.
Or at least, as quiet as an alley behind a party could be.
Then Lara noticed she wasn’t alone.
Leaning against the brick wall was you.
The faint yellow glow that partially illuminated your face faded just before a thick cloud of smoke escaped your lips.
You wore baggy clothes, your body leaning on the wall, and your eyes were glued to your phone screen.
You had a chemistry quiz at 8:00 AM that you hadn't opened a single book for, but your college class felt incredibly small compared to the heavy cash resting in your inner pocket.
To you, tonight was just another night on the job. You didn't care about the music industry, you didn't care about the party.
You didn’t care about whoever contacted you for supplies, and you certainly didn't care about whoever just walked through that door.
You were just looking at your phone like the entire world could wait.
Which, to Lara, was almost unbelievable.
She was used to people noticing her.
A small smile tugged at Lara’s lips.
Before Lara could say something, the metal door groaned open again.
Daniela’s boyfriend, Jonah, stepped out into the dim light, checking over his shoulder before letting the door click shut.
“Yo,” he said, pulling out a crumpled bill from his pocket and handing it to you.
"Tell me you have something left. The music at this party is intense and I need to unwind.”
“Seriously?” you asked. “We agreed that you would text me”
“Clearly" you say rolling your eyes playfully
The exchange was casual, familiar.
Lara watched quietly, realizing this wasn’t some random interaction.
He grabbed the small package, thanking you before finally noticing Lara standing a few feet away, watching the exchange.
He cleared his throat, adjusting his jacket as a brief wave of panic crossed his features.
That almost told Lara everything.
“Oh, uh, Lara. This is Y/N, my friend. Y/N, this is Lara—my girlfriend’s bandmate.”
For the first time that night, your eyes actually met hers.
Lara didn't flinch. Instead, she took a step forward.
Even dressed down in baggy jeans and a tight top, Lara carried a natural, billboard-ready aura that made the dirty alley look like a movie set.
As her eyes locked onto yours, she braced herself for the usual reaction.
The “oh my god, you’re Lara Raj.”
Instead, you simply nodded.
A laugh escaped her before she could stop it.
It was almost like you were treating the global pop star like she was absolutely nobody.
A genuine, intrigued smirk tugging at the corner of her lips.
Jonah smiled, raising his hands. “Well, I’ll leave you both to it before I get blamed for whatever happens here"
You scoffed, “Whatever, Jonah,” you said as he walked back in.
Once he disappeared, the alley went quiet again.
“So you’re always this welcoming?”
“You’re weird,” Lara said.
“You’re standing in an alley behind your own party talking to a stranger.”
You turned your attention back to Lara “Don’t let me keep you from your party”
You put the cash in your pocket and turned to leave.
But before you could take a step, Lara spoke up, her voice cutting through the quiet alley.
“What if I don’t want to go back in there?”
You paused, looking over your shoulder.
Lara was watching you, her arms crossed against her chest as she leaned against the wall, a look of pure curiosity in her eyes.
“Then go home,” you said, shrugging
You looked at her, confused.
“Do you think I should go back in?”
You shrugged “I don’t know you"
That answer surprised her.
Most people acted like they knew her.
You were the first person in a while who admitted you didn’t.
Lara rolled her eyes and laughed—a real sound that she hadn’t made all night, except for when it came to her bandmates' lame jokes.
“You really don’t care, do you?”
“Not really,” you said, pulling out the vape again.
“Do you even know who I am?” she asked, tilting her head.
“Yeah, Jonah said your Lara from the band Daniela is in,” you said simply.
“No, I don’t even know you like that. I only know Jonah and Daniela. I grew up with him, and obviously, I met Daniela through him and stuff when they got together,” you said, looking at the time on your phone.
Lara nodded, processing the fact that you genuinely just saw her as a regular person attached to a childhood friend.
It was incredibly refreshing.
You looked at her for a second, noticing the lingering exhaustion in her eyes. “Do you want a hit, or are you just gonna stare?”
Lara hesitated for a fraction of a second, the strict warnings of her media training ringing faintly in her head.
Don't get photographed doing anything reckless. Don't associate with strangers. Keep the image clean.
But looking at you—so entirely unimpressed by her global status—she didn't care.
She walked over, leaning in slightly as you offered her the device.
She inhaled before slowly pushing the smoke forward with her tongue, pulling it back in with a grin.
She exhaled the final cloud with a soft sigh that felt like letting go of the entire night's stress.
“Look at that,” you said, a genuine smile breaking across your face.
Lara shrugged, a playful spark in her eyes.
“Clearly,” you muttered, taking the vape back from her.
There was a lingering silence between you two, but it wasn't awkward.
The heavy, muffled bass of another song vibrated through the wall. A big difference to the quiet tension growing in the alley.
"So, Lara. If you're not going back inside, and you're not taking a ride home... what's the plan?"
Lara looked down at your heavy boots, then back up to your eyes. "I don't know. Anything that doesn't involve a camera."
You sighed and looked at your phone again—1:30 AM. Your chemistry quiz felt further away than ever.
"My car is parked three blocks down. I was gonna grab a drink and kill time."
“And I was going to get food.”
“I’m saying if you’re going to keep standing here looking miserable, at least do it somewhere with fries. You can tag along, but I'm driving a piece of shit"
For the first time all night, Lara didn’t feel like she had to be anyone.
Not someone who had everything figured out.
You pushed yourself away from the wall.
“Again, don't complain about my car"
“I haven’t even seen it.”
“Exactly but when you do see it, don’t"
And for some reason Lara followed behind, texting the girls she was done for the night and she’d catch them at tomorrow’s practice.
The next morning, Lara woke up thinking the night before had almost felt unreal.
Partly because of the performance.
But it was 100% not because of the afterparty.
It was because of you and that was the strange part.
She had met thousands of people since joining KATSEYE.
Influencers, celebrities, producers, fans, people who wanted pictures, people who wanted connections.
But somehow, the person she remembered most was the girl sitting in a parking lot at two in the morning eating fries from a McDonalds.
“You know you’re allowed to order actual food, right?” Lara had asked.
“They’re barely anything"
And that was the problem.
Lara couldn’t remember the last time she laughed that much without thinking about how she looked doing it.
She sat up in bed, staring at her phone.
For some reason, she was disappointed.
She immediately shook the thought away.
At least, that was what she told herself.
The KATSEYE dressing room was a chaotic blur of wardrobe racks, makeup lights, and hair extensions as the girls prepped for their next shoot.
Lara was sitting in front of the mirror, carefully applying lip gloss, when Daniela slid into the chair next to her.
Lara froze for half a second.
Not because she was caught.
Because she didn’t expect the question.
Lara sighed, of course he did. She gave her a small side eye through the mirror, adjusting her hair in the mirror
"Yeah, he introduced us kinda? She's nice, she let me use her vape for a second, it’s not a big deal."
“His friend who was outside the party doing stuff that Jonah definitely shouldn’t have been doing?”
The makeup artist glanced between them before quietly walking away.
“No, listen. I’m not trying to be annoying.”
“You’re doing a great job at it"
And that made Lara listen.
“Lara, you know I love you, right?”
“And I’m not saying Y/N is a horrible person.”
“Then what are you saying?”
“I’m saying she lives a completely different life than we do.”
“Meaning we have people watching our every move. We have contracts. We have fans. We have a reputation we have to protect.”
“So because she’s different, she’s automatically bad?”
Daniela shook her head quickly
“She’s not bad. Jonah loves her like family. I know she’s loyal. I know she has a good heart"
“The issue is that she doesn’t care what happens.”
“And that’s what worries me. She could be a bad influence Lara. For your own sake, the band’s sake, just stay away from her”
Lara paused, staring at her reflection.
A bad influence, she thought to herself.
There was something raw and authentic about the way you looked at her last night, like she was just Lara, not a product.
And Daniela's warning only made her want to see you more.
Because who was she just to judge a book by its cover without reading the pages herself.
Two weeks later, Lara completely threw Daniela's warning out the window.
You and Jonah grew up together, so your circles overlapped naturally.
Meaning Jonah’s phone was always buzzing with parties from either his side or his girlfriend’s and of course you were told to tag along.
Which to Lara seemed odd because she swears she's never seen you until that night.
So while Lara didn't seek you out actively, and you certainly didn’t chase after global pop stars, it all just came together naturally where you became a part of the routine.
A late-night hangout at Jonah’s apartment turned into Lara sitting on the counter while you fixed a loose wire on his television.
A group dinner became you sitting across from Lara, making fun of her drink choice.
“That’s the most celebrity drink I’ve ever seen.”
“It’s literally lemonade.”
“It’s lavender lemonade.”
“And you’re proving my point.”
“You keep talking to me though.”
Eventually the texting started.
A casual group chat Jonah made to plan a beach bonfire.
Your name popped next to a string of digits, Lara wasted no time saving it.
That same night, Lara was lying in her bed at the KATSEYE dorms, the white light of her phone illuminating her face
Her finger hovered over your profile on Instagram.
Your account was private, the profile picture just a blurry, aesthetic shot of a steering wheel at night, and your bio was completely blank.
It was the exact opposite of her verified page with millions of followers.
She tapped Follow, and to her surprise, you accepted it within two minutes. You followed her back.
A minute later, her phone vibrated with a direct message.
[huhyn]: surprised you're allowed to follow people like me on your main
[lararaj]: I do what I want. Besides, nobody checks my following list at 2 AM.
[huhyn]: bold of you to assume that 🦭 don't get me banned from jonah's house.
[lararaj]: I won't. By the way, I’m also in the group chat Jonah made. Idk if my name came up to my number so its xxx-xxx-xxx
You didn't reply to the DM. Instead, a text message lit up her screen a second later from your actual phone number.
[Y/N]: If you're gonna text me, don't do it while you're at practice.
[Lara]: Good to know you're looking out for me.
[Y/N]: I'm looking out for my business, Raj. Go to sleep.
A few days later, a casual group text about grabbing diner food at 2:00 AM turned into you pulling up to the curb, only to find Lara sitting on the stairs waiting for you alone because Jonah and Daniela fell asleep upstairs.
"You're late, the others fell asleep" Lara said, sliding into the passenger seat of your car for the second time.
"I have a life, Raj," you muttered, pulling away from the curb.
"Some of us actually have to study for midterms."
"Did you pass the calc test?” she asked, a teasing tilt to her voice as she adjusted the air vent.
“B plus ," you sighed, though a small smirk tugged at your lips. "Good enough to keep my parents off my back."
"Obviously" she said looking out the window.
You nod before reaching over and handing her dinosaur shaped fruit snacks.
Lara stared at it before looking at you. She held it up and looked back and forth between you and the snacks.
"These are dinosaur shaped..."
"They were cheaper" you said defensively
"I'm sure its the same price as the other ones"
"I don't know it looks like typical fruit snacks to me" she says opening the packet.
"They're dinosaur shaped" you corrected
"Huge difference" Lara said smiling to herself
"You're such a weird person"
"and you're still in my car so who is the weirder one here"
Lara sighed dramatically.
Silence fell over the two of you other than the music playing softly. Lara occasionally stealing another gummy packet while pretending she hated them.
Over the next month, those late-night texts became a routine Lara grew dependent on.
KATSEYE’s schedule was a relentless blur of studio sessions, rehearsals, and content shoots because of their new EP releasing soon.
Every second of her day was controlled. Except for her nights which belonged to the quiet vibration of her phone under her pillow.
Mostly you sending pictures of something ridiculous and Lara wondering why she was smiling at her phone.
You were blunt, sarcastic, and completely unimpressed by the pop star lifestyle, which was exactly what she needed.
When she sent you a snippet of an unreleased track, you didn't fawn over it like everyone else.
[Lara]: [Audio File - Demo_3.mp3]
[Y/N]: Its good but the bass is too clean. Sounds like a commercial😭
[Lara]: That’s the point, it’s a pop song lol
[Y/N]: It’s boring tho, sounds like everything else on the radio.
[Y/N]: You asked for honesty?
[Lara]: I expected support 🌝
[Y/N]: You have millions of people supporting you. You don’t need another person lying.
She stared at that message.
[Lara]: Come tell me that to my face then
___________________________
That was how the secret hangouts started.
The secret became a high-stakes game.
You would text her a location, usually a low-key spot near her dorms where the streetlights were broken.
Somewhere she could sneak into your car, and she be able to slip past the security cameras wearing a completely unbranded, oversized black hoodie.
However, the girls started noticing something.
Lara was glued to her phone during hair and makeup.
A small, private smile tugging at her lips that she quickly wiped away whenever anyone looked over her shoulder.
"Who are you texting so much?" Yoonchae asked one afternoon, leaning over the back of Lara's chair with a raised eyebrow.
"You've been distracted all week" Megan chimed in
"Just my mom," Lara lied smoothly, locking her screen and tossing the phone face down on the vanity.
Daniela gave her a suspicious look but dropped it as the stylist called them to the floor.
Most of the time, the drives were quiet.
You didn't pry into her pop star life, and she didn't say or ask too many questions about who you were meeting later.
While you were stopped at a red light, Lara leaned her head against the cool glass of the passenger window and broke the silence.
"The girls were on my case today," Lara muttered, her voice flat with exhaustion.
"Jonah told Daniela about the alley, a few weeks ago. She went on this whole speech about how you're a bad influence because you drink and smoke, and how I need to stay away from you for the sake of the band."
You didn't look over at her.
You just kept your eyes on the road, taking a slow hit of your blunt before shifting into drive as the light turned green.
"She's not wrong," you said bluntly, exhaling the smoke through the cracked window.
"I don't really care about your band, but she's right. I'm a liability to your image. If you're smart, you'd take her advice."
Lara just let out a dry, quiet laugh, looking out at the passing streetlights. "Yeah, well. I've never been big on taking advice."
___________________________
After that night, things changed.
Not in a way either of you could point to and say, there. That was the moment.
However the tension between you two was a physical weight.
You weren’t just Jonah’s childhood friend who he dragged around.
She looked forward to hearing from you.
The girl who didn’t care about her fame.
The girl who never asked for pictures.
The girl who never treated her like she was untouchable.
You made her feel normal.
Because normal was something Lara had been missing for a long time.
You'd pick her up at 2:00 AM, the interior of your car smelling like spearmint and the sweet undercurrent of your vape.
You’d drive through the empty city streets, listening to blurry partynextdoor tracks, letting the cool air wash away the heavy stress of her reality.
Every casual shrug, every blunt comeback, and every accidental brush of your shoulders in the front seat was burning down a short fuse.
The pauses became longer.
The silence between you started meaning something.
You both knew something was bound to happen.
Because you knew what this was becoming.
You noticed the way Lara looked at you when she thought you weren’t paying attention.
You noticed the way she started telling you things she didn’t tell other people.
Things about being tired.
Things about feeling like she always had to be “on.”
Things about missing the version of herself that existed before everyone knew her name.
Because you knew what it felt like to have people assume they knew you.
They decided who you were before they ever asked.
The difference was Lara had millions of people watching her.
But the feeling was the same.
So you did what you always did when something started becoming important.
Not enough for Lara to notice immediately.
You took longer to answer texts.
You stopped picking her up after every late rehearsal.
You stopped sending random pictures of things that reminded you of her.
You convinced yourself it was the right thing.
Because eventually, someone was going to find out.
Eventually, a picture would leak.
Eventually, someone would ask why Lara Raj was spending so much time with a girl who didn’t fit the image everyone expected from her.
You knew exactly who would get hurt.
Lara noticed on the third day.
She sat in the dressing room, staring at her phone.
No random complaints about school.
Daniela watched her from across the room.
Lara immediately locked her phone.
Daniela raised an eyebrow.
“You’re a terrible liar.”
“You’ve checked your phone like ten times.”
Daniela didn’t say anything.
And somehow, that was worse.
Because Lara knew Daniela understood.
It finally broke on a Friday night, right around the three month mark of you guys being less than something but more than just anything.
KATSEYE had just finished a brutal photo shoot and by the time Lara got back to the dorms, the other girls went straight to sleep.
The walls felt like they were closing in, the lingering pressure of her public persona suffocating her.
She checked her phone—2:15 AM—and finally sent a single text.
[Y/N]: Just finished a lab assignment. Why?
[Lara]: Did I do something?
You stared at the message longer than you should have.
Because that wasn’t what you expected.
Not her thinking she was the problem.
Your fingers hovered over the keyboard.
[Lara]: Then why are you avoiding me?
The typing bubble appeared instantly.
A few seconds passed before your phone rang.
You stared at the screen for a few and then answered.
"Come get me please. The usual spot."
"Okay give me a few" you said and with that she hung up the phone.
Ten minutes later, Lara was slipping past the lobby cameras, her heart racing in a way that had nothing to do with fear of getting caught and everything to do with the beat-up car pulling up to the corner.
She opened the passenger door and slid in, the familiar scent of spearmint and the sweet trail of your vape instantly washing over her like a breath of fresh air.
You didn't ask her how her day was.
You didn't ask about the shoot.
You just looked at her, noticed the exhaustion in the slump of her shoulders, and shifted the car into drive.
"You look like shit, Raj," you muttered quietly, your voice a low, soothing hum over the static of the radio.
"Thanks," she breathed, leaning her head back against the worn headrest. "Just drive. Anywhere."
You drove out of the city, away from the flashing lights and the billboards with her face on them, pulling up to the hill that overlooked the skyline below.
You parked the car, leaving only the soft glow of the dashboard lights and music playing softly in the back.
The silence inside the car was thick, heavy with secret texts, midnight drives, and unsaid words that had been building between you.
Lara turned her head, her dark eyes tracing the sharp line of your jaw as you looked through your phone.
The faint light illuminated your features, making her pulse quicken.
“I think Daniela still thinks you would ruin my life," Lara said softly, breaking the quiet.
A teasing, tentative smile played on her lips.
You let the smoke drift out of your mouth, turning your head to look at her.
You propped your elbow on the steering wheel, your eyes dropping to her mouth before locking back onto her gaze.
"She's probably right. I spend my nights selling things I shouldn't to people like Jonah. You're a pop star on billboards. I'm definitely bad for your status, Raj."
Lara rolled her eyes and you smiled slightly.
“I’m trying to be realistic"
“I’m not the kind of person people want you around"
“And people care about everything you do"
“So I don’t want to be the reason something gets ruined"
Lara sat up and spoke again except her voice was softer.
“You think you’re protecting me"
Your eyebrows pulled together
“You’re making the choice for me and I don't care about my status tonight or any time I'm with you" Lara whispered, her voice dropping to a low, quiet hum.
You rolled your eyes before pulling out a rolled blunt from the container stored in the glove box.
“Hotbox?” And Lara nodded, you got out your seat and moved the back where Lara followed.
You locked the car doors, and Lara slid closer, the space between you vanishing entirely.
You looked at her smiling, handing her the blunt.
"Thank you baby" she said teasingly.
You looked down at her lips, your usual ndifferent, unbothered facade finally cracking down the middle.
Your voice dropped slightly
“You know something would happen if someone sees you out here with me? If a picture gets out?"
“Then let them take it," Lara murmured, her breath hitching as she reached out, her fingers gently brushing against the your cheek.
"I'm tired of being perfect, Y/N. You're the only one who just sees me."
You hadn't planned on getting attached to a global idol, but the sheer vulnerability in her dark eyes was undoing every boundary you had ever built over the last two months.
You let out a quiet curse under your breath.
When your lips finally met, it wasn't soft or rehearsed.
It was urgent, fueled by the adrenaline, the taste of cheap weed, and the quiet tension that had been burning down that short fuse.
Your hand slid up the back of her neck, fingers tangling in her glossy hair, pulling her impossibly closer.
Lara let out a soft, breathy moan against your mouth, her hands gripping the lapels of your jacket as she crawled completely onto your lap, abandoning the pristine image the world demanded of her.
Your hands moved down to her waist, your fingers digging into her hips to pull her flush against you.
The suggestive friction made Lara gasp into the kiss, her heart hammering wildly against her ribs as the music faded into the background.
You pulled back just an inch, your thumb sweeping over her bottom lip, tracing the smudge of her lip gloss in the dim light.
"I'm still a bad influence" you whispered against her skin, a breathless smirk on your lips.
Lara leaned back in, her eyes heavy and dark with desire.
"The worst," she whispered back, before capturing your lips again, letting herself break every single rule.
pixelskylines
gummygunk
amandla