Kids in Love

Alice spent the majority of the day helping the guys get ready and pack up Frank's van with all of their equipment. Surprisingly none of them seemed nervous. They'd had gigs before but this was a real, not just some background noise at some guys party. A friend of Franks owned a club in the city and one of their regular bands had to cancel that day, leaving them short-handed. It was a perfect opportunity that could lead to even more gigs if it went well for them that evening.

Alice and the guys arrived at the club over an hour before it opened to set up. While the band was busy doing a sound-check on the stage Alice went for a walk around the venue while it was quiet. It was a small enough club, there was a stage with a dance floor and some tables. It could probably hold a hundred people at a push. Towards the back of the club there was a long bar. A young girl, she looked to be around Alice's age if not a small bit older, walked out from the back office. She had ebony black hair and wore dark red lipstick. The girl marched out of the door and walked behind the bar, giving Alice a strange look, "Who are you?" she tilted her head and smiled, "I didn't think we were open yet"
"Oh, yeah, sorry. I'm Alice." she stuck her hand across the bar to shake the girls, "I'm friends with the guys over there, they're the band playing this evening."
"Cool, I'm Lindsey. My cousin owns this place so I'm working here over the summer, sometimes on weekends and stuff. Nice to meet you." Lindsey smiled widely, "Sit, do you want a drink?" Lindsey gestured to the bar stools in front of her.
Alice sat up at the bar, "I'm fine, maybe later though, thanks". Lindsey rested her elbows on the bar. Alice couldn't help but stare at the sleeve of tattoos on her left arm, unlike Frank's, they were mostly coloured. All of them were intricate and beautifully deigned and for a moment Alice forgot that she was looking at a person, not a painting. She shook her head, "The tattoos?" Lindsey asked.
"Yeah, sorry. They're just so gorgeous. How long have you had them?" Lindsey looked down at her own arm, turning it to show the underside of her forearm and bicep revealing even more brightly coloured ink. "Um, I've been getting them kind of gradually over the last two or three years. Some of them were for reasons, some were just because, y'know? Have you got any yourself?" Alice shook her head, glancing down at her own bare arms, they looked naked by comparison.
"No, I've always wanted to get a tattoo, it's just one of those things I've never gotten around to. I also think I'd never have a good enough idea for one."
"Really, I never got that. See this one here," Lindsey rolled up the sleeve of her right arm and pointed to a collection of symbols on the inner side of her arm, a cat, a four leaf clover and the number thirteen, "I got these with my first boyfriend. They were matching tattoos, and they were supposed to be, like, representative of how lucky we were to have found each other or some crap. Anyway, we broke up less than two months after we got them." she laughed to herself, "What I'm trying to say is that you'll probably never even have a good reason to get one, even if it seems like a great idea at the time in reality it's going to be a mediocre idea at best. What matters is whether or not you like the tattoo yourself. If you want one, fucking get one!"
"Good point, do you regret any of yours?" Alice asked, still analysing them,
"Sometimes I do, but truthfully they kind of all tell a story, my story. The fun stuff, the stupid stuff, and the drunken stuff!" she chuckled. Alice smiled, she wanted to know more, the stories behind them but before she could ask any more questions someone called for Lindsey. Alice turned on her bar stool to face the voice, it was a tall man with blonde hair and a beard.
"Lindsey, it's almost ten, time to open up" he called from a few meters away.
"I'm on it Bob!" Lindsey took her arms off the bar and stood up straight before turning to Alice, "If you need anything this evening just find me, cool?" Alice nodded as Lindsey left to open the club.

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To avoid the large thrashing crowd she kept to the side the stage for the first few songs. As per usual she had her camera around her neck. Anyone could see how much the guys loved performing. Alice took far too many pictures, both of the band and the crowd. Frank was writhing around with energy, he looked like he'd forgotten he was even on stage, it was just completely captivating to Alice. Close to the end of the guys' set Alice danced her way to the bar where Lindsey was serving drinks with precision. She seemed to be the only person working behind the bar. Alice sat on a free stool at the edge of the bar, when there was a lull on customers Lindsey came over to her. "How're you doing?" even after a few hours on her feet serving drunk teenagers she still had a grin plastered across her face. "I'm doing great, how do you like the band? I'd never heard them play properly until now!" Alice told her,
"I really like 'em, that singer's got a great voice. What's his name?" She asked, it was dark, but Alice thought she could see Lindsey blushing ever so slightly.
"That's Gerard, I've known him since I was a kid. He's the best, he's an artist too, goes to SVA." Alice bragged on his behalf, she knew he was too modest to ever say anything nice about himself.
"No shit, really? I'm going to the Pratt Institute myself!"
"Wow, that's awesome! The guys' set ends in like twenty minutes, I'll send him over here when they're done." Alice winked. As a song ended throngs of people made their way towards the bar and Lindsey had to get back to work. Alice called after her, "Can I help you at all?" she asked.
"Um, yeah actually! That would be great, c'mere" Alice ducked under the bar and stood beside Lindsey, "it's not that complicated, people really just ask for beer here. It's not usually this busy, I think it's the summer that brings all these people out y'know."

Notes

This chapter is just an ' I'm sorry for taking a thousand years to update and I really hope it doesn't happen again ' chapter. Enjoy!

Do you guys have any tattoos yourselves? I really want to get one but I just can't decide what I want. I was talking to a friend of mine recently who actually said, "I don't think girls can pull off tattoos." and I almost exploded in her face, holy crap!

Thanks again for all of the support, I hop you guys are enjoying it so far. Keep on commenting and voting and stuff! xxx