Who: Torrie Reed and Lita Singh. Where: Nocturne (Torrie's new music venue). What: Lita lends Torrie a hand in getting Nocturne together before the grand opening and the two talk turkey about Torrie's business, both personal and professional. When: (Backdated) March 8, 2020, afternoon-ish.
I've lived a lot of different lives Been different people many times I live my life in bitterness And fill my heart with emptiness
And now I see, I see it for the first time, There is no crime in being kind Not everyone is out to screw you over. Maybe, oh just maybe they just wanna get to know ya.
Now the time is here, Baby you don't have to live your life in fear And the sky is clear, is clear of fear...
Lita hoisted an amp up onto the stage with an inelegant grunt. When she’d set it where Torrie told her it should go, she plopped her ass down on top of it. She wiped her forehead with the back of her hand and fanned herself. Unused to strenuous, physical labor, not to mention someone telling her what to do, Lita decided she deserved a break.
“Don’t you have actual, legitimate employees to do this shit for you?” Lita huffed. She actually didn’t mind helping Torrie all that much but she couldn’t help but give her roommate a hard time. Actually, Lita was pretty damn proud of Torrie and what she had accomplished. Considering where the city of Austin had been a year ago, to say nothing of the journey Torrie herself had taken from Ghoul to entrepreneur, opening a music venue was a big freaking deal.
“I fully expect to be paid for my services. Either by direct deposit or in the form of you letting me borrow that shirt of yours I like and then you not bitching about the fact I stretched it out with my boobs.”
Torrie snorted. “Please,” she threw back, pausing to set down the small piano bench she had moved from one side of the stage to the other, “you wouldn’t be able to wear that shirt for more than a few minutes before the buttons gave the fuck up.” She eyed the piano with distaste, wishing that she had asked KC to come help. His muscle would have been useful. The two of them were managing okay though.
“Unless you don’t do up the last few buttons,” she added, settling on the bench. “I’m sure Nick would fucking love all the eyeballing people would do.” Even though she had gotten used to Lita’s boyfriend, Torrie couldn’t really say that she understood him; he was just so chill about things.
Lita looked down at her boobs, considered Torrie’s suggestions, smiled a self-congratulatory smirk to herself, and then turned her attention back to Torrie.
“You know damn well me wearing your shirt would be a gift to Nick, to the city of Austin, and to humanity at large. Which is why you’re gonna let me wear it to Nocturne’s grand opening,” Lita replied breezily. Or, as breezily as she could as she tried to catch her breath from moving all Torrie’s heavy as shit musical equipment.
“Come for the music, stay to see whether or not a button flies off Dr. Singh’s shirt and takes someone’s eye out,” Lita said with a smirk, earning a snort and an eyeroll from her roommate. She knew Torrie’s place didn’t need any gimmick to get people to go there. She looked around the venue and was pleased with how far the place had come under Torrie’s ownership.
“You nervous about tomorrow?”
“Yeah. I only have a shit ton riding on a good opening,” Torrie replied. “The girl I have booked for tomorrow, she’s fucking badass.” Truthfully, Torrie thought she had probably been lucky to find that kind of talent so quickly. “But she’s never played in front of an audience before, so it could all go up in flames.” God, she hoped it didn’t, but… she couldn’t control everything.
Lita felt like this was the part in their conversation where she should reassure her friend that the opening would be flawless and perfect and sunshine and rainbows but it wasn’t really in either of their natures to receive or give those kind of cheerful, overly optimistic sentiments. Instead, Lita supplied, “Or she could bring the damn house down. But, if she doesn’t, you’ve got a contingency plan, right?”
Kicking a foot out from the bench, she shrugged. “Yeah, if she doesn’t show, I have a plan B, so I guess that’s something.” Her plan B was prevailing on Luc Flores to come play, while she sang, so it was pretty shaky at best. Plan C was her doing all of it. She hadn’t played for an audience since Denver, so it had been awhile for her too.
“Well, no matter what happens and whoever is up on stage, Nick and I will be there cheering your ass on,” Lita said, feeling herself skirt as near to sentimentality as she dared with Torrie. “So you can count on two of the loudest, most obnoxious people in Austin to be in your corner tomorrow.”
One side of Torrie’s mouth quirked up. “I’ll make sure that my staff know that,” she retorted, “so they know who to remove if things get rowdy.” Truthfully, it made her a little less nervous knowing that she’d have at least two people in the crowd who weren’t just waiting to see it implode. Well, and Solomon, but that was a given. Although, she could tell lately that he was itching to travel again, he hadn’t said anything about leaving yet, and she hadn’t asked.
“I had this fucking nightmare that nobody would show up,” she admitted with a roll of her eyes, like she was annoyed with her own subconscious. “It’s been the naked on stage dream that I used to have in college. But still, what the fuck? It’s not like there’s that much to do in Austin, so even if it’s only bored people showing their faces, that’s still an audience.” Or so she’d been telling herself.
“You could kill two birds with one stone and actually play naked on stage,” Lita said, her eyebrows disappearing under her bangs as shot a significantly, though ultimately sarcastic, look at Torrie. “Face that nightmare and get a shit ton of people to come to the club. Nothing attracts a crowd like musical nudity.”
Lita wasn’t in the business of making people feel better but she figured she’d be able to distract Torrie from her problems for a moment or two.
“It would definitely bring that Marc guy a running,” Lita said, chancing a smirk, and earning an eyeroll. She had heard about Torrie’s Valentine’s hookup when she and Nick got back from Chicago. The next time Lita heard about him, however, was when he had been picked up for setting fires in the Greenbelt. Torrie had seemed super pissed about the development, which Lita could understand but she hadn’t heard her roommate talk about him since then.
“Is he, uh, out of jail yet? You think he’d come to see your opening? Pun not intended but I’m not taking it back because double entendres are funny.”
Another eyeroll, but that time Torrie matched it with a laugh. “I don’t know if I want him there, you know,” she admitted. “I think he’s out soon, but I’m still a little pissed off at him.” Even if she hadn’t decided to give Marc the silent treatment, it didn’t mean she understood why he’d done the things he’d done.
“It was fucking dumb, but I don’t need to keep telling him that. He knows.” She shrugged. “Russo is a complicated subject.” Maybe because she didn’t know exactly where they stood anymore. She thought she knew, but there’d been some unexpected things that had happened, and that kind of fucked up the status quo, as it were.
“Both of them,” she added. “I guess us Ghouls can’t help ourselves when it comes to fucking up.” She was joking, but it was more than a little true. Aside from KC they’d all done something to put black marks on their reputation.
Lita considered not commenting on Torrie’s assessment and self identification. She had her opinion of the subject (when didn’t she have an opinion on something?) but when it came down to it, she really had no room to pass judgement. Setting the Greenbelt on fire was a dumbass way to vent your frustrations with a city and faction that had done you wrong but, considering Lita’s past and her part in the Hellhound’s history, she thought it best to let sleeping dogs lie. Still, she wasn't about to allow Torrie to diminish her awesome accomplishment.
“You’re not a Ghoul anymore,” Lita reminded her. Her tone was firm, though there was an undeniable undercurrent of compassion hiding deep underneath. “And you’re not fucking up. Don’t lump yourself in with those two dummies because if you do I will totally leave your ass here and not help you haul that last bit of crap.”
Opening her mouth to say something, Torrie clamped it back shut. That was why she appreciated Lita, wasn’t it? Her roommate gave her a kick in the ass when she needed it. It was difficult to erase an identifier overnight, or even over a year. Part of her always would be down in those tunnels; they’d taken some of her.
“Fine, yeah, you’re right,” she conceded.
Lita frowned at the pile of equipment on the other side of the venue that still needed to be moved. Steeling herself to do the last bit of physical labor, Lita put her hands on her knees and heaved herself off the amp.
“At this rate, we’ll be here until tomorrow if we don’t hustle. Let’s double team this last pile and get the hell out of here.”
Lita had a sneaking suspicion that if she didn't force Torrie to leave, she’d stay the whole night finding minute fixes that didn’t need fixing.
Standing, Torrie stretched and nodded. “I think there’s another amp,” she told Lita with a laugh and a smirk. Climbing down from the stage and back towards the exit that she had propped open while they’d been bringing things in. “You were so fucking good at bringing in that first one.”
Lita flipped Torrie the bird as she stood. Heaving a weary (and unnecessarily loud) sigh as to indicate the sacrifices she made for her friend, Lita followed Torrie and got back to work.