Aspiring musician Hazel Hill runs into the successful musician Remington Leith of Palaye Royale on Valentines Day 2019
THE ONLY A/N I WILL EVER LEAVE:
The first 6 or so chapters were written mid 2019 by a very awkward 17 year old me who was too scar...
Valentines Day, quite possibly the most hated day of the year.
This is exactly why I'm trying to make it fun for everyone! Well, my friends at least. I broke up with my girlfriend nearly 2 months ago. My friend, Skyler broke up with her girlfriend a month ago, and my other friend Bailey hasn't had a boyfriend since high school. So as cringy and cliche as it is, we're going out. Yeah, I know it sounds like a shitty Hallmark movie. But I'd never turn down an excuse to go out.
I woke up around 11:45 in the morning, quickly did my morning routine. By then it was 12:25, and I had just started my third cup of coffee. I needed to put up "decorations" which consisted of red streamers and balloons from the dollar store. Once I felt content with my work, I had to set up snacks. I fill a bowl with shitty chocolate from the same dollar store I went to for the decorations. I grab the off-brand soda from the fridge and put it on the coffee table. Sky and Bailey won't be here until 4, and it's currently 2:50. I ordered the pizza and set the delivery time to 5.
Once the prep work was all done I jumped onto my couch to scroll through Twitter and Instagram until I got bored, or so depressed with the state of the world I need to hide my phone. Whichever comes first. I like a few posts from various bands and artists, I aspire to be like. I guess I haven't introduced myself yet, I'm Juliet Hazel Hill, the lead singer, and guitarist for a shitty pop-punk band from San Jose California and I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm in a band with my best friend from 5th grade, Asher, he plays drums. I basically forced him into it but he had no other plans after high school so he doesn't complain. The other member of the band is Damian, he plays bass, and is one of Asher's friends. I'm 22 and a college dropout. I work at a dog kennel in West Los Angeles. That's about it. Oh, I go by Hazel, cause Juliet sounds stupid.
I get a text from Bailey saying she's at the door. It's 3:50 so whatever. I open the door to let her in and realize it's a full-on downpour outside.
"Hey, how've you been?" I hug Bailey even though she's kinda drenched from the rain.
"Eh, same old, same old. I finally finished writing Act 1!" She tells me as she picks up a candy from the bowl I placed out and sat down on the couch. Bailey wants to write a musical and go all the way to Broadway. She wants it just as badly as I want to be a musician, I think that's the only reason we get along.
"Dude that's awesome, I'm really proud of you" I smile. She hits writer's block a lot so I'm legitimately proud of her.
"Hey, hey, where's your cat?" She asks looking around the room.
I sigh knowing along the lines of what's coming, "In my room."
She gets up from the couch and I follow. She gets to my room and finds Midnight sleeping on my bed, "Hey, fuck you!"
She wakes up Midnight and walks out of the room. "Is that necessary every. single. time? "
"Yes." That is all she responds with, she's been doing this every time she comes over since my 9th-grade year.
The doorbell rings and Sky walks in, "Hellooooo" she greets and hugs me and Bailey, "God, it's raining cats and dogs out there."
"I know, I fucking love the rain," I said smiling and looking out the window, "So now that we're all here, what movie do you guys wanna start with?"
A few hours and 2 movies pass before we decide we're gonna get ready to go out. I thought it'd be fun to get really dressed up and walk around going to places you wouldn't necessarily go to dressed up. We all head to the bathroom and take turns changing. Skyler is wearing a lilac purple dress and a light blue jean jacket, with makeup to match. Bailey is in a white dress covered in yellow flowers, she also keeps her makeup in theme. I decided on a black dress, leather jacket, red high tops, and red and black makeup.
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I really think tonight is going to be memorable.
Once everyone is done, we hit our first stop, Walmart.
Once we arrive at the local Walmart, our trip consisted of cart rides, pulling me away from the CD and Record section, Bailey and me jumping into the ball tower thing, riding the bikes they had left out, and then getting kicked out 10 minutes later. As we were walking out we were in laughing our asses off. Now to target to do it all over again.
We get to Target, and I bolt for the cd section before Sky and Bailey can stop me and hide behind a shelve of phone chargers. Once I'm sure I lost them I come out of hiding and stroll over to the CDs and vinyl. There's another person looking at the vinyl, he had spikey black hair and a black sweater, and black skinny jeans on. My people. We look at each other and I smile, he looks confused but smiles back. Fair enough, I don't look dressed for target, but that's the whole point. I eventually find a copy of Last Young Renegades. I pick it up and I'm looking at the covers just admiring the artwork.
"You listen to All Time Low?" A voice to my right asks.
"Yeah I've been listening to them since I was a teenager" I kinda laugh thinking back at my emo phase. It never really ended, but it did settle down.
"Me too." He smiles and reaches out his hand to shake mine, "I'm Remington."
"Nice to meet you Remington" I smile back shaking his hand, "I'm-" I get cut off by Skyler tackling me. Bailey walks over and smiles at Remington before both girls drag me across the floor towards the woman's clothing section.
We turn a corner and they finally let me get up and walk on my own.
"Do you know who that was?" Skyler asks me.
"Uh...he said his name was Remington?" I say more as a question than an answer.
"Dude!" Skyler slaps my arm, "You own 2 of their albums!"
I look at her confused, I own a lot of people's albums, "I hope you know that doesn't clarify anything."
Skyler sighs, "Palaye Royale ring any bells?" Oh... OH.
"Oh, I uh... That's cool." I say smiling I never paid much attention to the members and fandoms of the bands I listen to. I follow a few on Twitter and Instagram, but I never really paid it much mind, they're people just like me, Skyler, and Bailey.
Bailey looks confused and asks, "What's a Palaye Royale?"
Skyler answers before me, "it's the name a really fucking cool band."
Me and Skyler don't have identical music taste, but a few of our artists overlap, like My Chemical Romance, Paramore, Panic! at the Disco, and of course, Palaye Royale. The only other person I talked to that I had similar taste in music with was Taylor...but we don't talk anymore. Sky's a bigger fangirl than me. Not that it's a bad thing, but I just don't want people to see me as like a god if my band gets big.
I'm also not saying I'm not completely against fangirl culture because tbh I'd die for Ryan Ross and saying otherwise would make me a hypocrite.
The night continues as we fuck around in Target for about 45 minutes before getting kicked out.
The last stop of the night is the dollar store by my apartment. We aren't trying to get kicked out here, we just need snacks for the rest of the night. I go into the dollar store as Bailey and Sky go into the liquor store. We're all 22, and the plan is to get high and drunk off our asses once we go back to my apartment, hence the snacks.
We finish the last of our shopping, and head back to my place. The rest of the night is a bit of a blur, I know we got drunk as skunks, and high as kites. Overall, I'd say Valentine's Day was a success.
