~vessel of brightness, come make me blind~
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Lydia Noelle was a violin virtuoso. A friend of Lucy's from a few tours in the past, though she neglected to tell her about the massive venue upgrade whenever she did enlist her help to fill in some of th...
TW: This chapter contains brief discussions of past accidents and injuries.
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The Ripped Bodice Philedelphia, PA 3-1-23
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As toxic as it was, Lydia started to look at her life in stages after that. 'Before Julien' and 'After Julien'. She knew multiple people in which their first love didn't change them, but in this case it had. She had made too much of an impression. She had taken too much. Been too gentle. Spent too many nights entangled up in sheets with her head between her legs. Too many bubble baths and dates and smashed ornaments left on the ground that she should've taken as a sign. Tour romances didn't last. Nothing lasted. So she spent the next few years trying to avoid her slowly growing instagram and the sweet relationship posts from her guitarist. Typing up messages she'd never send.
'Congratulations on your new relationship.'
'Congratulations on the sold out tour.'
'Congratulations on your one year anniversary!'
'Congratulations on the new album!'
'Congratulations on your two year anniversary! Any idea whenever you're gonna pop the question??'
'Congratulations on your third year... hope you're staying healthy.'
But how was she supposed to say these things whenever she didn't mean most of them. Not that there was anything wrong with Julien's girlfriend, because there wasn't. She was taller. Naturally pretty. Way better at her craft than Lydia would ever be. A romantic, but not a hopeless one. But how could she say congratulations whenever all she really wanted to say was 'I wish you were right here. I never got over you. You have to come back.'
'Please come back.'
Moving in with Lucy probably wasn't the best idea at first but she couldn't handle staying in the house any longer after Paige and Aubrey had officially gotten together for a sequel of their disastrous relationship. And it helped that for a while nobody ever thought there'd be a Boygenius reunion. Their solo careers were successful. Phoebe had become an overnight sensation it felt like after collabing with Taylor Swift. It was rough seeing Julien on various tours and at shows... but at some point Lucy told Lydia she needed to stop being a damsel. So she did.
She was 25 now... it was time to let go of some things. Or at least try. Even whenever Julien did finally agree to a Boygenius comeback. It only made sense after the success of her third album. Even if the stages were starting to blend together. Whenever that happened she spent a lot of her time running from her.
Thankfully though, due to the success of their music careers so far... she was finally able to open up that bookstore she had always wanted to. So having her second job definitely helped her with her usual act of running. Until they decided to pay her a visit. Not that it wasn't nice having Boygenius back for tour season and placing the finishing touches on their album though. 66% of them hadn't broken her heart and she didn't stand a chance of falling in love with to let them do so again the second she looked at them the right way.
