Reborn

"You lost man?" Victor looked up to see who had spoken. Standing in front of him was probably the most textbook example of a punk he had ever seen. Granted, this was his first time encountering a punk, but he assumed this was a fairly standard punk. Victor had to crane his neck just to see her face. She was easily six inches taller than him, and on top of that, her hair was spiked a mile high into a neon green mohawk. The poor boy was too stunned to speak.

"Dude? Are. You. Lost?" The girl repeated, clipping each word. "You realize you're in line for the Office Supply Sabotage concert, right?"

"Yes...No...Kinda." Victor tripped over each word.

"Well which is it?" The girl was smiling now, less intimidating than just a moment ago. Victor was still too scared to look her in the eye. He tried staring at her boots, but then he imagined what all those spikes could do, and decided to look at his own beat up Chuck's instead.

"I...I knew there was a concert tonight. I didn't know who was playing though." The girl looked him up and down, sizing him up. He was obviously out of place in a plain t-shirt and khaki shorts.

"What on Earth are you doing here dude? You look like you'd be more at home at Comic Con, church camp, something. Anything but here really."

"Probably." Victor continued looking at his shoes while he explained himself to the girl, whose name, he learned, was Laura. He explained that he had been trying to find a story for the school newspaper when he found an ad for the show and thought he would check it out.

"So...You just decided to come out to a punk show all by yourself?"

"I don't really have any friends I could have asked. I had to sneak out just so my mom wouldn't offer to come." Laura laughed at that, remembering her first concert. She hadn't been alone, but she had snuck out so her mom couldn't ask questions.

"That takes balls kid," Laura said as she playfully punched him in the shoulder. "You've got me now though."

"What? Really?" This threw a wrench in Victor's plans to just stand on the sidelines and watch, but maybe he would be better off with this girl to help him.

"Your first show can be a tough one, you'll need some help." Laura smiled at him, as intimidating as she was at first glance, her smile was strangely calming to Victor. Knowing that he wouldn't have to survive this alone, also allowed his heart to slow down to something closer to a regular rate. "You're lucky this place is even still open," Victor gave the girl a quizzical look, "the punk scene is dying dude. Fewer and fewer bands play. Fewer people come out. It's fucking capitalism man, kills everything good."

They waited outside the building in silence. From the outside, it could have been any warehouse plopped down between two small businesses. The marquee and old show flyers pasted all over the front were the only things that really made it stand out.

Laura turned to Victor once the line started to move. "Alright, so when we get up there they're gonna make you empty your pockets and run a metal detector wand over you. You don't have any knives or anything on you, do you?" She had spewed it all out so fast that Victor could barely keep up, but he understood the gist and nodded that he didn't have anything on him. "Security didn't used to be this tight. It used to be you could just walk straight in, enjoy the show. Then one day a metal-head decided to pick a fight with a crusty and got stabbed. Now everyone gets checked. Thoroughly."

Victor tried not to let his shock and confusion show. He had a vague idea of what a metal-head was. They had their own table in the cafeteria at school, and they pretty much kept to themselves. What the hell is a crusty though? He decided he could ask Laura about it later. They made their way through security with no problems and proceeded to a sketchy looking man with a full beard, and beer belly. He scanned Laura's ticket and then motioned for her to go through the double doors that led into the venue.