Punk Princess (completed) (being edited)

Chapter 6

"You did what?!" West is sitting, frozen, staring wide-eyed at me. It's been two days since the whole Lacey and Alec fight and since my fight with West. West and I worked things out, and we're all good. Lacey and Alec are another story. They still haven't broken up (even West told Lacey that maybe they should give things a rest yesterday at band practice after she argued with Alec for an hour straight), and they constantly fight over everything. This time last week seems like heaven compared to dealing with either one of them right now. 

"Yeah, I kind of told Alec that Lacey didn't want to talk to him. Which was true. She implied that. Heavily," I say, taking another bite of my cookie dough flurry(West and I decided to get ice cream after school today -- that's where we are.).

"Alright, yeah, but you told him she was done with him? Cait, really? Like, I know you don't think those two are a good fit and everything, and honestly, I think they could find better people for each other, too, but... Cait, that's not alright."

"Yeah, I know, West! I feel like crap about it. I just don't know how to bring it up. I think it's the one thing they haven't argued about, and I don't want to cause more problems by talking about it."  

"Yet," he says, glaring at me. "Anyway... just look at this," he says, pushing a paper across the table. Battle of the Bands, it reads. Come out and enjoy our annual contest in the park on Halloween! Tickets are $5 each, and we're still looking for bands to fill up slots. There will be up to twelve bands competing for our first prize -- radio airplay on our local station, RWDZ, and $1000! Come out and enjoy our annual Battle of the Bands on Friday, October 31st!

"Wait, so you're saying... you think we should enter?"

"Yeah. I mean, I know everything's really shaky right now, and I'm honestly not even sure if we're all really a band anymore, but... I think if we are still a band, it would give us a reason to stay together and work everything out." 

"I don't know, West. I mean... Lacey's been a little nicer to me since the other day, but... she's still Lacey. And Alec... he's worrying me lately, too. I've noticed he has some anger problems when he and Lacey fight, and... ugh. I don't know. It's a lot of stress, and if we're not just doing it on our own time... besides, Halloween is only a week and a half away. I don't know if we're ready." 

"We'll never know if we're ready if we don't try. If we end up being the crappiest band there, then we'll know then that we weren't ready. But we can't give up on that now. C'mon. We'll talk to Lacey and Alec about it tonight--"

"You mean, we'll put them in separate rooms and ask them what they think?" 

"I-- probably, since they never quit fighting. But, anyway, yeah. So... have you talked to your best friend at all?" 

"She won't answer my texts. We're not really friends anymore," I say quietly, messing with the spoon of my now-empty flurry cup.

"Oh... Sorry, um... are you ready to go?" 

"Yeah, I guess," I say, still holding the Battle of the Bands paper. I begin to read the fine print. "West?" 

"What?" 

"They're not letting all of the bands in," I say. "It's not even first come first serve. We have to make a demo tape to send in with the application, too, and it's due in three days!" 

"Three days?" He rips the paper out of my hands, reading the fine print at the bottom. "We need to go record this now. By the time we fix it so it sounds decent and have time to get it to the radio station, we'll barely have time to get it there! And that's if we can actually stop fighting long enough to get something done, and... we can't get this done. I... forget I said anything. We can't do it with Lacey and Alec fighting and everything."