behind blue eyes ― jimmy page

o. PROLOGUE

︵‿︵‿୨ 1969 ୧‿︵‿︵

    SADIE SHOVED HANDFULS of clothes into her bag, stuffing it down to try to make everything she owned fit inside of it. Clothes, brushes and notepads filled with lyrics, everything was in there, right down to her lucky guitar pick. It was pitiful, really, how little she actually owned despite living more than a year in her boyfriend's apartment. Ex, she reminded herself, he's not your boyfriend anymore.

     "Sadie? What the fuck are you doing in there?!" The man in question shouted from the other side of the bedroom door, the frame shaking as he banged his fist against the flimsy wood. "You can't keep me out forever!"

     "Fuck off, Dylan!" The blonde screamed, pulling one of her heels out of the bag and throwing it at the door with a resounding 'thwack!'. It didn't deter him, though, as he switched from banging to rattling the door handle.

     "I swear to god Sadie you're going to regret not opening this door!" He was shouting and swearing at her now, threatening her about all the things he would do once he got inside, so the blonde walked over to the record player and turned the volume up until she could barely hear him over the blaring sound of The Kinks. All she kept catching was snippets of 'you'll regret—' and '—stupid bitch!' as she finished shoving her things inside of the backpack and carried it over to the window of the third floor apartment. Since leaving through the front door didn't appear to be an option, the fire escape seemed like the next best thing.

Out the window, Sadie spotted the beat up silver frame of her friend's car parked on the corner, just like she'd asked in her phone call. She looked back at the door one more time and spotted Dylan's guitar case sitting next to the dresser. She'd brought it for him as a Christmas present the year before, and all he got her was a new toothbrush. "Fuck it." She grabbed the guitar case from next to the bed and shimmied it out the window to sit on the fire escape next by her bag.

She paused for a moment to watch the door handle jiggle unrelentingly. "You don't have anything without me you ungrateful bitch! I gave you everything!" She'd argued with him so many times that his words didn't make her feel anything anymore; no hurt, no anger, just a cold numbness. The hinges had already begun to splinter from the force of his shaking, and she knew it wouldn't be long before he broke it down. When he finally did, though, she would be long gone.

     She pushed her dirty blonde hair out of her eyes as she pulled the window open as far as she could and climbed out onto the fire escape, pulling her bag over her shoulder before carefully holding her guitar case so she could climb down the ladder towards the floor. Half way down, she heard the sound of the frame splintering and cracking from the bedroom above her, her eyes flashing up to look at the window as she started climbing faster. "Sadie, what the hell?!" Dylan shouted as he leant out the window and saw her, "get back up here now!"

     "No, Dylan!" She told him, letting go of the bars and jumping the last few meters to the ground. The man growled in frustration as he tried to find a way to fit out of the window he was too big for. A small glimmer of relief flickered through the blonde when she knew he couldn't follow her.

    "Where are you even going?!" He shouted as she readjusted her things over her shoulder and narrowed her eyes up at him. "You don't even have a dollar to your name without me! You owe me!"

     "I don't owe you jack, asshole!" She raised her middle finger at him as he punched the window frame in frustration, "you can take your money and shove it!" Satisfied with her last word, she turned on her heel and started walking to the corner where her friend was parked, leaving Dylan shouting profanities at her retreating frame.

     She slammed open the door to the small car, sliding her bag and guitar into the back before she walked around to get into the passengers seat, slumping into the faded leather and letting out a heavy breath she didn't know she'd been holding. A year and a half with Dylan, and she was finally free. She didn't realise how good it would feel until she'd done it. Even with no job or place to stay, anything was better than being in a room with him. 

     "Wanna talk about it?" Lela asked from the drivers seat of the car, pulling a cigarette from between her lips as she turned to look at the blonde next to her from behind her thick-framed glasses.

"Nope," Sadie shook her head.

"Good," Lela nodded, her cropped hair bobbing slightly as she pulled out onto the road, leaving behind Sadie's shitty old apartment and her ex along with it. "I've lined us up a gig in south London tonight. Apparently it's a good place to get picked up by a record company."

Sadie looked out the window as her old suburb flashed by, promising herself it was the last time she would ever make herself look at it again. "Good," she turned back to look at her friend, "let's go kick some ass."