𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐄𝐋𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐅𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐎𝐍

01

❝ I love you all; I love you more than life itself, but you're all fucking mad. ❞

76 days of summer remaining

"No way, you've worn those like five times this week!" Daphne scolded, snatching the worn jeans from her friends hands.

June sighed while she rummaged throughout her tiny closet that overfilled with clothes. Clothes that she wouldn't wear in public, let alone the most important music festival of her time. Unlike Daphne, she was not well endowed enough to by an outfit for every little occasion.

Sonny's Summer was the biggest festival for the residents of June's small town of Burton, Arizona. It came around only once a year, always on the first full moon of summer break, right when the teens got out of school.

Every year for the past six years, June would lean out of her window and track the moon cycles, only for her mother to crush her tiny heart and tell her she was too young and she could attend when she was a legal adult. But this year was different, this couldn't be a coincidence. Her parents leave on the same weekend that the Sonny festival comes in? God was practically begging her to sneak out and go . . . or atleast that was what she was telling herself in an attempt to bury the guilt.

Besides, there was no way she could miss the festival this year out of all years. The biggest band of the seventies was headlining. Fever Buzz. Something told her by this time next year one of the members would quit or die in some freakish accident, it always happened that way and today was the only chance she'd get to see all the original members in their prime. There is no time but now, she thought.

June snatched her worn-out bells back and slid into them. "Well these are the only things that fit me, so shush it already will ya?" After so many years of wear, the jeans had little to no structure left to them, gliding up her legs with ease.

Daphne grabbed something from her duffel bag and threw it towards June, a playful scowl apparent on her face. "If you damage these, pray for death Juniper." She laughed before going back to brushing her hair.

The meaningless threat flew over June's head as she stared in awe at the fabric in her hands. "Your star bells?!"

June had always wanted to try them on but Daphne would've died before she let her. And even in death, she probably would've had them surgically fused to her legs.

They were a rare pair of bells discontinued in 1967 that had a second layer of jean cut out on the behind that formed into the shape of a star. Originally owned by Daphne's mother there came a time where they no longer fit her were passed down to Daphne. She only pulled them out on special occasions and when they weren't being worn they were covered in plastic wrap and hidden away by her superstitious mother in a different closet each time.

"Are you sure?" June gulped, unable to find her words. She knew how much these meant to Daphne and frankly she did not want the responsibility of keeping these clean put onto her. "It's a music festival for God's sake! There's no way I'm going to be able to keep these clean."

To June's surprise, Daphne brushed her off with a simple shrug of her shoulders and went on with getting ready. "A little dirt here and there is fine, it's about time those things got some actual wear."

☮

"What do you mean you don't have any tapes!" June complained, plopping into Daphne's new ride with a huff. "Are we supposed to listen to each other breathe the whole ride?"