reverie | reggie [jatp]

chapter one - that night

Hollywood, 1995

Valerie Meyerson hated math. She dislikes having to do it in general, but she especially had a grievance with it when it was interferring with one of the most important nights of her and her friends' lives.

Tonight, Valerie would watch as some of her closest friends take the world by storm at The Orpheum. She knew that Sunset Curve would thrive, and tonight was the beginning of the rest of their lives. She'd been waiting on this day for months, years even, and here she was solving equations with the Pythagorean theorem. She contemplated throwing her trapper keeper in the garbage, but ultimately decided against it.

She groaned and sat on her bed, trudging through homework as she listened to the Sunset Curve demo Reggie gave her. Reggie was her best friend, and had been since they were in first grade. Reggie also happened to live next door, which is how they even met in the first place. Their bedroom windows face each other, and they began to exchange notes through the screens shortly after Valerie moved in. She smiled fondly, and glanced out the window at his bedroom. The lights were dark and the room murky. She shrugged to herself; He's probably gone to practice for tonight.

She hummed along to the music, relieved to find she only had a few more problems left in her homework. Right as she went to power through the last few equations, she heard a tap on her window. She glanced up, and watched as another pebble hit her window. Speak of the devil.

She grinned and jumped up, opening her window to see Reggie a few feet down. He had a large instrument case on his back, and he smiled when he saw Valerie.

"Hey, Val. Can I come up?" He twiddled his fingers again and again, a nervous fidget that Val could notice from a mile away.

Val nodded, "You know, I'm sure Mom wouldn't mind if I let you in the front door."

Reggie shook his head, already making his way up the lattice, "This is way cooler."

Valerie shook her head and chuckled, "Whatever you say, Romeo. Just hurry up." Reggie made his way up and Val gave him a hand crawling into her room. She was surprised he did it with the guitar case on his back.

"What brings you to my humble home, Reg?" Valerie returned to her spot on the bed, moving her homework and creating a spot for Reggie to sit down.

Reggie frowned and his shoulders sagged slightly, "My parents are fighting again."

Valerie's heart broke for him. He was one of the sweetest people she'd ever met and he didn't deserve what he goes through half the time at his house, "Do you want to talk about it?"

Reggie sat on the empty space of Valerie's bed and sighed, "I kind of just want to forget about it now."

Valerie nodded. It has been getting worse lately, and Reggie found himself at Valerie's more often. Valerie offered for Reggie to come over when his parents were fighting when he broke down to her about it one night, and it had been their agreement since. She decided to try to distract him and change the subject.

Valerie nodded toward the guitar case, "Did you bring your bass to practice or something?"

Reggie's demeanor quickly shifted, and he stood up, "Actually, no, this is for you. From me. Well, technically it's from all of us in the band, but mostly me." He picked up the case and brought it over to her bed.

Valerie's brow furrowed, "What's this for?"

Reggie smiled, "Well, you've been picking up the guitar pretty quickly since me and Luke started giving you pointers, and you kept having to borrow Jake's old one. I thought you may like your own!"