When We Were Young

The 'A Song from My Story, a Story for My Song' event is a challenge for authors to write a story inspired by a piece of music or song, where the brief is broad and the point is to use music 'to create something new and unique.' On this note, I'd like to thank Literotica author carrteun for organising this challenge. And Laurel, who runs Literotica, let's not forget her who runs this show, making it possible.

I made the assumption music and song were universal, and lo and behold, when I looked it up, there is research to back my assumption (see Universality and Diversity in Human Song by S.A. Mehr). Music is a language of every society. It's used to tell stories, produces arousal and emotions and movement, making people laugh, cry and dance. And even fall in love...

Responses to music and song are deeply personal, often taking on new and different meanings for each individual, beyond what the original artist intended. Song can be evocative, making people long for places they've never visited, or long for something that never was, or long for a real and lived moment in time, a memorable event from the past, maybe something lost.

Thus, music and songs can be time machines, where surely most people have a song that takes them back to a place or moment, an experience, a lazy weekend, driving up the coast with a beautiful friend, afternoon sunlight glowing off her hair and sunnies, the curve of her tank-top and freckled skin of her bare shoulder, and the cheeky grin she shares when pressing replay on her favourite song off the CD you gave her, over and over and over, both singing together, happy and laughing...and more than 20 years later the song comes on the radio and it's like, bam, grabs you by the heart and soul, and in an instant you're right back there with her, singing and laughing again, and then you're crying...

With similar nostalgic themes in mind, I previously wrote the musically inspired story, 'Girl in a Rock Show', exploring things lost and retained when transitioning from care-free youth to responsible adulthood.

Which brings us to the song I chose here: When We Were Young, by Adele. I'm not examining song so much as exploring the themes of mistakes, personal change, reconciliation and second chances, and I've decided to use lyrics without writing them. Perhaps you'll understand when you get there. And I hope you get there, but be warned, this story is not a quickie. Indeed, it's pretty long. However, from the moment I began writing, the characters and tale came alive to me and I needed to see their journey through. I hope they come alive for you too.

Oh, and I'm sure there will be mistakes, forgive them, but most of all, please enjoy!

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Brisbane, Australia...

"I can't believe we're doing this," Erin said, her voice and eyes anguished. "This is the worst idea ever."

"Nah, it's gonna be epic," Charlie said with a slight slur, his eyes dreamy, reflecting the glow from the street light above them. "You said you wanted to go dancing this weekend and the club's not far."

"This is not cool." She gestured to the old Holden panel van, the rear packed with people. "We've all been drinking, including the driver. Let's all go back to the party."

Nik sat on the tailgate, his once thick black hair recently shaved to a buzz-cut Erin wasn't yet used to. "Hey, Rin, don't be soft. Froggy's a safe driver, and I never thought you'd knock back a night club run to The Valley."

At least three other young people were piled into the rear of the van behind Nik, and someone whooped with excitement and another called out, "C'mon, people, what are we waiting for?"

"Hang on a sec," Charlie said to them, then turned back to Erin, smiling. "Gorgeous one, it's only a short trip down the road, let's go. Nothin's gonna happen."

"Come on, Rin, jump in, it's fine." The voice was Libby's, her oldest friend in the world, but Libby was among the others in the van behind Charlie and Nik, indiscernible in the darkness.

A young man with a goatee and wild mane of dark hair leaned from the passenger window, his voice slightly aggressive. "Are you guys gettin' in, or what?" The V8 roared to life, revving, headlights flicking on, and the guitar intro to Metallica's Enter Sandman began blaring from the dark interior.

Erin swallowed, knowing this was dumb, dumb, dumb! "Not with them, not tonight. Come on, Charlie, let's just go back into Mel's party. You too, Nikko and Lib, cos this is the dumb shit that doesn't end well and ends up on the news in the morning."

"Nah, it'll be awesome," Charlie said, dancing on the spot, shaking his body and rocking his arms to the metal coming from the van. "Mel's party was lame and this'll be fun. Let's go find a club and dance the night away like we did on your birthday. Seriously, The Valley's not far up the road."

"There's no seatbelts in the back and we've been drinking..."

"We're not drunk," someone called out from the van, which revved again, guitars grinding and drums cannoning, and someone else laughed, saying "But we dropped some pingas!"

Nik was urgent now, "You two are either comin' or ya not, make up ya minds so we can get the fuck out of here."

Libby joined in, "Let's go, Bogs and Rusty, get in the van!"

A chant started from the darkness, "Get in the van. Get in the van. Get in the van," and someone, the other girl, Danira or whatever her name was, who Charlie and Nik called Dani, giggled.

Charlie smiled, shaking his head dreamily and he took her hand. "Come, Rin, let's go have some fun."

The V8 throbbed with noise and stinking smoke from twin exhausts, competing with the heavy music from the stereo, someone singing along at the top of their voice, off with the fairies. With the tail-lights shining bright red in Erin's eyes, and feeling like she was hallucinating, she nodded, Charlie smiling and pulling her by the hand towards the tailgate. She let him, and he climbed on board and she did too, the whole thing like an out of body experience, fate slipping from her control.

There was a cheer, more sound adding to the noise, vibrations engulfing the dark space, accompanied by the stink of sweat and exhaust, a thin mattress padding their arses against the steel floor. Erin hunched over like the rest, their backs uncomfortable against the van's thin steel panel sides, wishing she was elsewhere.

There was no escape, Nik closing the tailgate, the blackness enveloping her, and the engine revved and the van took off down the street, lurching, guitar squealing and drums smashing, exploding from the stereo, the beast laughing at their folly, and the sickening lingering stench of exhaust everywhere. Still, everyone appeared happy and excited, and conscious of her thumping heartbeat, Erin laughed nervously, thinking, Why didn't I walk away?

Erin knew her reason; because she was with Charlie, her sweet, loving, wonderful Charlie, who always made her feel special and loved and brave, who encouraged her, both pushing boundaries together, bringing out the best in each other.

And sometimes the worst. Charlie could be reckless, but she found that side of him fun and exciting, and things always worked out and she believed he was charmed, because she felt charmed to be with him, every day an adventure.

Not quite a perfect adventure. Not since he'd begun hanging with these new mates of Nik's over the past year, his drinking and pot-smoking increasing significantly.

They'd already sunk a few drinks, but pot wasn't on the menu tonight because Nik handed them a pill each and a bottle of water. He gestured towards the driver, leant forward and yelled between Erin and Charlie's ears, his voice barely audible above the noise overwhelming the confined space.

"Got the E from Froggy. He reckons it's really good shit and not cut with other drugs and stuff. Says he personally knows the bloke who makes it."

Charlie turned to Erin, but in the darkness of the noisy, crowded, stinking van, all she could make out was his silhouette and smile illuminated by streetlights fighting their way through the dark tailgate window. She shook her head, but Charlie popped his pill, swigged some water, and with mouth open wide, he stuck his tongue out to show her it was done.

"Easy peasy," he said, laughing. "Let it slide..."

The pill she fingered appeared harmless, insignificant, and could be aspirin for all she knew, and she thought, I'm in a stinking crowded van with no seatbelts and Nik's dickhead mate drink driving, and I can't hear a fucking thing over the noise, and I'm holding an unidentified pill. What could possibly go wrong?

Everyone was laughing, singing, and she looked to Charlie, his only feature an encouraging smile, and she shrugged her shoulders, popped the pill in her mouth and she felt Charlie push the water bottle into her hand and she drank, feeling the liquid-assisted pill slide down her throat.

"Tonight's gonna be epic," he said into her ear, warm lips against her skin. Erin felt his love, but wondered about her decisions, trying to let her inhibitions go.

Charlie helped, he always did.

With thumping music deafening and disorientating, their hot sweaty bodies squished tight, inertia pushing most to one side when they cornered, against the panel walls and each other in a tangle of limbs, feeling like they might tip and roll. The girl screamed, Dani who Erin met at the party this evening, because it was definitely not Libby screaming. Someone else laughed like a maniac, the guy in the back with them who Erin hadn't even met, and Erin felt her stomach lurch as Nik knocked into her and Charlie, her back braced against the panel sides. But then she felt Charlie's hand slip into hers, warm comfort, and she squeezed him back, closing her eyes.

"This is bullshit," she whispered, but no one could hear over the thumping music, the song changing to something she didn't know or care to know, more metal loudly competing with the purring V8.

The crowded car rocked on its springs and blue-flashing lights accompanied by a wailing siren briefly invaded the cabin, and Erin wished for the police to pull them over, but the lights and siren faded in the opposite direction. She wondered if she should send her brother, Connor, a text, knowing he'd contact his mate at the police station in Fortitude Valley and they'd send a car to intercept the distinctive panel van. That would be dumb too, because he'd berate her for getting in the van in the first place, then for taking an unidentified pill, and they'd likely be charged, and her friends would hate her.

This is such bullshit!

And yet, after forever, the driver parked in a laneway so few would witness eight young people piling out of a vehicle legally permitted to carry two. Erin's ears were already ringing, but they'd made it to Fortitude Valley alive, and she took a deep breath of life, sucking down the fresh air, ruined by someone's cigarette.

She moved on autopilot, letting glazed eyed Charlie lead her by the hand, following the others to the nightclub. Light-headed and beginning to look forward to dancing, she laughed with them, glad to be alive after the van ride of terror, adrenaline still pumping and feeling like they'd cheated death, feeling silly she'd worried in the first place. Another reckless Charlie adventure, turning into fun.

The club was seedy, dingy and dark, except for the flashing laser lights accompanying the blaring remix of The Chemical Brothers' Hey Boy Hey Girl. The dance floor wasn't yet crowded, maybe a quarter full, and Charlie led her straight there, immediately finding his happy place, stepping to the beating trance, jumping, seemingly hovering above the floor, crossing his legs in mid-air, spinning three-sixty, landing and dipping, his body coming up against hers, meeting face-to-face with a huge smile.

She smiled back, giddy, completely in love with the love of her life, feeling like a trillion bucks now she was here, one-hundred percent alive, the thrill of dancing taking over, surrounded by dozens of sweaty gyrating bodies, her hands in the air, smiles and happiness all about.

With a sly smile on her lips, and her eyes on his, Erin brought her arms down over Charlie's shoulders, linking her fingers behind his head, sinking into the curls of his big brown fluff-ball hair, and they shared a deeply passionate kiss, feeling the love flow between them.

The trancy groove and thumping beat commanded their movements, possessing them, her wonderful Charlie dancing close to her under the strobing lights, in the zone, his gorgeous eyes smiling at her, body grooving and shaking, arms waving back and forth, shoulders rocking, and she laughed, stepping on the spot, bouncing, practically skipping, floating, clapping, Charlie also clapping along, throwing his head back and laughing with her, both full of dancing joy and love.

You're amazing, Charlie Moss, she thought, knowing she was the luckiest girl in the universe, the smile on her lips matching the smile deep in her heart. I love you so damn much!

Nik and Libby joined them in a circle, the four of them sticking together like back at their High School dances, Blue-light Discos, parties, other nightclubs, gigs and festivals, each of them smiling and laughing and dancing together.

The others danced on their periphery, Nik's mates. The other girl, Dani, from the van ride, was there too, her bleach-blond pigtails sprouting, each tied with a blood-red ribbon, tattoos up the side of her neck. The girl chatted to Charlie on and off at Mel's party, apparently having met him a couple of times before, and was currently dancing close to Charlie's side, getting close to his and Erin's groove.

Erin smiled, because even though all the girls liked Charlie, and she was used to them trying to be noticed by him, he never gave her any reason to believe he ever had eyes for anyone else. She felt proud and secure knowing they belonged together, friends since they were young and dating for the last five years, and things were great, their planets always aligned.

Still, she couldn't help but want Dani to back the fuck off from her man!

The stomping trance and dooffing beat continued, transitioning into other songs, The Prodigy's Breathe and then others, all the while more and more people crowded in. The lights strobed a stop-motion effect upon the dancers, and a thick fog of artificial smoke hung in the air. The dancing joy was a fever burning hot in their souls for the next hour or so, the excited heat rising within, Erin's skin prickling like some kind of rash and her throat dry.

"I need air and water," she eventually said, trying to get Charlie's attention.

He nodded, eyes glazed and smiling in his own little world, moving with the beat. She couldn't even tell if he'd heard her. If only Charlie would understand what she needed right now, taking her away from here, into the night and maybe find somewhere cool and dark to lie down, and make long and gentle love, like they'd done in the early hours of her twentieth birthday, several weeks previously.

Her heart raced at the thought, but she needed a drink of water, turning and pushing her way through the room full of thrashing bodies, jostling and knocking her as she made for the bar.

She felt something brushing through her hair, and she turned to see some random standing there, up in her grill, smiling expectantly, the tips of his fingers among her locks, down past her shoulders, touching her skin exposed at the back of her halter top.

Yelling over the beats, the creep said with a slur, "Hey, Ginger Spice, I'd like to buy you a drink."

"No thanks, I'm getting water for me and my boyfriend," she said, shouting over the noise, moving away and flicking his hand, wishing the man gone.

He grabbed Erin's wrist when she brushed him aside, saying, "I don't see no boyfriend, so how about a dance then?"

"Hey, stop it!" she yelled, swiftly twisting her arm from the creep's grip, pushing through to the bar.

"Fucking slut," the guy said, shaking his head, staggering.

"Fuck off, dick head."

She asked the barman for two bottles of water, then found an empty place by the wall, drinking, looking for Charlie. He was in the middle of the throng somewhere, moving, shaking, with their mates, but she couldn't see any of them. Her heart raced, and she took several deep breaths, an aching sensation in her face, and the strobing laser lights irritating her eyes. The second bottle was for Charlie, but her thirst would not quench and she sucked it down too.

Where's Charlie, she thought again, burning, nausea rising, wanting air, wanting to leave, wanting Charlie.

Again she looked for Charlie among the many, moving towards the dance floor and fighting the building wave of queasy discomfort, her everything trembling, the heat prickling. There he was, oblivious to her, not even searching for her, his eyes narrow and a smile upon his lips. Bleach-blond Dani smiled up at Charlie, dancing right in front of him, her face close to his and he was smiling too, their faces so close. Way too close. Were they kissing?

No, Charlie, NO!

Erin's gut churned, her heart slamming in her chest, the room spinning, and she fell against someone, a young woman, who turned, aggressively yelling, "Hey, bitch, you made me spill my fuckin' drink...shit, are you alright there?"

"I think I'm gonna be sick."

"Shit, Josh," the woman called to someone, "This chick's goin' down."

Erin doubled over and she felt two pairs of hands take hold of her arms, taking her weight, the woman asking, "Have you taken anything?"

"Ecstasy, I think," she said, her voice trembling, and she vaguely heard the woman say the word overdose.

Her mind, overwhelmed by her body's many signals of distress, processed the word, coming to the ultimate conclusion, I'm about to die...

A man's deep voice close to her ear was yelling loudly for someone to tell the bar to call an ambulance, her heart pounding, the furnace within, skin prickling, head spinning, jaw aching, muscles trembling, anger, sadness and fear in one, the nausea overwhelming her.

Her voice weak and shaky, Erin uttered, "I need Charlie...please find him, he's dancing. Please, I need him right now. Tell him I love him. Please tell him I love him."

~0~

When We Were Young

© 2020 Thefireflies, for Literotica

~0~

15 years later...

The bride-to-be was beautiful, as all brides are. Her name was Genevieve and she sat on a chair in the middle of the hotel room, casually chatting and laughing with her bridal party. All the women were holding flutes with various levels of Champagne, including the young hairdresser who only just finished curling Genevieve's long blond hair. Music played softly from someone's phone, and Erin focused her camera on one of the bride's eyes, liking the way the sunlight streaming in through the balcony doors fell on the woman's face. She pressed the shutter release.

One of the bride's maids, Zoe, with luscious dark long hair, and whose green eyes were striking on her oval face, said something funny, a joke perhaps, and all the women in the bridal party laughed. Erin captured Genevieve and her sister, Lucinda, facing one another and laughing with joy.

If there was one thing in the entire world Erin was confident about, it was that she was good at her craft. And though her day would be long, these were the best kind of wedding shoots, where she photographed the bridal party's preparation, all the way through to the bride and groom's first dance at the wedding reception, right before everyone became silly and drunk. Genevieve was lovely and definitely no bridezilla, which helped, so the atmosphere in the room was happy and relaxed.