D: do u think fish have feelings

Tessa: I’m going to ignore that.

 

Tessa grins to herself as she scrolls through her conversations with D, waiting outside of the bustling arena for Jackie to show up. The United Center is an imposing gray building, with very little personality beyond the massive long posters on its walls advertising the band that will be playing there tonight.

She and D had been exchanging texts with their usual frequency, only lately there has been a lingering sense of… anticipation. D’s texts were as dorky and cheeky as always, although now he’s also asking questions about what they should do when they finally meet. Not sexual. Just…

 

D: we should totally binge the lizzie bennet diaries together

D: u no u luv a good pride and prejudice adaption dont deny it

D: also i hear chicago has good pizza places ull hav 2 show me

D: if u take the job then u can crash wit us in manhattan til u find somewere to stay

 

Spelling errors aside, Tessa is touched by how he’s already planning what they’ll be doing together. Sweet little things like marathoning YouTube web series and eating pizza, making sure that she’s got somewhere to go if she ends up taking this job that he’s offering. Of course, a part of her mind has been almost constantly on the potential of everything else they could get up to. You don’t sext with someone for over five months without starting to wonder if the real thing will live up to the hype. But he hasn’t brought it up. They still share dirty pictures, but he never offers anything for when they finally see each other face-to-face.

He’s been a bit tight-lipped about the job as well. He won’t really tell her what it’s about. Only that it’ll involve interviewing and writing. It makes her wonder what exactly he and his friends do that they don’t trust regular journalists.

Is he in the mob? She throws away that thought as soon as it occurs to her. Of course, D wouldn’t be in the mob. His tattoos are all wrong.

But what if the job he’s offering isn’t all that great, and she has to turn it down?

Tessa glances around the entrance of the arena, as the crowd starts to thicken. Scalpers walk through, shoving their tickets into people’s faces. Excited men and women in band T-shirts screech with excitement, taking selfies in line as they wait for the security guards to take their tickets and give them their wristbands. When D told Tessa that he wanted to meet at the Black Lilith concert, she’d been surprised and confused. Who meets at a concert? It won’t exactly be easy to talk about job opportunities if they’re screaming over the music.

But D had insisted. He’d also insisted that she bring Jackie. No matter how hard Tessa had protested, he’d paid for their tickets as well. Promising that it was no big deal and that he had an arrangement with the band. When she’d asked why he didn’t answer her. They were so well-practiced at avoiding specifics that he’d probably done it without thinking.

Tessa had let it slide. She can ask D when she sees him. She stands on her tiptoes to try and see over the heads of the people in line, searching for her sister.

 

D: ill b in the severus snape T-shirt what will u b wearing

 

Ordinarily, when D asks her what she’s wearing it’s in a different context.

 

Tessa: White blouse over black jeans. With a Ravenclaw bow in my hair.

D: not sure that the guards will no what a ravenclaw is ;) ill give them a pic and tell them to be on the lookout for u

Tessa: Not everyone knows the ins and outs of Hogwarts houses like we do.

D: and that breaks my poor hufflepuff heart

 

They still hadn’t shared their names. She knows his Hogwarts house is Patronus—an otter, and the size of his penis fully erect, but not his name. They are about to meet face-to-face, but she still doesn’t know what his name is.

It was a tough thing to explain to Jackie.

She’d been ecstatic to hear that Tessa would be bringing her to the Black Lilith concert. Tessa had enjoyed about five minutes of Jackie bouncing around the room, still in her skating gear. But then she’d stopped and asked, worry all through her posture, where Tessa had gotten the money to pay for the tickets.

“A friend of mine gave them to me,” Tessa had replied wearily. “As a gift.”

“What friend?” Jackie had asked, cocking her head like a confused poodle. “Have I met them?”

I haven’t even met him.

“No, he’s from New York.”

“Oh.” Then Jackie had grinned slyly. “Is he a special friend?”

“Mind your damn business.”

“That’s not a no.”

And Tessa hasn’t heard the end of it.

Just as Tessa is starting to think about sending a text to her little sister, she sees a blonde ponytail running toward her. Jackie’s arms wave as she sprints to Tessa, her skirt flying behind her. Tessa feels a relieved smile spread across her face as she turns toward Jackie and catches her in a hug.

“Looking good,” she says. “You’re not tired after practice?”

“Nah,” Jackie replies, pulling away. “I’m totally excited. I can’t believe we’re really gonna see them! Do you think your special friend can get us backstage?”

“Let’s not impose on him any more than we already have,” says Tessa, running her hand over Jackie’s hair to smooth down some flyaways. “Come on, he said that we could meet him at the seats.”

So they walk over to the line. Well, Tessa walks. Jackie half-runs, dragging her sister behind herself and practically skipping. But the closer Tessa gets to the security guard, the more nervous she feels. D had told her that she would be able to skip the line and get their wristbands straight from the guards, but now she’s wondering if that won’t actually happen.

What if D was pulling her leg?

What if this is all a big joke, and she’s gotten Jackie’s hopes up for nothing?

What if—

And then they’re standing in front of the guard.

He takes one look at the bow in her hair and grunts. “You here for the reserved passes?” he asks.

Jackie’s the one who nods because Tessa is pretty much rooted to the spot. “Yep, two of them.”

He puts the bracelets on Tessa and Jackie’s wrists. Tessa stares at the sparkling, golden band, still not entirely sure whether this is really happening, even as she feels a wave of relief gently washing over her. One of the guards waves for the two girls to follow him, and they’re escorted into a hallway beyond the gate. None of the other people in line are shown into this hallway.

D must have a lot more pulling power over this band than he’d let on.

Tessa pulls her phone out of her pocket and sends a quick text.

 

Tessa: We’re here. Where are you?

 

Her phone pings within seconds.

 

D: make urselfs @ home ill cu soon

 

The United Center is a massive, indoor arena that can sit almost twenty-four thousand people. Most of the seats are already full with people who’d probably started lining up yesterday. But Tessa and Jackie are escorted past them, all the way to the front.

“No fucking way!” Jackie breathes as they’re escorted to their seats.

Front row, center.

Tessa stares numbly at them for a moment before pulling her phone out.

 

Tessa: WTF is with these seats?? They must have cost a fortune?

 

Even if he has connections, surely these seats should be reserved for celebrities?

Jackie is already settling herself in. They had bypassed the snack stands, and the guard offered to go and get them something to drink, but Tessa waved him off with a grateful smile. She’s still reeling from seeing their seats. Jackie pouts until Tessa promises to take her to the merchandise hall later and buy her a shirt. Since they’re saving money on these kick-ass seats, after all.

Tessa stares around for a man in a Severus Snape shirt. Someone with large shoulders and blond hair. She thinks that he’s blond. Not that his dickpics had backed that up. She checked her phone. D hasn’t responded.

 

Tessa: Where are you?

Tessa: The show is about to start.

Tessa: Starting to get worried.

 

“So, this guy… is he your boyfriend?” Jackie asks as Tessa joins her in the seats. They’re hard and dip at the back, but they’re still excellent seats. She only has to tilt her head slightly to look right into the eyes of where she imagines the band will be standing in a little while.

“No,” Tessa replies absently, still checking her phone.

“Well, why the fuck not?” Jackie asks. “I mean, tell me you’re at least sleeping with him? Or you’re planning to? Because these seats are worth a blowjob at the very least. Maybe even anal.”

“Young lady, you need to spend less time on Tumblr,” Tessa tells her. She’s pretty much immune to Jackie ‘shipping’ her with her friends by now. But she’s only fourteen and fourteen-year-olds shouldn’t even know what anal is.

Jackie snorts and takes a selfie, turning her body so that the stage is included in it. Tessa keeps craning her neck around, but the seats around them get filled pretty quickly, by women who are too busy squealing at each other to notice Tessa’s quizzical look. She can’t see any men in a Severus Snape shirt. Most of the men in the room are either in black shirts, or they’re wearing shirts emblazoned with the Black Lilith album cover.

She checks her phone again as the lights dim and the warm-up band takes the stage. The crowd roars so loudly that she tries to cover her ears and look at her phone screen at the same time. Not that it matters. Because D hasn’t texted her back yet.

The tickets might have been legit, but Tessa’s starting to think she’s been stood up.

“Where’s your boyfriend?” Jackie asks, leaning over and screaming into Tessa’s ear even as she bops her head to the beat.

“He got held up,” Tessa screams back. She shoves her phone into her pocket. “He told us to enjoy ourselves.”

Jackie seems to take that at face value. Tessa notices the people around them starting to stand up, and she’s compelled to join them even though she’s not really feeling the music. It’s not really her thing, and the lyrics are a bit simple, though the band seems good. They’re very beautiful women. She tries hard to lose herself and enjoy it, but she keeps thinking about the phone in her pocket, which hasn’t vibrated. Where is D?

After a few songs, the support band leaves the stage, and the arena erupts with chaos as Black Lilith comes on. The women on the other side of Tessa are jumping up and down, reaching toward the stage as though they want to grab at the men there. Jackie is practically vibrating with excitement, though she’s at least chill enough not to start screaming.

Tessa recognizes the four men from the picture Jackie showed her. The man at the front has short, messy dark hair that curls around his ears and a long, blue sleeve of tattoos showing through his tank top. He stands in the middle of the stage and winks at the audience. If the crowd wasn’t deafening before, it is now.

“Ladies, gentlemen, and non-binaries… give it up for Lost in Time!” the guy in front shouts into the microphone. He waves toward the side of the stage, where the warm-up band had just disappeared.

A massive bear of a man takes a seat behind the drum kit, all black leather, tatts and heavy muscle. His blond hair falls into his face as he twirls his drumsticks and smirks at the guy next to him, who is the bassist with his coy smile and shoulder length brown hair. On his other side is a younger guy with a guitar slung across his back. He’s craning his head to look over the edge of the stage. When his eyes meet Tessa, he stops.

For a moment, she doesn’t understand why he’s staring at her. A famous guitarist like him can probably get any girl he wants, so lingering over some blonde in the front row would seem out of character.

Then she sees his shirt. The guitar strap slashes across his chest, but the picture of Severus Snape with a bright white doe coming out of his wand is unmistakable.

“No fucking way…” Tessa whispers.