The Redhead, and The Dreamer.

Clouds were flooding overhead. It was going to rain soon. I wondered what people were going to do when for the first time in years; their long-awaited music festival was drenched. Thunder roared suddenly, and Ethan looked to the sky nervously. It was strange to see him so suddenly look so uneasy, but I kind of liked the look on his face. He’s beautiful.

The closer I got to the stage, the easier it was for me to remember just how much I didn’t belong anywhere near it. Ethan had peeled himself away quickly without even really saying goodbye. He was muttering something about having to meet Crystal somewhere fast. It seemed the leash he had latched around his neck was growing tighter day by day. I knew eventually she was going to choke him to death with it if she wasn’t careful, and Crystal was never careful. It felt so strange knowing I would probably never be able to save him, but it was getting to the point that if he couldn’t find a way to get away himself, there wasn’t all that much I could do for him.

I bet he loves her by now. Something, somewhere deep in my mind told me as I pushed my way through the crowd, moving almost mechanically to the music of the band playing raised high like angels about fifty feet in front of me. I didn’t want to think it. I didn’t want to know it, but somehow, I knew it was true. They’d been so close for so long now. What would someone who was in love with another, seemingly perfect girl want with someone as desperate and needy as me? Why would they possibly ever want me dragging them down even deeper than they already were?

They wouldn’t. That was just the thing that was killing me as I waded through the crowd, not really sure what I wanted other than to be raised high like one of those angels onstage. Nobody, especially not Ethan, was ever going to need me, and the truth was heartbreaking. Maybe I was going to die alone, wondering forever what real love was supposed to feel like, because if you ever are to become a girl like me, you crush and crush and crush other people’s hearts, feelings, and minds to the point that some even feel like they’re drowning in everything you are, and everything they would need to become to please you. You never expect someone more perfected at your own game to come along until it’s too late, and you can feel the water rising up your own neck, cold, and so thick with lies it’s almost solid.

Am I going to drown in you Ethan? You’re killing me.

The stage was little more than a large wooden structure with a pair of flimsy looking stairs on the far right corner, and a huge red curtain covering the back half of the structure. No one without a special access pass was allowed back there. Backstage was only for stars and stars to be, neither of which I could say were me.

The band’s lead singer babbled something about us all being a great audience, and they slipped off the stage quickly. Like snakes. It’s funny how most musicians tend to make me mentally think of one sort of animal or another sometimes. It’s kind of rude. The next performer swept out perfectly just as I rested my elbows on the edge of the crowded stage. The bald eagle like young man looked down at me beautifully and smiled.

“Good luck, Batman,” I muttered quickly, even though I was pretty sure he wasn’t able to hear me over the tornado of a crowd roaring around us.

Ethan leaned close to the mic and opened his mouth. His guitar laid lazily on his hip, flirting with my own, trying to be the dominant instrument of the moment. He looked away from me, up at the crowd, a smug look crossing his features, and right then the strangest thing happened. It started pouring.