Chapter Text
4 Years Ago
Vi shifted her weight between either foot as she tossed her microphone, still powered off, between her hands. A nerdy but charismatic magician was standing center stage in the high school auditorium at the moment, but his act was wrapping up. The spring showcase was more than halfway over, but it had flown by with Vi sitting in the audience. After intermission, she’d gone backstage to mutter lyrics to herself and practice a particular note change that she occasionally blundered. Now, her performance was next, and she was getting herself in the zone.
Another student clapped a hand on her shoulder. “You got this!” She barely heard Mylo’s enthusiastic whisper through the applause of the crowd as the sophomore on stage bowed dramatically and then began to wheel his magic setup off stage right. One of the techs by Vi waved at him to catch his attention before pointing in the opposite direction, and the kid went red in the face as he turned and started the other way.
“Thank you Trevon Beardsley! Now, give it up for senior Violet Lane!”
With the sophomore off the stage, the tech was now gesturing for Vi to go out, and she took a breath before straightening up with the ultimate confidence, and finding her seat on the stool center stage.
It was always a rush, performing in front of a crowd. Occasionally she sang for Powder—her little sister who could never get enough of it—but more often, Vi’s bedroom wall was her only audience. But this was her fourth time performing at the spring showcase. It didn’t shake her as much as it used to. Now, it bolstered her passion, the intense beat of her heart and the shine of the spotlight. She honestly didn’t give a shit what her peers thought of her, but this was the closest thing to an exception. She so badly wanted her music to be heard and felt.
This was the first year she was performing something she’d written herself. The music and the lyrics. The track she sat in wait for, just for a few seconds, was recorded in her basement on the old guitar she had to tune way too often. She didn’t trust the damn thing live or she’d have it resting across her lap.
Regardless, she was feeling the rush unlike any other performance. When she heard the sound of her own fingers strumming through the speakers, she took one last breath, brought the microphone close to her lips, and sang.
There wasn’t anything in the world that Vi could lose herself in like she could her music. Her heart pulsed with the beat of the song she’d spent months crafting. She could feel the lyrics more than she could hear herself sing them, the music flowing through and out of her like water. Nothing else mattered when Vi was pouring her soul into the microphone, and without her nerves in her way, she didn’t make a single mistake.
She almost forgot the audience was even there at all until the music ended and she was greeted by an uproar of applause. Vi was grinning with a strange mix of relief and excitement and longing. She wanted this, for people to hear her music. And she wanted more than this, more than her dumb peers could give. Wanted people to listen to, to understand, the words that lined every page of her songwriting notebook. The racing of her heart in this moment only made her want it even more.
Rushing off the stage led her straight into Mylo’s excited embrace. She only allowed it for a second before she playfully shoved him away, grinning all the while. “Nice way to end off your legacy at Piltover High!”
Vi huffed a laugh and rolled her eyes. “This place will forget me in a second.”
“Not when you end up headlining a fucking tour one day.”
Vi shook her head and tried not to let his overexcitement tamp down her own. God she wanted that. Wanted to take the music out of her head and the words out of her notebook and weave them into something people didn’t just hear but felt.
But Piltover University didn’t have an impressive performing arts program. And Piltover University was where her dad wanted her to go. It was the only university she could attend while living at home, and with her dad’s income, she was set to get great financial aid. And getting a degree so that she could get a good job and help out her dad and her sister? That was the priority. As soon as her acceptance was confirmed, Vi’s destiny would be set. Come fall, she’d be back in school, making a slightly further commute, and keeping her singing and songwriting both as hobbies.
Her friends, however, didn’t quite agree with her. “Don’t shake your head and look at me like that,” Mylo huffed, “I’m telling you, Vi, one way or another, you are going places with that voice of yours.”
“Thank you again to Violet Lane! Next up, please enjoy a contemporary dance routine from Caitlyn Kiramman!”
Vi turned away from Mylo, who was getting pulled back to his backstage tech duties anyway, to watch from the wings as her fellow senior took center stage. The nerdy daughter of the wealthy Kiramman lawyers, Caitlyn was the last person Vi had expected to see on the setlist for spring showcase. She didn’t even realize that girl did extracurriculars that weren’t STEM focused, let alone danced. But here she was, dressed in black tights and a subtly sparkling leotard, waiting for the cue of her music to begin.
Vi started to watch because she wanted to see actual proof that this girl was good enough at dancing to get through the auditions. Vi kept watching because fuck, Caitlyn was actually really good. Her body was fluid and she appeared to hit every one of her marks as she moved to the bouncy beat of the pop song that Vi only vaguely recognized. It was much more upbeat than the kind of stuff Vi herself listened to, but she wasn’t one to judge music taste. Especially not with the way Caitlyn danced to this track like the gods themselves guided her every movement.
When her song ended and she struck her last pose, Vi’s eyes traced the shape of her body under the spotlight. Her strong thighs, which Vi had never noticed before, explained some of her impressive moves. And when she gave a wave and smiled breathlessly while turning toward stage left, the sway of her hips explained quite a bit more of them.
Vi had to step back to give Caitlyn room as she came off stage, skin glistening with sweat. Her dark blue hair was tied up in a ponytail instead of its usual bun, and as she reached for a water bottle, Vi caught a glimpse of the sweat along the back of her neck.
Her tongue poked out to wet her lips of its own accord, and then Caitlyn turned around, water bottle to her lips. And piercing blue eyes met Vi’s. Vi, realizing that this standoffish, quiet girl, the genius valedictorian of the senior class, was secretly a fucking bombshell who could move her body with beautiful precision and grace, couldn’t look away. Caitlyn quirked one eyebrow as she drank her water, but her gaze didn’t fall away either.
Vi didn’t know this girl that well—wasn’t in any of the same classes as her. In fact, she was certain that they’d only ever passed each other in hallways up until now. But if being an incredible dancer was the last thing she’d expected of her, the second to last was that she would hold eye contact with someone like Vi this well.
Caitlyn was prim, proper and polite, the type who teachers loved and students begrudged. She was in every fucking STEM extracurricular because she didn’t need to work any kind of part time job, thanks to how fucking rich her family was. She’d probably learned to dance in fancy classes in upper Piltover worth months of Vi’s dad’s paychecks.
Vi, on the other hand, was all rough around the edges and liked it that way. She’d shaved off half her hair on a dare freshman year and had made it her look ever since. She had a silver stud in her nose and a bar through her eyebrow next to the scar she’d gotten from a fistfight in her neighborhood—Zaun—when she was in eighth grade. The scar in her lip was from one of many others.
If someone had asked her how she thought Caitlyn Kiramman would react to her staring at her, she would’ve had two guesses. Fearfully, or with complete disdain. That she’d either be worried that Vi was going to try and fight her, or that she saw her as nothing more than Zaun trash. Maybe a bit of extra judgment thrown in from the fact that Vi was one of the few out lesbians at their school.
She didn’t expect this, the arched eyebrow, the prolonged eye contact. And she definitely didn’t expect, when the water bottle was lowered, Caitlyn’s breathless and impassioned, “What did you think?”
Vi opened her mouth to answer, but no sound came out at first. Only when Caitlyn’s other eyebrow joined the first did she manage to speak. “Didn’t know you could dance, Kiramman.”
Caitlyn looked immensely proud of herself, as if that barely approving comment was the best praise she’d ever received. “Well, I can.”
“Yeah, that might be an understatement,” Vi agreed, her tongue darting out to wet her lips again as her eyes betrayed her, scanning over the dancer’s form. When they raced back up to meet Caitlyn’s, she found the other senior’s darkened with interest.
“It’s Vi, right?” Caitlyn asked her, taking a step forward. Her legs looked a little shaky, and there were flyaway hairs pulled free from her ponytail. Her makeup was smudged with sweat and this had to be the most disheveled the perfect Caitlyn Kiramman had ever looked. And fuck, it was hot.
“Yep,” Vi answered, caught off guard at how intensely Caitlyn was looking at her. Like she was seeing into her.
“I liked your song,” Caitlyn told her, still a little breathless. “It was an original, right?”
Now, Vi’s cheeks were hot and her heart was pounding because huh? Caitlyn had been paying attention to her song in the minutes before her own set? “Um, yeah,” Vi managed to answer, before stupidly asking, “you really liked it?”
“It was beautiful,” Caitlyn said in the most genuine voice, taking another step closer. She was tall—a couple inches taller than Vi. Usually, she looked a bit awkward and gangly, a result of whenever her last growth spurt was, probably. Right now, though? In this skin tight leotard and tights, Caitlyn looked soft. “Feels like I should be asking for your autograph.”
Vi scoffed a laugh and rolled her eyes. “Yeah, whatever.” She started to turn away, a final “nice job, see you around,” on the tip of her tongue. But then Caitlyn bit down on her lower lip, and Vi froze, staring, waiting to see what that unexpectedly attractive look meant.
“I’d settle for your number.”
Vi almost choked on nothing, barely saving herself from looking like the biggest fucking idiot. “Uh—you mean—are you asking me out?”
Caitlyn’s cheeks were red but it was impossible to tell if she was blushing or just warm and still alight from her performance. Vi would’ve been shocked to hear a yes from Caitlyn, but the response she did get left her even more flabbergasted. “No,” she breathed out, her voice dropping in pitch and volume, as she took one more step forward. “I’m asking if you’d like me to text you my address and a time for later tonight.”
Vi practically gulped. “Not sure I wanna run into Mommy and Daddy Kiramman.”
“They’re not home,” Caitlyn stated firmly, before, “I see how you’re looking at me, Vi. You want to touch me.”
Vi did gulp.
“Fine,” Caitlyn murmured after a second of not getting an answer. Vi’s mouth was already open to interrupt with her phone number, but Caitlyn turned to the row of tables decked out in pizza for the students that had finished. She grabbed a napkin from the table and Vi shut her mouth when she produced a pen from somewhere and began to write in pretty, curvy letters.
When she handed it to Vi, it was quite obviously an address, the time 12AM noted below it. Vi couldn’t help but smirk. “Didn’t know you swung this way, Kiramman.”
“Clearly, you know very little about me,” Caitlyn bit out, sounding composed but not looking it. Her eyes were wild, intense, and daring. Her whole being was vibrating with the energy and excitement lingering from her performance. She was just so gorgeous, and something about her made Vi’s heart thrum in a new rhythm.
“Well, maybe I’ll find out a little more later tonight.”
Caitlyn looked a little nonplussed for a second, like she hadn’t proposed the arrangement herself. But then her expression smoothened and she confidently said, “Maybe. I’ll see you later.” And Vi didn’t even get a chance to respond by the time she was gone, ignoring the pizza offered by the staff. Vi, in disbelief, grabbed four slices to claim the other girl’s share. She had a feeling she’d need the energy tonight.
When she arrived outside the Kiramman house, the building looked half the size of the high school, and she almost backed out. But Caitlyn had said her parents weren’t home, and Vi couldn’t stop seeing the sway of her hips, so she forced herself to the doorstep and pressed her thumb to the bell.
She waited a few long seconds before the door creaked open. She expected a nervous, flustered Caitlyn, maybe wearing comfortable pajamas and slippers by now. She wouldn’t have even been surprised if the door never opened at all.
What did surprise her was Caitlyn opening the door looking the picture of confidence, in a mini skirt and a blouse. Her hair looked freshly washed and dried, hanging perfectly straight to frame her face. Her bare feet were the only indication she hadn’t just walked into the house herself.
“You’re here,” Caitlyn breathed out in something like relief as her gaze swept down Vi—who was wearing the same jeans and button up she’d worn on stage earlier.
“Yep. Guess you had me curious, Kiramman.” Neither of them moved. And Vi was not going to invite herself into this fucking mansion, not when today was the first time she’d even spoken directly to her fellow senior. So instead, she shoved a hand in her pocket, tilted her head so that some of her hair flopped to the side, and asked, “Did you want me over at your house in the dead of night just to stand here in—”
She didn’t have to finish the question for Caitlyn to break out of her immobile state, surprisingly strong hands grasping Vi’s wrists and pulling her over the threshold. Then those hands were on her waist, the front door thudded closed, and a warm body was right up against Vi’s. It was pure instinct when she closed her eyes and pressed into the embrace, her lips locking with Caitlyn’s. She collided back against the wooden door as her hands tangled into soft, shiny locks of hair, and Caitlyn kissed her as if this were the most normal thing in the world. As if they’d done it a million times—or at least spoken to each other before today.
Short fingernails scraped against her lower back over the thin fabric of her shirt and Vi arched into the surprisingly strong shape of Caitlyn’s body. She’d hooked up with a few girls before, mostly girls who were questioning their sexuality and saw Vi as a perfect opportunity to try it out. None of those girls had ever kissed her with this much bravado. They were always shy and tentative, waiting for Vi to make every first move. And then here was Caitlyn, tongue in her mouth like she wanted nothing else in the world, crushing every assumption Vi had about her. Assumptions she’d made with clearly no basis.
Their mouths separated for them to catch heavy breaths, and Vi murmured, “You done this before, Kiramman?”
“No,” Caitlyn whispered back, and her voice sounded wild, dangerous—far too awake and electric for the middle of the night after a full day of school and a dance performance. Her energy was contagious, though, Vi’s heart rate picking up just at the sound of her voice. “Have you?”
“Oh come on,” Vi muttered sarcastically, “like you don’t know my reputation.”
“I’m not one to trust gossip,” Caitlyn told her, and now her hands, with their long fingers, were dragging from Vi’s back to her forearms, up to her hands and pulling them out of her hair. Then she tugged her away from the front door, and Vi’s mouth was dry as she allowed herself to be pulled deeper into the house.
“Pretty brave of you to hit on me like that if you didn’t know I’d be into it,” she managed to get out, although her train of thought quickly shifted as they entered a large living room and her gaze fell on the huge art pieces lining one of its walls. Paintings of each of the three Kiramman family members and one more of all three together. None of them smiled in any of the depictions. They looked… hard. Not like a family was supposed to be. “Your parents aren’t home tonight, you said?”
“They’re out of town,” Caitlyn answered dismissively. “And I did know you’d be into it. I told you, I saw the way you were looking at me when I got off stage.”
Vi hoped her cheeks warming wasn’t visible in the dim lighting of the house as Caitlyn pulled her toward a wide staircase. “They’re out of town? So they didn’t get to see your performance?”
Caitlyn’s quiet scoff surprised Vi. Dropping Vi’s hand, she took a step up the staircase and then turned and looked down at her. “They didn’t know about the performance. Not that they would’ve shown up even if they did, plans or not.” Vi blinked, feeling the weight behind her fellow senior’s words. “Now, did you want to ask me more about my family, Vi, or did you want to come up to my room?”
Vi swallowed and took two steps up so that she matched Caitlyn’s height. “You said you’ve never done this before. You sure you want me to come up to your room?”
“Yes,” Caitlyn stated without a hint of doubt. “Maybe I am feeling brave tonight.”
“Well… then lead the way.”
Caitlyn’s room was bigger than Vi’s family’s living room, and more furnished, but she didn’t really have time to get a good look before Caitlyn was sitting on the edge of her bed, resting back on her palms, looking up at Vi with vivid blue eyes that weren’t begging but demanding. Vi couldn’t care less what the room looked like. She toed off her shoes and grasped the silky skin of Caitlyn’s thighs to press her further back onto the bed as she followed. Caitlyn allowed herself to be guided, all the while not tearing her eyes from Vi’s.
When Caitlyn’s head was resting back against a pristine, white pillow, her dark hair splayed under her in a gorgeous contrast, Vi couldn’t keep from leaning down to kiss her. She palmed at Caitlyn’s thighs, teasing her way under her miniskirt, and Caitlyn hummed pleasantly into her mouth. And despite having not done this before, Caitlyn seemed incredibly practiced as her hands found the buttons of Vi’s shirt and began to undo them. And then her shirt was gone, and delicate hands felt along the curves of her biceps, ran over the straps of her white sports bra, trailed down to touch her abs. For someone so convinced that Vi had wanted to touch her, Caitlyn had clearly been waiting to get her hands on Vi.
Vi was growing breathless just from being felt up like this, and when Caitlyn’s thumb brushed her hardened nipple through her sports bra, she physically shuddered. Caitlyn’s lips spread into a smile and Vi nipped at the bottom one to try and wipe it away. But Caitlyn only let out an absolutely adorable giggle, and now Vi was fighting her own smile. This girl was so fucking full of surprises, but Vi didn’t want Caitlyn to know how off her game she was right now. So she lowered her lips to Caitlyn’s neck in an effort to take back the upper hand. Caitlyn sighed and tilted her chin up and to the side, one of her hands now running over Vi’s back, up into her hair. Vi fought to suppress a moan when Caitlyn’s fingers fisted into the longer part of it, but when she tugged experimentally, the sound escaped anyway. And it was clearly enough motivation for Caitlyn to do so a bit harder, pulling Vi’s face away from her neck.
“What?” Vi huffed out, eyes locking with Caitlyn’s, finding them swallowed by her pupils.
“Undress me.”
“Fuck,” Vi muttered under her breath, sitting back to mindlessly follow the instructions. She made quick work of Caitlyn’s blouse and pulled the miniskirt down even faster. It left Caitlyn’s body, toned and filled out in some places and a little lanky in others, almost completely bare before her. Caitlyn buried her hands under her pillow and allowed Vi to take a look at her.
Vi almost thought she was shy, but after a few beats of silence, Caitlyn’s low voice came out as confident as ever. “Seen enough to want to fuck me, now?”
“Kiramman,” Vi said through a surprised laugh, dropping her hands to Caitlyn’s firm tummy and sliding to grasp her hips. “I saw enough on stage tonight to want that.”
“So do it, then,” Caitlyn commanded, although Vi heard the little lilt of desperation in her voice. The sign of that wildness, that stupid bravery that seemed to be fueling Caitlyn Kiramman tonight.
And hearing that, Vi was definitely not going to refuse.
Caitlyn’s underwear was discarded next, and Vi started slow with her fingers until she realized that it was the last thing Caitlyn wanted. The taller girl practically shoved her face between her thighs, and when Vi ran her tongue through the tangy wetness between her lower lips, Caitlyn released the filthiest moan Vi had ever heard. It shot a spark of heat straight down to her clit and motivated her tenfold. Within a matter of minutes, she had Caitlyn’s thighs over her shoulders, her face buried into her heat, pulling moan after needy fucking moan from her.
If the dance from earlier hadn’t been proof enough of her body’s strength, the way she held herself so steady, legs partially supported by Vi, through her orgasm was a wonderful demonstration. Caitlyn’s abs tensed as she cried out, buried her hands into Vi’s hair, and spilled her release onto her tongue.
“Holy fuck, Vi—” Caitlyn whined through heavy breaths, coming down a minute later. Vi gently deposited her body back onto the bed and licked her lips. “Your reputation is clearly well earned.”
Vi smirked. “So you do pay attention.”
“I said I don’t trust gossip, not that I don’t hear it,” Caitlyn breathed out. She seemed to be recovering already, her eyes falling to Vi’s still fairly clothed body. “Did you want to undress?”
“Do you want me to?” Vi asked back.
The question seemed to delight Caitlyn, blue eyes lighting up, lips tugging into a smile. “Those jeans would make it pretty hard for me to touch you.”
Vi swallowed her excitement even as she began to undo the button of her jeans. “You don’t have to, though. I mean—I know it’s your first time—”
“I’m a quick study,” Caitlyn insisted, her voice already sounding rougher. The way she said it, along with her openly scouring Vi’s body, rendered Vi speechless. She could only nod, taking her underwear with her jeans and discarding them off into the unknown abyss of Caitlyn’s bedroom. Caitlyn’s hands slipped under Vi’s bra to peel it away as well, before sitting up and unsnapping the clasp of hers to fully even the playing field.
Naked, their bodies came together in a clash of heat and heavy heartbeats. Vi only knew a few things about Caitlyn, and her body was quickly becoming the one that she knew best. The delicacy of her soft skin beneath her lips and against her fingertips, the shape of her hips beneath her, the feeling of those wanting hands not hesitating to touch. And Caitlyn explored her body in kind until she slid two fingers through the coarse hair between Vi’s thighs and directly into the center of her heat. Vi hissed and arched her back as Caitlyn prodded at her clit and teased her entrance.
And fuck, Vi wasn’t sure she believed that this was Caitlyn’s first time. Not with how steadily Caitlyn ramped up her pace, the way her eyes, consumed by the black of her pupils, never strayed from Vi’s face, and how she kept up her movements even when Vi’s orgasm began to rock through her, guiding her through it, letting her milk out every last ounce of pleasure.
“No fucking way,” Vi breathed out, the second she was able after Caitlyn had pulled her hand away. She was still lying sprawled across her bed, Vi straddling her.
“Hm?” Caitlyn murmured, eyes hazy like she’d been the one to just come.
“No way this is your first time,” Vi clarified, shifting so that the wet mess between her legs was positioned right over Caitlyn’s thigh. And then she ground down, sliding her wetness over it, moaning at the feeling and biting her lip when Caitlyn gasped.
“It’s my first time having sex with someone, Vi, not my first experience with orgasms,” Caitlyn said, her dry tone only slightly disturbed by the fluttering of her breath. Vi chuckled lowly and shrugged, looking down between those brilliant blue eyes.
“Fair enough. ‘nother round?”
Caitlyn let out a long sigh, and Vi put a lid on her disappointment before it could fully surface. “We have school tomorrow.”
“We could skip,” Vi offered, grinning devilishly. “What happened to senior ditch day, anyway?”
Caitlyn rolled her eyes, lips tugging into a slight smile. “It’s finals in two weeks, and I’m sure we’ve both been preoccupied with preparing for the spring showcase. We need to be in school to be studying.”
Vi grunted but still found herself relenting. She carefully climbed off of Caitlyn and glanced around the room, catching the open door into an en suite bathroom. As she made her way over to clean herself up, she said, “Like you gotta worry about studying, Miss Valedictorian. I bet you got already got a full ride to the fanciest university in the country—Harvard or Princeton or something.”
Vi couldn’t see Caitlyn thanks to the door she half closed behind her before sitting down on Caitlyn’s toilet, but she could hear her heavy sigh. “I’m just going to Pilt U, actually. For undergrad, at least.” Vi’s eyebrows shot up. They’d be going to the same university? Her heart skipped at the thought that she would continue to be in close proximity with this girl after the end of senior year—and now she knew that not only was she smart and an amazing dancer, she was also as talented with her fingers as she was with her hips.
She didn’t express this strange excitement, though. “How come?”
“It’s complicated.”
Vi hummed and finished up in the bathroom. When she stepped back into the bedroom, Caitlyn hadn’t moved from the bed, and Vi’s slick was starting to dry on her thigh. Swallowing the arousal that elicited, Vi focused on gathering up her clothes even as Caitlyn watched her.
“What about you?”
“PU is the plan for me, too,” Vi said. “Still waiting for my letter, though. I got my app in kinda late.”
Caitlyn’s silence drew Vi’s eyes, wondering if the other girl was thinking the same thing as she was—about how much awesome sex could be in their future. But Caitlyn was rolling onto her side to face her with a frown. “Piltover has a shitty music program.”
“Yeah,” Vi agreed. “Didn’t apply for music. Figure I’ll try business or… something. Maybe like, accounting.”
Caitlyn gaped at her. “But—you’re an incredible musician, Vi. You can sing, play guitar, write your own songs. You’re already so good and you’re not even trained.”
Vi mentally sidestepped the annoyance that would usually hit her at this topic by focusing on something else. “How would you know all that? Thought you don’t trust gossip.”
“I’ve been at every spring showcase these past four years, Vi. I’ve heard you perform. And I know you’re not in choir.”
“What if I was getting private training?”
Caitlyn didn’t answer, just stared at her. And Vi huffed out a sound that was somewhere between a scoff and a laugh as she tugged on her underwear and then her pants.
“Yeah, you know what side of Piltover I’m from, Kiramman. I can’t afford private lessons, so I sure as hell can’t afford housing for college. Piltover University’s gonna put my dad even more into debt than he already is—and that’s with the financial aid I’m gonna get. It’s my only option.”
For what would be the final time that night, Caitlyn’s eyes got that wild look in them again. And she said, “You don’t even need schooling. You’d make it in the music industry without a degree.”
Vi snickered and bit out sarcastically, “Oh yeah, there’s something that Piltover has an abundance of—music producers.”
Caitlyn’s voice was small, faraway, as she said, “You could go to Los Angeles. Ditch this place, say fuck it to expectations… someone like you could do it, Vi.”
“Someone like me?” Vi repeated, not sure if she should be offended. She was fully dressed now, with no excuse to stick around, but she was rooted to the spot waiting for Caitlyn to elaborate.
“Someone so… strong,” Caitlyn whispered, and Vi barely caught the flicker of pain in her eyes. “Someone not afraid to be herself, to take a risk.” No, it wasn’t pain, but something more like… grief.
“Cool that you see me that way,” Vi started, voice surprisingly unsteady. She cleared her throat and shook her head before continuing, “but… I gotta stick to my plan.”
“Why?” Caitlyn asked, pleaded. Vi had no idea what was going on in this girl’s head, but she knew this couldn’t be about her. Whatever Caitlyn Kiramman was going through, it was worlds bigger than this conversation.
“I just do,” Vi said through a sigh. “I should go. Get some sleep, Kiramman.”
Caitlyn’s eyes were watery but she nodded. “I’ll… see you around, I guess.”
Vi gave a small hum in the affirmative and then left the bedroom. It took her a minute to retrace her steps from earlier to figure out how to get out of this damn mansion, but she managed.
The drive back in her dad’s rusty pickup truck was spent in silence. Usually, Vi would listen to music or hum her own, but Caitlyn’s words and that look in her eyes were haunting her. When Powder or Mylo or Claggor told Vi that she was a great singer, that she could totally be famous someday, that was one thing. Of course her kid sister and her best friends would tell her that. But to hear it from someone who hadn’t even really met her until today…
But no, Vi had a responsibility to Powder and Vander. She owed her dad, the man who had taken her and Powder in when they were just little kids, everything. She couldn’t waste the shot he’d given her by skipping out on college chasing a dream. She’d heard plenty about starving artists, about how hard it was to make it. If she had the opportunity to get a real education and a decent paying job, she had to go for it. Pay off Vander’s debts, help get her too-smart-for-her-own-good sister to a big, fancy university.
It was past one when she got home, quietly dropping her keys in the bowl by the door. She was about to beeline it for her bedroom when she noticed the stack of mail next to the bowl. Vander must’ve grabbed it earlier today. As she had for the past few weeks, she rifled through the stack, looking for the one piece of mail she’d been expecting.
Her hands froze when she saw Piltover University printed in big blue and gold lettering. Part of her considered waiting until tomorrow, opening it with her dad and sister.
But after the night she’d had, she couldn’t dampen the need to know. Her heart pounded as she tucked her thumb under the seal. She shifted her weight when she broke it. The inside of her cheek was between her teeth while unfolding the letter inside. The expectation and the responsibility weighed on her as she scanned the letterhead. Finally, she dropped her gaze to the letter itself.
Violet Lane,
Thank you for your application to Piltover University. However, we regret to inform you that we are unable to offer you admittance for the upcoming fall semester at this time. Please understand that there is limited space in each cohort, and thus we are often unable to admit each student who applies. We encourage you to continue to improve on your application and apply again next semester!
Vi blinked. Wet her lips. Read it again.
We regret to inform you…
She didn’t get in.
And as the news sunk in, the high she’d been riding all evening came crashing down alongside her so-called plan. She stood there, staring at the letter, surrounded by smoking ruins and the echo of words she could already hear Vander saying—telling her she should’ve applied sooner, she should’ve worked harder, she should’ve done more extracurriculars, she should’ve taken higher level classes.
Tears pricked her eyes and she tried to slow her breathing. It took her a few minutes, but she managed to calm herself down.
And as the panic receded, so did the smoke, and a soft breeze picked up the words that couldn’t help her now. And when the smoke had cleared and silence had fallen, all that was left among the ruins was a dream.
Present Day
Vi’s fingers tapped a familiar beat against the counter as she entered her cramped kitchen on a Friday morning. She hummed a vague melody that didn’t yet have words to sing even if she wanted to while snatching the egg carton off of an otherwise bare refrigerator shelf. After cracking the last three eggs into a pan of sizzling oil, she leaned over to the pad of paper on her fridge to scrawl eggs on its next blank line, and she played with the idea of speeding the rhythm up. She was trying it out in her head when the abrupt vibrating of her phone in her pocket interrupted her.
She didn’t need to see the caller ID to know that it was her manager. The fucker had been on her ass for the last month, calling every three days to deliver the same speech as if that would help Vi write a damn song. She was starting to consider using his own words as lyrics at this point.
Vi huffed a sigh, focused back on her eggs, and ignored the call.
The call had gone to voicemail by the time she was plating her eggs and just waiting for her toast to pop, but her phone started ringing again. “Fucking shit,” she growled, pulling the phone out of her pocket a little too aggressively and answering. “What, Jayce?”
His voice came out in that faux stern way that he always used when trying to act serious. “Whoa, that is no way to greet your manager, Vi!”
“Is it an emergency or what? What kind of person calls twice before the sun’s barely risen?” Vi snapped, the pop of her toaster punctuating the question. She caught it in the air and dropped it on her plate plain before sliding into one of the two rickety dining chairs.
“The kind of person who stands to lose money from you not picking up.”
Vi heaved a sigh that was more of a groan. “What, did the label finally call you, say how they need songs, they need lyrics. If they don’t get them this week, someone’s gonna get fired and I’m gonna get dropped and you’ll lose your favorite client?”
Jayce’s grunt matched the annoyance in her own voice. “Alright, pipe down. Just checking in, making sure you’re alive and well.”
“Well, I’m alive, at least,” Vi snarked. “Now tell me what you actually called for.”
Jayce relented, “Yeah, okay, wanted to check on how your songs for debut are coming. The streams on your EP are still doing well but sales are tapering. You know that the best way to get success in this biz is to make music fast. If your debut comes out too long after your EP—”
“I know,” Vi interrupted through the bite of eggs she’d just shoveled down. “But hey—I know you’re a business guy, but you do know that music doesn’t just appear outa nowhere, right?”
“I know. The label knows. But it doesn’t change the facts, Vi. I’m not trying to scare you, I just want you to have something ready when the label eventually does call me asking what’s up with their new talent. You’ve gotten your foot in the door, but now it’s time to shove it open, kid. Prove to them that you got more than one EP in you.”
Prove to them. Her stomach turned at the words, but she forced a bite of toast down anyway and scoffed. “I’m working on it, Jayce. I swear.”
Jayce sighed, and in that sound, Vi knew that he was only on her ass so bad because he cared. She’d landed a pretty good manager, all things considered. Newer to the scene, only a few years older than her, but good at making deals on account of how good he was at schmoozing. And he didn’t just care about Vi’s success—he cared about her, too. They might even kinda be friends—if Vi had time for those. “I know you are, but if you wanna write your own songs like you agreed, ‘working on it’ needs to come with some kind of actual results.” Yet another sigh. “As soon as you have something—anything—you’ll shoot it my way? If we send something to the producer before they have to start bugging us, I think it’ll put us in better shape.”
“Yeah, I will,” Vi promised him, the vague, wordless melody playing in the back of her mind. “Look, I gotta get to the gym so I can get to work on time. Gonna be pretty hard to write music if I get fired from the gig actually making me consistent income.”
“Yeah, yeah. Write something when you’re off the clock later.”
“Bye, Jayce.”
Write something when she’s off the clock later? Easy. She was a songwriter, writing songs was her whole thing. And she already had a melody—she just needed some words. She’d get off work later, come home, open her notebook, and bust out a song like she was seventeen again, like her dreams were solid and just out of reach.
Later, though. For now, Vi would finish her breakfast and get her ass to the gym.
The sign advertising her usual gym had been flickering for the last six months and there was a bucket next to the reception desk to catch the water that perpetually dripped from the rafters, but they had benches, punching bags, and cheap memberships, so Vi was here almost every morning. She gave the receptionist a nod of her head as she headed for the weights, finding her gym buddy already setting up for them to lift.
Ekko was one of the two friends that Vi actually did have some semblance of time for. Of course, if they didn’t come to the same gym, that’d be a different story. But they did, and Vi appreciated having him in her corner. Ekko was the perfect gym partner to help Vi push herself without overdoing it, and he never complained when she needed to vent about bullshit from her label or the exhaustion of working two jobs while trying to make music.
He didn’t exactly get it, but he understood well enough the way this city worked. His flavor of LA life came in the form of being a hip hop dancer who spent ninety percent of this time teaching dance and the other ten percent auditioning for actual gigs.
Well, at least a small portion of it was spent at the gym with Vi, and occasionally trying to drag her out to blow off some steam.
Today was one such occasion, apparently. They’d moved on from the weights and Vi was nailing her fists into his mitts as he asked, “You working at Shimmer tonight?”
“Not tonight, why?”
“Gert and I were thinking of hitting Bab’s.”
Vi raised an eyebrow. It’d been a while since she went out, but… “I work in the morning.”
“When’s that stopped you? Gert’s off tonight, too, so we can go a little earlier if that’s easier.”
Vi grunted, jabbing a few more times into the mitts before stopping for them to switch. “Jayce is on my ass about my next song.”
Ekko gave her a dry look as he tugged on his gloves. “Telling me you’re actually gonna be writing tonight? When you haven’t written more than, what, three words in a month?”
“Better chance of it actually happening if I’m not staring at some stripper’s tits and ass.”
“Maybe some tits and ass are what you need,” Ekko countered, punching into the mitts now in Vi’s hands. “Maybe it’ll get your inspiration flowing.”
With a grimace, Vi grumbled, “Jayce is gonna kill me if my first song after the EP is another Pussy Is God.”
Ekko snickered. “Man’s got no room to be picky the way he’s hounding you.”
“It’s not his fault,” Vi said through a sigh. “I need to get my shit together, anyway. If the label drops me before I get a real album out, I might as well pack up and head straight back to Piltover.”
Ekko stopped punching, and Vi groaned a little when she saw his determined expression. “Dude, you’re spiraling.”
“No, I’m not.”
“You are. You’ve got writer’s block and it’s making you spiral, and all this talk and pressure you’re putting on yourself? It’s not helping.” Vi scowled, but Ekko just continued, “You need a reset. You need that just-moved-to-Cali energy back. You know what’s gonna help you get it?”
“Lemme guess,” Vi drawled, “tits and ass?”
Ekko gave her a shiny grin. “Can I tell Gert you’re in?”
So apparently, Vi was not going to be writing tonight. Instead, as soon as she was finished waiting tables at this side of LA’s busiest all-day breakfast spot, she was throwing herself in her cramped shower even though she knew she’d be covered in sweat and glitter by the end of the night. She threw back a Coke Zero and a hot pocket while still undressed, then donned black leather pants and a tight t-shirt torn and frayed at the midriff. A silver chain around her neck and dark eye makeup finished her look for the night, and then she was on her way to meet up with her friends.
Gert was already in line outside the strip club when she got there, her dreads currently bright blue and in a complicated updo. She was dressed more alternatively than Vi, her usual aesthetic. It was what had made Vi want to befriend her when they first worked at Shimmer together—before Gert quit to do bottle service at a much higher end club. She’d tried to get Vi to make the switch, too, but Vi didn’t think she was cut out for that kind of fancy shit.
“Vi, girl, where you been?”
“Nowhere fun. Sunny Side, Shimmer, my apartment.”
“Gym sometimes, clearly,” Gert added with a pointed look down at Vi’s arms. “Damn, you switch from music to fitness modeling since I last saw you? Swear you’re bigger.”
Vi scoffed a laugh. “You’re funny.”
“Oh good, so you’re still writing songs?”
“Trying.”
Gert snickered. “Strip clubs help with the writing process?”
“Guess we’ll find out.”
Ekko showed up right before they reached the bouncer, and with a flash of their IDs, the three of them headed into the club.
It wasn’t too packed tonight, at least not yet. Purple and pink lighting washed out any other colors, but all the chairs, tables, and couches were black anyway. The bar, too, where they were headed first thing. Music pulsed through the air as a petite blond woman in fishnets and a corset spun around a pole in the center of the club, cash hanging out of her spandex underwear. Vi couldn’t help but rake her eyes over her as she let Ekko order them a round of shots.
After the shots and once they had their preferred drinks in hand, a jack and coke for Vi, the three of them slid into a table to catch up as they watched dancer after dancer take the stage. A waitress in as skimpy an outfit as the strippers themselves brought them refills after a while, and the conversation was dying down, the three of them focusing more and more of their attention on the girls. The crowd was denser now, with plenty of people tucking wads of cash in the minimal clothing the women on the pole wore. The later it got, the more of that clothing was coming off in their dances, and Vi couldn’t help the way heat rushed through her body as she watched.
Ekko definitely noticed how enraptured she was, kicking her under the table during a brief intermission. “Dude, how long has it been since you got laid?”
Vi just grunted, and Gert said, “Girl hasn’t even been to a club in months, and you think she’s getting laid?”
“Hey, she could be on the apps, I wouldn’t know!”
“Nah, I’d have see her on there by now,” Gert countered with a smirk.
Vi rolled her eyes. “No offense, Gertie, but you’re not really my type.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Gert laughed out.
The strip club announcer’s voice rang out again as the intermission came to an end. “Ladies and gentlemen, it’s her last dance of the night, put your hands together for the beautiful Matilda!” Vi immediately looked over to the stage, where a tall, slim woman was now hanging off the pole. She’d been up a few times already, but Vi’s eyes ate her up all over again anyway. She was one of the most technically skilled pole dancers they’d seen tonight, and her tits were out of this fucking world.
“That is Vi’s type,” Ekko snarked from across the table.
Vi gave him a dry look. “How would you know?”
“Damn, you’re right, been so long since you had a girl on your arm, I can’t even remember.”
Well, she walked right into that one. Gert kicked her under the table and grinned. “Go tip her, maybe you’re her type.”
“I’m not tryna sleep with a stripper tonight,” Vi grunted.
Ekko gave her a pointed look. “Why not? Could be song material.”
She flipped him off.
Gert kicked her again. “Oh come on, it’s her last dance, Vi. You’re not so broke you can’t spare a few bucks on her, right?”
Vi really only got up from the table, digging cash out of her wallet, to escape her annoying ass friends. Halfway to the stage, the dancer’s bra came off, some cash spilling out dramatically along with those otherworldly tits. And—fuck her nipples were pierced, too, and Vi was absolutely gawking at them as she stopped by the stage.
The dancer dropped into a low squat and Vi used that opportunity to reach for her fishnets, sliding the cash in. It earned her a low, purring, “Oh, thank you, darling,” as the woman turned her gaze on her and Vi looked up to meet it—
And Vi’s jaw dropped in the same second that the stripper’s eyes widened, her sexy, unattainable mask cracking with the force of her gasp.
Because Vi could never forget that face, those eyes, even if she’d only gotten a close up look at her for one night four and a half years ago.
The drop dead gorgeous dancer squatting around a pole with her pierced tits on full display was Caitlyn fucking Kiramman.
Vi's EP album cover
