Author's note- This is the first chapter, reworked and hopefully a lot better. If i get a lot of hits, this story will still only update extremely sporadically- I have other stories I'd prefer to concentrate on. If i don't get many hits, i don't think i will continue this story, at least for a while. Enjoy!

---

Complex Life

Story By StormDancer

Chapter 1

---

Ashley Alers leaned against the fence which enclosed the concert area, pulling the hood of her violet sweatshirt farther over her head to conceal her face. She really hoped no one she knew was here. It would ruin her image of the calm, studious grad student to be seen at an alternative rock concert-and she had worked too hard over the last 8 years to get that image to have it ruined by stopping by at a concert.

She glanced up at the band which was now playing. They were actually decent, more than most bands that played here could boast, and she could almost detect talent in the lyrics. The crowd was even louder than usual- generally she could at least sort of hear herself think. Even she found herself occasionally caught up in the mob mentality so much as to start singing along to some of the songs. They were catchy, and she thought she had heard some on the radio before. She had always had a good memory for tunes and lyrics- when she was younger, until everything went wrong, she had sometimes entertained dreams of becoming a singer.

Suddenly, the music changed and the mob began screaming even louder as a new song began. Peering up at the stage, she noticed that only the drum player was left there. The others 3 seemed to have come into the crowd. Surprised, Ashley took the chance to ask a neighbor. This was certainly new- and she had to give them credit for innovation, though it seemed like it could be dangerous.

“What’s happening?” she yelled to the teen next to her, wondering idly if the girl could even see through all the makeup caked on her face.

“They always pick someone to come up and sing with them for a few songs,” the girl shrieked back, her young face contorted with excitement, “Duh. Look! Jeremy’s coming this way!”

Ashley started at the name, but the girl didn’t notice: she was already beginning to shout, trying to get the bassist to notice her. Ashley, glancing around, saw a figure fighting his way through the crowd alone. It couldn’t be him, Ashley reassured herself, he would enver have the talent to be someone as popular as this guy. Laughing, she took a step back into the shadows- just in case, and she didn’t precisely like to be the center of attention anymore- although she couldn’t help but sing along.

o0O0o0O0o

Mike suppressed an irritated sigh as the bouncers around him fought off the waving hands of the crowd. This was so stupid, it just wouldn’t finish. All he really wanted to do was go back to the room and continue to plan his day tomorrow. It would be perfect, just him and Catherine, walking around the beautiful city together. It took a particularly shrill scream to jolt him out of his reverie. He looked around sheepishly, but there was no one who seemed right. HE scanned the crowd for his friends- he could see Jeremy heading towards someone. Thank God, Mike thought, maybe we can get to the hotel soon.

o0O0o0O0o

Jeremy shook his head slightly, trying to focus. Glancing around for someone, anyone, to pick- preferably with a hint of talent- he saw a shadow on the outskirts of the enclosure. He changed his path ever so slightly so he would head that way. As he neared, he saw a figure, apparently female and older than their usual fans, encased in a deep purple sweatshirt, which was also shading her face, though her voice still emanated form beneath it- strong and pure and in tune. Jeremy grinned. Taking advantage of a lull in the music, he uttered into the radio which connected him with his mates.

“I’ve got one.”

At that signal, Sam and Mike began to backtrack back up to the stage. Jeremy continued to make his way towards the girl. Reaching her, he put a hand on her crossed arms. She jumped at the touch and yanked her arm away.

“Come on!” he yelled over the crowd, shaking his long dark hair out of his eyes, “Get up there!”

Her eyes widened in shock, but she followed him dutifully back up to the stage. She vaulted lightly up and grabbed a microphone from one of the guards, moving almost stiffly, though she didn’t seem discomfited by the sea of eyes fixed on her. Her hood never moved, though, not even when the glare of the lights and heat of the summer night had forced the band to strip down to pants and light t-shirts- or, in the drummer’s case, just pants.

Mike took his place beside her, and began to sing without a glance at her. Her voice took up the song, not in a parody of the melody like most of the people who came up sang, but in a weird harmonic that thrilled even as it chilled. Startled, he glanced at her, and saw 2 laughing violet eyes grinning back at him, the only thing visible in her shadowed face. Eyes he recognized, if he could only just place them. As the song ended, she let her voice continue even when Mike’s had stopped, a single, eerie note to finish the song. The applause and screaming were thunderous.

“Who are you?” Someone shouted, only just audible over the cheers. Mike grinned and turned to the girl, happy that for once they ahd found an audience member who could actually sing.

“Yeah, take off your hood!” he agreed, speaking into the microphone so the whole audience could hear. He was devoted to Catherine, of course, but if she happened to be hot, well, Chuck or Jeremy was always open.

“Only if they want me to,” she responded laughingly, using her teasing voice to disguise her unease. She knew she shouldn’t have done this, shouldn’t have come- but who would have known that Cale could have made it so far? And with Jeremy? Or that they wouldn’t have recognized her right away- she had known who they were the moment she saw them, but she could only hope they weren’t so perceptive. After all, she had changed a lot in 8 years. “I’m only one of them!”

The crowd screamed its approval. She held back a sigh- something in her was a performer still, and she had never been able to resist the lure of a mob- something that had perhaps led to her demise.

“I don’t know,” she wavered theatrically, obviously working the crowd. Mike raised an eyebrow, impressed at her skill. Jeremy, always impatient, moved behind her with one of his long strides and yanked her hood back. Long silky red hair spilled out behind her as her merrily laughing face was revealed. She turned to face Jeremy, but her expression hardened at the sight of him. He started- that expression was eerily reminiscent of another scowl in another face- or was it another face?

“Smooth moves, O’Conner,” she mocked, no merriness in her tone now, only malice, ‘But haven’t you ever heard of privacy?”

“Nope,” he replied with a roguish wink, putting aside any regrets her expression may have evoked, ‘want to show me why you want it?”

She turned her back on him haughtily. The crowd chuckled appreciatively- and Jeremy couldn’t help but grin as well. Hard to get, ay? He could play that game.

“You’re just as pitiful as you ever were,” she threw over her shoulder as the next song started. Jeremy put all thoughts of what she had said out of his mind while he played, music always did that for him, but it still rankled in the back of his mind. During the song, the last one, the girl again matched Mike note for note, humming when she didn’t know the words. The song ended, and with it the concert.

“A hand for the lady?” Mike prompted, and the screaming increased until she put up a had to stop it before it burst her eardrums, though she couldn’t help but grin- it had been too long since she had last gotten recognition like this. Mike continued once the cheering died, “And for your humble entertainers, Complex Life!” he continued. The crowd roared, deafening nearly everyone there. As the curtain dropped.

Jeremy grabbed the girl’s wrist before she could move to hop off the stage. She froze as his skin touched her. She did not want him, of all people, touching her. What right did he have? Not that that had ever mattered to him.

“Why am I so pitiful?” he demanded. Of all the insults in the world, that one stung the most. Pride was his defining quality- and she had well known that when she had chosen her wording.

‘Because that line was just as bad as yours were when I was in 9th grade,” she informed him casually, deciding resignedly that the jig was up and she might as well give them a jolt before she disappeared- they wouldn’t be able to find her again, anyway, “Wouldn’t you agree, Cale?”

“Definitely,” Mike said, responding automatically to the long unheard nickname, distractedly unplugging the microphone. He may not have heard that nickname in years, but he had replied to it for long years before that; he didn’t even notice it when she used the name. That voice, however, saying that name had triggered Jeremy’s memory. He stared at the girl, amazed.

“Alers?” he spat. Mike spun to face the girl so quickly he nearly knocked over Sam’s guitar. Sam leapt to catch it, not so distracted by the appearance of the girl to forget about danger to his beloved instrument.

“Ash?” Mike asked incredulously, almost in a whisper. If he said it any louder, maybe the spirit of his old friend would disappear- and he couldn’t remember why he had ever wanted that.

“Ashley,” she corrected coldly, judging the time right for a tactical retreat to the edge of the stage, “Nice to see you and all that, but I’ve got to go.”

Jeremy took a step forward to stop her, but he checked himself when he recalled his old feelings. Ashley jumped off the stage and stalked away with a straight back, trying to disguise how much she wanted to flee. Complex life gaped after her, all lost in their own whirlwinds of emotions.

“Who was that?” Chuck asked as he puttered over his drum set. He had been the first to recover; his confusion was the easiest to address. A girl had come up, sung well, and then messed with the guys.

“An old… acquaintance,” Jeremy replied for Mike, as he tried to recall his hatred for the girl- not a hard proposition. Or at least, it shouldn’t have been. “A very old ghost.”

Sam turned quickly to glance at him suspiciously. He had known Jeremy for years, he could tell that beneath the cold contempt there was something else trying to escape.

“That’s descriptive,” he drawled, hoping his sarcasm would draw whatvever his friend was concealing out. But it worked on the other friend, who ahd been staring blankly at where she disappeared.

“That was Ash-Ashley Alers,” Mike said quietly, eyes clouded, “I never would have recognized her.”

“You didn’t, I did,” Jeremy corrected, shaking off the mood. HE hated ALers, always had- and that was the end of it. Mike deserved better, as a best friend. “Why would you? It’s been 8 years. What are you and Catherine going to do tomorrow? Remember, you have to be back by the concert…”

He led Mike away, still chattering in a way unusual for that taciturn man. Slowly, Mike let himself be drawn out of his shell. Sam shook his head despairingly.

“What’s up with them?” Chuck asked as he and Sam finished clearing away their stuff. HE was a fairly new addition- he hadn’t been with the others in high school, that is- and this was one of those times where their shared experiences put him out of his depth.

“Jeremy’s always been a bit odd where Ashley’s concerned,” Sam informed him, deciding on the spot how much detail he was allowed to give. Not much, he resolved on. It wasn’t his tale to tell. “And Mike’s best friend from childhood just gave him the major cold shoulder.”

“But they haven’t seen her in 8 years!” Chuck protested. Call him shallow, but that seemed a bit excessive to his mind. “Both of them must have gotten over it!”

“I don’t think either of them expected her to hold a grudge this long,” Sam said sadly, attempting as he always did to forget what his friends had done to her- and what she ahd done to them. “However much we deserve it.”