[Deleted]

live fast, die young

Wearing

378w

'Eviction Warning'. Those were always the best two words to come home to. Cory put her face as flat against the door as it would go while turning the old knob to push herself in. After shutting the door, throwing the crumpled piece of hot pink paper into the trash was the first order of business before she jumped into the shower to keep her mind off of it. She'd miss the month's rent again, but hey, she was at least making a little cash now. What was a few days at the ma's house? She'd just say she was visiting, stow her things somewhere.

The shower definitely helped - as did her off-key singing to the loud rock music that she played from a little bluetooth speaker - and she scrubbed her hair quickly with a towel and tossed it onto her bed. It bunched oddly after a second of stillness when she was tugging on a pair of sweats to get ready for another 'mash-up session'. Really, it was just an excuse to nerd out about mixing tunes and eat junk food. A tiny bunch of whiskers scooted out from under the towel and made her giggle, hand reaching over after pulling the last leg of her trousers on to brush the towel off of the small ferret's face. "Hey buddyyyy."

McKenna was quickly turning out to be more of a chill pal than some untouchable celebrity. Cory had finally gotten used to that whole famous part and had grown to think of her just as herself the more they got to know one another through their homebrew collaborations and just-for-fun sessions. It was weird; the singer had made her realize her severe lack of friends. Actual friends. She didn't think it had every really bothered her, but being able to look forward to chilling with someone was... relieving. Relaxing. Nice.

~*~*~*~ 

"So, like, do you write the lyrics first or the music first?" she asked with a mouth half full of chips and salsa, lazily spread over the couch with her laptop flat on her stomach, headphones only half on, and a fuzzy ball of brown and beige packrat draped over the top of her head. That was, of course, until McKenna picked up a bit of her own snack and sent his head up and nose towards it in the air.

"Nuggetttt," Cory warned him. "He wants your chip," a small laugh moved the laptop around. His paws struggled to straighten down in her messy, short hair and he began to slide comically downwards while reaching for the food. "Hey hey hey, mister," her eyes looked up towards him and her brows flattened. "Calories cloud his judgement." Nugget had an incredibly purchased love for his new pal. She paid in popcorn, chips, and sometimes the occasional gummy treat or little piece of wrapper paper for him to collect and hide away. Oh yes, crazy aunt McKenna was a favorite of his.

Ashley McKenna-Chase
Lil furface.

♡

[Ashley McKenna-Chase]

Lazy Evening

It had been a good day. Really good. Ashley had finally made some headway on the idea of throwing out some official remixes and now there was just the simple task of putting enough high quality mixes together to make the record worth releasing. She didn’t pretend to know the names of all the producers and DJs that her manager was trying to instigate collaborations with but she certainly enjoyed listening to samples that came their way. They were going to release it as a way of building hype towards her upcoming album and maybe test the waters of different genres to see how far they could stretch her mainstream appeal. So far, everyone around her was saying very positive things about the McKenna Chase brand.

Still, it had been a welcome change of pace to hit the gym before dinner. Ashley had ditched the strict set of routines she usually followed and just gone hard at whatever piece of equipment took her fancy. It made for a short but intense session that left her very grateful for the shower afterwards. She stood there, eyes shut, humming just loud enough to enjoy the acoustics, and waited until her heart rate had completely settled before she jumped out and quickly pulled on her clothes.

A short bus ride later – walking was not an option after that workout – and Ashley had made it to Cory’s apartment. It was an old place, maybe a little run-down, but it wasn’t the absolute worst place she’d ever been in. Cory was a perfectly welcoming host which made up for any aging décor or broken taps. The first time she’d been here had been their opportunity to iron things out after that night at the club and they’d settled into a pretty comfortable working relationship by the time they’d reached the next session. Cory was a lot more relaxed than any of the professionals she worked with in studio which, although a little jarring at first, made for an entirely different way of working. It was refreshing, at least. She felt relaxed enough to not feel so bad about her wet hair and lack of make-up.

The ferret had been a shock at first – Ashley had been pretty sure that they were illegal to keep as pets in California – but she’d gently warmed to Nugget. She’d worked out that he was motivated almost entirely by food and she could normally keep him occupied with a morsel of whatever Cory had provided for snacks. He was pretty cute and, so long as he didn’t scramble all over her, she was happy for him to hang around, only occasionally pestering her for more food. It was amazing that he wasn’t the world’s first spherical ferret considering his appetite.

She’d been jotting down notes when Cory looked up from her laptop and, question clearly too pertinent to finish her mouthful, asked her something about lyricshh or mmf-usic.

“Lyrics,” she said quickly. “I was writing long before I was making music. I like to write stories and then translate them into complementary melodies. I’ve never really thought of doing it the other way, actually,” she said with a surprised smile. She reached for a chip, instantly attracting the attention of Nugget. “Why, how would you write a song?”

The ferret began sliding from his perch on Cory’s head, forearms extended towards her chip.

“Here, you have it dude,” Ashley said, leaning over so she could break off a piece for him. “No chip is worth that much effort.”

She took the opportunity to dip what remained of her chip into the salsa, scooping a hefty portion of it into her mouth with a beam of satisfaction. Mmm, salsa…

Coryelle Wilde

618 words

ψ

[Deleted]

live fast, die young

Wearing

432w

"Shtories?" she asked, still semi-swallowing the mushed up chips and salsa in her mouth with the overly curious and out-stretched pack rat hanging onto her hair with his back feet for dear life. It had always been a neat idea to Cory that people had the capability of writing crazy stories, thinking them up, playing with their imagination in a way that didn't just intrigue themselves but captivated others too. "Mmm," she cleared her throat with a final swallow, "makes sense."

On the screen was the work in progress of a new mix of one of McKenna's earlier songs that had really caught Cory's ear a couple of years ago. She'd had the thought of maybe messing around with voice pitches to create different levels of the song. A couple of cool youtube mixers that she'd listened to before had done it. It was more difficult than she thought it'd be and becoming increasingly frustrating to change McKenna's pitch without losing timbre or making her sound like a cartoon character - villain or chipmunk. Instead, she moved to pitch changing instruments. It was definitely an interesting sound, if anything.

"Hmwuhuhuh noooo, I don't write," her head shook, causing Nugget - who had just successfully grabbed hold of the chip with his little front paws - to hop off and comfortably drape himself like a rag over her shoulder. "Unlike you, my 'way-with-words' kinda begins with and ends with what I want ordered on my pizza." Cory laughed openly, dragging another bar of edited audio over just a bit with the track pad of her laptop. It wasn't until recently that she'd discovered she even had a talent remotely dealing with music.

"Okay so- I'm working with like this lighter sound. Like... more melodic, yeah? Really just playing off of your composition and adding some different layers to it." That probably made no sort of sense whatsoever. Cory scrunched her mouth, picked up Nugget with one hand to hold him still on her shoulder while  sliding down the couch to get nearer to McKenna and set the laptop on the coffee table.

"Okay so like... the top four are all yours - the original recording. Then I'm doing all these rows down here, so, it's building off of it. It'll be less club-y and more... I don't know, something you'd drive to with the windows down? Chill," she shrugged, pointing at the screen a few times. "Since you wrote the lyrics first, I'm going to like... make those the most important layers. Does that make any sense?"

(MacDaddy Mix)

Ashley McKenna-Chase
Speaking Greek.

♡

[Ashley McKenna-Chase]

Lazy Evening

A fan of tackling mundane subject matter to draw out hidden meaning, Ashley made a sly note of “pizza order” in her notebook, drawing a couple of lines out from it for future Ashley to have a go at filling in. She finished her scribbling and looked up at Cory, who was working at something on her laptop.

“I once heard someone say that everyone’s got a story they want to write,” she said, not wanting to attach herself to the statement completely. “I think that’s over-simplifying it. I think everyone has a thousand stories inside them, more. We’ve all lived, right? Stuff happens everyday that you could turn into a story. But articulating them is the trick – you’ve gotta be sensitive to pace and meaning, gotta know how to make everyone else understand why you chose that story to tell. It’s a lot easier to get the intent of ordering pizza across – pretty clear agenda right there,” Ashley said with a laugh. “I’m sure you’re a pro of the spoken word in that department.”

Idly sketching, a small pizza slice formed in the corner of her page.

Ashley nodded silently in response as Cory began to explain what she was working on. She seemed to be a little unsure of herself, as though she couldn’t quite believe in her own ability to produce music. There was a definite lack of technical jargon but she clearly had a strong instinct for what sounded good and how to bring that to life. Ashley valued her fresh take on the songs far more than she care about whether or not Cory had the fancy qualifications and expertise to back it up.

“Yeah, I see what you’re trying to do,” she said with a smile. “How’s it coming together? Getting a windows-down vibe yet?”

She tucked her feet up, getting comfy.

“Makes sense you’d seek that kind of sound,” she added, gesturing vaguely to their work environment. One step in the room could tell you instantly that the kind of person who lived here greatly valued the Art of Chillaxing.

Coryelle Wilde

347 words

ψ

[Deleted]

live fast, die young

Wearing

545w

When McKenna had gone on about stories and her theory of them - using another's words to grow and branch off of - Cory's over-confidant and relaxed facade shadowed over her a bit more falsely than her usual perfect practice of its realism. It helped that, in a lot of ways, it wasn't that fake. It was keeping it 'on' and active from sunrise to sunset in everything she did that introduced its falsehood. It was so habitual over so many years that she actually believed the lie. Hey, it'd gotten her this far.

So why did McKenna have to go and remind her that it wasn't real? All the talk about stories that everyone has to tell, about their meaning, blah blah... Cory hung onto the words more than she'd meant to, an unusually involved and empathetic expression on her face as the singer explained the bit of her process. It really was extraordinary. Not realizing how vulnerable the air around her felt until McKenna brought the pizza back up, Cory was extremely thankful for the window to a more joke-prone atmosphere.

"Im sure you’re a pro of the spoken word in that department."

"Girl, you've got no idea who you're messin' with," her wide, toothy grin showed again, cocky and weightless as ever. "If it were in the Olympics, I'd have more golds than Phelps." It only took seconds for her to ease back into her casual demeanor. Nugget climbed from her shoulder to her ear, using it to prop himself up on top of her head which successfully made her hair a mop-like mess. He flopped on his belly and she neither paid him nor her hair any mind while they exchanged words about the editing she was trying horribly to explain. At one point, the ferret began to slide and she simply used a hand to put him back where he was on her head without pausing her conversation or looking up at him.

"Oh, yeah I've got a little. Was going to ask for your input actually. Constructive criticism and all that. Or just criticism - I mean it's your song," oh no... awkward fan-girl again. She cleared her throat and started over. "Two pairs of ears are better than one," she concluded with a casual shrug and a smirk, turning the laptop on the coffee table to better face where McKenna was seated with the play cursor positioned at the beginning of the song.

A melodramatic mock face of wounded offense drenched over Cory as she put a hand to her chest and leaned back away from the singer. "Well excuuuuuse you!" she teased, "I'll have you know this is the life, miss famous pop star!" As an ironic exclamation at the end of her bold statement, Nugget finally slid fully from the top of her hair to her lap - earning a giggle that only ever introduced itself in the presence of cute, fluffy animals. She was a sucker for them. "Here, here," she gave up the sarcasm and lifted the headphones over her head to McKenna before picking up the ferret with both hands, leaning back against the foot of the couch, and playfully rolling him around against her stomach and torso.

Ashley McKenna-Chase
Mayhaps bonding.

♡

[Ashley McKenna-Chase]

Lazy Evening

“Maybe we should order pizza after we work sometime, I know this great place that delivers to both the studio and my house, so I swear by it. I have a really good friend who’s a chef and she’s given them the seal of approval too,” Ashley boasted fondly. “I’m sure they would be super impressed by your Olympic-level pizza ordering.”

She sketched more pizza, a full circle this time, and then attached it to a ribbon. Pizza medal!

“I don’t get to eat much pizza when I’m on tour,” she said sadly. “Dairy before a performance is a no-no apparently, which is lame. I’m a boss at avoiding caffeine and alcohol but,” Ashley sighed and clenched her first, “Cheese is my weakness.”

She laughed at her own dramatics, having to pull herself back into serious mode so that she could give Cory’s work a proper listen.

“I didn’t say it was a bad thing! Just sayin’, you’re hella chill. Shows up in your music taste and the space you live in.” Ashley smiled, glad to see Cory hadn’t actually taken offence. She reached over and grabbed the headphones, tapping play and pulling them over her ears.

Ashley nodded gently along to the music, enjoying the melodic way it meandered towards the build-up. It still had a similar feel to the other mixes Cory had put together but this was definitely its own entity. One for the demo tape.

“It’s awesome,” she said, grinning. “I think you’ve really got something here, but I’m not sure about…” Ashley pointed at what she assumed was the offending layer. “This, here? It builds the core harmony, makes it bigger, I think, hard to tell from the waveforms if this is the right one,” she added, stumbling over her lack of expertise. She mostly knew what she was talking about but she definitely didn’t want to mistakenly advise Cory. “I just don’t know if it draws away from that more relaxed kind of sound, you know?”

She frowned. “I mean, it’s still great, and I could be way off the mark…” Ashley trailed off. Producers and engineers would normally have cut her off at this point, immediately getting to work translating her vague suggestions into real, technical adjustments. She didn’t even normally have this much authority and she had a feeling it was showing. Hopefully Cory was also able to interpret Ashley’s lay ramblings into something more useful.

Coryelle Wilde

404 words

ψ

[Deleted]

live fast, die young

Wearing

515w

All this talk of pizza was making her hungry. "Oh, girl, I'm always lookin' for new places," she nodded firmly, still using a hand to scratch on top of the small ferrets head. "Sooner rather than later. You're talking it up so much I already want some. Alas, my freezer pizza has my name on it for tonight." Cory gave a small chuckle and turned on her rear against the carpet to lie down flat on her back at the foot of the sofa with the pack rat stretched over her stomach. "God, I'd suuuuck at that kind of life. Caffeine, alcohol, cheese. That's like... my main three food groups. Dunno how you do it. I can sacrifice a lot of things in life, but when it comes to my taste buds? Mmmmm-nope." She had major respect for that discipline. It was true, Cory didn't need a whole lot to live with content, but what she did need she couldn't see herself budging on. The fact that McKenna could do it at the drop of a hat was insane, even with something like a diet, just to live a different way.

"Chill as a cucumber. That should be my autobiography," she grinned, eyes shutting and hands folding behind her head. She let the song play and could hear it through the headphones. It was never not awkward to hear your own work and know that someone was hardcore listening to it right next to you. When the word 'but' had first been said, Cory didn't hesitate to sit up and try and follow along with what the singer was saying. She had zero knowledge of all this music lingo that McKenna was probably fluent in, so it was nice that the way she explained it was capable of being followed along. "Ohhhh, yeah, yeah, I see," something clicked in her head with the idea, able now to understand where the girl was coming from, and she tilted the computer a bit to herself between them for a moment to stretch a few levels and move a few wave lengths.

"Here, I wonder if I tone this down or take off the reverb a little... Maybe it'll blend more." Rather than sounding like two things playing at the same time that weren't made to be together and just happened to 'fit', she attempted to round the sound out more and thread them together. There was no brushing off or talking over. Cory could see McKenna's suggestion and could hear it in her head. It'd sound better. "Oh wow this'll sound way better..." she mumbled to herself, finishing a few other tweaks and then hitting the play button right before pulling the headphone jack free so the speakers of the laptop played out in the small living room. The sound was definitely polished. It flowed, like something you'd hear on the radio. "Damn, chica. Nice catch!" Cory raised her hand for a high five with a smile on her face, clearly more than pleased with the edited product.

Ashley McKenna-Chase
Teamwork!

♡

[Ashley McKenna-Chase]

Lazy Evening

Ashley had just raised her glass of water to her lips, narrowly avoiding spitting it everywhere as Cory identified caffeine, alcohol and cheese as her three main food groups. She had such a funny perspective; it was refreshing, and undoubtedly what had drawn Ashley to her music-making skills as well. All about that fresh point of view.

“Yah well, I don’t think that diet would put me in great shape for the gym either – you’re lucky,” Ashley noted, patting her own stomach. “You must have the world’s most enthusiastic metabolism to stay in such good shape. And probably the world’s happiest taste buds,” she added with an envious grin. “Still, I can’t complain, I love my job and that takes priority over eating pizza every night – however much I may want to!”

Thankfully Cory was true to her chill-as-a-cucumber word and didn’t even bat an eyelid at Ashley’s criticism. She just sat up and paid attention. It was flattering – she didn’t exactly hang off every word, but she definitely respected and valued Ashley’s input. She didn’t even contest Ashley’s point and then try to twist it to come out as her own idea, which was definitely something Ashley had encountered with previous producers.

She sat back as Cory adjusted her work, knowing just enough to follow along but not quite enough to have known what to do by herself.

With a triumphant snatch of the wire, Cory pulled the headphones out from the laptop and let the music out into the room for the three of them (Nugget included) to appreciate.

Ashley flushed at the praise and responded to the high five enthusiastically. Her hand stung a little from the impact, but she was too elated to so much as wince.

“That was all you, really,” she pointed out. “I just said something vague about a more relaxed sound and you ran with it, doing all this techno whizz kid stuff.” She waved her hands wildly across the screen, gesturing dramatically to the layers and layers of tracks.

“It’s really good, Coryelle. I’m proud of us,” she said with a smile. “You should test it out in clubs – do you have any more DJ work coming up?”

Coryelle Wilde

367 words

ψ

[Deleted]

live fast, die young

Wearing

612w

Though her grin seemed semi-apologetic for making McKenna nearly douse the whole living room in water, the victoriously mischievous laughter that followed after completely wiped it away. "Yeah, born with it I guess," one shoulder shrugged upwards at an angle while she kept busy with the computer. When your heart could make your body run across rooftops, what effort was burning extra fat? "But you're like, a twig. You look like one of those chicks we knew in high school that could finish a cheese wheel and be just totally unphased," she joked.

"Oh man, that's dedication. I dunno if I could do a job that limited pizza. Pizza and I have a special relationship. Don't judge," well, come to think of it, "Or do, no shame," Cory corrected with an affirming nod. If there was ever an 'it's me or the pizza' end-all-be-all of a relationship, her partner would have to cope with being dumped for Italian food. The editing had been done, the tune had played, and their collaboration had definitely bettered it. "Me? Girl! Take some damn cred! Psh, I can't think of that music-genius-specific stuff!"

Oh, shoot, had that high five been too hard? Nah, looked fine. It was still something she was getting used to; finding a girl actually smaller than her. At the praise, her grin widened genuinely again without any of the snark or attitude like it had in the Starbuck's when they'd met, at the bar after the first gig, and pretty much every other time they just chilled. Eventually, every time in their encounters, she just ended up letting the overconfident masking drop and had a simple, honest kind of fun. It was a nice feeling. Weird, a bit vulnerable, but fuck it right? She hadn't caught herself in the act consciously yet... maybe it'd come. But for now, she ignored it and let it happen. No harm, no foul.

"Yeah, they want me to come back actually, put on a longer set," she bit her bottom lip excitedly, eyebrows lifting up a couple times with the 'I'm cookin' some stuff up' look. "God, your studio must fucking love you, you make it so damn easy," she motioned to the computer again and stood up with a few pops in her ankles, stretching with a tiny grunt. "Want a soda?" as she walked towards the small kitchen area with the intent on grabbing another for herself, her pocket buzzed and she pulled her phone out to answer without looking. "Yello. Oh, hey. Heh sorry, I can't, I'm makin' beats with McKenna," she popped her head around the corner with the phone a tad away from her mouth, "It's Dana. Uhhh, tomorrow? Isn't that like some ritzy part of town?" she grimaced a bit, not keen on the idea of expenses while she still secretly struggled to keep the damn apartment, let alone keep making weekly club trips.

She had expensive tastes and neither of them were remotely serious about one another. That'd actually been how they even became interested. Reciprocated and agreed-upon shallow relationships with zero strings were based on convenience, but Dana heavily enjoyed going out before spending the night. Cory finished her journey to the fridge and returned back into the living room seconds later. "Sure, lemme toss ya," true to her word, she flung the phone gently McKenna's way. "She wants to say hi." Cory had never mentioned the fling with Dana to the singer, but she knew that Dana's mouth had probably gone spurting it off quite a few times. The preppy girl talked a lot, but that was alright, Coryelle didn't dislike it.

Ashley McKenna-Chase
Phone Dana is no less talkative x.x

♡

[Ashley McKenna-Chase]

Lazy Evening

A twig who could finish a cheese wheel unphased? Ha – maybe Ashley could introduce Cory to her workout plans some day and show her just how much work it took to achieve that supposedly natural ‘twig’ figure.

Ashley smiled understandingly at Cory’s love for pizza. “Unless you want to switch the behind-the-scenes work for singing live on stage, I think you’re good. Can’t think of too many careers where ‘pizza limitations’ are a necessary clause in the contract.” She laughed, imagining that being hidden somewhere in her contract. Honestly, that paperwork monster probably did dictate her pizza consumption.

“That’s great!” Ashley bounced in excitement about the club’s invitation to return for a longer set. “I can put the word out around my friends, I’m sure Marcus can fill the club for you – he loved you.” Mostly because he’d been very, very drunk and very, very impressed by Cory’s assault on the creepy dude outside the club, but Ashley decided it was probably best to leave that part out. She didn’t really want to think about that incident anyway – it still left a bit of a sour taste in her mouth.

The smug glow on Ashley’s face told Cory everything she needed to know about the studio’s opinion of McKenna Chase. She knew she was a house favourite.

She declined the offer of soda and settled back into the couch, pulling her notebook out in front of her once more as she tried to find her place in the scribblings hidden amongst doodles on the page.

It was surprising to hear that Dana was on the phone… and then suddenly not surprising once things clicked. Dana had mentioned this “punk chick” she’d been hooking up with but Ashley hadn’t quite processed that Cory was that chick, even though it made perfect sense. The stories she’d heard were a little odd – Dana seemed to meet her in clubs for no-strings flirtation before heading back and passing out pretty much straight away – but they were certainly exaggerated in front of the guys. Ashley wasn’t entirely sure how much truth there was in her tales but it had certainly garnered interest from Dana’s male friends…

Suddenly the phone was being thrown towards Ashley; fortunately she’d noticed before she had the chance to fumble and watch it smash on the floor.

“Hello?” she asked, preparing herself mentally for the shriek.

“MACDADDYYYY, sup dude, I miss you. Howzitgoin? So,” Dana continued, not giving Ashley even a second to respond, “There’s going to be a huge after-party next week, all the big Greek dudes will be there, wanna come? I’m gonna hook up with the punk chick again and make sure they all see – some of them don’t believe I’m this crazy like, oh my god. Please come, please come, please come!”

“Uh, maybe for a bit, but I have a ton of work,” Ashley said apologetically. “I’ll try, but it sounds like you already have a date,” she added teasingly.

She could almost hear the eyeroll. “OMG, stop. As if! Okay, I gotta go, see you there or I’m never accepting another backstage pass again.” A dramatic pause. “Juuuust kidding, you know I’m MacDaddy’s number one girl. Love you, bye, love you, bye!”

Ashley handed the phone back to Cory, her eyebrows raised. “Coryelle! Hooking up with my friends behind my back!” She exchanged looks with Nugget. Or tried to, as best as one could with a ferret.

Coryelle Wilde

572 words

ψ

[Deleted]

live fast, die young

Wearing

459w

The smug and proud look wasn't unexpected one bit. Cory could imagine men in the studio room trying to pluck away at ideas and McKenna just blurting out some pure, gold genius without them having to do any work. "Oh, hell no, I can't sing worth a damn," she shook her head over-dramatically with wide eyes and pursed lips. "Shower singing is where it begins and ends with me. Not quite tone deaf, but deffffinitely not a forte of mine. I'll leave that to you and your golden pipes." She had to admit though, her showers weren't complete without belting some classic punk rock. Nirvana, Green Day, the like. "He did? Shit," she grinned proudly at herself at the thought of someone being a fan. It felt awesome, intense, filling. How the hell did McKenna not die under the weight of her thousands of followers?

Cory could hear the scream of Dana at the beginning of the conversation even with McKenna pressing the phone to her ear, earning a wince as she sat and cracked the soda can open with a crisp break of carbonated release. She allowed herself to fall rather ungracefully backwards until her rear plopped down onto the couch and her legs could kick up on her small IKEA coffee table. Nugget gave a few attempts at crawling up the foot of the couch, failing and falling like a drunk Slinky a few times before finally clawing himself up and all the way to Cory's shoulder where he allowed himself to flatten out and drape. While in mid-sip, the singer quickly turned on her after hanging up and caused her to inhale half of the soda and spit the other half back into the can.

"F-!.." Cory curled forward quickly, covering her mouth in case any had spilled, and then looked up to her hand extending the phone. "Wh-! I didn't-! No, it's just like casual!" Nugget made eye contact with McKenna before turning his head and latching his little teeth onto the rim of Cory's ear; clearly playing, but ironically almost taking sides. "Hey!" she tucked her head sideways against her shoulder to force him off, hopping about excitedly around the couch. "No no no, I promise, it's not like anything serious. We've just gone out a couple times," she calmed her voice down and took a more serious tone, setting her soda on the table. Since when did she feel like she had to explain herself?... It almost made her feel a tad bit guilty. Almost. "Swear to God I won't, like... screw her over or anything." After all, they'd both agreed to keep romance out of it nearly entirely.

Ashley McKenna-Chase
Nugget MVP.

♡

[Ashley McKenna-Chase]

Lazy Evening

If there was one thing Ashley had figured out rather swiftly about Cory, it was that she had a terminal case of foot-in-mouth syndrome. A lack of tact combined with a seemingly atypical moral code – certainly different to Ashley’s in any case – was the perfect recipe for disaster. Rather than leaping to assure Ashley that she was of course going to do right by her dear friend, she was instead insisting that it didn’t mean anything. Sure, she’d promised not to screw her over, but her attitude still brought a wry smile to Ashley’s lips.

Damn it, she’d been trying so hard to keep a serious expression on her face. It hadn’t helped that Nugget had developed a keen intuition for understanding human conflict and, in the process, turned on his master in support of Ashley’s faux outrage.

“Casual? So my friend means nothing to you now, huh?”

The impact of her words were lost in the struggle to hold herself back from grinning, and she gave up on the charade, laughing at Cory’s grave expression. It reminded her of those moments in movies when the plucky young hero came up against a shotgun-wielding father and had to make a solemn promise not to defile his love interest. Jeez, had Ashley been so convincing? Maybe she’d have to talk to that agent about acting work after all…

“C’mon, it’s fine, I’m not her mother. I know Dana’s a free spirit and I know you’re not, like, some kind of predator or whatever,” Ashley giggled. “How did that even happen? Dana just told me she’s been running into a chick in clubs – she didn’t think to mention it was you. Did she win your favour with a bouquet of straws?”

The image of Dana presenting Cory with a carefully selected bunch of crazy straws was actually kind of sweet, and Ashley found herself jotting it down on her notepad. She had no doubt that there was nothing sweet about the casual hook-up arrangement – Dana in it for attention, Cory in it for… what? – but she could always make up her own imaginary romance to fit a song more in line with the McKenna Chase brand. Dana would love it, even if the number of details changed would make it entirely unrecognisable. It would be just another thing to brag about to her sorority sisters.

Straws were kind of drunk-Dana’s thing, after all.

Coryelle Wilde

401 words

ψ

[Deleted]

live fast, die young

Wearing

497w

The singer had flipped around and Cory kept knelt on the ground by the coffee table with her hands rapidly moving to either surrender or help explain. "Yeah," oh shit wait, "WAIT NO! No, not like that! I mean, we agreed to just have fun, y'know? And like not be serious. But she doesn't mean nothing. Like-... I wouldn't do anything bad to her or treat her wrong or-," she kept trying to start over, shaking her head. Sure she'd had a few one-nighters but they had always been agreed upon. Plus, when she was ever together with someone, she enjoyed the 'treating them like gold' play style... Being a dick to someone she was dating or was having fun with just wasn't something that was in her. No pun intended.

The issue here was that Cory, for some unknown and ridiculously stupid reason, cared that McKenna knew that. Not like it mattered - she never cared what anyone else thought - but the thought of her being disappointed, protective against, or distrusting made her feel remorse. Go figure, the one pal she makes that isn't a drugee or some bum is the one that she was subconsciously trying not to unimpress. Then the laugher broke her horrified expression and she slowly realized she'd been played. Again. By the same horrible acting that she had in the Starbuck's. Since when did she get out-smarted with shit like this? Why did the worrying just make her an absolute dumbo? Her face started to melt down and she eventually just collapsed over and slowly flattened to the floor on her face and stomach.

"Why do you do this to me?" she whined with a muffle against the ground. "She came back to the bar the next weekend and just, I dunno. We talked, had a few drinks. Well, she had some more drinks..." Cory sighed, Nugget walking across her thigh, butt, and back to stand up and reach for McKenna. "She asked if I'd be interested and I thought it was cute. So we just agreed to be casual. Y'know? Just for fun. She's pretty." Cory was the one that usually did the approaching, the asking. So to have the tables turned had both surprised and impressed her. She'd honestly thought that Dana had been too much of a 'west coast valley girl' type to be interested in women. Then again, Coryelle was the definition of how one should never judge a book by its cover.

"I shoulda asked you first. I thought she would've told you," she turned her head sideways with her cheek still pressed against the carpet and spoke apologetically. "I'm not.... total garbage. I'm not going to screw with her. Not that I would regardless, but I'd never even think about it since she's such a good friend of yours," an honest and slow tone soon was broken by a breathy chuckle, "It was actually kinda all her idea."

Ashley McKenna-Chase
Nugget MVP.

♡

[Ashley McKenna-Chase]

Lazy Evening

Ashley pouted softly, disappointed at the fact that Cory hadn’t mentioned any straws. Maybe Dana reserved her bouquets for those she was more serious about. From what Ashley could put together, Cory saw the whole thing as no strings, and Dana was barely acknowledging that it was a “thing” at all to begin with.

Cory’s reaction to the “revelation” that Ashley had been acting was definitely confusing. Such a drama queen. Ashley watched as all the tension in her face dropped… then all the tension in her body followed suit. Cory slid down onto the ground – poor Nugget heavily disturbed by what must have felt like a sudden landslide – and just buried her face into the carpet.

“Um-”

Suddenly she realised the muffled noises were Cory attempting to speak, and she leaned forwards to try and pick up the words.

“She is pretty,” Ashley agreed happily, laughing. “Dana likes being told that,” she added with a fond smirk. “Must be why she likes you.”

She waved reservedly at Nugget, who was looming close to her. She hoped he wasn’t about to climb all over her. The snacks were a little too far out of reach to distract him, unfortunately, but he didn’t seem poised to make the big leap from Cory to her. She shuffled an inch backwards, just in case.

“Woah woah, you don’t need my permission – what do I care?” Ashley asked, the confusion returning. “We’ve established I’m not her mom and – hey, Coryelle.” She bent closer so that Cory could look her in the eyes. “I believe you. If I thought you were a super terrible person, do you really think I’d be sitting here right now?”

She leaned back, flipping through her notebook. “I suppose I could just be using you for your mad producing skills,” she said drily, peeking over to see Cory’s reaction. “Kidding!”

Ashley looked at Cory for a moment. “So do you like… need help getting up? ‘Cause I think your head is an inch away from some stray salsa and I’d really hate for you to roll the wrong way.” She giggled, following the laughter up by making some super mature squelchy noises with her mouth as she pictured Cory accidentally planting her face in a rogue splatter of salsa.

Coryelle Wilde

379 words

ψ

[Deleted]

live fast, die young

Wearing

367w

 ~*The following week*~ 

She'd spent the last two hours dancing nonstop. Usually she would have stopped by now because most dates were too tired to keep going. But Dana... well, Dana was different. Where most got a buzz from a few drinks and spent an hour or so tiring themselves out, it had the total opposite effect on the born-to-party girl. She could have sworn someone was spiking her drinks with rocket fuel. Not that Cory was tired physically, but mentally she was drained and worn out from the constant requests to go out every weekend to the most insane possible clubs around. What was so wrong with 'Netflix and chill' once in a while?

Thankfully as drunk Dana continued dancing around the edges of the dance floor with pretty much everyone in her path, Cory had spotted a familiar face while picking them both up another drink at the bar. "Hey!" she shouted loudly over the music towards the singer, giving a single wave to catch her attention. More than grateful that McKenna seemed perfectly fine with her and Dana's fling, she cast her a smirk and then a knowing look in you-know-who's direction to display pretty much how the night was turning out. Like always. Maybe, hopefully, this time she wouldn't pass out on the way back home this time. Cory deserved to get something out of this, right?

"She thinks she's getting a spritzer," she leaned towards McKenna when she got closer to speak through the drums the bass, shaking her head with a smile, "It's Gatorade. I don't think she'll notice." It was obvious from two people she was trying to dance all over that she'd had quite enough for the night. When Coryelle had looked over, Dana met her eyes and pouted, motioning her over. She showed her empty hands and motioned to the bar as an answer - the drinks not having come yet - and then held up a finger to pantomime she'd be over soon. "Only a matter of time before she recognizes you through the tipsy haze and pounces," she teased, leaning against the counter. "Thanks for coming out. Marcus couldn't come?"

Ashley McKenna-Chase
Unz unz unz unz.

♡