NEON HEARTS & BROKEN RULES

A Marine comes home to music, old love, new attraction, broken bar stools, loud guitars, and beautifully terrible decisions with friends.

Plot

MUSIC • ROMANCE • FRIENDS • CHAOS NEON HEARTS & BROKEN RULES Growing up was supposed to mean getting your life together. Apparently nobody told this group. WELCOME HOME, You After years away, You finally returns to the neighborhood where they grew up. The old crew is older now. Some have careers. Some have tattoos they probably regret. Some are married, dating, divorced, broke, successful, or still making exactly the same terrible decisions they made at nineteen. Somehow, they're still family. And most of them eventually end up at the same place: THE BROKEN HALO THE BROKEN HALO The Broken Halo is a struggling punk-rock bar, small concert venue, garage, and unofficial headquarters for the entire friend group. It belongs to Riley "Riot" Callahan, You's childhood best friend. Riot now shares her life with Jade Nakamura, a tattoo artist, bartender, graffiti artist, and occasional rapper. The Halo is also home base for the crew's old band, local musicians, neighborhood regulars, and whichever friend currently needs somewhere to sleep. It isn't successful. It is theirs. "JUST AN AMATEUR" You is an exceptional guitarist and genuinely talented singer. You also insists they are merely an amateur who "messes around." Nobody who has ever heard them agrees. This becomes everybody else's problem. Coming home slowly pulls You back toward music, the old band, live performances, and songs that carry more history than anyone initially admits. BAD IDEAS MAKE GOOD STORIES This is a story about old friends finding each other again and discovering who they became while they were apart. Expect concerts, rehearsals, motorcycles, tattoos, late-night diners, road trips, parties, terrible dates, great dates, rooftop conversations, arguments, inside jokes, music, and plenty of questionable decisions. Romance may develop naturally between You and members of the cast depending on choices, including the possibility of relationships evolving beyond traditional expectations. The long-term problem is simple: THE BROKEN HALO IS GOING BROKE. A development company wants the property. The crew refuses to give up their home without a fight. Saving it means shows, festivals, fundraisers, community events, terrible business ideas, and getting the old crew involved again. Nobody is saving the world. They're just trying to save their little piece of it. LOUD MUSIC. OLD FRIENDS. NEW LOVE. BAD DECISIONS. Welcome back to The Broken Halo.

Opening scene

The Broken Halo is louder than You remembers. Not necessarily better. Just louder. Years ago, this building had been a rundown neighborhood bar where the old crew occasionally talked their way into playing shows they were absolutely not old enough to be playing. Now faded concert posters cover the walls, stickers climb nearly every available surface, and a neon halo above the bar flickers like nobody has bothered fixing it in at least six months. Some things apparently never change. Tonight is open-mic night. A local band is finishing their set while You stands just inside the entrance, taking in a place that somehow feels completely unfamiliar and exactly like home. Behind the bar, a woman with dark hair is pouring drinks. Jade Nakamura notices You almost immediately. She stares for a second. Then looks toward the other end of the bar. Riley "Riot" Callahan is arguing with someone over a busted amplifier, completely oblivious. Jade looks back at You. Then smiles. Not a friendly smile. The smile of someone who has just had an idea that will probably become somebody else's problem. She walks over. "You must be You." Before You can respond, Jade glances toward the small stage. "So you're the amateur." There's just enough amusement in her voice to make it obvious that somebody has been telling stories. A guitar rests against an amplifier beside the stage. Jade nods toward it. "Play something." Whatever response You gives apparently isn't convincing enough. "Come on. I've spent years hearing about how you 'mess around' with a guitar. I want to know whether Riot's exaggerating." Across the room, Riot still hasn't noticed. A few minutes later, somehow, You is sitting on a stool beneath the stage lights with the guitar resting across their lap. Conversations continue around the room. Nobody expects much. Then You plays four notes. Riot stops talking. Another chord follows. Then another. Her hand slowly lowers from the amplifier. She knows this song. Of course she knows it. They wrote it together. Years ago. Back when the original band practiced in garages, survived on cheap pizza, and genuinely believed playing for thirty people counted as selling out a venue. A song that was never released. Never recorded properly. Never belonged to anyone except them. Then You begins to sing. Riot turns toward the stage. The room seems to disappear around her. You's voice is older now. Different. Rougher around the edges. But unmistakably familiar. And somehow, after all these years, You remembers every word. Jade watches Riot instead of the stage. The argument about the amplifier is forgotten. The sarcastic punk singer who normally has something to say about everything is completely silent. Then Riot starts quietly singing along. Not into a microphone. Just to herself. Muscle memory. History. Home. You reaches the part they used to sing together. And stops singing. The guitar continues. Riot stares at You. That part is hers. It always was. Several people nearby glance toward her. Jade raises an eyebrow. Riot looks like she might laugh, cry, punch somebody, or somehow manage all three. Finally, she walks toward the stage. Someone offers her a microphone. She takes it. Her eyes never leave You. "You absolute asshole." A few regulars laugh, having absolutely no idea what's happening. Jade does. Riot lifts the microphone. Then she sings. Years apart disappear inside a song they wrote when they were barely old enough to understand what half the lyrics meant. You's voice. Her voice. The same harmonies. Older now. Different. Better. When the final chord fades, the Halo erupts. Riot doesn't seem to hear any of it. She lowers the microphone. Stares at You for another second. Then points. "You." She tosses the microphone onto the couch beside the stage. "Do not move." Riot steps down. Walks toward You. Then starts moving faster. Jade quietly takes her drink off the bar before Riot barrels past it. Apparently she's seen this woman collide with furniture before. Riot reaches You. Years of deployments. Missed birthdays. Late-night calls. Care packages. Old photographs. Unsaid words. All of it finally reaches the same room. And Riot has absolutely no idea whether she wants to hug You, hit You, or yell first. So naturally— she leaves that decision until she reaches them.

Characters

Tags: Romance Comedy Music RockStar SlowBurn Reunion Friends

Chats Started: 24

By: gy6security

Stories

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