long long time, daisy jones & the six

03 | a hard days night

BOBBIE: Those were hard days, but I had so much fucking fun. I practiced until my hands bled, played until I was more sweat than person. I'd been working pretty much full-time since I was sixteen and for the first time, the work didn't feel like work. It felt special. It felt like I wasn't just working because I had to, because I was scared of being on the street and it didn't feel forced, like something was happening to me instead of me doing something for me, for something bigger than me. Because when I looked around, I wasn't alone. Going home with people, that was the best feeling. And I have Teddy Price to thank for all that. He made everything feel real.

"Do you really think they have a chance?" Bobbie asked.

Teddy looked at her, a little shocked. "They? You're in the band, aren't you? You sure look like you're in the band."

Bobbie was soaked to the bone with sweat, her long dark hair plastered to the back of her neck and the sides of her face. A bass was sitting idle at her back and she was smoking a cigarette she'd snuck from Billy's pack. Her shirt, a ripped old thing from the back of Warren's closest and her pants were borrowed from Eddie. She looked the part, she thought, she was the sixth from The Six. She hadn't been ready to see that but Teddy had, the band did. Shit, she thought, I am.

"Fine," Bobbie settled, "do you think we're gonna make it? I don't mean like playing at clubs, I mean fucking Madison Square Garden type shit."

"Do you think you'll make it?"

"Shit, Teddy, you're a horrible therapist with that fucking question. I don't know. I just know that we're good. But I wanna be great. Are we great, Teddy?"

Teddy laughed a little. "Oh you're great, but being great don't mean shit if you're not ready to work, to commit, to put this shit first. It's a hard gig, it's a selfish job. It's tough on family."

Bobbie lifted her arms up and looked around. "You see a family here?"

"Kinda," Teddy said. He nodded at something behind her.

Bobbie turned to see The Six, and their unofficial but official seventh member, Camila. She was smiling bright, like she did after every performance.

"What's going on here?" Warren asked, smiling too.

"Just gossiping," Bobbie said.

"About us?" Eddie asked.

"Oh no," Bobbie said, "just you, Eddie Spaghetti."

Eddie shoved at Bobbie's shoulder, causing her to laugh. Camila came up to steady her, even though she had not stumbled at all. Camila moved her hands to hold Bobbie's and did not let go for a long time.

"You good?" She asked in a whisper when Teddy and the band's attention turned to each other.

"Yeah," Bobbie said, "just... reevaluating some things."

Camila looked at Bobbie, and Bobbie always felt that when Camila looked at her, she was really seeing her, like her eyes could see inside her head and weed out the real problem so she could fix it. Camila's eyes were beautiful and if you weren't careful, you could get yourself lost in them and reveal all your secrets.

"I'm really glad you decided to stay," Camila said. "We wouldn't be the same without you."

Bobbie never really knew what to do in the face of Camila's easy honesty, but this time she offered some honesty back, maybe as a thank you.

"We wouldn't be a band without you." Bobbie told her and then she linked their arms, something she'd dreamed of doing in her lonely childhood but never could. Nobody had wanted to link arms with her, or be girls together, even lazy friendship evaded her. She'd met Karen and thought that she was the only exception to the rule; Bobbie Bird was lonely.