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2ndstar-ontheright · 1 year

Text

Angel Of Music

Alana goes out walking one night and runs into a familiar face.

So for context, this is a Christine Canigula x Alana Beck college au where Alana and Nina Rosario are roommates because I said so. (They both go to the same school.) I took a l o t of artistic liberties with this so, you have been warned! Lol. Alana also goes by she/they pronouns and has ADHD <3

Word Count: 2108

It seemed as if high school couldn’t end faster for Alana Beck. After everything from the “Connor Project” to their disastrous dating life, she was practically pouncing at the opportunity to leave New Jersey.

Columbia provided an escape. A place where her hundreds of hours of community service, SAT scores, and overall lack of social life finally paid off. Sure, it wasn’t exactly what she’d imagine college to be like, but it was miles better than high school. Here, she wasn’t constantly hounded or expected to be the perfect, gold-star student that everyone hated, they could be, Alana. Sometimes she thinks “I mean maybe they were right. If I had been my classmate, I’d hate myself even more too”, but she shakes her head and cringes a little. It sucked being alone. She really wasn’t that bad, they just got caught up in a huge lie and never had much time to make other friends. Except for a few.

Surprisingly enough, she didn’t really keep up with Evan much after graduation. They saw recently on Instagram that he and some guy they knew through Evan’s brother, Michael, were engaged. She was happy for them. Sending her congratulations in a slew of “Our boys are all grown up :,D”, “About time!” and “I can’t believe it. He taught Michael how to touch grass :)”. The one person she did stay in touch with however, was Zoe. They had become really close over the last few years and still visited whenever they got the chance. Zoe practically forced her to text her regularly, because if not, they were either dead or “being mugged because it’s New York!”. Alana was grateful for it though. It meant that someone out there still cared. Someone that wasn’t their parents, whose relationship was still rocky after deciding to go to Columbia for psychology instead of Law school.

One thing that made the whole transition to the “college experience” easier was meeting her roommate, Nina. Nina was originally from Washington Heights and had gone to Stanford before moving back to New York. She had gone for about a year before losing her scholarship, but she was determined to not just put herself back through school, but to help her best friend's cousin become a citizen and finish high school. She came back to help other kids that were in his situation and was in the same sociology class as Alana. She was about 2 years older than them and needed someone to help pay the rent in their apartment, and working 3 jobs wasn’t going to work this time. Alana, happy to have a friend, moved in and tried to spend time with her whenever they weren’t at work.

Now, that accounted for everything that had changed up until now. Well, everything except for one. One shining, life changing, passionate, carefree thing. The first serious relationship with a girl she’d ever had. The person who, after almost 3 years, can't bring themselves to forget no matter how hard they try. Most of the time she would just go about her day, the stress of tests, work, and papers giving her purpose, but every once in a while, the memories of her would creep and sink in. It would send Alana into a cycle of “What ifs?” and what could have been.

“I knew it wasn’t meant to last. I never should’ve expected it to, but she meant so much to me. She was sweet. She was so talented. She was honest. And most of all, she was real. She helped me figure out so much about myself and I did the same for her. If only she knew how much she meant to me. Senior year, she was my whole world. I know young love shouldn’t matter once you get older or ‘you’ll never forget your first love’, or however the saying goes. It’s not even that she was my first. Just the first one that mattered. Still though, I miss her.”

~~~~~~~~~~~

Alana sighed as she looked up the flight of stairs she had left to climb, slipping their shoes off slowly before taking a step. They were knock-off Doc Martens with the smallest heel, but the last time she wore heels with this specific flight (she would go two steps at a time since it was the last one) they slipped and broke their glasses. So, they weren’t taking any chances. Plus, their socks had little grippers on the bottom and they were surprisingly sturdier than shoes.

She dug her keys from her pocket and unlocked the door, the smell of cinnamon and the sound of her cat Borealis bringing her home. She smiled and reached down to pick up the purring black cat who was rubbing her head against her chest.

“Well someone’s happy to see me.” She smirked. “How’ve you been, little lady?” Her cat looked up and meowed in response, making her laugh. “Oh really, your day was that bad? You poor thing.” She stroked Borealis’ fur for a while before putting her down and following her to the counter. She pulled her sweater off and asked, “Where’s Nina?”

They followed Borealis as she led the way down the hall and to her room where she lay on her bed, surrounded by a stack of papers. Alana smiled and shook their head, sitting next to Nina. She knew she was a light sleeper, so she carefully, quietly organized the paper and set it on her desk. She watched her roommate shift in her sleep, Borealis jumping up and settling in next to her. They winced, but both Nina and the cat stayed asleep. She smiled and pulled out her phone. Nina and Borealis weren’t the best of friends, but she knew she had a soft spot for the cat even if she didn’t want to admit it. After snapping a picture, they turned out the light and walked out into the hall.

Alana stared at her reflection through half-lidded eyes. Their makeup felt more sticky and matted as the day went on. Half of it was smudged at this point. The gross mix of coffee, sugar, sweat, and lysol flooded her nose. To put it simply, she was a hot mess. They were in the shower a little longer tonight. It was well deserved, considering she was fighting the aftermath of a 12 hour shift.

Once she got out, however, she didn’t feel tired. She tried falling asleep to no avail. She finished whatever homework she had left, read, even put on white noise, but she just couldn’t fall asleep. And it wasn’t like she could take a sleeping pill because it would conflict with her anxiety medication. “I guess this is the side effect of a Friday night and Strattera. Whoop-de-doo.”

With nothing better to do, they got out of bed and pulled a purple flannel over their baggy star pajamas. They walked slowly towards the door with their beat up shoes in one hand and backpack in the other.

It wasn’t uncommon for her to go out on walks, especially at night. It was as if the whole world was asleep while she was going on an adventure. (They were grateful that they lived a little further from the city though, because it was much quieter near their apartment.) She would occasionally make up this scenario in her head where she was a fantasy character like Zelda and she was going on a quest, but the quest was the “friends they made along the way” or something like that.

Of course, they were still terrified to be alone at night, but they kept away from the alleyways and stayed near the businesses that were still open. She looked at her phone, 11:23. “Not too late.” she thought to herself. They continued on their walk and looked up at some of the signs.

“A shady looking attorney’s office, a boarded up Starbucks, and what looks like a place that sells nothing but body pillow covers. It’s like they designed this block specifically for my generation.” They chuckled and took a picture to send to Zoe. A few pigeons flew by and a stray cat stopped at her feet. She knelt down and let it sniff her hand before petting it. The cat purred and bumped its head against their leg. “Aww. You’re so pretty. I’d take you home with me, but I don’t know how Borealis would react to you.” She cooed. The cat meowed and walked in between their legs. Alana smiled and waved at it. “I’ll see you later cat. Don’t get into trouble.”

To their surprise, the cat followed them for the rest of their walk until they stopped in front of a theater. They’d never been there before, but it looked open and no one was managing the ticket stand. It seemed kinda cool, so she decided to check it out. She looked behind her to make sure no one was following her, but to her surprise, the cat lay waiting at her feet. She shrugged and smiled at it. “Well I guess it’s later. Stay out here, okay? Make sure no one follows me?” Almost as if the cat could understand her, it blinked slowly in response and laid in the direction where people would pass on the sidewalk. “Good cat.” She pulled on the door to test if it was open, and luckily, it was.

~~~~~~~~~~~

It didn’t take long upon walking in for Alana to hear something from inside the building. A melodic voice rang through the halls, and for a moment, they worried there was a show or rehearsal going on. However, after a minute they only heard a single voice, so she assumed there was only one other person here. She considered going back, a small part of her wondering if maybe it was a siren, but she didn’t.

She pushed open the backstage door as quietly as she could and opened the curtain to see where the voice was coming from. There sat a girl on a grand piano bench, the music amplifying her voice.

“Passing bells and sculpted angels

Cold and monumental

Seem for you the wrong companions

You were warm and gentle”

Her voice sounded familiar and the song wasn’t the big, show-stopper it usually was. It was more somber. Personal. Kind of like she was speaking from experience. Her face, framed by curls of black hair, tilted to the ground and she closed her eyes at the high notes. She took a small breath before singing the next lyric and Alana was blown away. Her voice gave her goosebumps and little chills moved from her face to her spine. They moved closer from behind the curtain and continued to listen.

“Wishing you were somehow here again

Knowing we must say goodbye

Try to forgive, teach me to live

Give me the strength to try”

A small tear ran down the girl’s cheek and she lowered her voice to a smaller one. Her playing slowed down and for a moment, she looked unreal. Glowing underneath the floodlights.

“No more memories, no more silent tears

No more gazing across the wasted years

Help me say goodbye

Help me say goodbye”

Alana could see the bracelets hanging from the girl's wrist. They, and her voice seemed really familiar. What shocked her the most was the ring she had on her left hand, a small, oval ring with an amethyst heart. It looked exactly like something she’d seen before. She watched the girl take a breath and look down at her phone on the piano. She stood up and walked towards the edge of the stage. She sat and heaved a sigh as she lay down. Alana knew she had to have seen this girl somewhere before. She walked out from behind the curtain and stood behind her.

The girl turned around, startled at the sudden movement, and once their eyes met, Alana felt a rush of shock. Almost as if she were falling in love, she saw…her. Big brown eyes squinted and soon recognized the figure who’d been listening from the shadows. Her face lit up and Alana could see the pink in her cheeks.

She couldn’t believe it. The voice of an angel belonged to only one person and that person was here. Right here! In front of her. It seemed as if all the years had melted away and they were back at seventeen. The girl had the same look she had when they first fell in love. And even though Alana didn’t believe in fate, boy were they glad to have stumbled into this theater.

“Christine…?”

“Hey Allie…”

#Christine/Alana #Christine Canigula/Alana Beck #Christine Canigula #Alana Beck #POTO references #my writing #fanfiction #Be More Chill #dear evan hansen #in the heights #Nina Rosario #college au #Alana goes to columbia bc why not?#Meet-cute I guess?#not really though #ok that's enough stop

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