The Life Of A Franz Ferdinand Reference

14

Alex woke me up when we reached the city.

"Hey Glas... We're here."

"Where's Nick?" I asked quietly, seeing the empty spot in the backseat next to me. I hope Rowan isn't bringing him back to the hospital yet. I need to talk to him. Alex looked completely confused as I stepped out of the car and bolted across the street to Arabelle's apartment. I sprinted through the door and up the spiral staircase. Strawberry was sitting on the ground, furiously playing Mario Kart.

"GLASIE!" She threw the controller on the ground and ran over to me.

"Hey Strawbs."

"You okay?" Strawberry picked up the controller.

"Yeah, I guess. I just need to talk to you and Nick somewhere. Where are Paul and Bob?"

"Waiting in the back room for me to finish the round. I must crush them at Mario Kart."

I didn't ask her about Nick. I knew I shouldn't. That's for Rowan. But I still want to know where he is.

I sat next to Strawberry on the ground as she played Mario Kart.

"You wanna join the tournament?" She asked.

"Yeah, why not."

A few minutes later, I was battling it out with Paul for 1st place on Rainbow Road. It was a true struggle that ended in many drops into oblivion, but who cared, that little cloud guy was always there to bring you back up. That made me think of something. I quickly paused the game.

"Team meeting." I said calmly.

"Why did you pause the game?! I was almost at lap 3!" Paul hissed, obviously very angry at my sudden idea.

"Because we need a team meeting, and we need it now."

"Fine."

Alex walked in suddenly, finding Strawberry making cereal and Bob trying to construct a fort out of various chairs and other objects.

"Just in time for the team meeting!" I chirped, trying to stay as positive as I possibly could.

"Yeah, get started on that."

"Okay! I, Glasgow, almost official messenger, have declared a team meeting! I have decided that I can't choose just one of you guys to be my co-messenger. Alex, you're my wingman. Strawbs, you're my best friend and the smartest person I know. Bob, you're the social factor. Paul... You're good at Rainbow Road. Also, poptarts! But if I chose one of you, I wouldn't be able to do as much. We work as a team. So if I actually make it to official messenger, I'm letting you all be co-messengers. I can't split up a band, and I can't ditch my best friend. Like Alex frantically texted me, no good squad member ditches their squad."

"That won't work." Bob pointed out.

"It will. Ace and Ryan are enforcing rules so much that I bet people would let me bend them a little bit."

"That's great, but what about Alex's plan to--"

"STRAWBERRY! SHUT UP!" I hissed.

"What plan? What's my evil plot this time?" Alex smirked, looking over at Strawberry rather flirtatiously.

"Your plot to kick Nick out of franz ferdinand..." Strawberry said quietly. I could feel the cringe building up.

"That's gone, now that Glasie can get everyone into her messaging clique. And I was only thinking of doing that if he was messenger and couldn't devote time to the band. I really didn't mean it at all... But I guess we're Scottish alt rock for a variety of furries now..." Alex explained and quickly apologized. I knew he would never really mean something like that.

"Thanks for clearing that up. Now we get to the real problem." I smiled, but still, I felt cringey.

"What's the real problem?" Paul asked.

"Your pop tart obsession. Just kidding. Have you ever thought that Nick is in critical condition and might be in the hospital for months?!"

"Forgot about that."

"Why does that affect taking Ace and Ryan out of official messengers?!" Strawberry asked.

"Because we're missing a squad member. Actually, Ace and Ryan were planning to kill him off first before anyone else. I think they knew I would get attached to him..."

"Hmm... Do I ship it?" Bob laughed, doing the awkward eyebrows.

"You don't ship it, because it actually isn't often that I feel romantically attracted to someone. Yes, I'm a heartbreaker. A professional heartbreaker. But I do it for my own ego after some things happened. It's not like I was actually attracted to any of those people. I have to have a connection." I explained kindly, making sure not to really spill too much, "but this is a rare time that I love someone. I love Nick pretty much mostly platonically. Maybe there's a little crush in there waiting to be discovered, who knows?"

Of course Alex and maybe even Strawberry knew this. Maybe Paul would stop making "bunking up" jokes and Bob would stop saying how I blew the bus up.

Arabelle came upstairs suddenly and our team meeting had to be stopped.

"Hey Arabelle." Strawberry shrugged, still making that cereal that she was making before. It was a mix of around 15 brands that Arabelle had stocked up.

"Rowan just took Nick back to the hospital. I wanted to tell you... Did I interrupt something?"

"No, you're good." I sighed, looking over at Alex, who knew I needed to talk to Nick still.

//GLASIE//: hey are you there bro
//GLASIE//: please answer I need to talk to you
//GLASIE//: you're probably blacked out
//GLASIE//: sorry but ily
//GLASIE//: feel better <3

"Hey Glas, do you know how much sugar is supposed to be in a bowl of cereal?" Strawberry asked from across the room.

"I don't know, are you trying to break a world record?"

"Yeah, maybe. Most sugar in a single bowl of cereal!"

"Heh. Go for it." Sometimes I loved it when Strawberry tried to get my mind off things like Nick's current situation.

"I'm gonna go downstairs." I stepped outside of the main upstairs room and towards the spiral staircase. I found something on the coffee table downstairs.

hey Glasgow. i wanted to leave you a note, because I figured if I wasn't blacked out I would at least leave something for you. you were asleep when I woke up. I think Rowan's taking me back soon. but for now, I'm awake. sorry if I'm not there when you wake up. I didn't mean to scare you at all.

~Nick

That's adorable. At least now I know what exactly happened. I'm glad he cares. I slipped the note into my pocket, realizing that a small red stone was holding it down. I put that in my pocket too and went back upstairs.

"Hey, you're back sooner than I would have expected." Alex laughed.

"Mhm. Yep." I said quietly.

"You okay?"

//GLASIE//: I needed to talk to Nick one on one and now...

//ALEX//: you have me, isn't that good enough? you can tell me anything you want. I'll listen.

I looked up and smiled, pretty sure all of the cute things people were saying to me today were making me blush.

"So how exactly are we gonna get Ace and Ryan out of official rankings?" Strawberry asked out of nowhere.

"That's not for now. I think we're doing a little too much. We should go to the big official meeting place or whatever."

"You mean the headquarters?" Arabelle chirped.

"Yeah. Headquarters."

"The headquarters are near the hospital too, so Nick will be nearby. Only problem is that they're 2000 miles away and Rowan doesn't have her jeep here." Arabelle shrugged. That was the smartest thing I've ever heard Arabelle say.

"We'll find a way. We always do." I tried keeping calm, as usual. But deep down inside, we might not achieve this one without Rowan and her transportation powers. Or without Nick.