Blackmailed Into The Band

The Authority

" He was serious when he said he was done," Phillip sighed.

It's been three days since our last meeting and Aidan was serious about quitting. Drea's Last Words, and all the songs we've put out meant nothing to him.

" Maybe we need a new vocalist," Carter said.

" No... How about we keep putting out covers and see what happens at school?" Josh asked.

" And Aidan?"

I thought about it. " Maybe I'll do the screaming and stuff for now, we can say Aidan requested a vacation or something. Once he sees that our videos are still doing fine and the school isn't serious about expelling us, he'll come back."

" How do you know?" Phillip asked, tilting his head to the side like a puppy.

" Because Aidan cares for the band as much as the rest of us do. You guys just have to look at things from his perspective, I guess."

" I'm in," Josh said.

Carter nodded.

" So let's record our next cover and put it out tomorrow," I said. " Phillip, announce that Aidan is taking a break from the band. I guess you should tweet it out. I also think it's Josh's turn to pick out our cover?"

" I have a song in mind. It's on the heavier side of things but I know you can do it," He said, scrolling through his phone.

He got up and grabbed his notebook that we dedicated to the band where he wrote every song we've covered.

" What are we covering?" Carter asked impatiently.

" One Day Women Will All Become Monsters by Chiodos," Josh said, looking at me for permission.

I felt like he was directing it towards me, which angered me a little.

" That's an amazing song," I said a little harshly.

Phillip frowned. " My um.. Hand isn't good for drumming yet," He said, waving his bandaged hand.

" Shit. Didn't think of that," I said.

" Maybe we should put the cover off for another few days. I should be good by then," He promised.

We agreed and disbanded.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Three days had passed and the school lost interest in us.

We met at Josh's place to record in his garage and Phillip had to practice the cover on his drums as I warmed up and Josh fixed the camera.

" You sure you can do it?" I asked Phillip. He seemed to be having a hard time grabbing the drumstick with his wounded hand.

" Yeah. Just..." He sighed. " I can't do it."

" We don't really need a singer for this song, Josh, drum," Carter ordered.

" I can't play the drums," Josh said, eyes widening as we looked at him.

I felt guilty, remembering that night at the hospital, where Aidan made me take up the guitar.

" I don't care, how hard can hitting two sticks be?" Carter asked, shoving Josh towards the drums.

He awkwardly took a seat on the stool and held the drumsticks. Phillip told him what to do as I went back I warming up. Once we were ready to record, Phillip made announcements.

" As some of you know from our Twitter account, Aidan decided to take a little break and will be back soon. Don't fret. In other news, I hurt my hand the other day so Josh is drumming today. Everything should be back to normal, without Aidan of course, by next week. Thanks for watching," He smiled before letting us play.

It wasn't that bad. I hit all the notes perfectly, or I thought I did, and occasionally I'd listen to Josh's awkward drumming. Unlike Phillip who could head bang and drum effortlessly, Josh had to concentrate a lot more.

Once our 5 minutes of punk-rock ended, we took the camera upstairs to edit and upload.

An hour later, as we refreshed YouTube, we saw that our cover had almost 2000 views. The comments were pretty encouraging and our subscribers were cool with the drumming.

As we replied to comments, Josh's phone vibrated.

" Shit. We're in trouble now," He laughed, showing us his phone.

It was an email from the school, telling us to see them in the office first thing tomorrow morning.

I expected a frowny face at the end.