Everything in Between

Chapter 10

I walked down the street with Chester, hoping to run into Phoenix and the others. I felt really bad for Chester, and it felt as if I should comfort him.

"Do you have any friends Chester?"

He shook his head, looking a little ashamed."No, never made any."

"Well you're about to make some."

I saw Phoenix and the guys on the other side of the street. Joe sees us, "Hey Mike!"

Chester and I cross the road towards them. "Is this Chester?" Joe asks, looking a little amused.

"Yes, it is."

"Oh it is the Chester you-" Joe's voice was suddenly muffled by Rob's hand.

Rob glared at him,"You lick my hand and I swear to god you will never have children."

Chester giggled and I swear it was the cutest thing ever. He coughed,  the looked away from me.

"So Joe can we go to your house?" I ask. Rob uncovers Joe's mouth giving him a warning glare.

"Sure."

We all head to Joe's house and go into his basement.

"Welcome to...."Joe pauses for a bit, "My basement!" I rolled my eyes and laughed.

"You're a DJ?" Chester looks at Joe's turntables.

"Yeah, I go to some places to DJ, but I'm in a band with these guys," Joe motions at us.

"That's cool."

"Okay guys, down to business. We came here to have a good time and discuss business." I say standing in the middle of the room.

"Why is Chester here then. Isn't this band business?" Phoenix questions.

"I thought it'd be nice that we could be his friends since he's new and still needs to get to know us all."

"So Mike, any one we could ask?" Phoenix yells over the awkward silence that suddenly filled the room.

"Um, well, not really, but we could always try that guy Jason."

"Nah, he's into like country." Brad groaned.

"I could try..." Chester says quietly. We all stared at him. "I mean, I do sing sometimes, people have said I'm good at it."

"Yeah Chaz, we'll let you give it a go!" I said patting him on the back. He smiles at the new nickname.

Chester

I'm insane. I just said that out of nowhere.

What the fuck was I thinking? I'm shy as it is. I'll probably die from embarrassment singing in front of these guys.

"Alright Chaz, here's some lyrics that we wrote a while back, but it's kind of too high for me to sing."

Mike handed me a paper with some words scribbled onto it."Okay, do you guys want to play it or run the track?"

"Pffshhh, we want to play of course!" one of them said grabbing a bass.

"Alright, let me go get the microphones."

I read over the paper again and took a deep breath, hoping that would help me settle down.

"So here's how this is gonna work," Mike said handing me a microphone.

"Somewhere in between each line you sing, I'm gonna be singing those parts in brackets." He pointed at the lines. Then he hummed the vocals.

"Got it?"

"Yeah."

They started playing and I took a deep breath,

"Nothing, thrown down," I sing. I don't even look up at the others to see their reaction so far. I just stared at the lyric sheet.

"It's all the same, just pass me the blame," Mike echoes.

"Trampled by your heel."

"Play the game and win a tear stain."

This was so weird. This was a whole new combination of music. Almost like that Anthrax and Public Enemy collab.

"Eaten by my own," I held the last word out.

"Pass the blame cause you'll feel it if you don't."

"Version of the real." I did it so effortlessly. I loved singing like this. It had taken me a while to get it right, 

We repeated it and then stopped. Everyone looked amazed.

"Welcome to Hybrid Theory Chester," Mike said.

Then they all started whooping and clapping.

"We totally forgot to introduce ourselves, I'm Brad, and of course as you see, I play guitar."

"I'm Rob, I play drums."

"You know me Chester, you're in my art class and my math class. And I'm the mothafucking DJ!"

"And I'm Dave, but just call me Phoenix, if you want."

"Why Phoenix?" I asked, really wanting to know."Look at this."

He turned around and lifted his shirt to reveal to phoenixes on each shoulder blade. "Cool huh?"

"Yeah."

"And then you know me, Mike."

I suddenly remembered again that he was the kid from the park in Phoenix.

"Y-yeah, I know."

"So who wants ice cream?" Joe asked already going up the stairs.

"Fuck yea, let's go!" Brad laughed and everyone followed. Mike and I kinda walked slowly, staying behind a little.

"So you're from Phoenix?"

"Yeah, Dave's my mom."

We laughed and then he said, "I'm joking. But yeah, I kinda actually ran away."

So that's why the boy at his house said he wasn't there. He actually had ran away and had come to L.A.

"Oh, my mom just gained custody of me. She thought my dad couldn't take care if me."

"Your parents are divorced?"

"Yeah," I sighed.

"Chaz..." Mike said, looking a little sorry.

"It's okay, really."

We walked into the kitchen where all the guys were serving themselves ice cream.

"Hey, Chester, I really like your flames." Rob said motioning at my arms. I traced the flames uncomfortably.

"Thanks."

"Why'd you get them?" Brad asked while licking his ice cream. I decided to tell them only a little bit of the truth.

"My birthday is March 20, the cusp of Aries, a fire sign, so they symbolize both sides of my personality: fire and water. Plus they go along with the koi on my arms."

"Which one was your first one?"

"This one," I say pointing at my left shoulder, "My dad was soo pissed when I got it." I laugh. The others laugh too.

"When did you get the lip ring?" Phoenix asks. Wow, they actually want to know shit about me.

"Like maybe five months ago," I said touching it.

"Wow, man you're awesome," Phoenix laughs.

"Now answer this, why a phoenix?" I ask smirking.

"Why not?"

I laugh. I actually have friends now. Friends that want to know me. Maybe living here isn't so bad.