Static Sound (Muke)

twenty six

// twenty six // michael //

It was good to have Luke home again, back where he belonged. Ashton also seemed much more happy, always laughing and being hisself again.

It'd been a week since he got back, and since it was the summer between year 10 and 11, we had lots of time to hang out and get back to the way we used to work. On a hot Thursday morning, I ran over to Luke's garage around noon so we could all have a rehearsal again. Both him and Ash were already there, setting up everything we needed.

Once Luke saw me, he ran up to me and hugged me, telling me how happy he was that we could do this again.

I hadn't even touched my guitar in over the past month, much less even played it. It felt absolutely great to put the strap and play with pic between my fingers.

"Are we recording?" Luke asks, setting up his microphone.

"Sure, how about Everything I Didn't Say?.." Ashton replies, sitting down on the barstool

"Yeah," Luke and I agree.

"1 2 3 4!" Ash yells, hitting on his drum sticks.

We all started on our instruments, sounding just as good as before. The beat was strong and every little strum of the guitar sounded incredible to my ears. I closed my eyes and just waited for the lyrics to start.

But they didn't.

I opened my eyes again, looking around.

Calum starts off Everything I Didn't Say.

Calum still wasn't with us.

We all stopped, realising what was wrong.

It was all silent.

"Calum's not here.." Ash calls out the obvious.

"We can go get him?" Luke says, feeling embarrassed and biting on his lip.

We all look at each other, giving one another the same guilty look. Luke runs up to the video camera and stops recording everything that's going on. As quick as we can, we set down the instruments and run to the car. Ash grabs his keys and we take off to Cal's house as fast as we can.

---

None of us know what we are going to tell him. I am the one who made him leave in the first place, though I know I'm the only one whose going to be able to convince him to come back to the band.

We hadn't seen him in so long, I don't think he even knows that Luke is back. It was devastating to think of what he might do, he might totally blow us all off and just never come back to us. We needed him in our band, we needed him as our friend. Because quite frankly, he was the first person who ever respected me at school and let me know that I wasn't simply a reject.

Once we pulled up in front of his house, my palms started sweating and I couldn't hold still.

"I'll go," Luke says, opening the door to crawl out of the car.

"No, no," I put my arm in front of him and get out of the vehicle before he can. "I'm the one who caused it, I'll go. But please back me up if I'm over there longer than a few minutes, alright?" I ask, looking around the neighbourhood.

Luke and Ash nod, sending me up the driveway to his door. It takes me a moment, but eventually I work up my nerve to knock.

There's no answer until I knock a second time, and his sister answers. She looks me up and down, then without even greeting me she turns around and shouts into the house; "Calum, one of your weird ass friends are here.."