Next to Each Other

Missing you/ You're in a band?

(Rei's POV btw)

I got home from Ethan's house, exhausted, had dinner with my family, and immediately crashed onto my bed. It was only 7 PM, but I honestly didn't care. It was school tomorrow, and I was tired as fuck. I just couldn't get to sleep though. It felt too cold, I didn't know why- that fucking bitch. I spent one night in a bed with him, and suddenly I couldn't sleep without him. Bullshit. I spent the night twisting and turning, it had been a long time since my family had gone to sleep when I decided that maybe having a shower would help to warm up my body and stuff. I got out of my bed and tiptoed along the corridor until I got to the bathroom, opening and shutting the door quickly and silently, turning on the heat lights. I got undressed and turned the water on, waiting for it to warm up. After it had, I got in and started to wash my hair and body. It was relaxing. After I was done, I grabbed a towel and dried myself off, putting my pyjamas on and heading back to bed. I was still unusually cold without Ethan's presence. So, I decided that I simply wouldn't be sleeping tonight. I grabbed my phone to play some music and noticed that I had a few notifications from Eva and Kallum. Eva was asking if I had fun at the party, and she had seen me, and Ethan walk upstairs towards Nick's bedroom. I told her she must be having false memories due to being drunk and that I barely saw Ethan at the party. She replied with an ok and a rolling eyes emoji. I then opened Kallum's messages to see that he had sent a long paragraph about how Ethan's a bad guy. I skimmed over his points, some of which were accurate, like the fact that he's an asshole, some far from the truth like him 'using me' even though there is nothing for him to use, he's the rich hot one out of the two of us. I told him that although some of his points were valid, they were no reason to not trust Ethan and that he was a nice guy. He said, 'Agree to disagree' and then wished me goodnight, I wished him the same before connecting my Air Pods and playing The Uptowners through them, finally stopping feeling restless and getting some good fucking sleep. 

The next morning, I got up and got dressed with my playlist still playing through my Air pods. Got my brother up and made sure he had breakfast before packing my school bag and heading out the door. I got to the bus stop about 10 minutes early, pulled my phone out, and saw a message from Nick, 'So, did you and Ethan sleep together in my bed two nights ago?' How the fuck did everyone know about this? 'God, forbid I do something fun, and it was just by chance because I was extremely drunk.' He said 'ok' and that was the newest gossip at my old school. I got on the bus and got to school, dawdling on my walk to class due to being a bit early for the start of actual school, but too late to look for Kallum or Ethan. I got to my class as the bell rang and other students started showing up. The teacher then opened the door, and we sat in our assigned seats. I sat down and noticed that Ethan was running late... as normal. He told me that being late to school was a 'power move' because it showed the teachers that he was smart even without ever getting to school on time. I honestly hated how he was always late because it meant that we had less time to talk in class. Not that I would ever tell him that though. He arrived earlier than usual, and we started talking, he asked how my night last night was, I told him that I couldn't sleep because I felt weirdly cold, and that I only got peaceful sleep after listening to The Uptowners. His face got quite red after that, so I asked him what was wrong, but he claimed it was nothing. I chose to ignore it. He said that he wanted to meet up with me after school I agreed with a smile. I loved hanging out with him after school because it meant that I could show everyone that we got along well.

School went by quickly, probably because I wasn't paying much attention to what the teachers were saying. I was too busy wondering what Ethan wanted to tell me. Finally, the bell to end school rang, and I followed Ethan to the bus stop, expecting to catch the bus back to Ethan's, but instead, we caught a different one. Once we sat down, I asked him where we were going,

"My guitar practice, I wanted to show you something." He replied, I wondered what the fuck could be so interesting about some guitar lessons, but I trusted him enough that he wanted me to see something important. So, I nodded at his response and pulled out my phone to scroll on Pinterest, occasionally showing Ethan memes or cool fanart and slowly leaning into him, I tried to do it slowly so that he didn't notice, but he did, and he proceeded to put his arm around my shoulder and pull me closer. When we got our stop, I took note that this wasn't a guitar lessons place, it was a studio though. Was he in a band? That would be so cool, able to hear his voice sing, and watch his hands strum the guitar- stop thinking about that. He grabbed my wrist and pulled me inside, I followed, looking at all the art along the walls, there was all this amazing art that seemed to be straight from the artist themselves. This place was amazing. My guide suddenly stopped and opened a door, pulling me inside. He flicked the light on to reveal a music studio. Oh my god, he really is in a band. This is amazing!

"Now we just wait for the other guys to show up." He said, and took a seat in a plastic chair, I sat on the floor, taking my phone out and continuing to scroll. After about 10 minutes, Nick and Jake showed up. They were still in our old school uniforms, while Ethan was still in our current school uniform, and I had the nice guy's jumper on over my uniform, I kept the jumper in my bag in case I got cold. When Nick and Jake saw me, they gave Ethan a look. Then Jake walked over to me while Nick and Ethan were having conversation, probably about the music. Jake started making conversation with me about school and such since I haven't seen him since I left. Ethan and Nick started tuning their guitars and Jake finished setting up his half packed down drum kit. Ethan then set his guitar down and walked over to me.

"We're going to release a new album in about a month, I wanted you to have a look at some of the lyrics." He handed me his phone with notes open, and I skimmed through the lyrics. There were a few romance songs, a few sadder songs and a few fun songs. It was giving huge The Uptowners vibes.

"Hey, are you guys' fans of The Uptowners as well?" I inquired.

"...You didn't tell her?" Nick asked, clearly dumb founded.

"It slipped my mind?" Nick and Jake sighed. "We are The Uptowners, Rei." My brain stopped working. The guy I liked was in my favourite band. What fanfic shit is this? 

"...What? Hang on, what the actual fuck?" This is one of the weirdest afternoons of my fucking life.

"Yeah, and I heard you were a fan? That's fun, what's it like meeting your favourite band?" Jake asked.

"Amazing, I guess. This is a huge surprise, what the fuck?"

"Wait, you're a fan? Who's your favourite? Is it me?" Nick asked, as clueless as ever.

"The singer? Which one of you guys is that?" Ethan went completely red. "Is it you?" I asked, looking at him. He nodded, smiling slightly. Jake laughed, 

"I thought you liked drummers. What a bummer, I wanted to be your favourite." He fake pouted. I laughed because his face looked stupid, then went back to the songs I had in my hand and changed a few words before handing Ethan's phone back to him. I listened to them practice, and they were quite good at it, very synced up for only having just refined the lyrics. I bobbed along to the music, humming the lyrics I remembered. It was overall super fun, and they were all super nice. After they were done practicing, Ethan put on some of their music and grabbed snacks out of his bag, I took some cookies before Jake pulled me up from my seat on the floor and started dancing with me around the room. I was having the time of my life until I felt Ethan's cold stare. It was fixated on us, following us around the room. Jake smirked at him and danced us closer to him. That's when I felt an arm snake around my waist and pull me onto a seat. Jake stayed standing there, smirking at Ethan, who I was now sitting on. He kept his hand on my hip while I took it as it was and readjusted myself to be more comfortable on his lap. Nick just stared at us, in complete disbelief. I didn't really mind being this close to him after we had fallen asleep together. He was super warm, like a heater. I grabbed my phone out and continued to scroll while the band continued to talk about music stuff, I wasn't really paying attention to what they were talking about. I then heard the door open and close and looked up to see that Nick and Jake had left. Ethan asked if I was ready to leave, I said sure and got up, we left through the door, and he locked it behind us. We got on a bus to Ethan's house, and he asked if I wanted to stay for the night, I said sure. So, I went into my house to quickly grab pjs and a uniform for tomorrow. 

When we walked through his front door, we were welcomed by the smell of Nicoles amazing cooking. I went up to Ethan's room and dropped my bag full of my shit on his floor before heading back down to dig into the chicken and potatoes that Nicole had made. It was amazing, as always, and I told her so. She said thank you with a big beaming smile on her face. Then she insisted that she clean up on her own and we could go off and do what we wanted. I said thank you and walked upstairs behind Ethan, and we sat in his room, just talking about random shit. It was fun. At some point, we fell asleep on his bed. 

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Hiiiiii!!! Sorry for not publishing this chapter until now, I fell asleep while writing last night lol. Anyway, hope you enjoyed! I love all of you so much!!!!!!