Monday, August 28, 2023
8:21 PM
Danforth Street
Well, looks like he'd end up walking back alone. No big deal. Sure, Damian really has really hated being alone with his thoughts recently, but at least he could negate that with music, and even if his phone or headphones end up dead, he'd take outdoor street ambiance over mechanical whirring any day of the week. And so, with his hours punched in, and his bag slung onto his back, he made his way out of the door and onto the street, choosing to select Claire's "Sunset Stroll" playlist as his soundtrack for the quest at hand.
The first song shuffled in was again&again's "daydreams". The band was a personal favourite of Damian's ever since he found them back in 2021. He knew Claire discovered them because of planetgirl, an artist she's listened to for awhile and a member of the group.
Damian always ends up losing himself within the melodies and lyrics of his (or in this case, Claire's) playlists on his trips back, whether that be on a walk back, or in the passenger seat of his Dad's car. In some instances, he can start zoning out as soon as the first melody echoes out.
Some days, I think a need a little reset, just a bit of time, and I'll find you...
"What if you're gone when I get back? Think my anxiety is asking for a friend," Damian sang along.
Well some days, I wake up feeling better...
"It's like there's something really different 'bout the weather,"
Or not I'll take your hand and swim...
"Take your hand and-" Damian uttered, his pace picking up as the chorus began.
Damian always had a thing for collaborative artist groups, or just bands in general. Artists like One Direction, or 5 Seconds of Summer were his entry point, and nowadays, bands like Sneaker Kids, as well as again&again were what occupied his playlists. What he loved most about these kinds of artists was hearing multiple voices on one song, all contributing to it in their own unique way. He especially enjoyed imagining all those voices being his and his friends voices. He even brought the idea up to his old high school friend group-
Oh.
The Old Friend Group.
He just had to think of them.
See, Damian's old friend group was always a touchy subject for him to think of. They used to be a tight knit group of seven back in high school, always hanging out with each other when they had the time. Sure, they all came from different worlds, but the sheer contrast between each other was what kept them together.
At least until Grade 11.
A couple months into the year, the group's conversations began to be cut short, in time, so were their hangouts. Maybe it could be attributed to Maya joining student council, or Jax taking sports more seriously, or Max joining that band that had posters plastered in every hallway. It was all evident that the friend group was drifting apart, and found new people. Come second semester, even their group chat experienced almost total radio silence. No text, no image, not even a single shared post. Damian always thought to himself why they had to end in that way, perhaps it was a collective loss of interest in each other? Or maybe it was-
"No. I can't dwell on that forever. The others have probably moved on, I need to as well." Damian uttered in a hushed tone, his thought on the matter so strong it became vocal.
He quickly pulled out his phone and skipped to the next song in the playlist. He must've thought that daydreams has been hitting a little too close to home at the moment.
YOU ARE READING
Gap Year
Teen Fiction"Why did we ever stop talking?" Sometimes, College Application doesn't go your way. Maybe your dream school didn't accept you, or the program you were applying to was full of applicants. That is now the case for Damian Walker and his friend group, o...
