Hearts Parade of a Lyrical Life

Failing Upwards at the First Hurdle

Ryan barely spoke to me the rest of the day, it was only one class but he was back to covering up his notes again. I really fumbled that one, I didn't manage to get back at him, nor did I get his precious notes. I'll have to find another way to get back on his good side. For his notes though... no other reason.

Back at the school gates, I hug Grace goodbye and wave to Ryan, who pretends to not notice. I walk back to my dorm and get jumpscared from behind.

"Y/N!" A pair of hands exclaim, grabbing my shoulders. I jump at the sudden approach and notice it's Spencer.

"Jesus Spencer you scared the shit out of me!" I complain, then start to smile as I process how harmless it was.

"Sorry Y/N, I'm just excited we're both in the band now is all!" Spencer is very clearly thrilled.

"So excited you followed me home?" I say, now standing outside my dorm's front door.

"No." He gets out a lanyard of keys with way too many keychains and stumbles to open the door. "Floor 2. That's me. You?"

"Floor 4." I answer, now with less suspicion. What a coincidence we stayed in the same dorm building. We get in the lift and Spencer hands me his phone.

"Put your number in there, we're bandmates now after all." I nod and do as he asks, thinking that we won't be bandmates for long, but relieved I at least got a friend out of the deal. "My room is number 16 if you ever need anything." He remarks and then leaves the lift, walking off to his room. I start to hear shouting and realise we are getting to my floor.

"AGAIN JARED? YOU LEFT YOUR DISHES ALL OVER THE FLAT AGAIN?" Amanda's voice echoes down the hall.

'Jared is a hot mess', I think to myself before going to hide in my room. Amanda unfortunately sees me and runs over to grab my arm.

"Y/N! She smiles, "We were just talking about setting up a chore sheet to assign each person on our floor a task, we don't have anyone on for dishes yet sooo..." Fuck. No. Jared always piles on his dishes like it's Tetris, except at least then the lines get cleared away. I wince in response and Amanda tilts her head giving me a puppy dog look.

"What other chores are there?" I hope there's a better option.

"Bathroom duty." She looks down at the list and back up at me. No such luck.

"Put me down for dishes." I do not want to see what the bathrooms look like after a Friday night. Amanda happily writes my name down on a piece of paper and I slunk into my room, shutting the door behind me and taking a breath. My phone buzzes with a text.

Spencer: "Hey Y/N it's Spencer, just messaging so you've got my number :)"

I send a thumbs-up emoji, uninterested in starting a conversation and sit at my desk to do some reading. Another message pops up, this time from Ryan.

Ryan: "Are you actually planning on joining the band?"

Y/N: "Don't worry, I'll quit at our first practice, he was wrong to pick me, probs just wanted to spite you for laughing."

Ryan: "Why did you come if you didn't want to join?"

Y/N: "Honestly, I was just there to get you back for the hat thing. It backfired, majorly."

Ryan: "I'm relieved it did."

I sighed, I felt guilty about trying to get Ryan back, it was just a stupid hat and he wore it too. I closed my phone and resumed my work before going to bed.

————

Friday, September 8th

Thursday had gone by without much issue, Ryan seemed normal, as normal as Ryan gets, and Spencer sat with us that lunch. Other than that, same old, same old. I'm relieved that Ryan doesn't seem mad at me, and he's relieved that I'm quitting the band today at practice, so it all works out. I've never played the keyboard before anyway.