I Hope It Gives You Hell ~ Rodrick Heffley x reader

I Can't Fuck This up

"Truth be told I'm lying. When you see my face hope it gives you hell, hope it gives you hell."

Veronicas POV :
We headed back to the green room and I sat nervously picking at my ripped tights. All the guys look so calm, of course they do. Because I'm the new girl and I've never done this before. At least I won Rodrick over again. Maybe, I mean maybe he was just showing off. God it's hot back here.

"Uhm I'm gonna go get some air." I say, rushing past Drew and Stanley. I ran through the venue and slammed the front door open and fell to my knees. I shut the door and pulled myself upright onto a bench. Dammit, not everything has to send me into a panic spiral. Deep breaths. This is supposed to be fun. You know the songs, you know how to play. God why can't I just calm down. I kicked the gravel below my feet and scared a couple birds. Whoops. My phone buzzes from my back pocket and I dig it out. It's a text from Drew.

"U good? We're on soon we gotta run thru the songs"

"Ya I js needed sum air. This is a lotta pressure." I texted back. I leaned my head back against the window with a thud. I take a couple deep breaths and get up to go back in.

"Hey the guys sent me to check on you. You good?" Rodrick. He came to check on me. Drew texted too, don't get ahead of yourself Veronica.
"
You freaked m-, us, out." He said, cutting himself off. Whatever, Heffley I'm not an idiot. Delusional, yes. But not an idiot.

"Oh uhm yes I'm cool, it's cool, just nerves I guess." I say. The silence is awkward, but manageable.

"I hate to interrupt your little panic at the disco, but we have to go on like, now." He says, giggling at his own joke. I laugh a little too. I'm going soft, ew. We return to the green room and run through the setlist order one last time.

Rodricks POV :

"Alright, you guys. We gotta hit the stage, let's go." Stanley says, rushing out of the green room. We all followed suit, getting in our places and double checking the tuning on our respective instruments. I'm praying Veronica doesn't fuck this up for us. Sure I like her and all, but I have a very set view of the world. Rock n roll first, everyone and everything second. Simple yk? I just need to focus on playing. Not Veronica, not how good the lighting made her look, not how much it's gonna suck if she doesn't like me back, just rock.

3rd person POV :
The lights bathed the band in fluorescents, reds and purples shining on the guitars. Perfectly hitting their faces so they couldn't see the audience, just each other. That's how it's felt the past couple weeks, just each other. Veronica hated to admit it but she really did love these weirdos. They barely heard the bands name announced through all their excitement and anticipation. The song kicked up and they were all playing well. The sticky sweaty atmosphere of the run down bar the perfect backdrop for their act. The audience of teenagers and drinks was relatively active, dancing a little bit and cheering every so often. Rodrick was so into it, this is all he ever wanted. This. Every night with these people. The people he cared most about.

Stanley wrapped up the second to last song, and everyone clapped, (everyone is a bit generous considering it was about 23 people) that's when Stanley started introducing the last song and things weren't as smooth.

Veronica POV :
"This next one is dedicated to THE SHIT FACES AT PLAINVIEW HIGH!!" Stanley shouted into the crowd. Which normally I wouldn't think twice about, but when we were rehearsing he had shouted something different. Maybe that's just how they do it though. But then he started singing something we hadn't rehearsed.

"Yeah!" He shouts. Drew picked up on it, and so did Rodrick but I was totally in the dark. Not only was I already panicking, now I'm standing here clueless and silent. There gonna have my head for this. Especially Rodrick. How could they not tell me they go off script.

"You wake up late for school, and you don't wanna go!" Stanley sang loudly into the crowd. Oh, it's the beastie boys. you've heard the song Veronica just improvise.

Rodricks POV :
Stanley you bitch. He does this every time, normally it's fine but this isn't a normal show. It's bigger than any of our other shows and we've got Veronica. It's not like it's our song though, it's pretty popular. God I hope she knows what she's doing. My eyes are completely fixed on her at this point. She's improving well, we just gotta get through this song. That's when I noticed her slow down and eventually freeze up. She was just staring at the lights. Shit.

Veronicas POV :
God damnit. I'm panicking again. I have two options, continue to humiliate myself, or just run off stage. I chose the ladder, and my guitar made a loud whiny noise as it was unplugged from the amp. I don't even think anyone noticed over Stanleys loud ass singing. Anyone besides Rodrick, his eyes met mine while I was running backstage.

I need to leave before they finish up. I can hear the song coming to an end as I shove my guitar in it's case and sling it over my shoulder. I grab the rest of my things and I can hear Stanley thank the audience. I could hear Rodrick slam his sticks down and start coming back to the green room. By then I was halfway out of the bar, squeezing through the crowd. No one noticed me slip out the door and look around before realizing, I had no ride.

Of fucking course.

So I called my mom, she was mad and concerned but came to get me anyways. I hopped on the car and slammed the door. While we were driving away, I saw Rodrick run out and look for me, he looked upset. He's gonna kill me and I think I just made it worse.

A/n : this was written by me 😋 srry we've been gone but it's been hectic ig, also the song is "fight for your right" by the beastie boys if u couldn't tell 🗣️‼️