Thirty Five Days

2: Band Practice

Matt and Chris had always talked about being in a band together since Matt sang and played guitar and Chris played bass but they never thought to ask me if I wanted to join, even though they new full well that I played guitar as well. Instead, I trailed along after them to their band practices, sometimes making a point of bringing my guitar,but they never seemed to notice I actually existed if I wasn't congratulating whatever new song Matt had written. After a lot of forced conversations with a teacher at school, making me 'open up'about my feelings and come up with a plan to make Matt and Chris actually notice me, I decided to try to make today different.

"Hey, guys, what did you think of Mikey? I thought he seemed alright actually – maybe a bit quiet, but then maybe he was just shy because it was his first day. It must have been weird for him to start a new school so late, I mean, it's weird starting a new school at any point but still..."

"Yeah, I guess, I don't think he's actually gonna have much in common with us though," Matt had clearly already decided to ignore Mikey.

"I agree with Matt – Mikey's probably too fucking quiet to have even heard of the stuff we like."

"That's not fair, you literally didn't even talk to him, just stared like he was some sort of fucking freak show or something," I wasn't entirely sure why I was sticking up for the guy when I had only just met him but I knew how it felt to change schools and how it felt to be left on the very outskirts of a group of people so I was gonna do my best to make sure Mikey fucking Way wasn't left out of my friendship.

***

By the time we arrived at Dom's house (the drummer and technically creator of ''Matt's'' band) Matt and Chris had already forgotten I was even there, never mind that I had actually said anything. I could see that they weren't going to include me in their conversation as they set up their instruments in Dom's garage so I got my phone out,deciding to check Twitter or something, just so I was actually doing something. There was an unread message sitting there when I finally got my stupid phone to co-operate long enough for me to put my password in. It was from an unknown number, making me not want to open but curiosity got the better of me and I tapped the screen.

Hi Frank, I hope this is actually you. I probably wont text you that much but I thought it would be rude to just ignore the fact that you gave me your number so here you go – now you have mine. Thanks for talking to me today, from Mikey. (the new kid, just in case you forgot who I was :-p)

I was glad he had texted me now because I had already completely forgotten about giving him my number so it would have been really bad if he'd waited much longer.

Cool, thanks Mikey – glad I could help you out today. Maybe we could hang out tomorrow as well? Dont feel like you have to, just thought id offer :)

"Who're you texting?"

I glanced up as Dom loomed over me, almost double my height since I was sitting on an amp.

"Oh, just the new kid who was assigned to us at school today. I gave him my number..." I trailed off, realising that he wasn't listening anymore, if in fact he had really been listening to start off with. Knowing me, it was possible that he had simply asked the question without actually wanting the response. People often spoke tome because they felt they had to, rather than because they wanted to.

Yeah okay, thanks frank. M

This message seemed more relaxed than the previous one and made me feel more at ease, as if I had actually done a good thing by texting Mikey.

***

The Rocket Baby Dolls were practicing for the school Battle of the Bands in a few weeks rather than studying for the final exams that started the day after. Matt claimed that since the exam was music,Battle of the Bands was good revision by neither my mum nor I was convinced by this and so, after several pointedly ignored texts from my mum and one missed (read ignored) call I decided to leave Matt, Chris and Dom in the garage and walk home to homework, housework and responsibility.

I may have been ignored by the guys but at least I wasn't the centre of rather negative attention.

***

"Frank, I told you not stay out so late! School finished hours ago,where were you? I don't believe you managed to stay at band practice that long, you hate being left out by them."

"Sorry Mum. I was at Dom's the whole time actually and they're all still there – it's Battle of the Bands soon and they want to practice as long as possible. Anyway, they don't ignore me when they want applause and I was texting Mikey anyway."

"Mikey? Who on earth is Mikey? I've never heard you mention him before. He's not another guitar player is he?"

Despite the fact that I knew she was just worried about me, I did find my mother's persistent questioning rather fucking annoying.

"Mikey's the new kid who got assigned to us at school. And he might play guitar, I've no idea. He wasn't that chatty."

"New kid? Seems a bit strange to start a new school this close to the end of the year, especially seeing as you'll be finished school entirely in a few weeks."

"Yeah, I know. And before you ask, he didn't say why he moved. Is there anything to eat?" I decided to change the topic before she could ask even more frustrating questions I didn't know the answer to.

"Well there was pizza an hour ago when you were supposed to be here but since you forgot to turn up you'll just have to look around for something else."

"Don't eat all the crisps!" She called after me as I walked into the kitchen to scavenge anything that could be easily transported upstairs to my attic bedroom.

***

My room was cold when I opened the door and saw, to my horror, that my stupid mother had been in and cleaned it a bit, opening the curtains, blackout blinds and window in the process. I shivered as I made my way across to close everything, almost tripping on my headphones which had started to fall out my pocket. As I finally pulled the curtains together again following a ridiculous battle with the blinds I felt my phone buzz in my pocket and pulled it out to see another text from Mikey.

Mum says I have to invite all my new friends round so do you want to come to mine on maybe Saturday, or after school one day I you're busy at the weekend. Don't worry if you can't come or whatever she just said I had to ask. M

I literally couldn't remember the last time I had been invited to someone's house for any reason(tagging along to Matt's band practise didn't really count, I mean we were beside the house not in it) and so I was a bit nervous to be invited but I really didn't want to miss this opportunity to prove to everyone that I could make and keep friends so I replied to Mikey's text without checking my non-existent social calendar.

Yeah, that would be great, thanks Mikey! After school is good for me so how about Friday?

Maybe that seemed a bit eager, I mean apart from the exclamation mark I had replied within a minute of receiving the text, probably making it seem like I was just sitting on my phone waiting for someone to text me when really I was just planning on sitting on my phone waiting for someone to text me.

Friday is fine. Mum says she'll drop you back at yours after so your mum doesn't need to worry about that either. See you tomorrow. M

It seemed he was just sitting with his phone as well as his reply came through almost immediately after mine sent.

Thats great, thanks again Mikey. See ya tomorrow.

 I felt better than I had done in a long time now that I knew I had something to actually look forward to, and for the first time in far too long, I fell asleep without nightmarish images dancing behind my eyes.

AN: So, I did get the update done today - hurray for free periods I guess! Hope you enjoy it. Don't forget to comment/vote for my eternal love :)
PS: Thanks to jadenbrende667 for pointing out the spelling error!