Social Norms (Synacky)

Chapter Six

“Dude, that fucking blows.”

Brian sighed softly as he looked at the guys. He had wanted to just tell Jimmy, but Matt already knew because he was dating Valary, and Wendt was too high to be able to recall any of this later. Zacky hadn’t shown up to practice today, but Brian had nothing better to do so he just stuck around.

“Yeah.” He frowned down at the cement of the garage floor. “She was fucking apologizing and saying it wasn’t what it looked like. Well, if it wasn’t what I saw, then what the hell could it possibly be?”

“’Chelle’s just a slut, Bri.” Jimmy slung an arm around his shoulder. “I mean, I wouldn’t have said that yesterday or the day before, but anyone that cheats is a lying slut.”

“Thank god Val’s not like that.” Matt breathed.

“She tried to tell me. I should’ve listened to her. Val’s a good person. Unlike her sister, as I’m finding out.”

“I’m here.” Zacky made his presence known quietly as he approached the guys. “I’m sorry I’m late, I was almost here, then I remembered I was going to bring these, so I had to turn around and get them.” His guitar case was slung over his back and his arms were filled with guitar magazines. “They’re tabs and stuff.”

“Alright, well I think we should go over a few more band names just to be sure Lips of Deceit is the one we’re sticking with.” Jimmy said, “I’ve thought of a few, have you guys?”

Matt and Zacky nodded, and Wendt gave Brian a hug.

“Let’s hear yours, Zacky.” Matt urged, and Zacky set down the magazines, pulling a piece of paper from his back pocket.

“Um, okay I came up with Human Puppet, Pulse, Born Victims, and Hellbound.” He read off the page. “I couldn’t think of too many, my mind’s still caught up on Lips of Deceit.”

“What’d you come up with, Matt?”

“Vagabond, Avenged Sevenfold, Soul’s Escape, God’s Wrath, Slaying Demons.” Matt rattled off, then to Jimmy. “Tell us yours, then we’ll talk about them.”

“I just had Confetti Massacre and Pinkly Smooth.” He said, “I like them, but I think they’d fit for a different genre of music…”

“I like Avenged Sevenfold.” Zacky piped up. “Where’d you come up with that?”

“My mom’s bible.” Matt replied, “Most of these ideas came from there.”

“I think it’s genius.” He said, “Cause look.” He took Matt’s paper and hunted around for a sharpie, before scrawling “A7X” on the back. “We could abbreviate ourselves with this. Avenged sevenfold. Avenged seven times. See?”

“You guys are magnificent!” Jimmy shouted, crashing into the pair and hugging them tight. “I fucking love it!”

“I think it sounds good, too.” Brian added. He knew it wasn’t his place to share his opinion, but he might as well put it out there.

“Wendt?” they all turned to the bassist, who just smiled back at them and laughed. “Yeah, it’s all cool, dudes. It’s all really cool.”

“It’s settled then. I think it sounds badass. We’re keeping it.” Jimmy took Zacky’s sharpie and wrote the name across Matt’s page.

From there the band name hype died down, and Brian and Zacky settled down in the back to work on basic licks. “Speed isn’t everything to having the perfect lick,” he told the younger boy as his fingers worked over a few frets. “If you play a lick too fast, it’ll lose its… zest, I guess you could call it. Licks are to add flavor to a song. You need to play the notes quickly, but not too fast to be able to hear each individual sound.”

Zacky drank all this in, eyes trained on Brian’s fingers as the flitted over the strings. He began to work on perfecting his own technique, and Brian watched him. Suddenly, he blurted out, “Why are you gay?”

Zacky’s hands stilled abruptly, and he looked up at Brian, perplexed. “Why are you straight?” he asked.

Brian bit his lip as he tried to come up with some sort of response. “I don’t know… I guess I just could never even consider myself, like, fucking a guy and wearing dresses and stuff…”

“Well, I could never even consider myself fucking a girl.” Zacky replied. “And I don’t wish I was a girl, there’s a difference. I don’t wear dresses, I just think guys are attractive and girls are whiny bitches with weird lumps on their chests.”

Brian frowned at Zacky, “Like, you’ve never thought a girl was hot?”

“Never.” Zacky shook his head and returned his focus down at the tabs in the magazine before him.

Brian was silent for a while, watching Zacky run over the lick again and again trying to get it right. “Have you ever fucked a guy?”

A deep red blush blossomed along Zacky’s cheeks and he said, “Be quiet, that’s enough.”

“Or like, are you the one who takes? Do you like that?”

“Brian…” Zacky hissed, “Shut up. Why do you even wanna know this? I don’t ask you if you fuck your girlfriend.”

Girlfriend. Right.

“I don’t have a girlfriend.” He replied, “And you’re right, fag, I don’t know why I was even asking. Just learn the fucking licks.” He stood and put his guitar away. “I don’t know why I was expecting to hear something that made sense from a cock sucking queer.” Brian glanced at Zacky out of the corner of his eye to see the reaction he had drawn from the younger boy. Zacky had bit his lip and tears filled his eyes as he stared at the magazine before him. A tear dropped and splattered on the page. “Oh, go ahead and cry. It’s what I fucking expected. Know them by tomorrow.”

Zacky didn’t react, didn’t move, didn’t speak. Eventually, he managed a hoarse, “Alright.”

Brian brushed past the rest of the guys and made his way to his car. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” He offered to Jimmy, but then he slipped into his car and headed home.