Social Norms (Synacky)

Chapter Eighteen

Zacky snapped awake, looking up at Brian with wide eyes. “Stay here.” He whispered, crawling out of their tent.

Brian stayed frozen as he heard Zacky confront his parents. He could hear a man, a woman, and a boy who he assumed were Zacky’s parents and his younger brother, Matt.

“Zack, are you going to clean that up?” his mother asked, walking past Brian’s hiding place, and he held his breath, chewing his lip nervously.

“Uh, yeah. I’ll get it in a minute.”

“I don’t know why you do things like this, Zachary.” His mother sighed as the sound of her footsteps receded into the kitchen, Zacky’s following behind. “You’re seventeen, you don’t need to be building forts anymore. And does Zina have a friend over? Whose car is that in the driveway?”

“Oh, uh, I don’t know. I’m sure they’ll be leaving soon.” Zacky replied loudly, and Brian peeked out from under a blanket. The living room was empty, so he slipped out of their tent and crept towards the front door. He turned the corner to reach the front door, and nearly bumped into a boy that looked to be a few years younger than him. Zacky’s brother stared up at him in shock, and Brian panicked.

“I wasn’t here.” He whispered, placing a finger over his lips. Matt still looked bewildered, but he nodded slightly.

“Okay.” He replied, and Brian slid past him and out the front door.

~*~

“That was fucking scary.”

They were finally back at Jimmy’s house, sitting in the back of the garage by the amps and Mr. Sullivan’s old tennis rackets. Justin was showing Matt and Jimmy some bass parts he had written, and Zacky and Brian were speaking softly about the previous day’s events.

Brian chuckled, running his fingers over the strings on his guitar. “Yeah, that was a really close call. Let’s not do that ever again.”

“But it was fun…” Zacky smiled softly as he played a couple power chords. “I had a good time.”

“Yeah, me too.”

“You guys getting along?” Jimmy called back to them, and they looked up, Brian caught Matt give him a knowing look, which he did his best to ignore. Zacky nodded, and they went back to whatever they were doing.

“Oh, and Bri, c’mere a minute.” Jimmy said, “Look what Matt and I did.”

Brian went over to them, and Jimmy began playing. When Matt’s voice joined in, he recognized the words instantly, but not the tune. It was “To End the Rapture.” His part of the deal.

The song was powerful. It was amazing how Jimmy could write those few words, words that formed wonderfully together even without a tune, but then he could put a melody to them that complemented the lyrics, and created a song people who didn’t even know the guys would find themselves singing. And he was certain it would happen.

“So now you can get an idea on how you want the solo to go. We’ll still need to get the bass track and guitar track, but you can at least start thinking about it.” Jimmy twirled his sticks, smirking at Brian. “What do you think? You said you didn’t mind if it was the shortest song on the album…”

At that point, Brian couldn’t care less about the length. The fact that it was forming, no longer a concept, now a baby song, just beginning to toddle its way into maturity made it all more real for him. “I think it’s fucking fantastic.” He replied. “I can’t wait to start laying stuff down.”

“Oh, speaking of drawing,” Jimmy replied, speaking generally to the other guys, “I called Micah. He said he’ll help us with a logo and album art but we gotta give him some ideas.”

“Something that’ll scare little girls.” Matt offered.

“It’s gotta be unique as fuck.” Zacky added. “I don’t want some generic shit so that we won’t be recognized.”

“We can all meet up with him sometime and talk about it. And I think we should hold off on the album art with him until we can at least get a name for our album. Art should be one of the last things. We gotta get some labels in mind to send our stuff to.”

The talk then moved to labels and logos, so Brian decided it was about time to head home. He didn’t really get much accomplished with Zacky that day, but they could work on stuff more tomorrow.

When he got home, he was surprised to see Michelle’s car parked in the driveway. He sighed, pulling in next to her. He crept to the front door, opening it slowly and slipping inside. He could hear Michelle’s obnoxious laughter sounding out in the kitchen, and Suzy said, “Have some more coffee.”

He snuck up the stairs, tiptoeing past McKenna’s room. “Hey, Brian.”

Brian’s shoulders slumped and he shuffled into McKenna’s room. “Hi, dad.”

“Suzy invited Michelle over.” Brian’s dad was seated on the floor, pushing toy trucks around with McKenna. “Aren’t you going to say hello?”

“We aren’t together anymore. We’ve broken up. I don’t want to talk to her.” Brian sat on the floor next to them. McKenna grinned and reached for him, and Brian picked her up. “Suzy thinks we can work things out, but I don’t want to. I’m interested in someone else, anyways.”

“Yeah, she told me about that the other night. Caught you on the phone with her. Says you both are going to be taking things slow this time…?” he ended his sentence as a question, eyebrow quirked at Brian.

“Yeah, we are.” Brian replied, leaning his head back as McKenna tried to tug on his ear. “I don’t want to fuck up-“

“Language.”

“Sorry, I mean, mess up with this one. I want this to last a while.”

“Well, that’s good, Bri, I’m proud of you.” Brian’s dad sighed, “Girls are tricky things…”

Brian chuckled nervously as he muttered, “Yeah.” He couldn’t help but feel like his dad could see right through him, knew that Brian was dating a guy. But there was no way that could happen, so he tried his best to ignore the thoughts.

McKenna fell limp against his shoulder, and he smiled, handing his sleeping sister to his dad. “Well, I’m going to try and sneak to my room…”

“I don’t blame you. Be careful. I don’t want Suzy finding you before Michelle’s gone.”

Brian slipped out of his sister’s room and into his own, closing the door quietly behind him. It was only five o’clock, but he was exhausted. He trudged over to his bed, kicking off his shoes before flopping down on his bed. Ideas for his solo were floating through his head as he fell asleep.