The Moon, The Sun, and Everything Else

Backhanded Compliment

The five of them stood in the parking lot, all in complete shock. "Did--Did that just happen?" Mitch asked, still staring forward at the car they had all come in.

"I'm afraid so." Kevin nodded. "I am afraid so."

"You had to repeat it?!" Avi snapped. "We know it just freaking happened!"

"Avi, relax." Scott scolded Avi. "No, how about everyone relax?!"

"And how are you so calm?!" Mitch snapped back at Scott.

"Stop talking." Kirstie said. "I'm driving." This was the first she's spoken up since they got the news. "Come on, if you want to go home." Everyone filed into the car and sighed.

They dropped Scott and Mitch off at their place first, then Kevin at his apartment, then Avi and Kirstie pulled up to their shared apartment. "Go in, I'll be in in a moment." Kirstie said, still staring forward, her voice as flat as it was in the parking lot.

"Kirst--" Avi started to protest.

"Please." She said, pushing back her tears.

Avi nodded and kissed the side of her head before he went inside. Once Avi was inside, Kirstie's head fell to her arms that were resting on the steering wheel. Hot tears rolled down her cheeks as the weight of the whole world fell on to her shoulders.

What were they going to do?

She went inside after a few minutes of collecting herself to find Avi aggressively strumming at his guitar. He always played his guitar when he was stressed, it was always his safe haven, but maybe this situation was just a bit too stressful. Avi threw his guitar to the bed beside him and stood up, running his hands through his hair, beginning to pace. He stopped when he saw Kirstie standing in the doorway. Avi came up and wrapped his arms around her as she started to sob once again. She hated crying in front of Avi, in front of anyone, really, but all she could do at this moment was cry.

Neither one of them talked the rest of the night. They microwaved pizza from the night before for dinner, and they didn't even finish the slices they warmed. They both went their separate ways, Kirstie staying to the kitchen, cleaning everything for honestly no reason, and Avi stayed in their shared room, pacing. They only saw each other when they both went to bed, but even then they were broken. Kirstie clung to Avi, finding his steady breaths to be soothing, considering her breaths were shaky still from all crying she had done behind closed doors today. Avi held his girl close, forcing his breaths to steady so that Kirstie's would settle. Kirstie fell asleep very quickly, that's what she always did; equally slept and worked her problems away, but Avi on the other hand, he laid wide awake most of the night. His anxiety was running mad with no sight of stopping soon. Every few moments, he'd press a gentle kiss to Kirstie's forehead, just to let her know he was still there. Of course he was still there, he was never going to leave her.

~~~~~

Avi didn’t know when he fell asleep, all he knew was that he woke up at two-thirty in the afternoon. He walked into the kitchen, finding Kirstie doing some dishes in the kitchen. “Sorry I slept so late.” His voice startled Kirstie, so much so that she dropped the plate she was washing into the sink, and she broke out into sobs. All of the emotion in the last twenty-four hours had made her more jumpy than she normally was, just being the hyper-observant type of person she was. “Come here.” Avi hugged her as she sobbed once again.

“Why’d they drop us?!” She cried and gripped onto the back of her boyfriend’s shirt. “I hate them!” It was like she going through a bad breakup, and while it did hurt him, it hurt Avi more to see his girlfriend so distressed that his voice scared her enough to start crying.  

“I wish I could tell you why, Babe, but I can't, I'm sorry.” Avi sighed. “And I know, I know you hate them, you have every right to, but maybe this is a blessing in disguise.” Kirstie lifted her head and looked right at her boyfriend. Tears still falling, and once she got passed the shock of the whole moment, she pulled away from his hug. (Remember what I said about her hating crying?) Kirstie went back to the dishes. “Kirst, I can't watch you do this. Please.” Avi sighed once more. She shrugged and kept her gaze on the plates. “Did you even eat at all?”

“Not hungry.” She stated.

Avi silently sighed a sigh of anger. These horrible people had used all five of them, completely used. They gave up on them. But he wasn't going to give up on her. “Okay, I understand.” He said quietly, pushing back all the emotion he was feeling. He needed to be strong for her.

After while, Kirstie had finished the dishes and had moved on to reorganizing whatever she could, and Avi went off and tried to turn this cluster of emotions into music, he had no luck (in case you were wondering).

Completely out of nowhere, the door to their apartment flew open, and Avi sprung up from his chair, guitar in hand as a weapon to hit whoever had broken in. He soon set the guitar down when he realized it was just Scott at the door. He also took a moment to wonder why Kirstie even gave him a spare key.

Avi's eyes darted over to Kirstie when he saw Scott's excited expression fall. She too was shaken by this and was frozen in her spot until she realized it was Scott. “Hi, Scott, sorry, I was just--" Kirstie tried to explain herself, but Scott interrupted her.

“Guys, listen. This whole record label drop situation has basically ruined Mitch, and I'm guessing you as well, Kirst, and it definitely hasn't been nice to myself, Kevin, or Avi, I'm guessing?” Avi nodded. “Alright, but I have an idea. It's going to take a lot of work, but it's an idea.” Scott pulled a piece of notebook paper from his pocket and showed the two. “I was going to call a meeting, but Mitch wouldn't leave his room.”

Kirstie and Avi nodded while reading what was on the paper. It was a mashup of Daft Punk’s most popular songs. The lyrics flowed nicely together and everything.

“And--And if we can create this arrangement, and if everyone likes it, I have $400 set aside, and I think we can make something awesome from this. It'll be like a backhanded compliment.” Scott exclaimed.

“Okay, wait,” Avi shook his head. “This is great, but how did you just have four hundred dollars laying around, and when did you write this?”

“I wrote it when I couldn't sleep the night after we were told. I mean, I'd had the idea for a while and...I don't know, it just happened. Oh, and the money, don't worry about it.”

Avi chuckled and handed Scott the paper back. “I'm in. Kirst? How about you?”

Kirstie nodded. “I'm in.” She knew this would show them, she knew it. And for once, she was starting to feel a little better about this whole thing.

~~~~~

Thank you for dropping us, we're way better off now. Also, how does it feel to have dropped a group that has released a song with over a million views? Oh, and we won a Grammy for it.

How's that for a backhanded compliment?

~~~~~

A/N: Lowkey why do all my oneshots fall through at the end? 😂😂 Anyways, I hope you liked this one! Xoxo! ❤