Presence (Cashby)

Sing it.

"Yo Alan" Tony yells running up to me "you doing the talent show?"

"No. I'm um. Too shy"

"Dude. It's in like two months. Plenty of time to unshy yourself"

I shake my head. "Only way your getting me on stage is if it's with a band and I'm not doing a whole hell of a lot."

"Well I'd offer you to be in our band but I'm the lead guitarist"

"It's fine. What band?"

"Pierce the veil" he sighs.

I stop at my door. "See ya tomorrow"

"See ya"

I walk into the room to see Austin yanking it.

"Seriously dude?" I shield my eyes. I groan at my god awful roommate at grab my stuff for the shower, leaving Austin to his business. I pull back the curtain and start to undress while softly singing I Miss You by Blink-182.

"You got a good voice" Austin says startling me. I didn't realize he followed me into the bathroom.

"Thanks?" I say quickly rinsing the shampoo out of my hair.

"Like really good"

"Dude. I get it I'm in the shower"

"I can't talk to you while you're in the shower"

I honestly have no response to that. It's just awkward.

"Keep singing" he demands

"Dude. That's creepy"

He pokes his head in causing me to gasp and cover my junk.

"Come on" he urges.

At this point water and shampoo was dripping in my eyes. "This is getting weird."

"Sing and I'll leave"

I sigh "hello there, angel from my nightmare. The shadow in the back ground of the morgue. The unsuspecting victim of darkness in the valley"

He brings his while body in, getting his clothes wet. "We can live like Jack and Sally if we want, you can always find me" he comes so close to me I can feel his breath on my bare skin. It's like he wants us to kiss. Like a connection is being made at the moment. I try to keep my dick down. I. Am. Not. Gay.

"I miss you I miss you" we sing in sync, lips almost touching. We hear someone come in and start taking a piss. Austin puts his finger up to his lips in signal to not talk. Once the guy leaves Austin whispers "I want you to be the lead guitarist and back up singer in my band"

I nod awkwardly

"Oh and if you tell anyone about this...."

"You'll kill me" I roll my eyes. I look down to see a bit of a bulge in his sweat pants too and try not to chuckle. I finish my shower and walk into my room with sweatpants, no shirt and vigorously trying to dry off my hair. I give up throwing my towel onto the ground and I look over at Austin who is staring at me.

"Enjoy the view?" I chuckle at my joke

He shakes his head and tries to collect his thoughts. "Um we lost our guitarist and I want you to do it"

"How did you lose him?"

"Don't ask" he says angrily.

"Okay. Um I guess" I throw on my shirt.

"Rehearsals at five tomorrow"

"Okay" I sigh. What have I gotten myself into.

-

I wake up the next morning similar to the way I did last morning.

"They're gonna hear you in china" Austin laughs.

"Shut up" I grumble rolling out of bed. I look at my messy hair and decide to just put on a beanie.

Austin looks at me with pity but I really don't want to talk about it.

"You shouldn't blame yourself for your moms death" he says

I shake my head "whatever" I mutter before running out for breakfast. I know he only wants to help but I don't want to talk about it.

-

I tap my pen anxiously on the wooden desk trying to focus on chemistry. Too many formulas so little time. What if I suck as a guitarist? What if they don't like me? Or what if they do and I have to actually play on stage. The bell rings and I meet up with Danny to go eat dinner. Today is chicken nuggets I think. My mom used to love making them for me. I throw my tray down at the table and right as I sit down Lola sits next to me.

"God Lola what do you want?" I groan

"Your body" she moans

I look at Danny for help but he pretends like he can't see me. James? Ben? Anyone! They all look away.

"Um. Lola" I say trying to nudge her off. " I um. I have to go to rehearsal"

That caught Cam's attention. "You're in a band now"

"I guess" I shrug

"With who?"

"Um. Austin and his friends I guess"

Lola frowns "of mice and men sucks. Don't be one of those man whores"

"Yeah okay" I say pushing her aside and finishing my dinner. I get up and hope Lola doesn't follow. She looks like she's angrily yelling at Ben about his hair cut. I walk down the hallway, with a few couples making out against the wall, and into one of the rooms with tape on it that says 'Of Mice & Men' with an octopus sticker next to it. I walk in to see a few guys greet me.

"Alan" Austin smiles "this is Aaron, Tino, and Phil" I smile and wave a bit, still clutching my guitar.

"Hey" Tino smiles "you're in my math class"

I honestly don't remember but I nod anyways

"He's quite the shy one" Aaron whispers "you sure he can back up sing?"

"Give him a microphone and he's got it" Austin waves him off.

"I um. I'm a fast learner" I say quietly "I got most of the tabs down"

"Okay good." Phil smiles slightly "um, let's start with 'Those in glass houses."

I smile. I'm pretty good at this know this one a bit.

After the song I grab a monster out of the fridge, same as everyone else was doing.

"You're pretty badass on the guitar bro" Tino slaps my back.

"Thanks" I smile.

"Now if we could get him to sing loudly...." Phil says

"He'd be perfect" Austin finishes. Everyone looks at him oddly. Apparently he normally doesn't act like this because the guys are whispering something. Austin snaps out of his day dream and pretends like it doesn't happen.

"Thanks?" I repeat. I feel so shy and awkward.