Switched

~Five~

"I need a drink or a wall I can bang my head against repeatedly," Ian said. He was so done with all this for now. They were getting nowhere and fast and it was because Tim was in a shitty mood. Ian nearly wished Tim had called and canceled band practice.

Bob nodded. "Me too, let's pack up for today."

Tim looked like he was about to protest but then just sank deeper into the arm chair he was sitting in and sighed. "Shit, sorry. I'm a right asshole today."

"You're always an asshole," Bob said mildly.

"Most of the time we don't mind," Mark threw in.

"Something the matter?" Ian dared to ask.

"Girlfriend trouble," Tim answered.

"You want to talk about it over a drink?" Ian offered.

"Nah...not yet anyway. I just need to get my head on straight again. And I thought work would do that, but –"

"Here we are and it's not working," Bob finished for him, crossing his arms over his chest. Bob had really nice arms Ian thought.

"So let's pack up for today and not waste any more time with sitting around and getting nowhere fast," Tim said.

They all nodded in agreement and started to pack up their equipment and notes.
They had managed a few songs over the last two weeks, but it wasn't enough for a whole album yet. And to be honest, only four of the seven songs they wrote they really liked.

"Ian you need a ride home?" Mark asked quietly as Ian was grabbing his guitar case.

Normally he would say no, because he could take the bus, but Mark asked, so it meant, Ian thought, that Mark wanted something. Maybe to talk. They really were overdue for a talk anyway.
"Sure, thanks," Ian replied, easily. Maybe Mark just wanted for things to be normal again.

They said goodbye to Tim and Bob and Ian followed Mark to his car.
Once inside, he put his seat-belt on and waited, because Mark wasn't staring the car. He was just sitting there, staring straight ahead.
Ian suppressed the impulse to bite his lip. He was doing that more often now, ever since Kasey had occupied his body.

"You know where I live right?" Ian made himself ask after five minutes of silence. Of course Mark knew where he lived, but Ian figure it was as good a conversation starter as any other.

"Yeah, I do. You mind if we stop for a drink first?"

"Or you could drive me home and we could drink there, because I'm gonna guess here and say you want to talk about something," Ian offered.

There was another long silence, but Ian just waited for Mark to make a decision.
"Yeah, okay," Mark said and started the car.

The drive to Ian's apartment was silent, the way up the stairs was too. Once inside Ian put his case against the wall and made his way to the kitchen, because that was where he kept his liquor.
Mark followed him, sat at the kitchen table and waited for Ian to pour.

"Okay, so how drunk do you want to get?" Ian asked, once Mark downed the first drink. It was Vodka and not the cheap stuff either.

"Not very," Mark answered. "Just enough."

"Okay, I'm going to make this easy on you, because you obviously aren't used to talk about – whatever you want to talk about."

Mark laughed humorlessly. "I know it's fucked up, but you're the only person I can talk about it with."

"Well...there is always Kasey, your girlfriend of two years who is part of this whole thing," Ian said carefully.

"Is..." Mark repeated.