Love Made Music

LMM 2: Recruiting

"No." I stated firmly as I grabbed my bag from inside my locker. School was out and I was ready to go home. Asking Cassie to be WashOut's new lead singer was not something I wanted, even after hearing her sing at Harper's Pub that Saturday. Ever since then, Adam gabbed nonstop about how great of a singer she was and how much better the band will be with her as our new lead while Steve bobbed his head in agreement. Since I was considered the father of the band, they wanted my approval before recruiting her. Unfortunately for them, that wasn't going to happen. 

 "Find someone else to be the new lead."

Steve let out a sigh while Adam puffed up his chest angrily. "Are you kidding me!? We find the perfect person to be our new lead and you say 'no'! What the hell is your deal, man?" Adam spat at me. I proceeded to wipe it off with the back of my sleeve before slamming my locker closed and heading down the hall towards my van. The two of them followed after me.

"Nothing." I responded angrily. "I just don't see why we can't hold tryouts or something. I'm sure they're people that want to sing for WashOut."

Steve frowned. "And what if only girls try out?"

"Then we'll buy some guy off of ebay. I'm sure they sell 'em." I retorted.

Adam's eyes went wide. "So that's what this is about? You don't want a girl to be our lead?"

Steve and I both stopped walking, turning to look at Adam with shocked expressions on our faces. Who knew Adam had it in him to put two-and-two together? I shook my head quickly before saying, "Exactly. It's not like we need to have a girl as our lead anyway. Time for a change of pace. What's wrong with that?"

"What's 'wrong' is that we'll lose about two-thirds of our fan base!" Steve snapped at me. "You know as well as I do that a very large part of WashOut's appeal is our having a female sing a song written by a male. On top of that, most of those songs just so happened to be about that particular singer, which gave our music personality."

"Well, it's not like our music's going to sound the same even if we do get another girl as our lead, so why not just-" I tried arguing.

"No." Steve said with a look that told me he wasn't going to budge.

Just once, I wanted to win an argument against Steve.

"Shawn, dude, if you're that afraid of getting hurt, just don't date this one." Adam suggested thoughtfully.

My face flushed. "Like I care about stuff like that! Why would that even matter?"

"Exactly." Steve agreed. My head swerved in his direction at the sarcastic tone of his voice. The gleam in his eyes suggested he'd hit the jackpot.

 Crap. He had exactly what he needed to crush my resolve. Stupid Adam.

"I think that's a great idea Adam!" Steve remarked, patting Adam on the back in praise. He smiled smugly up at me. "If she's not your girlfriend, you have nothing to be afraid of. Considering you have no other reason for not wanting a female lead other than that, taking it out of the equation should make everything okay, right?"

The onslaught of logical reasoning hit me like a bulldozer. I pretended not to be fazed.

"Just pretend she's got a penis, and suck it up," Adam added unnecessarily.

I couldn't help making a face. "Whatever, guys. Who said I was worried about that?"

Steve raised an eyebrow. I glared at him.

"I wasn't, you know." That didn't mean I wasn't now.

"Look, guys, I just don't want to deal with any of that crap again. Girls are too complicated, and have way too many needs. Plus, you always have to watch what you say around them, otherwise you're considered a pervert or something when you're obviously not. Does that make any sense?"