Come Hang || Original Version || Gamesquad

Large Larry's Pizza Gig

"You guys don't get it, we can't have cheesy shit lined up first for a show, we're a punk band not a Hallmark movie!" Hunter shouted to the stage.

He skimmed over the setlist again and sighed. Madison appeared from right stage, dragging her large synth piano. Hunter looked up and quickly climbed onto the stage to assist her.

"Seriously, Ditch Him isn't even finished yet," he persisted.

The two of them hauled the piano over the orange X on the floor before the conversation continued. Madison blew some of her bleached hair away from her face.

"Well lucky you, you've got two whole weeks to write it," she said with a devilish smile, shoving her finger dangerously close to his face.

Hunter sighed as she walked back behind stage and yelled, "Ruben? Where's the fuckin' confetti gun?"

Hunter ran his hand through his black dyed hair and walked around the small stage aimlessly. The wood beneath his feet was scratched and wearing off, which perfectly matched the rest of the place they'd chosen to perform. Large Larry's Pizza wasn't a terrible start, but it definitely wasn't great either.  As he thought about this, Hunter looked out where the audience would be two weeks from now. Ugly checkered floors and puke green walls with a maroon trim that looked like a health hazard. But, money was money, and they were getting loads of it after this performance.

"You know," the drummer, Finn, said as he climbed onto the stage, "I personally think that they shoulda kept the money to themselves."

"And why do you think that?" Hunter asked, although he already knew the answer.

Finn adjusted his beanie before slouching over in a terrible mob boss impression. He started creeping toward Hunter in an ominous way, and lifted his fingers as if he had a long cigar.

"If my mama knew how shit our pizza was, she'd send ze whole mafia after me and ze boys," he said in a horrific Italian accent.

Hunter laughed and shoved him away once he got close enough. Finn stumbled and also laughing as he fixed his long brown hair.

"You're the worst," Hunter manages to say through his laughter.

"Right back at ya boss," he said with a finger gun and a toothy grin.

"Stop messing around with my boyfriend and get back to work!" Madison screamed in a shrill voice from behind stage.

"I don't sound like that!" Gus yelled back.

There were a few moments of silence as the rest of the band appeared from the wings. Madison and Ruben from the right, Gus from the left with a giddy smile. Manic laughter erupted from all five of them. To a passerby, it probably would have looked like a bunch of emo kids had just committed arson and escaped without the cops catching them, but it was really just a bunch of friends putting up the tough facade and failing miserably.

"Shut up!" Finn shrieked and threw himself on the floor with wheezes.

Ruben and Madison were nearly doubling over on each other, and Gus had been back-down on the grimy stage long before the height of their laughter. Hunter was the first one to calm down, but the others weren't anywhere near done. They chuckled to a stop, looked at each other, and started over and over again.

Hunter stood as he felt the paper inside his pocket weigh down his whole mood. Finally, he fished it out and unfolded it gingerly. It had been the lyrics to their newest song, Ditch Him. The only issue was, whenever he'd try to finish it, he simply couldn't bear it. He'd either get bored, work on other things, or worst of all; actually read between the lines.