floriography [ stories five ]

7 weeks || starboy era rewrite

[ rewrite of the thing where alex's band opens for with love on tour. same song title in book 3.

just bc i can, this combines let the band play/milkweed with this, so one opener is chase's band lmao (i've realized i never named chase's band?? oops??)
ps: 'milkweed' in floriography means hope in misery

- lew. ]

—————

Figuring out openers for tour was always a long process. Finding musicians that weren't problematic assholes, that really cared, that really got along with them was a hassle.

They'd already picked one band called Milkweed, two out of the four with bleached blonde hair, three covered with tattoos, relative newcomers in the industry. But somehow, the singer, a girl wielding her sharp tongue as a sword, knew someone Logan was fond of, and that was probably a main reason why this deal was even set up.

But that second opener felt elusive, slipping further and further away.

That is, until Logan came up with the best solution. Have the manager pick one song by each band, and they'd listen and pick their favorite. Easy. And with that method, they settled on a band named Dirty Soul. Plans were made to video chat with the two chosen openers.

After the band was done with that meeting, they started heading home. For the most part. Lewis stayed behind in the lobby of the building, headphones in and eyes trained on his phone screen. His lip between his teeth, clearly, he was worried about something.

He didn't even notice when Logan came back in, not until he sat beside him and leaned over enough to rest his head on Lewis' shoulder. Gently, he tugged on one side of his earbuds, then asked, "Did you forget you caught a ride with me?"

"Hmm? Sorry, sunshine, I, uh, just- just give me a sec." Lewis exited YouTube on his phone, instead pulling up Instagram. The user was 'alexsoul', and the picture Lewis brought up had the hashtag 'tbt' on it. It showed four guys, one visibly younger than the rest, playing in what looked to be someone's basement.

The rest of the caption said, 'Dirty Soul's original name and line up? We used to be 'Scorched Spoon' or something dumb like that (we changed names constantly so I still don't know), and it featured a guy named Thomas on drums, Martin on vocals, me on guitar, and a kid named Lew on bass. This was one of the first shows we played with this lineup, after our original bassist Lucy quit. Kinda miss these days, but I wouldn't go back because everyone that matters is so much happier where we are now'.

While Logan had ahold of his phone to read the caption, Lewis waited before he said anything else, knowing how hard it was for him to focus on reading when there was other noise. Once he got his phone back, Lewis found another picture, this one of the current lineup, and began explaining.

"That's Alex. I thought the voice sounded super familiar, and- yeah. Old band mate from Huntington. He's the decent one. That's his sister with the drumsticks, Aubrey. And the other two must be newer, 'cuz I don't know them, it says they're Micah and Zach."

Logan frowned, gently taking the phone again to study the picture. "Are you going to be comfortable being on tour with them? I'm sure there's enough time to pick someone else if you-"

"I appreciate the concern, but... I still think we should go with them. They're one of the few bands we all liked, plus I'm sure Alex and Aubrey have changed for the better in the past few years." Lewis gave him a smile, resting his cheek against Logan's head for a brief moment. "I'm ready to leave when you are. You still planning on staying the night at my place?"

——

On the flip side of this, just a few miles away, the band Dirty Soul sat in Alex and Aubrey's apartment, waiting for an email from With Love's management.

Alex, the singer and guitarist, sat with his arm around his sister, who had her laptop open on her lap. "Have you-"

"Yes, dipshit, I've refreshed the email like twenty times in the past five minutes," she snapped, throwing her elbow into his stomach. "Seriously, just stop asking."

Across the room, Micah (or Mikey, as she preferred), the bassist, laughed, pausing in helping Zach bleach his hair. "Chill, guys. We've got this. Unless somehow your connection to them gets us thrown out immediately."

Alex threw an empty bottle at her. "Don't even joke about that."

Before anyone could respond, Aubrey let out a loud squeal, nearly falling off of the couch and throwing her laptop. "We made it! Oh my god, we actually did it! 'Lex! We aren't failures!"

Alex had the presence of mind to grab the computer and set it aside, but even as his bandmates were starting to celebrate- Mikey still wearing her bleach-covered gloves, Zach with half his hair coated, and Aubrey who looked like she was crying-, he put his celebration on hold due to the fact his phone buzzed multiple times in a row.

The screen lit up with message notifications from Instagram, all of them from the same username. It took a few moments for it to click, for him to realize where he'd seen 'withlovelewis' before, but as soon as he realized, he unlocked his phone to check the text.

[alexsoul] withlovelewis sent you a message!

withlovelewis:
hey!! congrats on getting the opener slot!

i'd love to catch up sometime!

For a brief second, another message showed up, and Alex could've sworn it said 'i miss you'. But it was gone so fast, he couldn't be sure.

alexsoul:
Id love that.

Here's my number, text or call me whenever!

And maybe that was a foolish idea, but oh well.

—————

[ i've literally been working on this for over a week but it's gone so slow.
inspiration is totally gone and i'm sorry.
maybe more rewrites in the future??

(lewis' username is that bc it's his band and his name, plus he would've been super late in getting social media related to the band so he had to settle for what username he could)

part two of this yes or no