Beneath The Waves

(7) Tom Peters

Brief A/N ( please here me out): For some reason, I lost a lot of confidence when I started posting this story. It needs editing, but hell, so does most of my stuff, and that never seemed to bother me before. So sorry for the massive wait, but bear in mind my lack of confidence – I can’t seem to stop finding faults in it, and the only way I can get my confidence up is to tell myself that it’s just a light-hearted project I had a few years ago that I thought I’d share with you.

Sorry for the rant. Please continue :) A/N

Chapter 7

                “This week has been suckish,” Cassie grumbled, slumping down in her usual seat.

                Ryan, his guitar already out and plugged in, gave the strings a tuneful strum. “Don’t worry... be happy...”

                “Bob Marley? Seriously, dude?” Ethan tapped his guitar, impatient to get started.

                “Nothing wrong with Bob Marley.” Lee grinned from his place behind the drum kit. He often used Bob Marley as an excuse for his drug habits, though ironically, he wasn’t high at the moment.

“Why’d your week sucked?” Ryan asked Cassie, playing a quick scale just for something to do.

                “Drake kept trying to get back with her,” Zach informed them all casually.

“But you didn’t?” Ryan was secretly surprised. Cassie wasn’t exactly forgiving, but she and Drake had been close.

Cassie snorted. “I’m not a softy like you, Ainsley.”

Ryan grinned at the jab; Cassie being insulting just meant she was feeling better. “Cheers, Cas.”

Cassie mock saluted him, then shuffled her sheets. “I wrote a new song. I thought we could try it out later.”

“Cool.” Ethan pulled it towards him to read. “Wow, you didn’t call it Drake is a Little Bitch.”

“If you read it, though, it kinda gives across that message,” Cassie said with dignity. She snatched it back. “Want to warm up with an old one before we try it?”

“Sure,” Ethan agreed, and then a bright grin spread over his face. “Wait, first you have to hear about Ryan’s dead guy.”

Cassie, Lee and Zack all turned to stare at Ryan in surprise. Ryan felt a swoop of gloom in his gut when he thought about retelling the ‘dead guy’ story, but he couldn’t blame them. As strange as it was, he and Ethan barely ever saw the other three at school; they just hung out with different crowds. Yet they all got on well, and Ryan trusted them all enough to tell them about Jonathon, more so than some of the other people he hung out with everyday. Sometimes he could understand why Noah found society so strange.

Ryan repeated the brief account of what had happened to Jonathon, but this time he left out the parts about how he’d talked to the dead man, making it seem instead as though he and Frankie had suspected he was dead all along. His mind flickered to the meeting with Tom Peters he and Frankie had arranged, and his stomach filled with nervous butterflies, battering against him anxiously. He couldn’t believe they were relying on crazy old Tom Peters to tell them what had happened to Jonathon.

When he’d finished, the other three looked disgusted and vaguely nauseated, and Ethan was grinning smugly at their reactions.

“Ach,” Zack said. “That’s nasty.”

“Poor bloke,” Lee added.

Cassie was shaking her head. “I’d freak out so bad if I found a dead body.” She pulled a face. “Can we play something so I don’t have to think about it?”