⇾ 𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐈'𝐕𝐄 𝐁𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐘𝐎𝐔 | 𝐉𝐨𝐡𝐧 𝐁𝐨𝐧𝐡𝐚𝐦

| S E V E N |

"God, we screwed it up again!" shouted Danny exasperatedly. "I don't think we're ever going to get this one, Molls."

"Oh, shove it. We could do it exactly like the record to make it harder if you'd like," I snapped.

We were doing a dumbed down version of "Dazed and Confused" currently. We'd taken so many things out and even slowed it down to make it easier but Danny had still found something to complain about. We could all sense the frustration gathering in the room.

"Well, did you actually look at it this time?" scoffed Connie.

"Yes, I did, actually. For hours. And guess what? It's still too hard!"

Cora turned the sound down on her keyboard and began to mess with it. I wished I could do the same, but unfortunately, you couldn't turn down drums, so I instead looked over at John in vain. We knew that once Connie and Danny started to argue, we could be sitting here all night long.

Admittedly, it was strange playing a Led Zeppelin song with John Bonham in the room. He didn't even know that this was his band's song.

"W-well," John cut in before anyone else could yell. He had been coming along to all of the practices now because he hated to be left at home alone. He also rather enjoyed hearing us play. Every now and then, he'd even give me suggestions to make the songs more interesting. This was, however, the first time he'd cut into an argument. I said a silent prayer for him. He was certainly gonna need it. "What would make it easier for you, Danny?"

"Take out the damn fast part," Danny scoffed.

"That's where I solo!" Connie retorted.

"Well, how about," John said, raising his voice to assert dominance. "How about you just shorten it a bit. Or, instead of doing that riff you have to do, change some rhythms to make it easier."

"Fine, we'll shorten it," Connie said.

"It doesn't matter how long the section is!" Danny responded. "I still can't do the riff."

"Well, I don't know what to tell you, then," Connie replied. "We're not taking it out. I can do the riff just fine so I'm not sure why you're having a problem."

"Bass isn't guitar, Connie," Danny said, putting her head in her hands.

"Alright, that's enough!" I interjected. "We could have played this whole song again in the time that you two have spent shouting at each other. Let's do it again, and Danny, when you get to that part, do something else. Connie will play the stupid riff before her solo and that will be enough. 1...2...1-2-3-4!"

♡︎ ♡︎ ♡︎

"Do you guys always fight like that?" John asked me as we were trotting back across the way to my house later that night."

"We've done it at all four times you've seen us, so what do you think?" I asked bitterly, looking down at the ground in frustration.

"Well, that's fine," John said. "Can't get along if you agree on everything, can you?"

I smiled at him. "Yeah, you're right."

"What are we doing when we get back?"

"I promised Calvin and Jonah I'd play with them before Mom and Dad get home, so you can stay in my room and do whatever you want," I told him.

"Okay, okay, but tonight, I want you to tell me why you and him always laugh at Davy the monkey, okay?"

I chuckled. "Deal."

We made it to the basement door and I put my ear to it to make sure that Calvin and Jonah weren't already down there. When I was sure that they weren't, I opened it and let John in. We went to my room and he looked around. "Can I listen to music?" he asked, looking at my record player in the corner of the room.