I stepped on a cobblestone walkway, and up a small set of stairs to the door. I rang the doorbell, which seemed to ring throughout the house forever, and shifted around anxiously. I adjusted my hair with my fingers, hoping it looked alright. It felt like forever until the door opened, revealing a tall, blonde haired boy, who seemed to be slightly overweight but still gave me a huge smile that lit up his hazel eyes.
"Hey! You must be April, right?" I nodded, twiddling my thumbs.
"Sweet, I'm Barry, and I play the drums. Come in, don't be shy!" I shifted the strap of my guitar case on my shoulder and hesitantly walked inside. The house smelled faintly of chocolate chip cookies, which made my mouth water hungrily. Slipping off my shoes and placing them on a small shoe rack that only had two other pairs of shoes on them, I turned to face a living room that consisted of worn couches and chairs, a fairly sized TV with video game consoles scattered about, and the kitchen which was barely visible in the corner of my eye. It looked like the kind of place someone with a low income or who just owned far too many hand me downs lived.
"Sorry about the mess, but this is clearly my house." Barry chuckled. "I was thinking of doing practices in here, or in the garage, if we decide we want to stick to this. ...Want some cookies?" I gave him a questioning look, but giggled softly. Barry rolled his eyes.
"Yes, I bake. The results are well worth it. Don't forget to say hi to Dusty over there on the couch." He gave me an encouraging push to the living room, as Barry himself disappeared into the kitchen to grab sweets. I hadn't even noticed another human being inside the house apart from Barry and I. I sauntered over to the chair that looked the comfiest, and set my guitar down beside me. Gazing onto the other side of the room, a boy was, in fact, sleeping on the couch. I wanted to introduce myself, though I felt it may be impolite considering he was fast asleep.
Barry swooped in from the kitchen, holding a plate of cookies, stacked up high. When he saw the boy on the couch, he let out a sigh.
"Dusty." He prodded the boys cheek. "Dusty," Barry repeated. The boy groaned, slapping Barry's hand away.
"DUSTY!" he bellowed, causing the boy to jolt out of his slumber in a panic.
"Holy sh-" He looked at Barry with wide eyes. "The hell was that for?!"
"Now, now, don't be cranky when we have visitors, Dusty." Barry made a mock pout lip at him.
"Don't call me that, man." He scowled. Looking over at me, he gave a coy smile. "Names Dustin."
"April," I beamed. Dustin noticed the guitar case and pointed it out.
"Is she the new member?"
"Possibly." Barry clapped his hands together. "Which reminds me, we need to see how experienced with that guitar you are. Would you mind playing a bit for us?" I felt elated, and stood in a form that you'd expect from a soldier.
"Yessir!"
I unzipped my guitar case, and pulled out the dark, shiny instrument. It felt cool around my fingers, and it helped my muscles relax. Then again, I hadn't realized they were tense. I took out my pick, which was slightly flexible, and strummed each string accordingly. All in tune. Now I just needed to play. What song? Any song, but not a bad song, or a song that's too hard. An easy song might make me seem like I'm not committed to doing this, or all that good, but there were also so many songs to choose from. I took a deep breath. And my soul played for me.
First, a sweet melody to grab their attention. I gradually shifted into chords, and changed the song into a rock feel. The chords came like wildfire, and the notes were the wood to keep the flames tickling the tips of my fingers. The crisp sound filled the entire room with sound, and something startled me beyond belief. I was completely making this up as I went along. No script, no pre-set anything, just me. The song went on with its various melodies and medleys, switching from harsh tempos to light paces. Eventually, I figured I should end it soon, as I had most likely been playing for several minutes, and simply strummed my last chord slowly. Silence. I looked up, my face shaken with nervousness. Barry's face was split into a smile, and Dustin was nodding, impressed.
"How long have you been playing?" Dustin asked.
"A couple months now at the max," I replied breathlessly.
"That was amazing!" Barry applauded energetically. "I vote you're in. Once we figure out how we sound all together all we would need is...a singer." I felt a blush creep on my cheeks. I did it. I got in!
"Are you sure?" Dustin pondered. "She is a newbie, after all. We can't be too easily accepting."
"Dude, she's the only one who actually asked us about joining the band. Plus, she improvised that entire thing!"
Dustin raised an eyebrow.
"How can you tell?"
"When you improvise, it's easier to see that you actually feel the music. You'll get it one day." Barry waved a hand, noticing the questioning look Dustin gave him. "But so far, it looks like you're in the band, April!" I could tell that my entire face lit up like a huge stream of fireworks as I almost screamed.
"That makes no sense..." Dustin muttered, his mind still clearly on the subject of improvisation.
"Thank you thank you thank you!" I squealed repeatedly, jumping for joy.
"It's not for certain, remember." Dustin eyed me with a look of modest curiosity.
"You can't boss her around. And April's probably older than you anyway," Barry teased.
"What?! No way, I'm sixteen!"
"Just turned seventeen a couple months ago." I stuck out my tongue.
"Guess I'm the oldest here at twenty-seven." Barry scratched his head nervously, while Dustin muttered 'what the hell' in the background. I let a pause stay in place, but couldn't help breaking the silence.
"So are you two living together or..." I rolled my wrist, desiring to know more about my new bandmates.
"Nah, Dustin was just crashing here for the night." Barry shook his head.
"Maybe tonight, too." Dustin buried his face in a pillow. 702Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUcIAw8tWcT
"We go back a little." Barry explained. "I helped him scrape out of a fight on the winning side-"
"Saved my god damn life."
"-And we got into a talking, turns out we both have a love for music. Eventually we decided it was time to put together a band. Mind, it was still just us for the most part. But we've been inseparable ever since that first day."
"I owe him so much," Dustin sighed.
After half an hour of more talking, mostly about nonsense and getting to know each other, my phone went off with the deep voice of Morgan Freeman.
"Hello," His voice boomed. This sent the three of us into a fit of laughter. Wiping my eyes, I heckled my messages, only to see it was from my mom. 'I'll be driving around soon, do u want a ride?' It said. I figured I should end it off, an responded with 'Sure, I'll be out front.'. I closed my phone, Barry and Dustin still giggling like schoolgirls over my ring tone. I enjoyed Dustin's laugh, it was the kind of laugh one could never get tired of. The laugh was full of life, and yet just sounded so...him.
"Don't mean to end this off on a short notice, but my ride will be here soon. It was great meeting you two!"
"Like wise." Barry held out his fist to bump, still smiling, and dragged Dustin's with the other hand. I bumped them both, smirking, and grabbed my stuff.
"Bye." I waved.
Mom pulled onto the side of the road, accidentally hitting the curb a little too hard. I opened the door, beaming, and couldn't keep myself from sounding giddy.
"I got in!" I squealed.
"Really?! Fantastic!" And it sounded genuine when she spoke so energetically. She started to drive, an I told her about my new friends.
"Barry is twenty-seven? Wonder what the poor guy is doing here in this end of town, it's a bit of a waste, really. We should invite him over for dinner one day. He sounds kind." I shook my head up and down.
"He makes really good chocolate chip cookies. They even rival yours, mom."
"What?! This means war, call in the troops, there's a cookie emergency!" We laughed heartily as mom came to a set of lights. She turned on her signal, and waited for an opportunity to turn. When she did, however, a truck spiraled towards us at blinding speed from the other lane. Once I saw where it was headed, a scream placed itself in my throat.
"MOM LOOK OUT!" The truck turned on its wheels, and hit the driver's side of the car with a thundering thud. I felt the force of the impact launch the car sideways, hit something, perhaps a wall, and my vision cutting sharply to black. I could hear sirens and screaming in the distance, but they too were soon nothing but a hum in the back of my mind.
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