This World's An Ugly Place

"Are you sure it's okay for me to come with?" Alex asked quietly as he walked side by side with me.

"Of course it's fine," Jack mused, looking back at us. He was walking in front of us since the sidewalk wasn't big enough for all of us to walk side by side. "I crash their band practice all the time."

"Yeah, if we can handle this dork, we can handle anyone," I said, motioning to Jack in front of us and he stuck out his tongue at me.

"But still, I've only known you guys for a week..." Alex trailed off.

Jack rolled his eyes. "Trust me, you don't have to feel weird about doing anything with us."

"Because Jack is the weirdest person on earth and he's already friends with us," I continued and Jack, again, shot me a glare. We had parked Jack's car in the lot behind the music store and, since the back door was locked and both Jack and I forgot our keys, we were walking to the front entrance for my band's practice.

"What's your guy's band name, anyways?" Alex asked.

"All Time Low," Jack said instantly.

"He was asking me, not you," I shot at my cousin. "Jack doesn't even have a band but he likes to act like he has one," I explained. "Our band's name is The Star Gazers."

Alex nodded his head. "Story behind it?"

"When we were all younger and it was a nice day, my family used to lay out a blanket on the grass at night and just star gaze," I said, my voice growing quiet towards the end. It was so easy for me to be sucked into a memory.

"Gayyy," Jack sang out, opening the music store door.

"Just because your gay doesn't mean you have to announce it to the world," Case teased from inside the store as we walked in.

Sebastian, Alex, and I all laughed while Jack pouted his bottom lip out. He was searching for a good come back but, evidently, couldn't find one.

"I see you brought some fans," Sebastian said, gesturing towards Jack and Alex.

"Hey, I prefer being called a groupie," Jack defended and Alex chuckled softly.

I wrinkled my nose. "Gross, dude."

"She'd rather have Alex as a groupie," Jack mused and my eyes widened.

"I'll make you eat those words," I challenged, taking a step towards Jack.

"I'd like to see you try, shorty," he responded and I frowned as I gazed up at him. It was true, he had a few inches on me.

"Break it up, girls," Sebastian said, waking over and ruffling both our hair. While Jack was pretty tall, Sebastian was an inch taller than him. Case, on the other hand, was more Alex's height.

"Hey," Jack and I both whined as we averted our heads away from my brother.

Alex smirked at us both before quickly looking away shyly.

"We playing or what?" Case shouted, now in the back of the shop where he was setting up Sebastian's drums.

"Yeah, yeah," I said, jogging back towards him and leaving my brother with the two outsiders. "What's on the agenda today?"

He shrugged. "I figured you'd already have something picked by the time you'd get here."

I smirked. "I'm not that demanding."

He raised an eyebrow at me. "You sure about that?"

"Cute," I spoke, tapping on one of Sebastian's crash symbols. "You say that to every girl you know or just me?"

"What can I say? I guess you're the special one," he teased again and I chuckled at that.

"Flirting again?" Jack interrupted us, dragging a few chairs over for him and Alex.

A smile crossed Case's face while I frowned. As much as Case and I would tease each other, we never took it any farther than that. I've always considered him my brother, and that's probably all he'd ever be to me in the end.

"Better not be," Sebastian warned, walking over to us with Alex right behind him. Alex watched me carefully with a deep set frown, but I shrugged it off.

"You're so cute when you're protective," Jack teased, raising his voice higher pitched; attempting to match mine.

"Screw off," I said through a laugh, grabbing my black fender while the boys grabbed their own instruments.

"Is this all of the band?" Alex asked quietly, his eyes directly on me despite the question was meant to be answered by anyone.

I nodded my head. "Yeah, for now. We're looking for a bassist since both Case and I are guitarists, but for now Case is filling in for the bass."

"Singer?"

I stuck my thumbs up towards myself. "This girl," I said with a chuckle. "And Case. We share the singing thing."

His eyes popped a bit. "I didn't know you could sing," Alex said.

"You just wait, there's a lot of surprises up my sleeve," I said with a wink and Jack gagged.

"All right, all right, let's go," Case said, pushing me towards the mic stand while Sebastian sat down at the drums.

"We still don't know what song to do," I said with a pout.

Case shrugged and I looked over to the two outsiders sitting at their seats.

"Let's do First Date, in honor of Alex's love for Blink 182," I said and a smile spread across Alex's face.

"If it's a Blink song I get to sing," Case said, bumping me with his hips and I lightly punched his arm as pay back.

***

"Thank you groupies of The Star Gazers! You've been an amazing audience! This band will be here to the end! We are The Star Gazers, goodnight Baltimore!" I shouted into the mic, causing the guys to roll their eyes at me with my enthusiasm.

After singing a few more Blink songs, we switched off to Green Day since I knew Alex liked them, too, and that time I got to sing. I wasn't proud of many things, but my guitar and singing skills were some of the things I actually was proud of.

"Thank God it's over," Jack chanted.

I stuck my tongue out at him and Case chuckled. "He's just mad because he's not allowed in our band," he mused.

Alex furrowed his eyebrows at that.

"We already have two guitarists, we need a bassist and Jack is strictly regular guitar," I explained, Alex following me over to the front of the shop where I hung my guitar. We left the rest of the guys to cleaning up everything else.

He nodded his head. "Makes sense. I always wanted to be in a band," he spoke quietly.

I looked over at him, my eyes shining. "Ever consider being a bassist?"

He wrinkled his nose. "No, I'm regular guitar," he said and I couldn't help but laugh at his expression. "I also...wanted to be a singer.

My mouth dropped. "You can sing? Come on, sing something," I said, poking his stomach playfully.

He grabbed a hold of my hand, pulling me closer. "Maybe someday," he murmured and I felt my face growing red at our closeness. It was one thing to be close at night, since I was doing that strictly for his nightmares, but to be doing this now, in the day, with him clearly awake...

"Did I forget to mention," Sebastian spoke, his voice getting closer and Alex quickly dropped my hand, "that I got us a gig?" He walked behind the register, hanging Case's guitar next to mine.

"You're kidding," I said in disbelief, rushing closer to my brother. "I swear if this is a prank-"

"It's not," Case said now, walking over with Jack at his side. "We're playing at the bar downtown."

I frowned. "Am I or Case even allowed in?" I asked, since Case was only nineteen and I was well underneath the drinking age.

"We just can only play the show and leave right after," he explained. "Well, I could stay but you two..."

Both Case and I rolled our eyes simultaneously.

"And what about me and Alex?" Jack pouted.

Sebastian shrugged. "We might be able to sneak you in backstage."

"Sweet," Jack said, bumping knuckles with Alex.

"What is going to be our set list?" I asked, turning to Sebastian.

"That's what we have to figure out," he said, rubbing his chin. "We have a few weeks to figure it out, though."

I nodded my head. "Well, I think Alex and I should head back. Ms. Wendy has been really grilling us about how late we come home lately," I said, walking over to Alex.

"You want me to give you a ride?" Case asked, his eyes staying on Alex for a few moments before drifting to me.

I frowned. "Nah, we can walk."

Sebastian and Case shared a look before I grabbed Alex's arm and pulled him towards the door. "See you guys later!"

Notes

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