I was in my room, lying in bed with headphones on my head, music blasting in my ears.
If there was one thing I would miss if I were to actually kill myself, it would be music. It was the only thing really worth living for. There was so much of it, so many different types of it. It never judges you, it never makes fun of you, and it's always there for you whenever you need it. Always.
I was oblivious to the fact that my bedroom door had been opened and my mom was standing in the doorway, staring at me with her arms crossed over her chest.
She shook her head and stomped into my room, plucking the headphones off of my ears and shouting, "HOW LOUD DO YOU LISTEN TO THAT GODDAMN MUSIC?" She snapped them back on my ears and I flinched in pain, sitting up and draping the headphones around my neck. "JESUS, PATRICK!"
"What?" I asked her with an attitude, in common teenage fashion.
"I've been calling your name for the past ten minutes!"
"I didn't hear you," I mumbled, setting my CD player aside and swinging my legs over the side of the bed, standing up.
"Well no shit, Patrick," She growled, clearly upset with me. She heaved a sigh and put her hand to her forehead, "Your friend's here. He's downstairs waiting for you. He said something about band practice, I don't know." And with that, she turned on her heel and left my room.
I rolled my eyes and trudged out of my room after her, making my way down the stairs where, at the bottom, stood Joe. He immediately lit up when saw me. "Hey! Stumpy!"
"I thought I told you to stop calling me that," I whined as I approached him.
"And I thought I told you that that wasn't going to happen," He retorted, a goofy grin plastered on his face as he draped his arm around my shoulders and pulled me close to his side.
"What are you doing here, Joe?" I asked him flatly.
He chuckled, "Did you seriously forget? I'm supposed to introduce you to the guys today. I told you at school Friday."
I didn't forget. I just chose not to remember.
"Oh yeah," I played it off, picking his arm off of me and stepping away from him, "About that..."
"Your mom told me that you don't have any plans today and that you'd probably try to get out of it by telling me you do," He interrupted me. I hung my head and rubbed the back of my neck nervously. Of course she told him that. "Were you going to tell me you had plans, Stumpy?"
"No, I was going to tell you that...that I'm not feeling to well," I clutched my stomach and leaned forward a little bit, making my voice weak, "I was throwing up all night and...and I'm still feeling pretty nauseous."
"NO YOU WEREN'T!" My mom called from whatever part of the house she was in.
"SHUT UP, MOM!" I screamed back, cutting the act and glaring over my shoulder.
"Dude, why don't you want to meet the band?" Joe asked me. I remained silent. "Look, if you're afraid they won't like you, that won't be a problem. I already told you that they've been dying to meet you and hear you sing."
I returned my attention to my friend and sighed, "That's not the problem, Joe. The problem is I don't sing."
He laughed, "Dude, that's such bullshit! I hear you sing in the shower all the time!" I gave him a disgusted look. "What?"
"You listen to me in the shower?"
"The school showers in the locker room after gym class, Patrick, I'm not a creep," He clarified, though it really didn't make me feel any better. "Look, man, just come with me and say hi. I won't even make you sing. They might, but I won't."
"Joe..."
"Come on, they're going to love you," And with that, he grabbed my hand and dragged me out of the house, shouting back to my mom that we were leaving and I'd be back home before dinner.
*****
Joe pulled his dad's car into his driveway and turned it off. I crossed my arms and kept my seat belt buckled, my head turned away from him.
"You're seriously not going to make me bring the guys out here, are you?" Joe inquired, looking over at me.
"I told you I don't want to do this," I grumbled stubbornly.
He heaved a sigh and opened his car door, "Fine, I guess I'm going to have to bring them all out." He slipped out and shut the car door behind him, walking towards his house. When the front door closed behind him, I quickly unbuckled my seat belt and got out, following him in there. Yeah, I didn't want to meet these guys, but it'd be even worse if Joe had to drag them all out to meet me. Then they'd think I was an uptight prick. And I wasn't an uptight prick. At least, I didn't think I was.
I walked through the house and heard the sound of stairs creaking. I made my way to where I knew the basement was and pulled the door open, revealing Joe and his band mates, one of whom just so happened to be Pete.
"Hey! Patrick!" He exclaimed from the bottom of the steps, a smile crawling onto his face, "Long time no see!"
