Chapter Text
Darlin had no idea what they were looking at.
One moment they were peacefully scrambling notes down as they skimmed through a passage in their history book and the next, they had a poster, a flyer, and a very happy looking Asher in front of them. They were almost scared to ask what exactly had him beaming, on account of knowing that whatever it is, he’d probably succeed in dragging them into it, and unfortunately, they would most definitely either absolutely despise it or completely love it. ( and if the past was anything to go off of, they would probably–begrudgingly–enjoy it)
Well, no point ignoring him. That’d probably just make it worse.
“What is this?” They ask, pushing the papers off of their textbook and notepad. Darlin did try to look busy or unamused or indifferent and you gotta give them credit for that, but you also have to understand that Asher is not even remotely close to the kind of person that makes that possible. Point made by his blissful ignorance of whatever hint they were trying to throw, in place of shoving the poster back over their textbook, the boy himself plopping down in the seat across from them.
“Battle of the Bands!” Asher said ( more like yelled, which landed him an appalled look and a stern shushing from the librarians )
Darlin, to their credit, managed to keep every comment they had to themself, opting instead to just stare. Asher, of course, was Asher and just… smiled. Darlin sighed, silently cursing themself for being so weak as to give in so quickly. “Okay fine, I’ll humour ya.”
They closed their textbook, painstakingly slow, not that this had any effect whatsoever on Asher of course. Then they shifted slightly in their seat to face him. “Why are you showing me this?”
Darlin was starting to wonder if Asher's face was just stuck in a smile. Then they wondered if it hurt.
“Cause I want you to be our vocalist!”
They blinked, “What?”
“Ya know~ the lead singer in a band-“
“No I-“ Darlin sighs, resting their elbow against the back of the chair as they turn to now fully face Asher. ( Maybe they were humoring him a little too much? ) “I meant, what do you mean ‘ our’ and why me ?”
“ Weeell ” Asher drew out the word, once again shoving the poster in their hands.
“We’ve got a drummer and a bassist and guitarist, which is me obviously.” He smiled, gesturing to himself. Which only got an eye roll from Darlin. “Anyways, we’re missing a main vocalist and I figured who better than the person who’s already the pride and joy of the music club!”
Darlin thought that was a gross over exaggeration. They weren’t the pride and joy of the music club, they barely even really participated, it just so happened the president heard them singing to themself in the hall and decided they absolutely needed to be in the club. ( and despite what people apparently thought, they were really bad at saying no ) Hell, they didn’t even really do a convincing job at acting and most of the projects were plays! Then again, they figured maybe having three awards saying something along the lines of “ best vocals ” was a reasonable place from which Asher jumped to making them the vocalist. Which leads them to the other part of their questions; who was “we”?
“Right.. uh” Darlin reaches up their necklace, fidgeting with the pendant as they spoke. “Who exactly are your drummer and bassist? Who’s we?”
“What I’m hearing iiiss~” Asher leans toward them, smile not once having left his face. ( now Darlin was really starting to wonder if it hurt) “You’re thinkin’ about it”
They shrugged, honestly unsure themself what they were thinking. Bands meant performing and while they knew their voice didn’t suck, they had no idea if it was really “band material”. They said as much, “Just curious Ash, dunno what I think yet cause ya haven’t told me shit”
Asher, to his credit and their slight amusement, only laughed. “How bout you come over tomorrow and see for yourself?”
“Well that just sound like a damn trap.”
Asher shrugged, “Only one way to find out, right?”
Darlin was about fifty percent sure they were gonna regret the next words that came out of their mouth. “Yeah, fine”
And with that, Asher left them to go back to their “boring history homework” ( which they were pretty sure he hadn’t even started yet despite the due date being tomorrow ) with a squeeze of their shoulder as well as both poster and flyer tucked between the pages of their notepad.
~~
Darlin stood on the porch, rocking back and forth on their heels as they tried to gather up the courage to ring the damn doorbell. It wasn’t as if they hadn’t been here before, they’d been invited to plenty of hang outs, they just also tended to say no to most of the said invites. They could hear muffled semblances of whatever was going on inside, which only really added to their apprehension. Darlin was just about in the middle of debating the benefits of turning tail and leaving when the door opened. Now who opened the door? well that they didn’t expect.
“Hey,” David said. Honestly, as if the fact he practically towered over them wasn’t enough, he also sounded like he could punt them right into next Tuesday too.
“Uh hey”
The two of them sort of just stood there for what felt like eternity and a half. Darlin was once again debating, this time on how it would look if they just mumbled an apology and turned to leave. And they were about to do just that, until Asher came bouncing to the door.
“You actually came!” He said, grabbing them by the wrist and practically dragging them inside. “I’ll be honest I was halfway convinced you were gonna bail!”
Darlin offered a faint smile as they sat, pushed up against the corner of the couch despite the large amount of room present. They scanned the room; a half set-up drum set, guitar, bass, mics, headsets, soundboards, and everything else under the sun. Darlin almost jumped when a plate was offered to them.
“Snacks?” Milo asked, currently snacking on a wafer stick. “They aren’t here for decoration.”
Darlin mumbled a thank you as they took the offered plate. To his credit, Milo had given them a great spread of everything from sweet to salty to savory to sour. They probably wouldn’t even end up touching half the plate but it was the thought that counted, right?
Asher and David came back into the living room, carrying a case of soda cans and speakers respectively. “-they technically haven’t said yes yet but they’re here and i think that’s a good sign!”
Well he was certainly optimistic. Darlin was pretty sure Asher hadn’t meant for them to hear that, so they pretended they hadn’t. It reoccurred to them they had come with the intention of meeting the band Asher was so energetically roping them into. Then they realized they already had.
“Wait.” They blurted, head almost immediately tilting down to hide their eyes behind their hair as they spoke. Darlin could feel all the eyes in the room turn to look at them, and while yes they had certainly gotten better at shrugging off the feeling of burning under any gaze, that didn’t mean the struggle was gone. To add to the humour of the scene, they seemed to have lost their grip on the English language. “I uh-“
Asher recovered the quickest, “Yeah this is the band! or the makings of one, anyway”
That was one thing Darlin definitely liked about Asher, he could be an absolute anomaly of pure joy and chaos but he also knew how to read the room like a forecast.
“David’s on drums.” The boy in question was currently knelt on the floor fiddling with the speaker wires, graciously giving out a huff of acknowledgement at the mention of his name.
“Milo’s on Bass”
“And I’m fucking amazin’ at it, too.” Milo called from the kitchen, where he apparently was refilling his snack platter. ( darlin didn’t even notice he’d finished everything on it? already? they were pretty sure it was full when they got here )
“And I’m on guitar! as you already know”
Darlin sort of just sat there staring at their palms. Honestly, they had no idea the boys even knew how to play, let alone that they would have ever thought about starting a band. And to ask them to be in it? Was that a unanimous decision? or an attempt by Asher to get them to hang around more?
“Hey,” Asher said, he tried not to lean toward them too fast, only slightly worried they’d jump up and run out the door. “Look I- We aren’t tryin’ to make any decisions for you but,” he swallowed, swirling the soda can he held in his hands. “well ya know, we’d love to have you, if you decide you want in?”
Darlin let that sit, humming as they turned the thought over in their head.
What could staying at least the rest of the night hurt?
“Play something for me?” they asked.
“Sure!” Asher beamed, to which David cleared his throat and pointed at the mess of equipment.
“Ah- lemme just- help David finish setting up”
~~
“Technically, I haven’t said yes yet,” Darlin pointed out, fiddling with their mic stand.
Asher gasped, rushing over to them from across the room. He almost spilled the drink in his – stereotypical, they had no clue where he got – red plastic cup in his haste to blurt out, “But you’ve been coming every night!”
Milo laughed, leaning against the wall, bass in hand, absently plucking at the strings, “Doesn’t mean it’s a yes, they could just be leadin’ us on.”
“Or they want you to beg, Asher,” David chimed in from where he stood over the mess of wires he had told them all to clean up. ( which, based on the state of his furrowed brows, no one had done )
Darlin shrugged, finally happy with the height of the stand. They sat on the bench pushed up against the wall next to them. They had, in fact, been coming every night for about two weeks. Asher had taught them everything on their set list, they’d even run all the songs a couple times, and the competition ( because incase we’ve forgotten, this all started for that damn battle of the bands ) was only another month and a half away.
“Hey! I’ve been begging this whole time ! Ya gotta gimme something here Darlin~”
The room filled with laughter as Asher made a show of pleading hands and an attempt at puppy dog eyes. Well, room was sort of a loose term here since they were actually in David’s garage. They had originally planned on using Asher’s living room but his parents were fed up with the blaring music from 7 to 11:30 pretty damn quick ( all of one day, actually ). Either way, Milo came with snacks so Darlin didn’t care.
“We gonna put some rehearsing in this rehearsal or what?” Milo had now opted against leaning casually to instead drag a stool to the spot he’d decided was his the moment they moved into the garage. ( why a stool? darlin didn’t know, but they certainly weren’t gonna question it ).
Darlin tapped a finger to the mic, hiding – or more appropriately, trying to hide – their snickering at the glare they got from David, who unfortunately had his head right next to the speakers as they did it. “Hey I’ve been ready since I got here”
“It’s not my fault you’re all heathens” David grumbled as he walked away from the wires ( which Darlin was pretty sure just gave up on ), taking his place behind the drums. “Asher, are we starting, or what?”
“Yeah, yeah, lemme just-“ Asher picks up his guitar, giving it a pre-emptive strum. He turns to the group, apparently satisfied with himself, “Alright. David, start us off!”
To his credit, David only rolled his eyes, “One, Two, Three, and~”
~~
Let this be a lesson that completing something doesn’t always mean you’ve succeeded.
“Man, that was ass.” Milo – very aptly – pointed out from where he was filling a cup to the brim with what Darlin was about thirty percent sure was orange juice? Well, ya gotta respect the guy for staying away from alcohol. That’s not to say they thought drinking was a completely bad thing… point proven by the beer David had split between three cups.
Asher was on the floor ( neither david nor darlin were sure that was exactly sanitary? but hey, to each their own form of breakdown ), his still mostly full cup of now flat beer dangerously within ‘knocking over towards the electronics ’ distance. David was slumped on the bench, staring into nothing, the hand not holding a cup tapping mindlessly at his lap. Darlin figured they may as well join in the existential dread, thus ignoring previous thoughts of unsanitariness ( yeah sure, let’s say that’s a word ) and lowering themself to sit on the floor, leaning forward resting both elbows on their legs.
“I don’t understand!” Asher threw his hands up in the air, though from his current position – completely flat on the ground – he looked kind of like a toddler asking for uppies . “We’ve been doing so good, what happened?”
“For starters, you were too fuckin’ loud”
Darlin looked over when Milo spoke, he had somehow finished over half the juice in the pitcher between the moment they watched him pour a full glass to now. Asher propped himself up on his elbows, glaring at the other boy.
“Was not!”
“You kinda were, Ash, we could barely hear Darlin and they’re supposed to be main vocals” David chimed in, his now empty cup abandoned on the ground next to his chosen perch. He wasn’t exactly looking at anyone in particular, but Darlin couldn’t figure out if that was because he was angry or disappointed. They didn’t know which one would be worse.
“Oh yeah? says the guy who was offbeat half the set!”
“If I was so offbeat, why didn’t you say anything during the set?”
Asher was full on sitting upright now, hands waving around as he listed off everything he figured went wrong with their rehearsal. Darlin pulled their knees to their chest, trying to listen but unfortunately drifting farther with every word. They wondered if they were supposed to interject, to give their opinion on what went wrong, but they weren’t any sort of musical prodigy or genius to do that, were they? It just so happened they had a good voice to them. Darlin was just about to bury their head behind hair and denim when they realized the other three people in the room were looking at them.
“Uh- sorry, what?” They asked, lifting their head up as they let the grip they had on their legs relax.
“We wanna know what you think.” Asher pointed out, to which David only huffed, leaning back against the wall with a – apparently newly filled – cup back in his hand. Must’ve been a really bad night if he was going for a second drink, but that wasn’t really their shit to comment on.
Darlin stayed quiet for a moment, figuring out the most diplomatic way they could put what was admittedly a shit show. “Well, everyone has off days-“
Darlin felt like the oxygen had been vacuumed up and out of their lungs as Asher caught their eyes. How honest were they supposed to be? Did he want them to just side with him? Why did what they thought even matter? They could almost feel their skin burning as they tried to catch their breath again, heart pounding in their ears. Darlin was on their way down one of their patent pending spirals when they felt a hand on their shoulder.
“Hey,” Milo knelt next to them, his gaze hovering just above their eyes so they could choose to meet his if they wanted. “You okay?”
Asher was pursing his lips now, eyes drained of any humour or mirth and replaced with concern. David came up behind Milo, offering them a glass of water that they hadn’t even noticed he went to go get. Darlin opened their mouth to respond but found their throat dry. Asher got up, walking over slowly, putting out a hand to help them up, which they took after another moment of getting out of their own head.
“Sorry I-“
“No,” Asher interrupted, eyes wide, almost frantic. “No don’t apologize I-“
“We kind of put you on the spot,” David supplied, to which Asher nodded, his hands wringing in his lap.
“Look,” Milo said, pulling a chair closer to where they were all now huddled together. “Why don’t we just take tonight as a uh, worst case scenario , hm?”
“Let’s go through what we all think,” David shifted in his seat, “For starters, we should turn up main vocals or take backing down a notch.” He said this as he watched Darlin, gauging his next words by how likely it was to kick off their instincts to run off. When they nodded slowly, he continued, “And yes, I need to stop rushing through some of the songs.”
“Milo needs to stop getting lost,” was exactly how Asher decided he should phrase his input. This of course only landed him a – probably lighthearted – punch from the boy in question.
“It ain’t my fault a fourth of the damn songs sound so similar!”
“Yeah well it’s not like you don’t know what song is up next-“
Darlin decided this was better. The playful banter and the physical violence was a better fit for the group than a mini civil war. David got up as Milo tackled Asher, taking the chair previously occupied by the former, next to Darlin.
“I don’t see how we’re ever supposed to have a formal conversation with these two.” He said, taking a sip of whatever drink he had – Darlin suspected that god awful generic soda Gabe always brought to barbecues – and offered them their pick of the snack platter, or what was left of it, anyways.
“Maybe we can have it for ‘em” Darlin jested, taking every brownie bit off the plate. “Ya ever tune your damn drum?”
David threw an m&m at their head.
~~
And that’s how the night went on. They would pick up rehearsal again tomorrow, hopefully take what little constructive conversation they had had tonight and use it to not “ sound like ass ” as Milo would put it. Practice makes perfect, that’s as true as you make it out to be, but Darlin – the whole band, for that matter – learned tonight that sometimes, ya gotta cut yourself some slack and take a break.
So if by 11:00 in the evening they ended up playing video games in David’s living room? Well, they’d just write it off as team building.
And besides, a month and a half, that was still plenty of time