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Chapter Text

 Reggie Peters and Willie Covington had been best friends since birth since their parents had been good friends and neighbors. They never separated from each other, not through the death of Willie’s mother and not through the arguments of Reggie’s parents. They’d always been close, and because Reggies parents were always in a fight, Reggie was always over at Willie’s house since Willie’s father, Caleb Covington, was usually away on a business trip. 

 Maybe it was one of those days that Reggie had realized that he was in love with Willie. It could’ve been when Willie had thrown their arms around Reggie so tight that he couldn’t breath when Reggie had ran to Willie’s house with tears streaming down his face after another of his parents arguments. Or maybe, when Willie had been teaching Reggie to skateboard and Reggie had leaned too far backwards and he went flying into Willies chest, causing them both to fall into the grass next to them and just bursting into laughter as the sun shined onto Willies skin. It could’ve been in middle school when they had doodled all over Willies $120 pillowcases causing their dad to nearly faint. 

 It could’ve been any of those things, but all of them caused the same butterflies in Reggies stomach. The butterflies had gotten worse lately, Willie had decided to tape childhood photos of Reggie and them above their bed, from Willie and Reggies matching rainbow braces in elementary school to Willie and Reggie at homecoming together. Willie had been asked by the school quarterback who they had a crush on at the time, but Reggie had been asked by no one so Willie rejected his crush to go with Reggie. Willie had insisted that it didn’t hurt them to reject the quarterback, but Reggie knew it did, and he asked Willie to not do that again for Reggie, which he denied. Apparently, Willie took that “back” when Reggie had truly come to terms with his crush on them. 

                —————————

 Reggie stood outside of Willie’s “house”, that was more like a castle then a family home. The Victorian style home stood out within the neighborhood, being the biggest and the only house that wasn’t twins with its neighbors. Reggie rang the door bell (a literal bell) again, tapping his foot against the ground. After another 10 minutes came Willie, their hair in a bun with strands of hair near their chin and the tie-dye crop top that Reggie had made them for their 16th birthday. Willie smiled at his friend, their dimples more visible today, or maybe that was just Reggie’s imagination, no one can be too sure. 

 “Oh, hey man!” Willie beamed before their eyes widened and reached into their backpack to grab a crumbled up paper with doodles on it reading : 

Reggie’s Big Band! <3

 Members : Luke Patterson
                 Bobby Wilson                   Reggie Peters (obviously!)

“Oh, man, you’re still on this?” Reggie asked, starting to walk down the steps of Willie’s house. Willie’s been wanting Reggie to start a band ever since he learned he could play the bass, which was 4 months ago. Reggie had been playing the bass since middle school but Willie wouldn’t have known them, he played it at home and Willie never went over since Reggie’s parents never stopped fighting. 

 Willie hummed in confirmation, zipping their backpack up, nearly tripping over a pebble on the sidewalk,  “Yeah, you can’t let your talent go to waste! Plus, I’m not gonna be available all the time since dad signed me up for skating competitions around LA, you gotta find something to do,” 

 Reggie was about to protest but he realized he had nothing to defend himself with, so he stayed quiet. 

 The rest of the walk was just Willie rambling on about anatomy and how the femur is the biggest bone in the body and how “Everyone thinks it’s the spine but it’s not! The spine is a whole bunch of bones!”. 

 Reggie stayed mostly silent, he had been too busy admiring how Willie closed their eyes tight when they were really passionate about something, and the hand gestures they did when they were rambling. Willies skin was shining in the sunlight, as it did most of the time, “It’s a gift” as Willie would say, and it made him look more angelic then usual. 

 When they finally walked into the school Willie had changed from anatomy to dinosaurs, 

 “T-rex’s had feathers! Can you believe that?” Willie near yelled in the hallway.

 “Feathers? I thought they were all scaly like a lizard?” Reggie frowned, feathers seemed too lame for a huge dinosaur.

 “That’s what I thought too! But app-“ Willie was cut off when he spotted the drama kids at the front of the Drama Club room. 

 “Oh! Sorry, Reg, today’s the auditions for Romeo and Juliet, I gotta go,” Willie waved at Reggie before running off to go open the door for the drama club members (he had the key and they were in charge of taping the auditions for Mr. Molina while he was out). 

 “Ooo, someone’s got a crush on Willie!” A familiar voice called from behind Reggie. 

 “Not so loud, Luke! They could hear you!” Reggie hushed, walking over to where Luke was leaning against a locker that was not his.  

 “Isn’t that a good thing? You love him after all,” Luke grumbled- or mumbled, Reggie couldn’t be too sure. 

 “I don’t lo-” 

 Luke’s eyebrow raised. 

 “Fine! I love them, but it doesn’t matter, they don’t love me back,” 

 “Yeah, let’s go to class,” Luke said, already walking away. 

 “Oh hey, whatda holding?” Luke asked when he saw the paper in Reggies hands.

 Reggie had nearly forgotten about it, “Willie made a band thing for me, ever since he found out I can play the bass he insists on us starting a band,” 

 Luke grabbed the paper, straightening it out and taking a moment to read it, “That’s a good idea, actually.” 

 “Yeah, I know so weird- wait, what?” 

 “It’s a good idea, I know how to play guitar, Bobby does too, you play bass, and we can all sing!” 

 “None of us can be a lead singer! And we don’t have a drummer,” 

 “So..? We can find those at school, this one girl, Julie Molina, she’s in my music class, wicked voice!” 

 Reggie sighed, “Okay, well what about a drummer?” 

 “Alex Mercer, he’s in Drama Club with Willie,” 

 Ah, Alex Mercer. Willie had bumped into him on their skateboard and Alex had near screamed at him when Willie tried to apologize. Willie was always hurt by that, they hate being yelled at, or even having someone raise their voice at them, Reggie did as well.

 “I don’t know,” 

 “Aw, cmon! Willie’s doing those skating competition things, and you.. you wanna stay away from home, this is good for you,” 

 Reggie sighed again, “Okay, let’s start a band,” 

—————————

 Willie had been practically been jumping off the walls of his room when they found out Reggie had finally listened to them. Reggie had just been happy that Willie was happy, also that he would be able to stay away from home more and not be bored. 

 “Oh, dude! We gotta name you guys!” Willie smiled, opening the drawers in his room for a notebook and pencil. 

 “There’s not exactly a ‘you guys’ yet, we only got Luke, Bobby and Julie Molina to join,” 

 “Oo, Julie Molina! I heard her singing in drama for the musical last year, a-maz-ing,” 

 “But wasn’t Carrie casted for the lead?” 

 Willie finally found the notebook and was now on the look for a pencil, “Yeah, Mr. Molina said he wanted it to be fair so we did rock, paper, scissors (I was Julie) and he won, so Carrie got it,” 

 Carrie Wilson is Bobby Wilson’s sister, she’s only 1 year younger then him but Bobby still insists she’s so little. 

 “YES!” Willie cheered as he pulled out a half broken pencil from their underwear drawer (don’t ask) 

“What are our options for names?” Willie asked, quickly flipping to the first blank face and writing down “Band Names!!!!” 

 “Uhm, The Geeks?”

 Willie scribbled that down and then moved his hand, emphasizing for Reggie to go on. 

 “Uhhh,” Reggie looked around the room for anything that could help him, “Sunset Curve?”  
 
 Willie looked up, “Is that because of the sunset outside and my ‘Curved Smile’ poster?” 

 Reggie had been found out.

 “Yeah,” 

 Willie got up and walked to his clothes drawers, throwing random shirts at Reggie until Willie found ‘the one’. 

 “The Phantoms?” Reggie questioned, looking at the years old shirt that Willie had still kept for some reason. It had 4 ghosts on it and it smelled like a middle school boy, sweat and axe body spray. 

 “Yes! But Julie doesn’t fit into that, I don’t think,” They paused for a second, chewing on their lip, which Reggie had totally not been staring at since the beginning of the conversation, “Julie and The Phantoms?”

 Reggie beamed, that actually sounded cool! 

 “Yeah! We can be like ghosts and float and stuff, maybe we’ll actually be able to,” Reggie thought about it for a second before dismissing it, he remembers when he wished for a puppy, pizza and a hamster after he named a short story “A Puppy, Pizza and a Hamster.” The wish didn’t come true. 

 “Well, you guys still need another band member, a drummer,” Willie said as they plopped down onto the bed where Reggie was sat. 

 “Hm, I can’t think of anyone I know that plays the drums..” 

That was a lie. He knew Alex. Or Reggie didn’t know, he just was aware of Alex’s existence. But he didn’t want someone that hurt Willie in his band, that seemed wrong and he was sure Willie didn’t want that either.

 “What about Alex Mercer?”

 So, Reggie was wrong. 

 “Huh?” Reggie frowned. Didn’t Alex hurt Willies feelings? He could’ve sworn Willie went on a ramble about how that made them feel awful that day. 

 “Alex Mercer? The blonde kid in drama?”

“I thought he hurt your feelings. I don’t want a mean person in my band. . .”

 Willie smiled up at the ceiling as if angels were calling him, “He apologized today, he was really stressed that day and he felt so bad, we’re meeting up for coffee tomorrow,” 

Oh

“Oo, I bet he was really sweet!” Reggie fake smiled, biting his lip to stop from tearing up. Reggie wasn’t sure why he was being so dramatic, it was just coffee, it could be a friend thing..?

 “Yeah! So, I’ll ask him tomorrow during drama, or during our date,” 

 Reggie was wrong again. 

Chapter Text

 Reggie is usually all ears to Willie’s rambling, but not for this week. This weeks ramble was all about the date Willie had gone on a few days ago. Although everything Willie had said was something different, they all had something in common ; it was everything about Alex. From Alex’s kind eyes to Alex’s black jean jacket. So instead of walking to school with Willie, he went with Luke. 

 The walk had been uncomfortably silent until Luke started speaking about how he had gotten Bobby to agree to the band. Reggie had stayed mostly quiet, besides the little hums of response. Eventually, Reggie spoke up. 

 “Hey, what do you know about Alex Mercer?” He interrupted as Luke as about to pull out his lucky guitar pic from his backpack. 

 “Alex?” Luke paused, fixing a wrinkle in his red t-shirt, “I know a bunch of stuff, we were friends throughout middle school, that is, before he went to Carrie Wilson’s squad,” 

 Carrie Wilson is the stereotypical mean girl, rich, is scarily obsessed with the color pink, and extremely popular. Reggie had met Luke after Alex had become popular, so that explained why he wasn’t too familiar with him. When Alex had lectured Willie after they had bumped into each other, Reggie had just assumed that he was just like Carrie, rude and snobby. He probably is. Reggie had settled on that, even though he knew Willie would never even consider going out with Alex if he was truly a brat, but Reggie decided to ignore that. 

 “He was really nice, I don’t know what happened, we used to be so close,” Luke once again, paused, this time to take out a notebook and pen to scribble something down, “I guess Carrie was better then our friendship,” 

 “What’da writing?” Reggie asked to distract himself from the fact that the dude he was unconditionally in love with was about to get with someone else. 

 Luke moved closer, nearly tripping over a bump in the sidewalk, and showed Reggie the page. 

All I did was try my best
This the kinda thanks I get?
Unrelentlessly upset 
They say these are the golden years
But I wish I could disappear
Ego crush is so severe
God, it's brutal out here

 “Whoa, that’s actually good,” Reggie commented, smoothing out the wrinkled paper. 

 Luke shrugged, his cheeks turning pink as he grabbed the notebook and shoved it in his backpack where it had been before. 

 Reggie was going to compliment Luke’s song writing skills again before he spotted Willie in the corner of his eye. 

 In a moment of panic, he grabbed Luke’s wrist and ran for a bush and hid behind it. Luke snatched his wrist back from Reggies grip and opened his mouth to speak, probably on how his wrist was now in pain from the sudden grab, but Reggie covered Luke’s mouth with his hand and made a ‘shh’ sound. 

 He peaked through the cracks of the bush ; Willie was sat on the top of a bench, Alex sat next to him. Willie was laughing, Reggie guessed at an attempt Alex had made to be romantic, but it hadn’t turned out the way he wanted it to. (He knew this from experience, Willie cannot take a hint unless it’s straight out) 

 Luke made a noise from under Reggies arm, maybe “We’re gonna be late to class”. Which, was accurate, because Luke smacked Reggies hand from his face and repeated “We’re gonna be late to class!” 

 Reggie sighed and got up from where he was crouched. He held his hand out for Luke, and Reggie swore Luke had attempted to rip his arm off with how slowly Luke had gotten up with it. 

 They walked to the back of the school (there was another way into the school from back there, and it was far away from the drama class, Willies first period). The uncomfortable silence had returned until Luke broke the silence again. 

 “Okay, so, you’re irrevocably in love with Willie, right?” 

 Reggie would’ve denied but it was clear that Luke wouldn’t take that for an answer, besides with the stunt he had just pulled, it would’ve been impossible to lie. 

 “Yeah,” Reggie sighed, blowing a hair from his face. 

 “Let’s sabotage the relationship,” 

 Reggie stopped in his tracks, his mouth gaped, “We can’t do that!” 

 Luke raised an eyebrow, “Why not? I can get revenge on Alex for leaving me during-” He cleared his throat, “for being a dick, and you can get Willie,” 

 “Wha- No! Absolutely not! I would never do that to Willie!” 

 Luke shrugged, and continued to walk to class, “It’s your heartbreak,” 

 Reggie stormed after Luke grabbing his shoulders to make them the same height, and had forgotten what he had planned to say, the closeness of their faces had distracted him. He could’ve sworn Luke’s face had been moving closer, and- 

 The bell rang. 

 Reggie stepped back and so did Luke. 

 “Aw, we’re late!” Reggie complained to stop the awkwardness. 

 Luke nodded, as he started walking to his math class. 

 Reggie sighed, before mouthing ;

 “Tell me what we have to do to get rid of the blonde boy”