In the Crowd (Tye)

Chapter 17

No one else seemed to have noticed Tony’s little outburst, so I decided to ignore it myself. I assumed for his own personal reason, he was throwing a fit and locked himself into his room. Before doing anything else, I walked slowly upstairs. Just in case, I’d be checking up on my little bro.

“Hey Tony, what’s up?” I asked, knocking softly on the door. Tony didn’t answer. I gently eased the door opened (so it wasn’t locked!) and peeked through the tiny crack.

Tony was lying on his stomach, his face buried into his pillow and ten stuffed animals. “Go away,” he said, his voice muffled and sounding all jacked up. I walked in anyway and sat down on the edge of his bed.

“Come on, if you don’t tell me what I did wrong, how am I supposed to fix it?” I heard Tony scoff within his mass of fluffiness. “Okay, yeah, that sounded fake.” I muttered. “I’ll forgive you for locking me out if you stop acting all grouchy.” I offered.

At last, Tony lifted his head up and turned around to look at me. I thought that I was successful and Tony would give in- he always did.

Tony’s face was an expression of disgust and surprise. “You think I’m really simple, don’t you?” his lopsided smile looked really, really sad.

“Huh?”

“Just go downstairs and do whatever. You have a band to take care of, right?” Tony sighed heavily, but that lopsided smile had turned into something somewhat encouragingly. I tried raking through his face, searching for some sign of what he really wanted- but I found nothing.

Before I left, I heard Tony mutter something- something I probably should’ve heard- but didn’t. It was really bugging me that he was being all dramatic and that crap. “If you’re saying something important, might as well say it so I can hear it,” I told him over my shoulder.

I paused for a moment. One… Two… Three.

Tony still hadn’t said a word, just kind of mumbling into his pillow. I stepped out and slammed the door shut. I really wasn’t going to waste my time on this.

Ace’s wild laugh was what brought me back to my senses and forget about Tony. “Oh my god, this is awesome!” he said through laughter.

“If it’s so awesome, why are you laughing like it sucks?” Griffin demanded.

“It’s so different from your usual songs!”

“Your point?”

“I like it, I like it. It’s just…weird,” Ace finished with a shrug, laughter still shining in his eyes. He turned to me. “So what’s up with Bailey? He called, right?” I wasn’t planning on telling the gang right away, and I guess my pause explained it.

Nico popped his gum loudly. Wasn’t he just eating? God, do not tell me he chews gum while eating. “Did something bad happen?” he asked me. I shrugged uncomfortably. I’d have to explain it to them what Bailey wanted at some point, right? Might as well tell them now.

“Fuck this!” Ace exclaimed when I finished explaining. From somewhere in the house I heard Mom cough uncomfortably. All the laughter from just a few minutes early was gone. He kicked the wall before slumping down to the ground. “This is no fun anymore,” he sighed, running his fingers gruffly through his already messed up hair.

“What do you mean?” Ken asked, sincerely confused.

Ace looked over at Ken, this mournful expression in his eyes. “I don’t think you would get it,” he sighed again. Ken glanced toward me, and I just shook my head. “I thought we were doing this for fun, something like that.” Ace was started to whine now, which was going to get really annoying.