The Back Of My Head

Chapter 25 - Memories

ANDY’S POV

We’d been sitting in silence for the past ten minutes, not really knowing what to say to each other, until Bradie suddenly piped up.

“Andy, you should tell Shaun the idea you had,” he said looking at me.

“What is it?” Shaun asked curiously.

“I thought that maybe we could film our last music video in here,” I answered, “Bradie and I were thinking of doing it for…”

“SOUL,” Shaun finished for me reading our minds, “it’s a great idea.”

“We’d have to clear the space a bit,” Bradie added looking around at the junk that had been stashed in here over the years.

Shaun’s Fender Squire, his first guitar that lost its shit in 2006 was chucked into a corner along with my first bass that seemed to be missing a string. A bucket of like a hundred of Bradie’s broken drum sticks sat in another corner. Bradie’s first drum kit sat behind us with a thick layer of dust covering it as were the old amps Bradie and I were sitting on. The shelves Shaun was leaning against had a ton of drum skins lined up along the top shelf. An old stereo that looked like it was from the eighties sat beside Shaun. There were two more guitars and another bass sitting on the shelves in a little better condition compared to our first ones. The last thing I looked at was the massive Short Stack banner hung up behind Bradie’s old kit. If I remember correctly Shaun spray painted it while Bradie was recording my bass for ‘Boopacha’, one of our older tracks for ‘One Size Fits All’. I was actually getting teary eyed again just looking at everything that got us to where we are now.

“How much to you think I’d get for this on eBay?” Shaun joked as he picked up his first guitar that wasn’t even in working condition.

“About two dollars fifty and a donut,” I winked.

“You’re not getting rid of it are you?” Bradie asked.

“Can I take them home?” Shaun questioned picking up his other two guitars from the shelf.

“They’re yours, dimwit,” I replied.

“Yeah, I know, but they’ve been with you guys for all this time,” he said sadly.

“So? When I move out I’m taking my first kit with me,” Bradie smiled and added, “the Spiderman one too because it’s friggin’ awesome.”

Shaun smiled and looked at me.

“Are you gonna keep your…” he started, but knew he had fucked that up, “fuck, I’m sorry, Andy.”

“It’s alright,” I assured him even though it did hurt a bit, “I do want both of you guys to have them though.”

“Andy, you don’t have too…” Shaun started, but I cut him off.

“Nah, I want you guys to, everything from that piece of shit,” I pointed to my first bass, “to my Gibson I want you guys to have.”  

“You should give one of them to Trevor and Chris,” Bradie suggested, “sign it and they can hang it up somewhere.”

“Good idea,” Shaun agreed, “we were the first band they signed.”

“Well, this is the one I used when Trevor met us,” I picked up my first bass and wiped the dust that covered it off.

They both laughed obviously because it was a piece of shit.

We spent the next hour cleaning out the room. Shaun put whatever he wanted to keep in his car, Bradie moved what he wanted to his room and I did the same with mine. I saw something under the shelves; I knelt down and picked it up. I wiped the dust off it; it was an old exercise book from high school. It said ‘Science – Shaun Diviney – Year 10’.

“Hey Shaun,” I called out getting his attention, “I found your old Science book.”

He looked at me in confusion and walked over taking it from my hands.

“This is the lyric book,” he smiled flicking through the pages and sure enough it was.

There were lyrics to all the songs from ‘One Size Fits All’ in there plus some songs we never mastered.

“Is this why your grades were shit in Science?” I laughed.

He thumped me with it and added, “yes, actually.”

“Hey look, your handwriting was neater back then,” Bradie joked; Shaun really does have messy handwriting.

“Shut up guys, I have nothing to embarrass you with,” Shaun whined.

“I do,” Bradie piped in pulling dusty Zoo magazines from behind his back, “I found the porn Andy hid in here years ago.”

“Hey, they weren’t just mine!” I tried to defend myself.

“Yeah, right,” Shaun and Bradie said at the same time.

“I really hate you both,” I smirked and went on with cleaning out the room.