𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗩𝗼𝗶𝗰𝗲 (𝙵𝚞𝚛𝚛𝚢 𝙱𝚡𝙱)

Track 31 | 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗻 𝗔𝗴𝗲

"FUCK!" Eden scowled, slamming the fridge door, causing us all to jump. "Rian, you're out of those hard seltzer things."

"First of all, ask first before you go rummaging through my fridge," Rian responded back directly, approaching her and opening the fridge door back up. He proceeded to shove his head inside of it, searching for what she wanted. "Secondly, don't slam my fridge's door. Thirdly, the High Noon's are all the way in the back, you have to actually look, and fourthly, quit shouting."

"I'm sorry, I'm fucking stressed out," Eden grunted, grabbing and pulling at her hair as she exhaled moodily through her lips, pacing around the room anxiously.

"You okay, Edie?" I wondered as Torrence handed me the end of a wire to plug into my guitar.

"No, my math teacher is fucking stupid," Eden whined, on the brink of tearing up. "She gave us all the weekend to complete an overdue assignment—she told the whole class she would give us the weekend—but then she just put in the grade as incomplete, so now my overall grade is dropping! And my mom saw it and got pissed about it and now she's texting me to come home!"

"Why is she pissed?" Ari asked, rising to his feet.

"Because she thinks I'm not 'spending my time wisely' with this band. She wants me to spend every free hour I get studying—I'm a kid, not a fucking prisoner."

"Why don't you tell her about what your teacher said?" I reasoned, looking over at Ari. His eyes met mine and we both shared a look of concern over a friend we deeply cared about.

"I tried, she doesn't fucking listen! And I tried emailing my teacher to change the grade and let me turn in the assignment, but he won't fucking respond! It's like teachers give up doing their job the moment school ends!"

"Honestly, if I were a teacher, I'd probably do the same thing," Torrence mumbled.

"Your mom won't listen to you?" I exclaimed, astounded.

"She never does," Rian answered, knowing the pain Eden has to endure every day. He walked up to Eden's side and carefully rested his hand on her shoulder, gesturing for her to sit down.

Eden collapsed into a wooden chair next to Rian's kitchen table, trying to contain her anger and stress by grumbling her emotions instead of shouting them. Her clenched fists were trembling uncontrollably and her face was filled to the brim with distress. She leaned over and hid her face away from the rest of us, but we could hear the sound of her nostrils flaring. Rian ditched the seltzer and poured a glass of water for her from the sink.

"Eden, if she needs you home, it's okay, we'll be alright," Ari told her, taking the glass of water from Rian and setting it down on the table next to her.

"I don't want to go home," Eden quietly began to sob, her hair shielding the side of her face, covering what I likely did not want to see. "I want to stay here. She's just gonna yell at me again."

"It's okay, drink some water," Ari offered, sliding the glass towards her.

Rian sat down beside me, not enjoying seeing his close friend in shambles. Torrence and Levi stood together in the corner of the room, sharing whispers of their worries for Eden with one another. The mood had been brought down drastically.

"...You're not dating her, are you?" Rian theorized below his breath.

I just turned my head slowly and looked at him. That short moment of eye contact was all he needed to know my answer. Rian nodded his head out of pitiful acceptance, resting his paw on my shoulder.

Eden eventually worked up the courage to go home and face the wrath of her mother, leaving us with no singer for the rest of the afternoon. It technically wasn't a band rehearsal anyways, more like a jam-and-write-more-music-for-our-EP-session. Ari offered to walk Eden home and was somehow able to get back to us in under thirty minutes. After a few soundchecks and a couple of cover songs, we dove into the index of miscellaneous demos and original music to sort out our plans for the EP.