Oracular Spectacular: Andrew VanWyngarden x Reader

Time to Pretend

    It was too hard to wrap my head around.

    If I recall correctly, when he left he told me he would be gone for a long time. This was not a long time. To be fair, he'd also told me not to take it personally, and I had. Like an idiot. And he told me he had to leave if he wanted his career to grow, but I didn't take him seriously enough, I guess. He told me that he would still love me; that he would just have to pretend he didn't for a while... Which is an odd thing to say if you ask me. It was hard to even listen to him saying those things, much less believe it. But that didn't help. It just hurt me.

    Ultimately, he was absolutely correct. His career did grow. He had very quickly gotten on the path to fame. Three of MGMT's songs were taking pop culture by the horns. When I recognized it for the first time, I felt so alive. I'd recognized the voice, the rhythm, the vibes. MGMT; that was the band he'd been in since college. It took me a minute; deciphering if it could really Andrew and Ben, or perhaps just an imposter. But nope. All it took was for me to visualize the name "MGMT" to realize it was the very same band name they'd always used. The Management.

Man, those songs were just jokes but goddAMN THEY WENT HARD.

    That was when we met. College, I mean. Their music was spectacular; so... trippy... MGMT's concerts (if you can even call the weird shit they did in college "concerts") were like a drug. And it's a shame I ever started. It was too easy to get hooked. And apparently the withdrawal symptoms are crippling loneliness, inability to fall in love, and just plain old "nothing feels fun anymore".

    Andrew was beautiful. The music he played was crazy. And even Ben was someone I'd quickly grown to miss so deeply. I had personally been invited to their very first show by him. It felt like a dream, but it was a night I'll never forget. I immediately thought that they were the absolute coolest college band ever. There were a few kinks, but that was to be expected. I jumped right into their whole scene and became quite possibly their biggest supporter. I hardly missed a performance, except for during finals,,, the holidays,,, when my friends had conflicting parties,,, or I  just didn't feel like going........

Luckily, I'd gotten to know them pretty well at one of their parties, so I was always invited. Helping them set up was always so much fun...

    Ben and I had some unexpected connection upon meeting. We have quite a bit in common. He's a chill guy. Not the biggest personality at parties, but he strikes up some very interesting conversations. We clicked so fast since we have that in common.

Andrew, on the other hand, is a fuckin riot at parties. He's there to have fun. Maybe a little... too much fun. Although I wouldn't call him *extroverted*, he is very. loud...

    Back to the point, their song Kids was an absolute banger I heard at one of the first parties they played, and it was in a lot of their sets. I could never forget that keyboard riff: it's been stuck in my head since the first time I heard it. Hearing it in my car, sounding so clean and crisp and nostalgic after all these years almost made me have a breakdown.

    After a while I started seeing them in magazines and on the radio. Reviews, interviews, global praise, they were everywhere.

    Thankfully, Andrew hadn't changed at all. He still sounded (awww) and looked (actually also awww) pretty much the same. And Ben as well. Although it felt like a lifetime, I guess it hadn't been that long.