The Inconsistency of Nothingness

If You Want To

"Come on, the fans are waiting for you guys! Get out there and give them a show!" Bad yelled past the screaming fans to the group. "You got this! Come on, get up there!"

As Nick passed Bad to get on stage, Nick patted Bad on the shoulder. "Thanks bud. Best manager in the world, I swear!" Bad beamed at Nick's compliment.

"I couldn't agree more," Dream smiled as he made his way up the stage as well.

George joined the other two by jumping on the stage, "Well here goes nothing!"

As the three walked from backstage onto the main stage, the fans were screaming. George looked out into the crowd, and felt his breath pick up. Crowds always make him nervous. George stood with his bass a little stunned while watching Nick go grab his drumsticks as the crew was setting up some more equipment. As Clay was making his way to his guitar and mic, he noticed that George seemed a little out of it.

"Hey buddy, don't be nervous. They'll love you no matter what," the blonde man smiled to George.

George snapped out of it and watched as Clay began to walk to the mic.

"How is everyone doing tonight?!" The crowd began yelling at unbelievable volumes.

"Well you already know who we are. Who are we??!!" Clay grabbed the mic off the stand and walked to the edge of the stage, putting his hand up to his ear to encourage the crowd to be louder.

"THE DREAM TEAM!" The crowd collectively yelled.

George watched as Clay as he was playing a couple of warm up chords to test his bass. Damn, Clay is a natural at this. He's confident, charming, and even George can admit that he's attractive. The warm yellow lights hitting against Clay's face, the beads of sweat starting to form from the heat rolling down his neck, and his dirty blonde hair shining – George was awe struck at Clay's beauty.

"Okay how about we get this show started?!" Nick said into his mic as he tossed his drumsticks in the air and caught them with finesse.

If you wanna take me

Go ahead and try my head

Experience is nothing compared to

The sleep paralysis in my bed

If you wanna love me

Try to get inside my brain...

Clay slowly dragged his hand from the mic stand up to the mic and gripped the it with two hands as he closed his eyes and performed the song. He wrote the song about his ex girlfriend, and Clay has always hated that this was their most popular song. He admitted this one night to George, and the British bastard laughed at him. George had told him nonchalantly that meanings aren't stagnant and they can change to whatever you want. "Hell, you can even apply the song to me if you like! It doesn't matter, Dream. Just because you originally wrote it about her doesn't mean you can't change the meaning to apply it to something else." Clay remembered how surprised at that answer he was as he stared back at George with wide eyes, who was just playing a game on his phone unbothered. Whenever Clay sings this song now, all he can think about is his best friend's words.

Cause if you want, you could stay with me in my bed

If you want to, only if you want to

If you want, you could go ahead and fix my head

If you want to, only if you want to...

Nick pressed on the petal to hit on the bass drum while bobbing his head to the rhythm of the song. Playing drums on stage with his two best friends just felt so natural, and he loved the rush of being in front of the crowd. He always changed up his playing each performance slightly to keep things interesting, and his friends couldn't have agreed more. He felt that having slightly different live performances than the studio versions always meant more to the people cheering them on. Nick gripped his sticks tighter and he hit on the accent notes. Every time he did a cool move (tossing his drumstick, had a cool solo, etc), he'd look into the front row and see how his girlfriend stood there proudly smiling up at him. The sight never failed to pull at his heartstrings and boost his vigor to try harder to impress her.

Use some pesticides and throw it in my brain

If you want to, only if you want to

Bed bugs keep me up at night and I'm going insane

If they try to, only if they try to

George watched as Clay dragged out the last note with his eyes closed and brows scrunched up. Whenever Clay performed any songs, he always felt it, and anyone watching him could see how passionate he was about what he did. It was one of the main reasons why George joined the band. When the three of them were hanging out one day, Clay had mentioned how it was his dream to start a band. Nick had asked Clay if he could sing at all, which caused Clay to prove he could by performing to them a song he was writing. Watching Clay sing and play his guitar with such passion inspired both Nick and George to help set into action Clay's dream. Nick already knew how to play the drums, but George had never touched an instrument since middle school.

George remembered when him and Clay were talking about all the different instruments that George could try to learn, and when George groaned that he would never be able to master any instrument in time for them to perform, Clay had picked up his old bass and handed it to George.

"Come on, we aren't gonna get anywhere with that attitude." Clay said as he handed the bass to George. "I'll teach you, but you're gonna have to want to learn."

George reluctantly took the instrument into his hand. The shape and weight felt foreign to him and he didn't know how to position it. Clay had chuckled at him and made a statement about how he looked like a baby deer walking for the first time. George had snapped back at him to shut up, and Clay had come up to him and adjusted the bass to the correct position. Clay brought George's hands up to the correct fingerings to play a G chord, and George remembered feeling the calluses on Clay's rough hands. Clay had been practicing his guitar and Nick his drums every day for the past month trying to make more songs, and in that moment, George felt bad for all his bitching. He forgot how hard they were both working for this dream. After the lesson with Clay that day, George went home and spent hours trying to understand the new instrument he was gifted. Clay had let him keep that bass, and George has played it on stage ever since.

As they finished up the setlist, they all grabbed their towels to wipe the sweat off. They approached the front of the stage to thank all their fans for coming to see them, then exited to the backstage.

"You guys did great as always!" Bad said as he walked them to the dressing rooms to unwind.

Clay looked frustrated. "I messed up some of the chords during the performance. If we didn't have an extra instrumental track playing in the back, it would have been so obvious."

"Hey bud, it doesn't matter! They still loved us and it doesn't take away from the overall performance!" Nick said as he tried to cheer up his friend.

"I'm sure there were some people who did notice. God, if only I didn't mess that up," Clay looked away annoyed.

George was never the best at cheering up his friend because he never knew what to say. He'd usually just support Clay by making him laugh. As they've gotten bigger and their songs becoming more popular, Clay has been getting progressively more hard on himself. He constantly got hung up on little mistakes and wouldn't let it go. George and Nick always tried their best to support him through it, but his negativity was starting to have a toll on them as well. When they were smaller, they'd play for fun in Clay's room; they didn't care if they messed up or not, because every time they were together, it just felt like they were just having fun while hanging out. Even during their smaller performances, where they could literally count the amount of people in the room, they still had fun vibing with the fans who decided to come support them.

As Clay was preoccupied with his thoughts in the changing room, Nick pulled George aside. "Ever since his breakup and we finally got on radio, Clay's been really out of it... Bro, you know how much he hates talking about his feelings. What are we supposed to do?" Nick asked, concerned.

George hated seeing his friends like this. "I'll talk to him, Nick. I hate seeing him like this too."