Strings

r u l e s

The brunette boy next to Akira piped up, "Shut up Akira you're going to fucking scare her away." Now he had joined in on attacking Akira. "Hi, I'm Gabriel by the way!"

Gabriel played keys. He was the sweetest of the boys but had a ton of energy and was a total goof. He joined the band after he saw a flyer online that Miller was looking for a pianist.

"Hi sorry about these fuckwads," A blonde girl with short hair and masculine features had turned to speak to me, "I'm Tate, you might remember me."

Tate played the guitar and was incredibly talented at it. She was a lot like the boys but more silent and reserved. I would describe her as the cliche silent but mysterious type. She definitely had a way with the ladies and had a new girl begging for her attention every week. Tate was my brother's best friend from high school. I remembered her from growing up, she was always hanging out in our basement with my brother. Originally my parents thought that they were dating before she came out as a lesbian. I always thought she was cool and admired her but since I was a few years younger I didn't get to know her very well. There's a few times when my brother had to take me to things with the two of them or sometimes they let me play with them in their jam sessions. They had always talked about starting a band together and now they finally had.

"Yeah, I remember you!" I said and surprised Tate by giving her an awkward hug. "You were the one that gave me a wedgie when I was 14!"

"Oh shit, I forgot about that!" Chuckled my brother.

"Oh yes, my infamous wedgies." Tate wiggled her eyes brows at me mischievously. "You know I almost didn't recognize you, you've definitely changed a lot."

"The last time you saw me was when I was 16 so I would've hoped I would have changed!" I teased, giving a little spin. 

"Don't worry you definitely..." She looked me up and down with a smirk playing on her lips.," changed."

"Ok you can stop checking out my sister now!" Miller barked and gave Tate a nice smack on the back of her head. 

"I'm joking, I'm joking. I only wanted to make you fume Miller." She looked him up and down teasingly, "seems like it worked."

Then there was my brother, Miller. He played the drums. I've always loved singing, me and Miller grew up performing mini-concerts for our parents. Our parents were big into the rock and roll lifestyle so naturally, we took after them. My brother was definitely the unspoken leader of the group. He and Tate had decided to start the band after a drunken night out partying.

We were called, The Delinquents, a name that was chosen by my brother because he thought it sounded edgy and cool, which I had teased him for at the time. We mainly covered famous rock songs, another influence from our parents.

Akira leaned over to whisper to Miller, "You didn't tell me your sister was hot." He turned to wink at me, definitely trying to peeve my brother.

"I'm not interested fuck face." I tossed up a lazy middle finger from where I was seated not looking up from the very interesting activity of picking at my nail beds. This earned a chuckle from the group.

Putting an arm around me Tate stated, "I like your sister already!"

"BAND MEETING!" my brother announced standing up abruptly looking a little pale in the face.

Gabriel started to speak, "Bruh we're already in a band meeting-"

Miller interrupted him with a huff, "new band rule!" They looked around at each other trying to hide their laughter, "no dating and absolutely no fucking amongst band members, especially not my sister."

"It's not our fault your sister is hot!" Akira whined. Miller looked like he was about to kill him until he said, "I'm kidding Miller, I'm kidding!"

"He's not wrong you are gorgeous," Tate stated almost under her breath and turned to flash a quick toothy grin at me.

My breath caught in my throat at the compliment, not hot or sexy, but gorgeous. 

My brother groaned rubbing his face with his hands as if to erase the image in his head, "This is exactly why I made this rule."

"Thank you all for this warm welcome." I scoffed sarcastically having to bite my lip to stifle a laugh.

"Hey we haven't scared you off yet, it's progress." I looked a Gabriel quizzically. "We scared off the last lead singer we hired." He explained calmly.

"I'm sorry, you what?!"

I had to admit I was enjoying myself. The guys seemed fun and although they came on strong I could sense a friendship brewing.

"That's right baby," Akira laughed at the memory, "I think she legit ran off crying."

I turned to my brother wide-eyed, "Nice going dumbass!" I aggressively punched him in the shoulder earning a glare from him.

"You just keep getting better!" Gabriel was now on the ground pretending to bow down to me. "First you flip of Akira, then you beat up your brother, and you're fucking hot!"

He was now on the ground cackling which granted him a nice kick in the balls from Miller.

Tate was grabbing my hand pulling me towards the mic as she leaned into whisper in my ear, "Are you gonna show us what you got... baby."

And hence the nickname baby was born. Being the youngest it seemed fitting yet the way that Tate said it made goosebumps erupt on my skin.

I popped the mic off the stand, "any song requests boys?'

"Do Kiwi by Harry Styles you sound great on that one."

My brother was right I did sound pretty damn good singing Harry Styles.