"I told you JJ was going to be pissed." Brant said as we got out of his office and got into the elevator. We just sat through a long ass rant about how I had no pictures of Spider-Man since The Hydroman Fight. A few days had passed since the GCW show. Surprisingly enough things with Laura were completely normal. It didn't feel too weird talking to her after the kiss and all. She had been hanging out with me more at school though.
"Look, this whole robbing joints shit is getting a little old for me and I had a busy week."
"Doing what? Playing PlayStation all day?"
"...Kinda. And it was an Xbox." I said thinking back to the whole Jubilee thing.
"Ugh, well on weeks you feel like slacking off maybe you can find out what Gwen is doing and take pictures of that instead. Like the Mysterio fight or whatever."
"Yeah no thanks I'm not trying to get mind fucked."
"Alright then maybe watch her fight Rhino or something." Brant leaned against the elevator wall casually.
"I actively avoid her at school why would I go out of my way to watch her fight?"
"Money."
"Have enough of that."
"Revenge?"
"Revenge for what? What happened happened. Ain't nothing I can do about it. I'm not gonna break her leg and say some lame shit like 'this is how it felt when you broke my heart'." I said and Brant held in a laugh. But while I was talking she seemed to be surprised that I had such a rational reaction to Gwen and I's falling out.
"Are those the one liners you usually give the people you fight?" She asked me with a snarky smile. I leaned up on the wall next to her.
"Usually my one liners are more along the lines of 'Eat My Shorts' or 'Blah blah blah blah blah shut up I don't care'."
"Ah I see. I thought you were as smart as a third grader but I was giving you too much credit. Remind me to never ask for a quote from Spider-Man, I'll make up something cooler."
"A girl named Betty being cool. That's an oxymoron even before anyone gets to know you."
"What comic book did you steal that from? Oxymoron is too big of a word for you." She put an arm on my shoulder and looked up at me still with a smirk. I hadn't realized it up to this point but I was also smirking at her.
"The one I'm gonna shove up your ass if you don't stop calling me stupid." I said. She pushed me away and the smirk was gone as the elevator doors open.
"Ugh, of course you have to be disgusting." She said as we walked out.
"Hey, speaking of disgusting idiots, how are things going with you and Thompson?"
"Oh, nice try! You're just trying to get some dirt on me to get out of our little arrangement."
"I'm genuinely curious. Like how much have things really changed since you started dressing like the most in likable person in the world? I don't pay attention but I never see you two together at school. Is there any actual progress or is this just for aesthetic now?" She stopped
"... No. He hasn't noticed. He won't give me the time of day because of- Ugh, Liz Allen. I might as well be dead to him."
"Ouch. Bummer. What do you even see in the guy anyways besides, I don't know, he's good at football and is buff?"
"You wouldn't get it."
"Yeah I don't get why anyone would like Thompson but humor me."
"Look, he was my first real boyfriend, alright? And I'm still into him and he has to still be in to me! We had one thing we disagreed on and we shouldn't just end it like that! We can't. I don't... I don't really have anyone else." The fact Brant was complaining about something like this to me was disgusting after what she did to basically cause the same thing to me but I did ask her to tell me. It was also annoying that she said I wouldn't get it.
"Maybe it should be the end of it. Move on, Brant. It's better for you in the long run. And I mean this I'm not trying to be an asshole. Your first love isn't your only love."
"But he made me feel so special. Like no one else did."
"Because he was trying to get into your pants you fucking freak. As much as I fucking hate you there's some redeeming qualities about you and one day someone is going to see those and treat you special because they actually like you. And by the way you didn't break up because you 'had a disagreement'. He wanted to fuck you, you said no, and he couldn't handle a relationship without getting sexual gratification. I don't wanna know if you wanna bang him now or not because the only person I wanna know less about the sex life of than you two is my landlady, but if you don't wanna bang him then don't get back together with him and don't give it away because you think he'll make you happier than you are. It's not worth it." I said. Brant didn't know how to respond. She probably never imagined getting this type of advise from me. Before she could respond
she got a phone call.
"Give me a second, okay?" She told me before answering the phone. "Hey what's up, M?...... Uh, Yeah, I'll be there in a second, I'm just getting out of work....... Yeah (L,N)'s here too." She looked over to me. "MJ says hi."
"Hey."
"He said hi back. Anyways, tell Felicia I'll be there in a second..... Honestly I don't understand why we're even practicing without a bass player, we sound incomplete without one..... wait, he is?" Brant's eyes slightly widened before she looked over at me with a smirk. Oh please don't tell me you just fucked me over. "Well hold on, maybe I can convince him....... Listen, me and (L,N) have started to get an understanding between us ever since working on together with this project at school and now that he's working here at the Bugle. We don't necessarily like each other but we can acknowledge that we make a good pair when it comes to working together...... Gwen can get over it, like I said, (L,N) and I don't like each other but we can work together, they should be fine, at least she can see some good qualities in him." It seemed like the human decency was washing away from her by the second and the genuinely nice moment we kinda had despite me still not enjoying it completely was already a distant memory. I began walking away from the conversation before Brant grabbed onto the fabric of my jacket and pulled me back. "Well, we'll be there in about thirty minutes to prove you wrong. Don't worry, MJ, everything will be just fine. Bye." Brant finally hung up and then looked at me. "I didn't know you could play bass. Join our band."
"Absolutely not."
"Do it or the cops'll be busting down yours and Gwen's doors in thirty minutes."
"What do you gain from me joining your stupid band!? Aren't you making more problems for yourself considering you're only furthering the ties between you and the biggest villain in NYC right now?"
"One, keep your voice down! Two, don't give yourself too much credit. You're barely B Tier at best. And besides, I gain the opportunity to make more money and add 'member of successful rock band' to my résumé. Plus I get to see you squirm being in the same room with Gwen."
"You're actual human garbage." I told her and that seemed to get under her skin a little as she seemed a little more serious.
"You should be thanking me. Here's your shot to make up with Gwen that I'm giving you on a silver platter. Now I'm gonna go... change. It's not like Flash'll see me like this anyways. You should go grab your bass, band mate. I'll text you to location but wait for me, I don't want you and Gwen webbing up the place." She said before walking away.
"... Gonna kill her. Gonna fucking kill her." I muttered.
. . .
Gwen
"Gwyneth, darling, what are you doing?" Felicia asked me while applying black lipstick on. She had on real tight leather black pants and a black crop top. Honestly seeing her in all the black form-fitting clothes looked real familiar but I couldn't exactly figure out where from. It felt like I'd seen her like this a dozen times before, though.
"I'm tuning my drums." I responded.
"You have to tune drums?" Felicia asked. "Don't they just got 'bang' 'crash' no matter how you hit them?" Before she gave me the chance to respond she called out to MJ. "Hey, Janey? When's Brant showing up? She's taking forever and I have plans for tonight."
"Don't know, let me call her." MJ said before picking up her phone. MJ was wearing a torn up white Paramore "Riot!" T-Shirt and black jeans. "Hey, Betty...... we were just wondering when you were gonna get here, Felicia is getting impatient...... oh, okay. Hey didn't you say (Y,N) got a job working with you. Is he there with you?" I kinda felt my heart drop when I heard his name. "Oh, well tell him I said hi... Alright, yeah sure, just hurry...... I mean in a perfect world (Y,N) would do it. He's a bass player but you know him..... Yeah he is but I mean there's really no way that he would want to join."
"Such a shame, too. I'm sure the two of you have a lot of chemistry together, Gwyneth." Felicia teased and I just gave her a stare.
"...Wait, what? Betty seriously, don't get me wrong, you're great but I doubt (Y,N) would really listen to y-............. okay hypothetically speaking he agrees to working with you what about him and y'know........... I seriously doubt it Betty but alright....... bye." MJ put her phone down and looked at us. "So, Uh, Betty will be here in a half hour or so... and she might be bringing (Y,N)." She said through a forced smile. I just stared at her while I mentally panicked. It felt like my danger sense was going off through my whole body.
"Look, Gwen, I doubt Brant of all people is going to get (L,N) to join the band." Felicia said like she could read my mind. "And if she does, we can just fire him for being bad at bass if you're gonna cry about him."
"It really wouldn't surprise me if he walks out after one song even if he does show up." MJ said. "He seems a little too... hardcore for our type of genre."
"We don't have a genre or a sound right now! And What about L7? He loves L7! He's not gonna-" I said before stopping and taking a deep breath. "I'm flipping out for no reason. I've been too harsh on him lately. If he really wants to join he can join. But I doubt it. He does hate three out of four of us."
"Three?" Felicia asked. "(L,N) doesn't hate me."
"When's the last time you've called him by his first name or talked to him about anything despite trying to manipulate him to do your homework? I don't know if you've noticed but he's not a big fan of your whole Girlboss, Gaslight, Gatekeep vibe, Leesh."
"Oh is that your little friendly nickname for me, Gwyneth? I don't like it you should change it."
"Guys alright stop! Look, I have a feeling it's about to get real tense it a little bit so let's all just relax, okay?" MJ said. "And let's all agree to be professional for at least tonight, alright? And give (Y,N) a chance, alright?"
"You won't hear anything out of me." I said before I went back to tuning.
. . .
I showed up outside of the address Brant gave me, not really interested to be here. Honestly I don't know what Brant's game is here. If things keep going the way they are with Gwen I'm not really gonna give a shit if she goes to jail and if she keeps bossing me around Brant is really gonna remember how it feels to walk on two legs. I took out my phone and texted her.
Me: Im at the place
Fuckhead: Coincidentally I'm coming around the corner. I'll be there in like a minute. Don't do anything stupid in that time.
"This fucking bitch..." I muttered under my breath. I was standing outside of a music store named Chord-inates. The place looked completely empty and the closed sign was on. Strange for a music store to be closed around 6:30 but whatever. Surprisingly for once she wasn't lying. She walked over with a keyboard case over her shoulder, like a guitar case but a really big rectangle. She was now wearing a purple crop top with short sleeves and jeans with a necklace with a green Star on it. She also had a pink baseball cap on backwards. She actually looked kinda nice for once.
"What are you staring at?" She asked me. And there's my reminder she's anything but nice.
"A pain in my ass. What's up with the cap?" I responded.
"I didn't feel like redoing my hair after my shower."
"Well I do have to say you dirty up nicely. Again this is a lot better than your geeky Secretary look."
"Was that your lame attempt at flirting because I don't date weirdos." She said looking away.
"Flash~." I mocked her.
"Oh shut the fuck up." She said before knocking on the door. "Like I said before, I'm giving you a shot to fix things with Gwen so don't fuck it up."
"Why would you even want me to be on good terms with Gwen again?"
"I don't."
"Well I don't really know if I need to keep chasing after Gwen. Sure I miss her sometimes but honestly besides the whole blackmail thing I've been doing better off without her I think."
"Oh yeah, that sounds like someone who was best friends with someone for ten years."
"Well I mean Gwen is probably doing way better off without me anyways! You're her friend, what's she been up to lately?"
"Mostly playing drums and writing songs. She doesn't really go out much besides being Spidergirl fighting crime."
"Really? She used to always try to get me out to do stuff. Why haven't you become her surrogate social outcast she's trying to turn into a social butterfly?"
"COME ON ALREADY!" Brant ignored my question knocking even harder on the door.
"I'm coming!" I heard MJ faintly shout from inside the store. A few seconds later she walked up and wow was she hot as a skater chick. When she saw me she had to do a double take before opening the door. "Wow, (Y,N)! You actually showed up! Nice to see you outside of school, Tiger!" She said before hugging me.
"Tiger?" Brant repeated.
"Are you actually gonna play?" MJ asked.
"I mean, might as well. Also gives me an excuse to play this now." I said. She looked down and stopped.
"Wait, is that Dazzler's autograph?" She asked.
"Who?" Brant said before actually looking down at my bass. "Is that someone I'm supposed to care about?" She asked.
"Only if you have good taste for indie music or music in general, and we've established you don't."
"You met Dazzler? That's awesome!" MJ said.
"Yeah, turns out she's a friend of a friend." I simply said.
"Well come on in, guys. The other two are waiting on us." MJ said practically dragging me inside, I feel like she knew I was ready to bail at any second. We walked in and walked into the basement which seemed to be like some sort of underground recording studio. Sure enough there was Gwen sitting at the drums and Felicia was on an amp texting someone. Gwen lightly gasped when she saw me and tried to avoid eye contact. She was still wearing the jean jacket I got her, underneath it she was wearing a black shirt with a white spider on it that cut off at her stomach and she had on Jean shorts and black leggings underneath that. Also for the record, never tell anyone I said this, but Felicia looked hot next to her.
"No way you actually showed up!" Felicia said with shock in her voice.
"I can leave if you'd rather, I don't really gotta be here."
"I didn't mean it like that, (L,N)! I'm actually excited now. Someone else with good music taste showed up."
"We practically listen to the same stuff but okay." Gwen muttered.
"A band that's 80% good at music is better than 75%." Felicia said.
"Who was the one person bad at music before?" Brant asked.
"Think about it for a minute, the answer may surprise you." I told her.
"What? She's not talking about me! Right, Felicia?... Felicia?" Brant asked. Felicia just stared at her before turning back to me.
"So you're actually gonna join the band? It'll be fun~." Felicia said.
"I..." I looked at Brant and Gwen. "Doubt it."
"How about this, we try just one song with you on bass?" MJ asked. "If you're not feeling it or any problems come up we just forget the whole thing. Deal?"
"Sure, deal." I said.
"Okay, but he doesn't know any of the songs we play." Brant said.
"He knows Pretend We're Dead." Gwen really spoke up for the first time. She then saw me look at her and seemed like she got real nervous about me being there again. "Uh, hi (Y,N)." She finally spoke to me.
"Hey, Gwen. Nice shirt."
"Pretend We're Dead it is then. I totally dig that song." Felicia said.
"Come on, let's get you an amp." MJ said nudging me to follow her. We walked upstairs and once we were a safe bit away from everyone she looked at me. "Hey, are you sure you really wanna do this?"
"What do you mean? I thought you'd be the only person to actually be excited about me being here."
"I am happy you're here, I just wanna make sure you wanna be here."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Well I mean we are friends, right, Tiger?"
"I thought that was obvious when I took you to my secret spot."
"Okay, but I couldn't convince you to join the band but Betty could?" MJ said. I now realized Brant didn't really think this through. MJ is probably real suspicious of me and Brant hanging out (as she should be) and the "we don't like each other but understand each other" excuse wasn't going to fool MJ or probably anyone. I don't think I can tell MJ or Brant'll probably screw Gwen and I over, but I'm not going to help Brant keep the secret.
"If you really wanna know why I listened to Brant you could ask her and probably find out." I shrugged.
"Well still, I think it's nice that you're here still. Listening to you play with a band will be pretty interesting." MJ said with a smile.
"How'd you guys even get this place anyways?"
"Felicia rents this place out with her money and I chip in when I can. It's not too steep of a price. We play here since Felicia and I don't have garages anymore, Betty's parents wouldn't allow it and-"
"George definitely wouldn't allow a rock band to play in his garage." I said talking about Gwen's dad. MJ chuckled.
"Yeah." I picked up a new bass amp and easily put it over my shoulder. "Oh! Um, w-we're not allowed to take the newer stuff without buying it... ᴴᵃᵛᵉ ᴵ ᵐᵉⁿᵗᶦᵒⁿᵉᵈ ʸᵒᵘ'ʳᵉ ʳᵉᵃˡˡʸ ˢᵗʳᵒⁿᵍˀ"
"You have before, yes. I'll just buy this one."
"Oh, um, okay... yeah." MJ said. "So like, do you go to the gym often or something because I think that's cool if you do, or whatever."
"Mary Jane if I didn't know any better I'd think you were flirting with me." I said with a smirk.
"Flirting? For what? You're cool and all (Y,N) but the last thing I need in my crazy life right now is a relationship." We started walking back down the stairs.
"Oh yeah, how are things going with your d-"
"Not right now. I'll text you about it later. I don't want the rest of the band hearing about it." MJ interrupted.
"Okay yeah sure." I said before we got back down to the studio. Brant was practicing the riff to Pretend We're Dead on her keyboard as Felicia talked to Gwen about something Gwen obviously wasn't paying attention to as she stared at a poster. //////// I started setting up in the corner and turned on the amp before plugging my bass in. The feedback was insane as predicted and everyone held their ears in pain except Gwen who had her drumsticks in her ears before I even plugged in the amp, probably also warned by her own Spidey Sense.
"You're supposed to plug it in before you turn it on, asshole!" Brant told me.
"I know." I snickered as I strummed the E string a little.
"Oh I can already tell this is gonna be fun." Felicia wickedly smiled as she picked up her guitar. It was purple Schecter Banshee with a decal that made it look like it had white claw marks on it. MJ picked up her yellow guitar that I didn't know the brand of but it looked cool as hell. The pickups on it were pink. "Let's get going I've been itching to play all day and it's time I get to scratching."
"Alright, is everyone ready?" MJ looked around. I started pogoing in anticipation as Gwen hit her drums a couple times and said "ready" and Brant said "I'm good to go." She looked over at me.
"Just hit the countdown." Was all I said as I got into the zone.
"You heard him, Gwen." MJ said into the mic before Gwen shouted "1!2!3!4!" and I leaped into the air one final time as Felicia and I hit the opening notes and Gwen began to play drums.
After those first notes performing just kinda felt natural to me. During the intro my pogoing was less Sid Vicious like and more Krist Novoselic from Nirvana and when Gwen started nailing the drums to get to the main part of the song I started jumping higher like Sid again while Brant started playing the riff on her keyboard which sounded good surprisingly. They probably gave her that so she had something to do during the song. MJ also started playing the main chords of the song with Felicia before the verse started and I finally stayed on my feet and started playing normally except for an exaggerated up swing at the end of every note that had a bit of a break in it. Felicia l stopped playing as MJ continued strumming along and she sang the vocals.
"What's up with what's going down?
In every city and in every town?
Crampin' styles is the plan,
They've got us in the palms of every hand when we Pretend That We're Dead!"
She got into the chorus and now Felicia was playing the riff with Brant. I could tell from the drums behind me that Gwen was really into it. I noticed that Felicia was actually squatting down as she played and god damn did she must be in better shape than I thought she was to be doing that. The only one not really doing anything interesting was Brant because even though MJ didn't have that much flair, her amazing singing voice and the fact she was singing and playing at the same time made up for it. When MJ finished the chorus Brant went back to playing the riff while both Felicia and MJ played the main chords with Felicia going "c'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon..." into her microphone. I started walking while playing my bass and ended up on the left side of MJ with Felicia. MJ began the second verse as Felicia backed up into me. She looked up from her guitar to see what she hit before smirking and playfully bumping back into me again. Probably to her surprise I pushed her back playfully and she laughed for a second before we started playing back to back. The drums faltered for a split second and I looked at Gwen who had an annoyed look on her face as she looked down at her drums. Her head looked stiff like she was doing everything to avoid looking at us. Once the chorus was about to start again Felicia and I separated and I went back to the right of MJ and Felicia walked towards her mic as she would repeat "Pretend That We're Dead" after every time MJ did. Again I did some aggressive Sid Vicious style pogoing during the chorus before the interlude came about.
Everyone let their last note ring as Gwen kept playing drums. I looked back at her and she had her eyes closed with a smile on her face as she quietly bopped her head back and forth. She was vibing and she was... she was pretty cute doing it. Brant started playing the riff again as I played the bass part. I kept staring at Gwen as I did and I felt a small smile on my face before I realized I was and shook my head as I played more notes and turned back around, actually I kept spinning around as we played the chorus one more time.
"Pretend That We're Dead~!"
"Pretend That We're Dead."
"When We Pretend That We're Dead~!"
"Pretend That We're Dead."
"They can't hear a word that we said~!"
"Pretend That We're Dead."
"When we Pretend That We're Dead~!"
Mary Jane kept singing "Pretend That We're Dead" while Felicia started her own improved guitar solo and holy shit was it really good. Meanwhile she was head banging the whole time with little care in the world. My playing for the rest of the song was a lot more like Dee Dee Ramone with the fast energy and not as aggressive head bobbing. Gwen was completely lost in the music and... Brant was Brant. We kept playing until Gwen's drums indicated the last "Pretend That We're Dead" was coming up and with the last note I spun my bass around like Justin Sane from Anti-Flag and we all stopped except Felicia who was playing the same high note repeatedly sounding like it was an old timey radio transmission ending just like in the original song. After she did she walked up to her mic and looked at me.
"(Y,N) if you don't join this fucking band I'm going to kill myself." She said bluntly while breathing heavily from all the adrenaline.
"Tiger you were amazing!" MJ said.
"So you legitimately call him Tiger?" Brant said looking at MJ with a cocked eyebrow.
"I knew you could play, I didn't know you could play like that!"
"I'm not all that great, relax."
"Oh come on cut the modest bullshit. You're a fucking natural dude." Felicia said as she walked up to me. "I always figured that you rocked but I mean it's like you grabbed the best parts of every punk rocker ever and put them into one nerd."
"One nerd?" I repeated.
"That was to prove you don't have to ////// be modest." She punched me in the shoulder. "I'll tell you when and if you suck. So you're totally joining right?"
"You're surprisingly eager to have me join. What gives?"
"What gives is you rock, so what's your answer?"
"Yeah, (Y,N) listen, we'd seriously love to have you in the band, Tiger. Are you gonna join?" MJ asked. Felicia and her looked like grinning twins a few feet away from me eagerly awaiting my answer. I looked at Brant for a split second and she gave me a look of "what are you waiting for?" reminding me despite how much actual fun I had I was still being blackmailed to be here.
"Yeah, what the hell, why not?" I said. MJ and Felicia hugged me at the same time... this is very strange. They let go of me and MJ smiled.
"Great! Welcome to the Mary Janes! We don't have a whole lot of songs figured out that we know we're gonna play but we have a few songs we've written, I have the sheet music for it so you can play along using that." MJ said.
"Sheet... music?" I repeated like she was speaking a foreign language.
"Yeah, what's up?"
"(Y,N) can't read sheet music." Gwen spoke up for me.
"He what?" Brant asked holding in her laughter before bursting out in laughter.
"Shut up, Betty, I can't either." Gwen surprisingly defended me.
"Yeah but you play drums."
"Hey, it's alright. I can just write the letter the notes represent down on the paper." MJ said. "For now the rest of us can still practice so (Y,N) will know the songs better when he actually goes to play them."
. . .
I stayed and listened to the Mary Janes for the rest of their practice and honestly they were alright pretty alright without a bass, the bass is just the missing ingredient. They only had a few other songs figured out but they were good. I talked to MJ and Felicia for a second after they were done and started packing up. Brant left as well but no one paid attention to her when she said bye. When they were getting ready to walk up someone else called for me.
"Hey, uh, (Y,N)? Could you help me a little?" Gwen asked.
"Uh, yeah, sure. I'll catch up with you guys later." I told MJ and Felicia.
"Yeah, I'll have the notes ready for you tomorrow, alright?" MJ said before walking up.
"See you around, (L,N)." Felicia said before walking up with her. It left Gwen and I alone.
"So uh, what did you need help with?" I asked her.
"I actually don't need help. I keep these drums down here, this isn't my kit from home."
"Oh. So we're lying now."
"Well I mean I haven't just started lying, there was that whole thing about not telling you I was Spidergirl." She said before laughing to show it was a joke. She noticed I wasn't laughing at stopped. "That was in poor taste. My bad. I just wanted to say that I'm actually glad you joined. I mean that. It was a lot of fun playing with you again."
"I... yeah, it was fun playing again with you too. And it was nice seeing you smile for once."
"I heard you got a job. I'm happy for you."
"Thanks."
"It feels like you got everything together after we stopped being friends."
"It just kinda turned out that way I guess. If that's all you wanted to say I should probably go. I think I have to be somewhere tonight for my job."
"I- yeah, I wanted to... I wanted to say I... yeah that's everything." She said. She seemed like she really wanted to say something else but I didn't want to push it. I just took my bass and ended up leaving.
And as I got upstairs I got a phone call.