Michael's P.O.V.
"Hey," I greet as Calum walks through my front door.
"Hey," he nods back. "Sorry for the late notice, but I just finished the song, like, two hours ago and I need to show it to you guys."
"You're lucky I had no plans today," I reply, watching him move around the couch and get comfortable on it.
"Yeah, where are you parents?" he asks, realizing it's unusually quiet in my house.
"They have a Christmas party for work," I answer. "They probably won't be home until really late."
"Ah, well I'm also lucky all of you don't have anything going on. Luke and Ashton should be here soon. I texted both of them," Calum informs.
"Sweet," I respond.
We watch some TV while we wait for the others to arrive and chat about our day, although both of us didn't do much earlier. I've just been chilling at home and Calum's been writing the song, so it's been a leisure day for us. Soon, Luke enters in and joins us and now we're all lingering until Ashton shows up. Luke is really excited to hear Calum's song and demands to see the music, but Calum smacks his hand away and tells him to be patient. I'm dying of laughter from these two by the time Ashton turns up, unexpectedly with Monica right behind him. I'm totally fine with her being here, but walking in with Ashton?
She acknowledges me with a "hey" as she rests on the couch next to me.
"So, what have you been up to all day?" I question curiously.
"Christmas shopping," she huffs.
"Already?"
"It's only going to get crazier as the days go by, Mikey," she replies.
"Yeah, you have a good point there, and speaking of crazy shoppers, you didn't go alone, did you?" I ask, half hoping she went with Tatiana. First of all, I obviously want her to be safe, and second, the jealousy is returning and I don't want to hear that she was with...
"No, I wasn't alone. Ashton came with me," Monica answers. "He texted me this morning saying he was bored so I invited him to come Christmas shopping with me."
"Wait, you have his number?" I inquire. I don't even have his number yet.
"Yeah," she replies with her eyebrows raised. "Aw, is someone jealous I didn't take him shopping with me?"
I'm envious for a different reason, but at the same time, yes. I'm slightly disappointed she didn't include me, considering she usually always does.
"A little," I respond honestly.
"Don't worry, I still have more to do so you'll definitely be able to go," she says.
"Hey, guys, we're already in the garage," Luke announces, entering in the living room. Looking around, I notice no one else is in here. Oops.
"Sorry," I apologize. I scramble off of the couch and follow Luke into the garage, Monica trailing behind me. As we head in, Calum's sitting patiently at the microphone while Ashton's relaxed in one of the chairs by the desk area, facing the stage.
"Calum's going to show us his new song first, and then we're going to rearrange it for all of us to play it," Luke explains, taking a seat next to Ashton. I relax in the chair on the other side of Ashton and Monica settles down next to me.
"This song goes out to all of you lovers out there," Calum introduces into the microphone, saying it in a deep, sexy, hilarious voice. I chuckle and notice everyone else has a smile on their faces.
Calum begins playing a few chords on his guitar before singing really powerful lyrics. His voice definitely fits the tone of the song and it's brilliant. I am so glad he's able to write songs because compared to me, his songs are heavenly and mine are trash. Well, I've only written about three songs, but they're terrible, especially in contrast to Calum's. He's amazing.
Once he's finished, all of us applaud him and he flashes us a huge smile, appreciating the response. This is our cue to stand up and prepare to rehearse, to which we do. Walking over, I grab my only guitar, an acoustic, and slide it around my body, tuning it. I really want an electric guitar, but they're very expensive. I'm hoping if I beg my parents enough, they'll give in and buy me one. I'm also wondering if they're understanding how much music means to me and how serious I'm taking this band because that will help in earning an electric guitar.
Luckily for Calum's song, an acoustic guitar works really well with it. Luke is going to try and put some electric in it while Calum figures out bass and Ashton determines the drums. Calum hands me the music since he wrote it on an acoustic guitar and basically I'm just going to copy what he did. Focusing on the chords, I sightread the music and even though I mess up a few times, it's pretty easy. I play through it one more time before I hand it to Luke and we work on it together. Luke adds in some riffs and harmonies and it sounds amazing. Soon, Calum joins us and since he wrote it, he kind of already figured out his bass lines, so it doesn't take long for him to have it down. Once all three of us are somewhat comfortable on our guitars, we include Ashton. While Luke and I were calculating our guitar parts, Calum was explaining to Ashton how he wanted the drums to sound, so Ashton has an idea of what to do. It takes us a few tries and a couple weird faces from Monica before we all believe everything sounds pretty good, excluding the minor errors. We play it through two more times before we move on to other stuff, establishing that we have a new song and it seems great. Just a little bit more practice on it and it's almost stage ready.
The rest of the rehearsal is spent reviewing our old material for the sake of remembering it and perfecting it. We're hoping to be doing more gigs soon and we just need to be ready, considering we don't have enough of our own songs to perform so we have to practice covers, which isn't bad. I love performing covers because it shows the audience the kind of music we play and love. Also, it's hard to enjoy someone's music when you don't know their style and you haven't even heard the song yet, so by playing covers, it engages our audience in our show by presenting them with songs they already know and hopefully appreciate, too.
Once we're tired out from playing, we chill in the living room and one by one, my band members depart, leaving me with Monica.
"Hey, what's Tatiana doing tonight?" I ask, wondering if we could all have a movie night.
"Um, I don't know. I don't think she has anything going on," Monica replies. She takes out her phone and texts Tatiana, hoping she's available.
"Should we have our usual dinner and a movie?" I question with a smile. Our version of dinner and a movie is ordering pizza and renting a film from Netflix.
"Sure, I could go for some pizza right now," she laughs. Picking up my phone, I speed dial the pizza place and call in our usual order. The employee on the other line says it will be delivered in about twenty minutes and just as I end the call, Tatiana walks through the door.
"That was fast," I declare, watching her sit next to Monica.
"Mikey, I live down the block. It doesn't take me that long to get here," she remarks.
"We're having our dinner and a movie night, just so you know," Monica informs her.
"Awesome, I'm glad I haven't had dinner yet," Tatiana says.
"Pizza should be here in about twenty minutes," I notify and the girls nod.
"Hey, Tatiana, I've got something to tell you and it's not exactly good," Monica starts, looking at me. I face towards them and I'm curious for what this is.
"Oh no, it's not Ashton, is it?" Tatiana asks. So Tatiana knows about Ashton now and it seems like they've talked about him. Yup, something's going on with him and Monica and I intend to find out.
"No, it's nothing about him," Monica responds. "It's actually Galaxy stuff." Ding! And the imaginary light bulb appears over my head.
"Okay," Tatiana answers, motioning for her to continue.
"There's this storm that's going to hit the east coast sometime soon. It's not a regular storm, but a magic made storm. It was originally a project of creating a cloud, but it got out of hand and as time went by, it grew into a powerful storm. Basically, it's going to wipe out the entire Earth," Monica explains.
"Oh, my God," Tatiana breathes, freaking out.
"But only if it can't be stopped," Monica advances. "It can only be stopped by magic and since our scientists have been predicting when it will hit, they have figured out that they need a team of ten Galaxies to end this storm once and for all. Apparently, the strongest Galaxies are those between the ages of sixteen and twenty, so our headquarters or government or whatever you want to call them, chose the ten strongest Galaxies between those ages to take on this mission."
"Wait, you're not saying..." Tatiana trails off and Monica nods.
"I've been picked to stop this horrible storm," she finishes.
"Oh, my God," Tatiana repeats. "No! I'm not letting you do it!"
"I have to. I've been chosen. I can't go back," Monica tells her.
Tatiana whips around and points at me. "Did you get picked, too?!"
"No, just Monica," I whisper.
"Did you want to do this?" Tatiana asks Monica.
"Hell no. I could die out there! I don't want to do this but I have no choice!" she cries. Both of them have tears in their eyes and even I'm feeling a little depressed. They hug each other and grieve for Monica while I try and focus on the TV. I don't want to think about this right now, but with my two girls sitting there crying, it doesn't help. I end up switching couches and joining their hug, my cheeks becoming wet. I don't want to lose Monica. I love her so much and it hurts to even think of her trying to kill this dangerous storm, resulting in a few broken bones, many months in a hospital, and the worst, death.
"Okay, okay, I didn't come here to have a crying session," Tatiana announces, unfolding from the hug.
"Sorry, I just thought I'd let you know," Monica responds.
"I know, and thank you," Tatiana replies.
"Alright, should we choose the movie now? The pizza should be here any minute," I say, changing the subject.
"Sure," the girls answer. I hear them sniffing as I boot up Netflix and look through the films. We need a comedy after what just happened, so I flip through the comedy tag, finding a few movies that seem fitting for us. After asking for their opinion, we agree on one and I select it, just as the doorbell rings for the pizza. I get up to deal with it and open the door to smell freshly baked pizzas waiting to be eaten. Paying the delivery guy, I shut the door and head back in to the living room, setting the pizzas on the coffee table. We dig in and the movie begins.
The most amazing feeling is when you're stuffed with pizza so your stomach hurts and then you're also watching a hilarious movie so you're laughing a lot which causes your stomach to hurt a little bit more, all on top of being with your best friends. It may sound painful, but it's worth it.
Halfway through the second movie, we're in our usual cuddle train again and I have a feeling someone's asleep, judging by the quiet snores that are still audible to hear. I think it's Tatiana because she's the farthest away from me.
Suddenly, the doorbell chimes again and I glance at the clock.
"Who is here at almost one in the morning?" Monica groans. Exactly my thoughts.
"Hold on, I'll get the door," I reply, trying as carefully as possible to not disturb Tatiana and pad to the front door. Opening it, I see Calum on my doorstep panting and freaking out.
"Calum?" I question.
He swallows and takes a breath before spitting out, "It's Ashton. They had a house fire and him and his family are in the hospital."
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Filler chapter...but next chapter is my absolute favorite (of what I have written so far)!
Rachel :)