~ BRAD ~
...Wednesday afternoon...
"So, do you two hobbits need something?" Their music teacher told them, then they shook their heads no. Apparently, she just asked the two boys, as part of their success in their first composition together, to perform their second composition live for the whole school to hear.
"Alright, I'll leave you here in the practise room. In the meantime, you can both work on your performance here while the rest of the class can work on their second song." She said as she left the two boys, then they looked at each other.
"Brad, I don't think I can do this." Connor told him, and Brad just gave him a pat on the shoulder.
"Hey, you'll do great. I promise." He said, but Connor just shook his head in disagreement.
"Look, Connor, I'm scared, too, but we were here for a reason. We're here because we did great. I'm sure we'll do even better this time." Brad told him with a smile, then Connor smiled back as a reply.
"You're right." Connor told him after sighing in surrender. He knew very well that Brad was right. They both went to the instruments that they were going to play. The practise room is filled with lots of instruments - an upright piano, many types of guitars, and a drum kit. The practise room can only be accessed by teachers or by authorised students.
"So, do you have any ideas?" Brad asked him. Connor immediately remembered something.
"I wrote a song two days ago, do you want to hear it?" Connor asked him, then Brad gestured him to go ahead.
Brad immediately regretted what he did. While Connor sang the song he composed, Brad realised that not only the song was beautiful, but also the person singing it, as well. When Connor was done singing, Brad immediately gave him a round of applause.
"That was so good, Con! How'd you write that? It was unweal!" Brad told him, then Connor giggled a little.
"This may sound soppy, but I thought of writing a song for Kath. I miss her a lot, and even if I didn't love her as my lover, I loved her as a friend, and I'd like to go back to all the happy times I've had with her." He said, then Brad started nodding in agreement.
The two boys worked together to make the song better and to make arrangements, then Tristan walked in the room.
"Hey Tris." Brad told him, and Tristan just returned a smile. Brad was about to pick his bag up when Tristan stopped him from doing so.
"No, no, I want to hear what you guys were working on." He said, then Brad shrugged. He looked at Connor, who was looking at the door. Brad followed Connor's gaze to someone familiar.
James.
"I want to hear it as well." James told them, then Brad and Connor shrugged their shoulders together. Brad sat behind the piano and Connor stood next to him with an acoustic guitar. They started playing the song they just polished.
You tell me I'm a friend
But confused minds and blurred lines
Have brought it to an end
And all that is left now
Is where it's going to end
And I don't know, no
Brad was surprised when he saw Tristan walking toward the drum kit. After Brad sang the last line, Tristan started playing the drums. The song's vibe became more band-ish, and Brad loved it. When he looked at Connor, Connor had a huge smile on his face. James rushed to plug in an electric guitar during the second part of the first verse, then he joined in time for the chorus and started doing riffs that fitted the song.
When they were done, they were amazed by what they just did. Brad thought that the four of them blended really well together.
"That sounded really cool!" Brad told them, then he looked at the other three boys smiling in agreement. Everything was happy for a second until James coughed.
"Connor, come on, we still have things to do." James told his friend, who grabbed his things and went with James in confusion. Tristan, who's facial expression was incomprehensible, went beside his boyfriend, then they grabbed their things and walked out of the music room, as well.
~ JAMES ~
He loved the song. He loved playing with the guys, even if he didn't know Brad well enough yet. It was his alter-ego that made him cough harshly. In fact, it was his alter-ego that made him shut Tristan out.
While they were playing, James looked at Tristan from time to time. He can't believe that he didn't want to listen to Tristan when he was trying to explain something. As much as he wanted to let Tristan explain why he got mad at him, James didn't let him.
"Are you alright?" Connor asked James as they walked down the corridor. James shook his head no, and Connor just nodded. When they got to his car, Connor decided to talk.
"Do you mind telling me what's bothering you?"
"My mum took Sophie from us yesterday." James decided not to tell him about the whole Tristan thing.
"Oh. I think that's good." Connor told him coolly. James was surprised by his answer.
"Are you insane?" James told him harshly.
"No. I mean, she's just going to your mum, who I don't know, by the way..." Connor drifted off. James knew that it was probably because he was looking at him with a sharp glare.
"Connor, are you mad?"
"I'm not."
"Don't you remember what I told you last week?"
"Last week?" Connor drifted off, again. James felt offended, and he opened Connor's car door.
"Get out." James told him, then Connor started climbing out. Once Connor closed the door, James locked the doors and started driving away, leaving his best friend alone.
How could Connor forget something that big?
~ TRISTAN ~
"Tristan?" Brad asked him while they walked out of the music room.
"Yes?" Tristan replied to him.
"I thought you were mad at me yesterday."
"I wasn't mad at you, okay." Tristan started to explain. "I also didn't mean to shut you out, as well. I actually went to the music room to apologise to you."
"Really?" Brad asked him.
"Well, yeah, I mean, I was being too hard on you as a boyfriend. You don't deserve that." Tristan told him with a smile. Brad lovingly smiled back, then he held hands with his boyfriend.
"Also, you didn't tell me you could play the drums." Brad told him, and Tristan just chuckled.
"It's a secret talent of mine."
"I see. You're really good."
"Not as good as you on the piano."
"You're just saying that."
"I'm not! Seriously, Bear, I guess that's the reason why your music teacher liked you very much." Tristan told him, but when he looked at his boyfriend, he saw that Brad's smile on his face was replaced with a slight frown.
"Are you bothered?" Brad asked him while looking up. Tristan didn't really mind their height difference - in fact, it just made them closer.
"By who?"
"By Connor? I mean, he was playing with us a while ago."
"To be honest, I'm not. I told you before, right?" Tristan told him, and Brad just looked at him confused, as if he had no idea what the hell Tristan was saying.
"You know what? Nevermind. I think you play guitar amazingly, too." Tristan told him, then Brad guffawed in reply.
"Tristan, stop! You know what? I think your jawline..."
They kept on complimenting each other until they went their own ways.
Once he was done with his homework and his kitchen duties, he went to the bar where James worked.
His boss was there to help him yesterday - he gave Tristan a book of recipes so that he'll know what to do when people ask for orders. Working at the bar wasn't really that fun because of some of the customers - especially the regular customer that was actually James' mum and was horrid to everyone - but he enjoyed making the drinks and the company of those who he worked with. They were all very nice and made Tristan not really that knackered by the end of his shift.
He was enjoying making all of the drinks, again, when a group of familiar people his age went inside the bar.
"Oh shit." Tristan muttered to himself as he dived underneath the mixing table.
"Hide me!" He whispered-shouted to the person who he was mixing drinks with, and the poor guy didn't know what was going on so he just shrugged his shoulders. Tristan tried crawling to the door that led to the workers' lockers, but then, to his misfortune, someone came out of the room and tripped over him.
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" Tristan told the guy as he stood up to help him up. The guy who fell grabbed Tristan's arm and mouthed him a thank you, and Tristan smiled back in return.
"Tristan?" One of the people from the group told him.
Oh, shoot.
"You work here?" "Please don't tell me that you work here because you're broke." "Are you actually a barman?" "Does that mean that our drinks are free?" They asked again, and he was forced to tell the truth because they were pissing him off - he's tired of dealing with their fakeness all the time.
"I'm filling in for my brother. My parents died in an accident years ago. I'm on scholarship. We don't earn enough money."
The whole group felt really sorry for him, in another universe, that is. One of them let out a chuckle.
"You're joking, right?" He asked him, and Tristan shook his head no. They all laughed their butts off.
"So you're basically a parentless loser who's broke and on scholarship? Oh my god, why are we even hanging out with you?" One of them said in disgust, and Tristan just sighed.
"You know, if you keep insulting me like that, then our friendship is over. Please, kindly leave the bar if you don't want me adding your poisonous venom into your drinks, snakes." He told them, and they just laughed more at him.
"You're going to regret saying those things, Evans." One of them told him, then they left the bar. Tristan was more than relieved when they left.
"That was great, you know. You deserve so much better company than them." His boss told him with a smile, and Tristan just smiled back.
Who cares if his reputation was ruined? He was finally a true and free man.
~ CONNOR ~
...Thursday morning...
Connor could see James walking down the corridor. They still didn't talk after yesterday's mishap. Tristan, who used to be very popular in the school, 'ruined' his own reputation by revealing that he was a barman, and that his parents were actually dead. Connor knew this, of course, but he didn't tell anyone about it. The news spread like wildfire, and almost everyone basically looked down on Tristan because of this. Connor felt very sorry for him, though - he thought that Tristan didn't deserve any of this hate.
Right now, James and Connor were the new popular 'couple' in school, even though they weren't actually a thing, or talking, for that matter. The picture was revealed to be taken by a random person who thought it was cute.
When dismissal came, Connor felt more than relieved, and he immediately met with James at his locker.
"James, I need to tell you something." Connor told him straightly once he saw James, who was putting some books in his locker.
"Go away."
"Please, James. I need to explain." Connor told his best friend, then James just let out a frustrated sigh, almost as if he's in this situation again, but then, to Connor's surprise, James acted differently from what he expected.
"Hit me up." James told him. No words came out of his mouth, but when he saw Tristan's ex-friends coming near them, Connor immediately pulled his best friend's arm and walked swiftly towards the parking lot. James trailed behind, of course.
"James, promise me that you'll believe every word I say, okay?" Connor told James, who nodded his head in reply.
"Two weeks ago, when my dad found out that I was gay, Kath came by my side to comfort me. I accidentally told her that I wanted to switch minds with my soulmate, and it happened. Things just got back to normal last Sunday."
"Wait, what?"
"Kath has magical powers. That's the reason why she died. My wish required magic that was stronger beyond belief. She had to go, even if I didn't want her to." A single tear fell from Connor's cheek.
"Hold on, time out. I know it's not possible, but since I promised to believe you, who did you switch minds with?" James asked him. Connor breathed deeply before telling him.
"Brad." Connor told him, then James just laughed at him.
"I think that joke's really funny, Con."
"I'm not even kidding, James!" Connor told him, and James just smirked.
"Sorry for the word, but, bullshit, Con. I hung out with you last week. I told you a huge secret of mine. You're just making up excuses. Goodbye." James said as he walked out, leaving Connor alone, again.
🌟🌟🌟
Here's the early update! Thank you so much for reading and for all the support, we love you! 💕💕💕 all of the support you give us really makes our days so much brighter and helps us a lot to positively deal with the stress that our schools give us on a regular basis, and we owe you so much for that, so thank you!
So 'The Vamps' performed together for the first time, James regretted shutting Tristan out, Tristan's real life story has been exposed and has been hated on, Tradley remained strong and Jonnor drifted apart. Any ideas on what the next chapter could be about? Or maybe you'd like to tell us something? We'd love to hear from you 😊😊😊
~ Kat and Dani :)
P.S. <fangirl rant moment you may want to skip lol> WHAT'S UP WITH THE PHOTOS ON THEIR INSTAGRAM? ARE THEY TRYING TO KILL US OR SOMETHING?!?!?! AND WHO GAVE OUR BRAINS THE RIGHT TO REMIND US THAT THEY'RE TURNING 21, 22, AND 23 THIS YEAR?
Published: 22/01/17
Updated: 27/02/17