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Things were going pretty well, if you asked Tommy.
School had just gotten out, and he was holed up in his friend Tubbo's garage as the sun rested on the horizon. A heatwave had rolled in a few weeks ago, so the garage door was wide open and letting the entire street hear the whoops and hollers of 4 high school aged boys. It was nearly dark, so the heat didn't matter as much. It wasn't humid either, so the summer night was just perfect. 3 skateboards were sitting outside of the garage door, belonging to Ranboo, Purpled, and Tommy himself respectively.
Currently however, all four of the boys were whaling away on different instruments. Normally while they practiced, they would have the garage door closed. But due to the heatwave, they had the door open and both of the area fans that Tubbo's dad had brought down for them. Ranboo was playing the bass, Purpled the electric guitar, and Tubbo was singing. That left Tommy on the drums, which he was fine with. He actually had more experience in a band than the 3 other kids combined, but that didn't exactly end well.
Speaking of not ending well, in the middle of a chorus Tubbo's voice cracked and dragged the rest of the group out of a seeming trance that focusing on the song had put them in.
"Yknow, I think I'm gonna quit music because I got that note wrong," Tubbo laughed, motioning for Tommy to stop drumming.
"Nooo! If you do we're gonna have to get someone else to sing our shit and we've already exhausted everyone else in town!" Ranboo fake bargained in between bursts of laughter.
Purpled jumped up off of the speaker he was sitting on, and stopped the tape recorder that they used to record their practices. "All right fuckers, lets see how we did this time," He clicked play on the tape, and soon the garage was filled with the same song that they were playing earlier, just with the slight distortion of the tape running in the distance. No one understood why Purpled insisted bringing along that shitty old tape recorder, but arguments against it seemed futile in the end.
Hey mate, have you got a spare buck? This prick of a driver won't let me on the bUS-
The music on the tape was cut off by laughter after that, and a repeat of Tubbo's "I'm gonna quit music" quip. There was a thump in the audio as Purpled jumped off of the speaker, and then a click as the tape stopped. Everyone sat around, staring at each other as the silence sat on their shoulders like a weighted blanket. The silence was only interrupted by the far away jingle of the ice cream truck coming down the street. The teens hastily dropped their instruments, and picked up their skateboards.
"Last one there has to pay for everyone!" Purpled shouted, before pushing off on his board.
"Oh it's fucking on, purple fuck."
"Yo! Wait! I left mine in the house!" Tubbo complained, hopping on one foot as he pulled the shoe onto the other one.
"Gah-fine, cmere," Ranboo sighed, circling around back to the house. Tubbo, now with both of his shoes on, hopped on Ranboo's back like a koala.
"God! Now I know why Tommy calls you the clingy one."
"Shut up and drive, bitch boy."
By the time that Ranboo and Tubbo arrived at the ice cream truck, Purpled and Tommy were already sitting on the corner curb and eating their treats. Tubbo quickly jumped off of Ranboo's back, and technically made it to the truck before Ranboo. Ranboo stumbled off of his skateboard once the weight on his back was removed, and nearly tripped. Tommy erupted in peals of laughter, nearly dropping his orange cream popsicle on the grass next to the curb.
"Tubbo?? Dude? What was that for?" Ranboo asked, pulling out his wallet to pay for the group's frozen treats.
"That was for absolutely nothing. You snooze you loose, fucker!"
"YEAHHH! You get the bastard Tubs!" Tommy cheered, actually dropping his ice cream on the ground this time. That caused Purpled to take his earbuds out, and start laughing as well.
After Tommy mourned the loss of his orange ice cream, he started laughing again, this time with everyone in the group. The ice cream truck had been long gone by this time, and the sun had finally set. It was dark, and, with the urging of Tommy, decided to return back to the garage. Ranboo refused Tubbo a free ride this time, making the boy run along with the others as they skated down the street. Tubbo faired pretty well, keeping up with Tommy and Purpled as they raced to the garage door. The two exchanged curses as they zoomed down the street, with no malice behind the words whatsoever.
"HEY PURPLED DID ANYONE TELL YOU THAT YOUR HOODIE MAKES YOU LOOK LIKE THE MAN BEHIND THE SLAUGHTER?"
"SAYS THE GUY THAT LOOKS LIKE THE HUMAN EMBODIMENT OF A COKE CAN!"
Tommy startled as he saw Ranboo gliding past at a leisurely pace, sticking his tongue out at the two. They were in the home stretch, the garage was in view. It was at this moment that Tommy realized how far he had originally skated to get to the ice cream truck, but that didn't matter now. He leaned forwards to gain momentum, zooming past Purpled as the violet clad teen let out a shout of surprise. He was neck and neck with Ranboo now, speeding past mailboxes and close cut lawns.
Ranboo was using his freakishly long legs to push himself along, not using up that much energy. Tommy, on the other hand, was using science tips that he had picked up from...someone.
Who had taught him how to skate so well?
"Yeah! Just like that Tommy!"
Someone was cheering him on, standing on the side of the curb. Tommy had drumsticks in his back pocket, shiny and fairly new. Nothing like the drumsticks he had now, that were covered with the marks of hitting them too hard against the pad of a drum. They didn't have the Sharpie doodles that littered the base from the time that he had fallen asleep and Purpled had gotten a hold of his sticks. Ranboo and Tubbo had doodled some too, he could tell by the radiation symbols and the crown sketches.
The only decoration to his sticks at the time was a small smiley face doodle underneath the brand name, something to remind Tommy where he should put his fingers.
Tommy was standing on a skateboard, legs wobbly with distrust of the plank underneath him. His hands were held out to balance himself, and to put up a shield if he ever fell down face first. The guy cheering him on was sitting on the curb, with a bass guitar strung around his back. It wasn't anything like Ranboo's guitar, which had been plastered with old pages ripped out of books and splattered with purple and black paint. The man's guitar was black and white, with painted on flames licking the bottom of the frets. Much like Tommy's drumsticks, aside from the flames, the only other decoration on the guitar was a smiley face sticker.
The bassist's vibe was a complete 180 from Ranboo's as well, while instead of being secretly chaotic and making sure that everyone was doing well, this bassist seemed like one who would set the world on fire if it meant that he would be entertained for a few minutes. Right now however, he was whooping and hollering as Tommy started to move the skateboard around, pushing off and nearly falling off of the edge of the board.
"That's it dude! Try bending your knees a bit more, then you'll pick up speed!" The bassist cheered, standing up. Tommy began to pick up speed, just as the guitarist suggested, and quickly approached a nearby curb. The one problem?
He hadn't been taught how to turn yet.
"Hey? hEY? SAP? HELLO? HOW DO YOU TURN BITCH BOY? TIME SENSITIVE QUESTION!" Tommy shouted, quickly approaching the curb. If he didn't turn soon, his board would hit the curb and momentum would send him flying forwards onto the concrete of the sidewalk.
"OH SHIT! UH...HOLD ON TOMMY!" 'Sap' started to run towards Tommy, almost reaching him before the skateboard hit the curb.
Tommy was flung forwards, but instead of falling flat on his back, he rolled and ended up in the soft grass of someone's lawn. He lied down on the soft grass, and tried to catch his breath. There was the sound of grass crunching under feet as someone approached him, standing right in front of his head. They leaned down and-
"Hey Tommy, what are you doin out here? Thought you and Sapnap were practicing for the gig later. It's a really important gig and I know that you aren't that good at the drums, so I want to make sure that everything's tip top!"
The voice from behind the white mask was smiling, but the eyes were not. The leader of the band, Dream, was leaning over Tommy resting on the ground, obscuring his view of the sun. In the distance, he could see Sapnap looking somewhat apologetic. It wasn't a full face mask, but rather just one that covered his mouth and nose. On the corner, near one of the upper straps, there was that damned smiley face again. Tommy never understood his obsession with it.
"Yeah, whatever piss boy. And I am not bad at the drums, I'm so very good at them. I'm the best. Better than...better than you! All you do is sing!" Tommy retorted, sitting up and fishing his sticks from his back pocket. Sapnap picked up the skateboard, and started ushering Tommy back into the band's practice space.
Dream laughed, in a sort of resignation. "Yeah, sure gremlin."
Tommy hit the curb and got flung off of his skateboard, reaching the garage before Ranboo.
He shook his head, pushing some of his hair out of his face. Everything was the way that they had left it, the lights of the garage illuminating a small part of the yard. Ranboo's bass was sitting on a chair, the book pages pasted to the body. Tommy remembered helping Ranboo with that project, the original bass was an ugly red and green. Tommy always thought that it was "Christmas colors" and "not proper for a big man such as Ranboo".
"WHOO! I WIN!" Tommy cheered as Purpled skated into the garage, and Tubbo ran up beside him. Tubbo was clearly out of breath, resting one arm on the door of the garage. Tubbo, who could lift up Tommy's bass drum with one arm, was completely out of breath after a run.
"Yeah, sure dude." Ranboo rolls his eyes, before moving his guitar out of the way and sitting on the chair. "You gotta teach me how to skate like that! You looked like you were in some kind of race, whoever taught you must be some kind of god or something!" He smiled, leaning into the back of the chair and letting his hair hang over the side. He had bleached one side of his hair into a snow white, leaving the other be. It looked really cool.
Not that Tommy would ever admit that.
"All right, now that we've all gotten a bit of a break, let's get back to business!" Tubbo smiled, having caught his breath. "No, Purpled we won't need the recorder for this one."
"FUCK YOU!"
"Love you too bossman!"
Everyone returned back to their instruments, a comforting cacophony of sound filling the garage and spilling out onto the street. Ranboo was writing something down on his hand, and dancing his fingers over the frets of his guitar. No one knew this but Tommy and Ranboo himself, but some of the pages that Ranboo had pasted to his guitar were actually notes that Ranboo had written down himself. They helped him remember what string was what note, and where to put his fingers.
Tommy didn't quite know what Tubbo was doing, singing wasn't exactly his area of expertise so he mostly chose to leave Tubbo alone when he was practicing. Purpled on the other hand? Completely free game for annoying.
Currently, Purpled had his headphones in and was listening to something or other whilst he fingered the notes on his electric guitar. Purpled was usually listening to a different band per day, but that was to be expected. He was the one who had the idea to form the band in the first place, with the back up of Tommy and everyone else. Well, he took the credit for it. The actual person who started the band had been forgotten to time, but Tommy would swear till the end of time that it was him and not, in fact, Purpled.
It probably was, too.
"Hey big man! How's the music goin?" Tommy asked, jumping and landing on a bean bag that was placed next to the speaker where Purpled usually sat. Purpled looked down and took out an earbud to see who had landed next to him, and then rolled his eyes once he realized it was Tommy.
"Nothin much, just got into this new band. Their shit is pretty good, not gonna lie. Better than yesterday's shit, and that's sayin' something."
"Ahh! I see!" Tommy smiled, waving his hand for Purpled to pass the earbud. "Nothing can be better than my own drumming, let's see how they measure up!"
Tommy popped the other earbud into his ear, having to stretch up to make sure that the earbud could reach him. Purpled nodded, then clicked play. Loud drums and guitar immediately covered up any other sounds in the garage, which was a pretty impressive feat due to the fact that Tubbo had tackled Ranboo after finding out that instead of just buying one ice cream, the tall fuck had bought two.
Tommy approved wholeheartedly.
After he started to tune out the background noise echoing off of the walls of the garage, he started to recognize the singer from the band Purpled was playing for him. God, where had he heard this band before? It couldn't have been that long ago...
"Hey big man, whatchya listenin' to?"
Tommy ran over to someone resting next to a speaker, with earbuds in his ears. He was fiddling around with an electric guitar, with a baby blue body and white fretboard. There were some mushrooms dotting the bottom of the body. He had sunglasses on, the white rim bigger than the actual lenses. Tommy never understood why he wore them, something about "being stylish one.". Tommy was stylish!
The guy looked up, brushing his hair away from the lenses of the sunglasses. "Oh, it's you. You wanna hear? Just found this band and I kinda like their stuff. Called Destroy Boys."
Tommy nodded, grabbing the earbud that was handed to him. The drums in the background sounded amazing...Tommy wished that one day he could drum like that. He didn't have that much experience, he had just picked up drumming a few months ago. It was a miracle that he had been chosen as the drummer for this band! The guitar was awesome as well, angry and loud and in your face. Sapnap was like that, but he was on bass. Tommy frequently wondered why George had been picked for electric guitar.
"Woah! This is so cool big man!" Tommy smiled, nodding his head along to the beat. "What's the name of the band again? Gonna have to see if I can get some of their albums."
"Destroy Boys, and yeah, their stuff is really good. I wanna see them in concert some time." George agreed, ghosting his fingers along the board of the guitar in time with the music. It was common for the musicians to mime playing their own instruments to a song that they liked, even if they didn't know the exact notes or rhythm patterns. Tommy was doing the same, drumming the air with his pointer fingers and stamping his foot along to the bass drum.
"DUDE! If you ever get tickets, you gotta take me! Or...or I'll burn your house down bitch!" Tommy cursed, jumping up. That caused the earbud to get yanked out of his ear, and fall to the hard concrete floor. It split in half, something that he'd seen happen to George's earbuds before, but something just didn't seem right about this time. He was the one who broke them. Oh god, that means that-
"Tommy! What happened here?"
Dream walked into the practice space, carrying a mic stand plus a few new speakers. His side bag was open a bit and there was some sort of paper in there. Probably wasn't important right now. What was important to Tommy however, was the fact that he was standing right in front of him and motioning to the broken ear bud on the ground.
"It's no biggie Dream, Tommy just got excited about the band that I showed him," George yawned, picking up the broken ear bud and snapping it back together. He popped it in his ear, and tuned out the rest of the conversation.
Tommy kinda wished he hadn't done that.
"Well, he broke your stuff. He should apologize for it. Apologize, Tommy," Dream insisted, starting to set up his mic. In the background, Sapnap started paying more attention to actually practicing than calling his friends in a rival band. The vibes always changed when Dream was on the scene, and Tommy was starting to understand why.
"Sorry, big man. Sorry that I broke your old ass earbuds. Y'know, you should totally get a new pair if I broke them that easy-" Tommy started, before getting interrupted by a hand on his shoulder.
"Tommy, that isn't how you apologize, you gotta be sincere! If you aren't sincere, no one's going to believe you. Take me for example, I don't completely believe that you broke George's headphones on accident. Can you hand me your sticks?"
"My sticks?!" Tommy was flabbergasted. He didn't mean to break George's headphones, he meant it! He was just trying to lighten the mood. "What for man?! We got a gig soon, you told me yesterday when Sapnap was teaching me how to skate!"
"Well...think of it as kind of a vacation! I'll give you back your sticks right before the gig, don't worry. Maybe you should take some time away from the band, you seem to be really stressed! Maybe go hang out at the park or something, too much stress isn't good for a kid your age."
"Fine, whatever..." Tommy handed his sticks over to Dream, and started walking towards the exit of the practice area.
"Oh yeah, I've heard this band before! Destroy Boys, right?" Tommy smiles, nodding his head along to the beat. "Their shit is cool. We should do a cover of one of their songs!"
"Yeah, that would be cool!" Purpled agreed, yanking the earbud out of Tommy's ear. "Now, get back to your practicing bitch boy."
"Fine fine, whatever! I'm still gonna beat you!"
Beat me in what?"
"Being pog!" Tommy smiles, before walking over and sitting down at the drum set. It's an older one, borrowed from someone ages ago. He tapped the bass pedal a couple of times, and played a quick run on the snare and cymbals. It sounded good enough, but there was just something that he couldn't place his finger on that made the quick warm up sound wrong. Was it not on time? Was it rushed? Fuck if Tommy knew, he was better at playing when everyone else was. It was hard for him to just pick up a drumstick and play a line.
It was kind of a miracle that no one had noticed yet, but maybe that was due to the fact that no one else was a drummer and this band had just been started up a few months earlier. They hadn't even gotten their first gig yet, but they were practicing.
Ranboo had finally gotten Tubbo off of his back, and was practicing the bass line to the song they were preforming earlier. He had gotten a lot better from when they started, and that could be said for anyone in the band. Tubbo, on the other hand, was rooting through his backpack and looking for something. Tubbo had told everyone earlier that he "had a surprise" and that "it was gonna be so cool man". Tommy trusted him 100%.
Everyone was doing their own thing, but no one was really being ignored. They would still consider this "practicing as a group", even if they weren't all setting up for a song. It was comfortable.
Tommy couldn't quite place his finger on when it started being not as comfy, but it sure happened.
Was it when everyone practicing their instruments dulled to a background noise that just didn't seem right ? Or was it when Tubbo finally found the stuff he was looking for. Either way, something set Tommy's nerves ablaze, and he was just waiting for the other shoe to drop. He wasn't sure when the first one dropped, unfortunately. Maybe there was only one shoe to begin with.
"Hey! Dudes! Cmere, I got something for us!" Tubbo called, waving a handful of papers in the air and standing in the middle of the garage. Ranboo walked over and plopped down on a blanket, bass strung over his shoulder. Purpled took out his headphones, and looked up. Tubbo motioned for him to come closer, so with a roll of his eyes Purpled started walking towards the center. Tommy joined everyone else, sitting down next to Ranboo. He ran his hands up and down his drumsticks, flipping them on his fingers absentmindedly.
Well, it wasn't completely absentmindedly. Tommy found that he did this every time something worrying was about to happen, so he took this knowledge and stored it deep down in his head. There was nothing to worry about, this was his band! With his friends! No sweat, there weren't any expectations riding on his shoulders.
"So we all liked the song that we were playing earlier, right?" Tubbo asked, getting some nods and a "yup!" from Ranboo. "So I decided to go out and print the sheet music for the song! Because I think we were all relying on the internet to remember the fingerings and notes."
Tubbo handed out the sheet music to every member, according to their instrument of choice. Purpled and Ranboo took the sheet with a smile, they had really been hoping for something like this. Tommy on the other hand? He wished that he could say the same.
He should be able to remember this. He'd played this song before! Sure, the notes weren't exactly the same every time, and sure, it never sounded right , but he'd played it! And people complemented him for how well he played the drums! But this? This was a whole other bag. As Tommy looked down at the sheet music, it was like a foreign language had been placed in front of him and he was expected to speak aloud and fluently. A language that he had known at one point. He knew the basics, like whole, half, quarter, and rests, but seeing them on the page with the barred measure next to them made them look alien and weird. It wasn't right.
"Alright, now that we've gotten the sheet music, lets run through it!" Tubbo smiled, starting to set up his mic. Purpled perched back on top of the speaker, and Ranboo started plugging in his bass to a different speaker. Tommy tripped as he got up and started walking to his drum set, dropping his drum sticks and almost letting them roll under Purpled's speaker.
"We all good?"
A few thumbs up, and a half-hearted nod from Tommy.
"Lets go bossmen!
Thank god that the first few measures were Ranboo playing on the bass, before Tommy came in with an alternating pattern of quarters on two different drums. He'd done this perfectly before, but now that he had the sheet in front of him, he couldn't tell if he was doing it right. Was he? Shit, he just messed that note up due to his worrying. God, he hoped that no one noticed that.
I spent my bus money on a six pack, now I'm stuck in the junga with no way back,
It was fairly the same pattern for the next few lyrics after that, but what really tripped Tommy up was when the first verse ended and there was a small bridge in between the first and second verses. It was usually his favorite to play, but this time, the notes just looked intimidating. Was everyone else noticing? What was he going to do? Were they going to kick Tommy out of his own band?
I spent my bus money on a 5 buck scratchy, then I walked home, broke and unhappy.
This was the same pattern as the beginning of the song, but he just fucked it. How did he not recognize that it was the same pattern? Did he wait too long or too short? Was he hitting the beat on the up or the down? He was always told to count the beat with his foot, but he could never focus on playing the drum at the same time as his feet. He used to love playing the drums. He still did! He was...he was sure of it. Yeah.
Hey mate, have you got a spare buck? This prick of a driver wont let me on the bus.
Hey! That's the line that Tubbo messed up last time! Tommy's so proud of him for getting that line right-and oh fuck this is where Ranboo and Purpled slowed down and he should to. Why was he still in the same time signature as before? This is the big bit before the chorus-
I feel bad asking, I really do, but all I want is a buck or two!
Tommy freezes. He freezes with his sticks hovering over the pads of the drums, unable to make them move. If he starts drumming again, he'd fuck up the timing. If he stops, like he already did, everyone else will just continue playing. It'll make the song sound weird, but it wont be as bad as fucking up the timing. He'd played this part before. Its the part he liked the most, where he got to go full speed and let all of his emotions out onto the pads of the drums. Normally he would be smiling. But now Tommy is staring at the sheet music, the notes seemingly taunting him. Was he playing it right before? He didn't know. He could try to make his hands play again, but he. Just. Couldn't.
Tears started forming in the corners of his eyes, urged on by the absence of percussion when there should have been. It didn't sound right when he played, but it sounded even worse when he didn't. He was messing everything up, and Tubbo's gonna kick him out of the band if he put the two together.
Ranboo looked over his shoulder, trying to figure out why Tommy had stopped playing. Everyone had their off days, like how a few hours ago Tubbo had fucked the pre-chorus. Ranboo locked his eyes with Tommy's, or as much as he could. Tommy was really going through something, but it was near the end of the song. They could just stop, but it was better to see the song through to the end.
The ending didn't come soon enough to Tommy, it felt as if the last few measures lasted hours as he just stood there, staring at his hands gripping the drumsticks hovering over the skin of the drums. Small pools of tears were collecting on the drums, but he didn't make any noise. If he alerted people to the fact that he was crying, they'd stop preforming and look at him. And he didn't really feel like being looked at right now.
He wasn't really sure when the band stopped playing, but he was brought back by a hand resting lightly on his shoulder. He followed arm connected to the hand up to the person's face, and realized it was Tubbo.
He didn't look upset or mad, just a bit confused.
"Hey big man, do-"
"-you not know how to read sheet music?!"
Dream was furious. It was a day before the gig, and he had figured out that Tommy hadn't been looking at the sheet music. "It cost me money to go and print those! And just now you tell me that you don't know how to read the god damned sheet?!"
"Look big man, it's no biggie, I can just fake it till I make it! Ahah..." Tommy joked, trying to keep the mood light. It wasn't easy, Dream really did look pissed. He normally didn't curse either, only when something really bad had happened. Did Tommy fuck up again? He had just gotten his sticks back, and now he didn't know what was going to happen.
"It IS a big deal! We're going to have to cancel the gig now! Look at what you've done, this is all your fault! I shouldn't have even let you join this fucking band!" Dream cursed, running his fingers through his hair. Tommy didn't want the gig to be cancelled! It was going to be his very first performance, and he'd spent hours gushing to Sapnap about how excited he was to be on stage and have the lights shining in his face.
"Hey, Dream, maybe chill a bit? He's just a kid," Sapnap tried to interrupt the one sided argument, but got a death glare as an answer.
"He should know better! He's in high school, for fucks sake!"
"No, no it's ok! You can find another drummer, but you can still go to the gig!" Tommy tried to reason, not completely confident in his decision. He knew it would make Dream happy though, and he didn't want more trouble than he had already caused. If he caused more, Dream would drag his name through the mud so much that he'd never be able to actually start drumming for another band. It was much better to throw the towel in than get stuck.
"Fine! Fucking fine! Take your sticks and leave!" Dream shouted as Tommy started to pack up his stuff, shoving his switch and headphones back into his backpack. "You could've gone so far! Just know that you're throwing something away here!"
"Do you not know how to read music?" Tubbo asked, no malice in his voice what so ever. It was an honest question, with nothing behind it. It didn't stop Tommy from lying however.
"Nah, nah I...I just got tired I guess..."
"Tommy." Ranboo butted in, resting his sunglasses on his shirt collar. "You are horrible at lying. We aren't mad!"
"Are you sure? Cause you all look really upset and I don't wanna make you mad and I don't wanna get kicked out-"
"Hold the phone," Purpled joined the conversation, looking up from his phone. "Why would we kick you out of the band? You're like...the best musician out of all of us. OW! Ok, out of me and Ranboo."
Tommy let out a sigh of relief, a bit more sure that Tubbo wasn't furious with him. He didn't completely believe that they weren't all mad at him, but Tommy felt like he could at least trust them. They were his friends, after all, and friends don't just kick you out of your band after one tiny mistake.
Real friends didn't.
"Yeah...I never really learned how to read sheet music...I mean I can! Somewhat, but when I have to look at it when I'm preforming or practicing it just goes all fucky. It's like I'm blind or some shit!" Tommy joked, shrugging off worries like a sweater. Everyone looked understanding, to different degrees. Tubbo was thinking about some trick to help Tommy preform better, without having to read sheet music. He had been doing well, actually. Tubbo didn't even know that he was just listening to the song, and then copying the drummer's pattern! Purpled nodded, then returned back to his speaker.
Ranboo walked up to Tommy and lightly punched him on the shoulder, before resting lightly on a drum pad. "Yo dude, why didn't you tell me when we were working on my guitar! I literally told you all about how I have horrible memory towards music!" He laughed.
"Well, that's because you have a horrible memory period! You can't remember your lefts from your rights!" Tommy laughed, nearly doubling over.
"God! I can't win here!"
Tommy and Ranboo continued arguing, and Tubbo ended up joining in to try and "solve this debate legally". This is what he got from law class, Tommy assumed. The worry from earlier had all but faded into a background prick at this point, nothing important to be thought about. He knew that his friends wouldn't leave him.
Later in the night, the wind picked up. Tubbo snuck everyone into his house, past his father sleeping in his room. They snuck out onto the roof, sitting near Tubbo's window. Green leaves blew in the wind, hailing in gray clouds. It seemed like it was going to rain tomorrow, a break in the heatwave. It was welcomed by everyone, as they had nearly been melting the entire week. Some debris got picked up off of the street by the wind, and deposited right in Tommy's face.
"WHAT THE FUC- GET THIS THING OFF OF ME!" he shouted, grabbing at the sheet of paper that had been blown off of the street. Tommy eventually got it off of his face, and held it out in front of him. It was some kind of ad, but he couldn't quite see the lettering because his eyes hadn't adjusted to the darkness enough to read. He let the ad go with a shrug and a: "Eh, just some advert."
Tubbo caught the ad before it blew off of the roof, and leaned into the light of his window to read it. "YO! DUDE WHY'D YOU LET GO OF THIS??"
"What dumb thing did Tommy almost do now?" Ranboo asked, propping himself up on his arms to look over to Tubbo. Purpled also looked up from his DS, and took out his earbuds.
"It's an ad for a band competition bossman...and we're going to win it."