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“Did you see?” Charlie asked over the phone.
There was crying in the background on the other end of the line. Charlie could hear the man turn away from the phone to yell: “Scarlett! Let Roman play with that!”
Charlie was about to speak up again when he was startled by Danny raising his voice further. “You always wanna play with everything he’s got in his hands!”
Charlie waited, cast his eyes to the ceiling to keep himself busy until he heard Danny, in a much calmer voice, say: “What did I see?”
There were a few seconds where Charlie considered it to be almost comedic how Danny switched from an authorising dad-voice to the soft-spoken man they knew him to be. He shook his head with a smile. “The solo record is out.”
“Johnny’s been out for a while now”, Danny snorted. “He’s been bragging about it in the HUShizzz chat.”
Charlie snorted. “It’s a miracle the HUShizzz chat still exists at this point.”
Danny laughed at the comment. “Never scroll up, Charlie. It’s a cesspool.”
“It is”, Charlie agreed.
He put his feet up on the table in front of his couch and leaned his head back. “But I wasn’t talking about Johnny.”
“Oh?”
“Matt released his solo record.”
“Matty?” Danny asked, surprised. “Did the dude finally drop the songs he’s been teasing everyone about since 2017?”
“Song. He only dropped one”, Charlie said. “The Know it Alls.”
“Oh, I’m gonna go listen to that for real now”, Danny said. “Wait, why did that come out sarcastic?”
“Because he’s been claiming to release solo music ‘soon’ but it took him 4 years. Can you imagine he once complained about a record delay?”
“Yeah but we always delay our records”, Danny stated and Charlie could hear him roll his eyes at the other end of the line. “We’ll say it’s coming at the start of the year but it’s always the end.”
“Cause Johnny insists on selecting and re-selecting the tracks that make it onto the record”, Charlie huffed. “But not my point. You haven’t seen the solo song?”
“No.”
Charlie smirked. “Do you know what his stage name is?”
“Da Kurlzz, duh”, Danny said.
“No”, Charlie said. He leaned forward. “Magic Eyes.”
There was a silence at the end of the line.
“Charlie, no.”
“What?”
“No.”
“Whaat?”
“You’re not making fun of him for calling himself Magic Eyes. Don’t you dare”, Danny threatened him. Charlie huffed. “I’d never.”
“Don’t do it.”
“I wouldn’t!”
“Don’t do it.”
“What the hell, Danny! I haven’t spoken to him in months!”
“You’d contact him just to laugh at his name”, Danny teased him and Charlie folded his arms. “No, I’m contacting you for it.”
There was a loud crash on Danny’s end and Danny groaned. “Can I call you back? I gotta go clean up the mess.”
“What happened?”
“No fucking clue. At this point, I’d believe it if it were explosive toddler diarrhoea.”
Charlie laughed at the comment. They said their goodbyes and Danny hung up.
Not knowing what to do now, Charlie sent out a group chat message about Da Kurlzz’ solo song.
JayDog: I know. I congratulated him 2 days ago. It came out on the 12th, dude.
It did? Shit, Charlie had to get on their level and follow something like that more closely. But of course J-Dog would be the first to send his congratulations to Matt for releasing a song. So tame.
HuDanny: He’s trying to get you all to laugh at the stage name Magic Eyes
3Tears: Lmao, he did not pick that name.
CharlesP: He fucking did
3Tears: gay af, knew it.
FunnyMan: Lol Magic Eyes. You’re gonna tease him with it, aren’t you?
CharlesP: Psh no. I’m better than that.
He really wasn’t better than that. Charlie dialled a vaguely familiar number on his phone, waiting with a smile as the call went over.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Magic Eyes”, Charlie immediately said. He heard an exasperated sigh across the line. “For fuck’s sake, Jordon.”
“What?”
“I knew it.”
Jordon laughed. A sound indicated Matt requested the call to become a videocall. Charlie accepted, not minding how messy he looked. Things had been a mess since he lived alone in a fucking pandemic. Self-isolation becomes a form of survival and savagery at that point, swimming through the jungle that was his laundry-littered house. Matt didn’t look a day older than he did in 2015, Charlie envied him for it.
“Hey, faggot.”
Matt smiled fondly. “Hey dip.”
“Congratulations on releasing a song on your own. Only took you about 4 years of saying ‘soon’ online all the time”, Charlie teased him. Matt chuckled. “Where’s your solo record, huh? Johnny got one sooner than you.”
“Oh fuck you”, Charlie threw his head back. “You suck.”
“No, you suck”, Matt threw back at him. “You haven’t spoken to me in months and the first thing you do, is mock me about my new stage name?”
“Why’d you pick it?” Charlie asked.
Matt shrugged. “You used to like my eyes.”
There was a brief silence between them but the peaceful smile on Matt’s face held no resentment. Charlie smiled back at him. “I still do. I just think it’s funny.”
“I bet you do”, Matt shook his head. “I picked the name and went “Jordon’s gonna give me shit for this one” right away.”
“You were right. I’m gonna give you shit for it until you change it”, Charlie nodded in agreement.
Matt sighed and gave Charlie a tired look. Charlie cocked his head a little. “You know I love you, dude.”
“I know”, Matt accepted, smile returning. “I miss seeing you.”
“Well that’s gay”, Charlie huffed. Matt’s smile faltered and he glared into Charlie’s eyes, even though it just meant Matt was staring at the camera. “Dude, come on.”
Charlie couldn’t help but grin like an idiot. “I miss fucking with you, too, magic eyes.”
“Really? You can’t be serious for one second?” Da Kurlzz deadpanned.
“I am serious”, Charlie replied. “I miss messing with you on tour and with the fucking global panoramic going on, our procrastination of hanging out, has been stalled again.”
“We do keep postponing when we’ll hang out again, don’t we”, Matt wondered aloud. “I think it’s because you can’t not bug me with something and you wanna get leverage to bug me with before we hang out.”
“Probably”, Charlie agreed. “Now we’ve got magic eyes. I’ll be teasing you with it until you die, dude.”
“Good”, Kurlzz said. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“So when are you coming over?” Charlie asked.
Matt’s smile grew. “As soon as this shit dies down, I’m crashing on your couch and spending the week with you.”
“Don’t you mean “weekend”?” Charlie wondered.
“No, the week. Our bullshit doesn’t fit into a weekend.”
“Sounds about right.”