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Josh's hands were shaky, his forehead was sweaty, and he was hopping from foot to foot, so you could say he was pretty nervous. It was the first time that he had ever been standing outside of a shooting range and he didn't really know what to expect inside. Even after asking all his friends and family what it would be like, and being reminded that nothing was going to go wrong, the queasy feeling in his stomach still wouldn't go away.
He finally entered the gun store after a few minutes, making his presence known by the dangling bell above the door and was quickly rushed to the back of the shop into the actual shooting range by a smaller, muscular employee that Josh didn't quite catch the name of. But Josh was definitely impressed with the short mans tattoos.
The introduction didn't last longer than 5 minutes before Josh was signing a piece of paper and being led into his own cubicle surrounded by a number of other shooters.
"Thanks," Josh whispered, unable to sound more confident as the shooting expert left him alone in the small cubicle. There were a dozen small cut off cubicles in the large room Josh was in, all facing a different set of items to shoot at. Josh looked down in his little area, noticing ear plugs, the small gun and a few rounds of ammo on the table. He let out a shaky sigh when he looked back up to the other side of the room and saw his target, a large red dot on a hanging piece of fabric dangling from the ceiling. He put in the earphones, loaded the gun just like how he had been taught only moments ago and aimed it at the red dot.
Bang The gun fire, startling Josh, making him take a few steps back to regain his balance. 'Whoa,' he thought, 'this has a lot of kick in it'. He looked at the dangling target to see if he had hit it, but there was no mark. 'Okay take two,' he tried again with a wider stance but was still caught off guard by the sheer kick in the small weapon and again missed the target.
Bang A quieter sound was made on Josh's left as a bullet hit a target straight on. Josh watched in amazement as the shooter in the left cubicle continually hit the target in the middle, not missing a single shot. It must have been a few minutes of watching as Josh was pulled out of his staring by a small voice.
"Hey, are you okay in there?" It asked, knocking on the cubicle wall slightly. Josh quickly looked away and back at his own target, trying to quickly fire at it.
"Yeah, I am, thanks," he called back as he fired another shot into thin air.
"Do you need any help?" The voice asked. Josh noticed a sincerity in the voice and was glad that they weren't mocking him for his terrible aim.
"Uh, yeah," Josh replied, "that would be nice."
"Okay, I'm coming over," They answered, sounding louder with each word until Josh felt a tap on his shoulder, "hey."
Josh turned around to see the person behind the helpful voice and was greeted with a shy smiling brunette, who was slightly taller than himself. "Hey yourself," he replied pulling out his ear plugs.
They laughed quietly at Josh's response, "so is this your first time shooting?"
"Is it that obvious?" Josh asked.
"Kinda," they answered with a kind smile, "just show me how you're trying to shoot now."
Josh nodded and turned back towards his target, putting his ear plugs back in. He aimed and was about to shoot when a pair of hands gently wrapped around his on the gun. He also felt a head lean lightly on his left shoulder and a body against his back.
"You need to pull your arms back in a little," the brunette said quietly in Josh's ear, pulling Josh's arms into his body slightly so they were bent at the elbow, "you can't have them locked like you did."
Josh nodded again.
"Also widen your stance just a little bit more," Josh felt his new helper softly kick Josh's feet wider, "and then look down at the target and shoot." The brunette loosen their grip around Josh's gun and allowed Josh to fire. They both watched as it flew right through the middle of the large red dot on the other side of the room.
The brunette let go and Josh spun around to meet their face again, "You did it," they cheered. They both jumped up and down in excitement.
"Yeah, thanks to your help," Josh responded and held out his hand for a hi five.
"No problems," they replied hitting Josh's hand with their own, "Also I'm Tyler."
"Josh."
"Well, Josh you just hit that target right on!"
"I did, didn't I?"
"Yeah you did!" Tyler exclaimed, "this deserves more than a hi five." He pulled Josh into a hug, tightly embracing him.
"Thanks so much Tyler!" Josh let go out of the hug.
They looked at each other for a silent second before Tyler asked, "Hey, did you want to start a band?"
Josh nodded eagerly, "Yeah that would be sick!"
"Okay lets go!" Tyler cried, grabbing a hold of Josh's wrist as he moved out of the shooting range and back outside. They made their way to Tyler's car as Tyler explained where they were going, to the studio to record their debut album, which had already been written by Tyler.
"This is going to be so sick," Josh said as he read the lyrics by Tyler, already thinking of possible drum beats.
"Sick as frick," Tyler replied as he parked the car and the duo made their way into the studio to begin their career in their band.
