Chapter Text
“Hazel, care to tell me why I just got an email confirming my audition for a band?” Nico was leaning against his younger sister's doorframe, arms crossed… Hazel was curled in the corner of her bed on her laptop, completely unfazed by the murderous glares Nico was sending her way.
“Because I applied for you.” Hazel didn't even look up from her computer as she spoke.
“Why?” Nico pinched the bridge of his nose. Hazel was lucky he had just woken up, because if he was fully conscious he would've strangled her by now.
Hazel just shrugged. “You need to socialize more. You have like… no friends.”
Nico opened his mouth to argue that, yes, he did have friends, but Hazel cut him off before he could speak.
“Friends in your grade.” She clarified. “Being friends with seniors is fine. But once they graduate, then what?”
Nico pouted. It was completely unfair of her to remind him that all his closest friends were leaving him in two months. He tried to think if he knew anyone in his grade.
“What about Frank? He’s in my grade!”
“Your own friends.”
Nico sighed. He really didn’t want to admit it, but Hazel was right. His senior year would be miserable if he didn’t make new friends.
“Fine.”
Hazel finally looked up from her computer screen, eyebrows raised. “Fine?”
“I’ll go to the audition.” Nico avoided eye contact as he spoke, he wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction of seeing his face as he admitted defeat. He kept his eyes trained on a loose screw in Hazel’s door hinge.
“You’ll thank me later.” Hazel returned her attention to her computer and Nico rolled his eyes as he stepped away from the doorframe back into the hallway.
“Hey! Close my door!” Nico heard Hazel shout, but he just kept walking, flipping her off as he entered his own room.
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The day of the audition, Jason drove Nico to the address that the band had emailed him. He parked across the street, saying he could be Nico’s “getaway car” in case the people in this band ended up being weirdos. Usually he’d say Jason was being ridiculous, but for once he actually agreed.
After accepting the audition offer, Nico had tried searching for the band online, but he couldn't find any info outside of the members’ names. They had an instagram account, but it was private so he couldn’t actually see anything to determine their legitimacy. (If he joined the band, he already decided that his first goal was gonna be building them an actual social media presence, because one instagram account—that no one can even see—is not doing them any favors.)
He really didn’t know what to expect as he walked up the driveway. He hesitantly approached the door on the side of the garage as he’d been instructed to in their email, and raised his hand to knock. He waited a moment after knocking, trying to listen for movement on the other side of the door. It was completely silent and he started to wonder if he’d gotten the wrong address. He shifted anxiously as he pulled out his phone to double check the email. After confirming that this was in fact the right house, he just raised his hand to knock harder. Before his hand made contact with the door though, it abruptly swung open and he nearly punched the girl on the other side.
“Hi!” The girl that had opened the door beamed at him, completely ignoring Nico’s still raised hand and the fact that she’d just narrowly avoided a black eye. She was about his height, and was wearing a worn tank top and cargo shorts with a flannel tied around her waist. Her short, dark hair was dyed purple on the ends. “I’m Lou Ellen, you must be Nico!” She held out her hand for Nico to shake. Besides maybe the cargo shorts (She styled them well, so she got a pass), there were no blatant red flags. She seemed nice, so Nico shook her hand. This had apparently been a mistake, because before he could even process it, he was being pulled inside the garage by his arm and Nico made a mental note to never get on her bad side because she was a lot stronger than she looked. The unexpected momentum caused him to stumble over the threshold and he just barely regained his balance in time to not completely faceplant and embarrass himself.
As he regained his senses, he glanced around the garage to get an idea of what they were working with and he was honestly impressed. He never would’ve guessed that he was inside a garage if he hadn’t just seen it from the outside. The walls were lined ceiling-to-floor with soundproofing panels and he quickly realized why he hadn’t been able to hear anything from outside. In addition to the soundproofing panels, the walls were lined with guitar hooks, spare cables, and speakers. Pushed against the opposite wall was a Casio keyboard that looked ancient, and a really comfortable looking sofa that looked even older. In the middle of the carpeted floor, there was a pretty standard-looking drumset where a guy was sitting with his back against the bass drum as he scrolled on his phone.
“Hey!” The guy looked up and waved at Nico.
“That’s Cecil,” Lou Ellen explained, “Will should be back any minute with food and drinks. You can sit wherever in the meantime.” Lou Ellen gestured vaguely to the few bean bags and cushions scattered around the floor as she took a seat on one of them. Nico decided on the sofa, eager to see if it was as comfortable as it looked (Spoiler alert: it was.) and sat his guitar case on the floor next to it as he sat.
One full minute passed without anyone in the room saying a word and Nico started to feel like he was going insane. The sound panels were definitely not helping. Both Cecil and Lou were scrolling silently on their phones, completely unbothered by the silence, and the third member, Will, still hadn’t come back with the snacks. Nico’s mind only raced faster the longer they went without a word. Wasn’t this supposed to be an audition? When were they going to ask him to actually play his guitar? Where the hell was this Will guy? Maybe this was a test.
Nico couldn’t take it anymore, the silence was only amplifying his thoughts so he leaned over for his guitar and started taking it out of the case. The sound of the zipper in the silent room was deafening, but neither Cecil nor Lou seemed to care, so Nico continued unpacking. He was halfway through tuning when the door across the room (that Nico guessed led into the house) finally swung open. His attention was immediately pulled to the person walking through.
He had walked through the door backwards, his arms completely overflowing with chips and sodas. The first thing Nico had noticed was the mop of blonde hair. The golden curls were messy, but at the same time, each strand looked as if it’d been intentionally placed- almost like a painting. As soon as he was far enough into the room, the guy turned around and Nico could see a faint blush across his cheeks as he unceremoniously dropped all of the food and drinks onto the carpet in front of him.
“Uh, sorry I took so long,” He glanced briefly in Nico's direction as he spoke, but he quickly looked away, speaking mostly to the other two. “I wasn't sure what to get, so I got… well, everything.” He gestured to the frankly ridiculous pile of snacks on the floor. Far too much for just four people.
Lou gave him a weird look. Somewhere between holding back a laugh and a knowing expression that Nico couldn’t fully decipher. Will seemed to have no problem understanding though, shooting a “Shut up if you know what’s good for you” look at her. Nico recognized it immediately, because he used it on his sister at least once a day.
Nico just watched in amusement as the two had a silent argument with their eyes. He leaned closer to Cecil and whispered, “Do they… do this a lot?”
Cecil nodded, his eyes trained on the two as he spoke, “All the time. Sometimes I think they can actually read each other’s minds.”
“Do you have any idea what they’re saying?”
“Not a clue. But it’s fun to watch.” Cecil leaned over from his spot on the floor to grab a bag of chips and a soda.
“You want anything?” He gestured to the large pile and Nico had to hold back a laugh at how ridiculous this situation actually was.
He’d never met any of these people before today, but here he was, sitting in their garage watching the most intense staring match like it was the best entertainment of the century. All while eating from a pile of what Nico could only imagine was half a gas station worth of snacks and sodas.
He considered the pile and ultimately decided that no bag of chips was worth the crumbs and grime he’d inevitably get on his fretboard if he ate them, so he just picked up a Dr. Pepper and settled back into the couch to continue watching Lou and Will’s silent fight.
This was gonna be interesting.