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Jonas had always dreamed of being in a band. To make music, to sell out shows, to be famous. He presented the idea to his best friend, Dondó. It made sense. He played guitar, Dondó played drums, it would be perfect.
“I don’t know, man. It sounds.. time consuming.”
“Goddamnit, Don! Please! It’ll be awesome!”
“I’ll think about it. But wouldn’t we need a bassist? Where are we gonna find one?”
“I’ll find a way.”
—————
There they were, walking the streets of suburban California. With a stack of flyers in one hand and a roll of duct tape in the other, Jonas was determined to find a bassist. Dondó just followed, as he had nothing better to do.
“You really think we’re gonna find someone like this?”
“Yeah.”
He grabbed a flyer from Jonas’ hands and read it over.
================================
LOOKING FOR A BASSIST
INFLUENCES: WEEZER, OZMA, BEATLES
MUST BE OVER 18
44 PINKERTON BLVD @3:00
AUGUST 24TH
BRING YOUR BASS.
================================
“Dude, seriously? You didn’t add any photos or anything?” Dondó inspected the page.
“Photos of what, exactly?”
“I don’t know, maybe of us?”
He paused. “Well, it’s too late to change that. I’ve printed, like, fifty of these.”
“Do you think anyone is gonna show up?”
“We’ll have to see. Now come on, help me tape this flyer.”
—————
AUGUST 24TH, 3:56 PM
“I think this thing is a bust.”
Dondó wasn’t wrong. It had been almost an hour and no one showed up. The bad weather didn’t help either. It was gloomy due to the light rainfall, an unusual weather for summer, especially one in California.
“Yeah.” He let out a sigh. “I guess we’ll ha—“
The doorbell rang, interrupting his sentence. He practically ran over there, opening the door as soon as he could.
“Hey. Uh, you’re looking for a bassist, right?”
The guy on the other side of the door was holding a bass. No gig bag or anything, just holding the bass by its neck. He was wearing cargo shorts and a band tee that Jonas didn’t recognize. He was slightly wet from the rain.
“Yeah. Come in, I guess.” He said, trying to look nonchalant as if he didn’t run over to the door as soon as he heard the bell.
The boy smiled, water slowly dripping off his hair as he stepped inside. Speaking of his hair, it was pretty long. It almost reached his shoulders.
After a few minutes of small talk (of which Dondó initiated), they finally got to the point. To play bass.
“So, uh, do you want me to play a Weezer song or something? I saw them in your influences.”
“Yeah. Weezer, thats cool.”
He pulled out a pick from his pocket and played the riff from ‘Only In Dreams’. Jonas was staring intently, focusing on his fingering and how quick he could switch between notes. Dondó was just listening to the music. After all, he was a drummer.
“That’s pretty good. You’re in.” Dondó said once the last note rung out.
The guy looked at Jonas for any sign of objection, but he just nodded and repeated what Dondó said.
“Well, thats great!” Realizing he barely introduced himself, he spoke up “My name is Wuan. I’m guessing you probably need my number or something.”
“Oh, uh, yeah. Just add it to my phone.” He handed Wuan his phone, which was practically destroyed. It was covered in scratches and it burnt from overheating.
“Alright.” He slightly recoiled at the touch of his scorching cellphone, but still punched in his number.
—————
“Jonas, we sound like shit.” Dondó said after fifty torturous minutes of practice.
All three of them were there, and whether they liked it or not, they had to agree. Wuan was too polite to voice it, though.
“We just need to try a different tuning or something! Maybe two steps up?”
“Dude, your voice isn’t good enough for that. Besides, no one wants to re-tune.” Dondó was very blunt, but wasn’t wrong.
“Well, we’ve got that gig soon so we need to try something.”
“WHAT?” The two collectively yelled. Jonas never told them about this.
“Yeah? I didn’t tell you guys? It’s at that club downtown.”
“Jonas, we don’t even have a name! What did you put us under?”
“August.”
“That’s our name? August? Like the month?”
“Look, we’ll change it later. Let’s just practice.”
—————
Soon came earlier than expected. The three of them had caught a bus headed towards that club, and were nervous waiting to arrive there.
They arrived to the club. It was decently packed, which only made them more nervous. Wuan was clutching to his bass like a lifeline, and Jonas was checking if his strings were properly in tune every other second.
“Alright guys, we’re on.”
They awkwardly shuffled on stage, instruments in hand. Jonas wasted no time. He played the opening riff to what he thought was the band’s best song.
The lights were dim, and the audience was feeling it. Wuan looked over his shoulder at Jonas. He looked so perfect under the dark blue lighting. He felt his face burn, to which he was thankful for the lack of light.
”Shit. Shit. Shit.” He was suddenly very interested on the grooves of his strings. This couldn’t be happening. Not again.
The year was 2004. He was younger, freshly 17, and a rhythm guitarist for his friend’s band. He barely knew anyone else.
The drummer had caught his eye, and before he knew it, he was in love. Obsessively. He barely knew the guy, yet he still searched for something, anything, that would tell him more about him.
He had pushed his luck, maybe too far. In the blistering cold weather that December brought, he decided to make a move.
In his slacks and jacket, He approached him after a minor show they did. It was cold. Very cold. Maybe it made things worse, but he chose not to think about that part.
“Hey. Great show, huh?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you wanna, um, catch dinner or something?”
“With the band?”
“No.. just us.”
“What? Are you asking me out on a date?”
“What? No thats— Thats ridiculous! I would never!” He backtracked
“Uh, no thanks.”
He left the band soon after. It would be to embarrassing to continue, anyways. His friend or any of his band mates for that matter never really looked at him the same.
He moved out of Pennsylvania.
The distant crash of cymbals from on stage jolted Wuan out of his memories.
He looked towards the crowd. Underwhelming applause. Jonas would complain about that later. Though, he really shouldn’t be thinking of him. He didn’t want this to grow.
—————
“What a crowd! We preform basically everything we got and we barely got anything! We sold one t-shirt! One!”
Just as he predicted, Jonas was going on about the show. Dondó tried comforting him while simultaneously arguing with him. The engine of the bus mostly tuned them out.
“It was our first show, what did you expect?”
“Something better!”
“We still sold stuff!”
“I guess, so. What do you think about it, Wuan?”
“Oh.. uh.. It was cool.”
“You think so?”
“Uhh, yeah.”
Jonas could tell he was acting off, but he didn’t push it. To be fair, he’s only known him for two months. For all he knows, this is his normal.
—————
“Out of my way!” A stranger bumped into him.
They were at some college kid’s party. It was packed. Maybe they were a bit too old to be there, but that didn’t matter. Apparently there was a guy who knew a guy who knew someone who worked in the music industry. Who could get them a label.
They weren’t there to preform. They were there to hunt down that guy who knew a guy so they could get a better chance of getting a label. This was Dondó’s idea, and Jonas didn’t really know what was going on. He tagged along with Wuan, who also didn’t really know what was going on.
Wuan really wished Jonas would do his own thing, as his little crush only developed into something larger, and him being present next to him all this time wasn’t helping. “Uh, I’m gonna take a lap.” He quickly retreated, walking around each room in this random stranger’s house.
“Okay.” Jonas was confused but didnt question it further, and instead grabbed a can of Coca-Cola.
The house was loud, the yells of college kids filling the air. It was your typical house in the suburbs, a house that looked like every other house in the neighborhood.
He found what he presumed was the host’s room. It was empty, which was unusual considering every other room had atleast a few people inside. Just like the rest of the house, it was pretty normal. Generic posters, generic furniture, generic everything. There was an acoustic guitar mounted on the wall. He looked around before taking it off the wall. He toyed around with it, mostly just playing some scales.
“Hey, dude, I’ve been looking everywhere for you! You’ve been gone for like an hour!”Jonas appeared through the doorway, before noticing the guitar.
“You can play?” He sat down across from him on the carpeted floor.
“Uh, yeah a little bit.”
“Can you play me something?”
“Fuck.” The only songs he knew were about love, but he didn’t want to say no. In fact, he didn’t hate the idea of singing a cheesy love song to Jonas.
So he agreed and started strumming a tune. Some Beatles song. His hands were trembling as he sang the first verse. He hoped Jonas wouldn’t recognize the obvious feeling in his voice.
He barely made eye contact, not to focus on the guitar, he could play fine without looking, but he knew if he looked at him he’d somehow mess up.
Before fully realizing, the song was over. Jonas didn’t wait for the last note to ring.
“That was.. awesome. You, uh, sing very well.” There was a hint of nervousness in his voice. His cheeks were tinted pink.
“Thank you.”
—————
It was two hours past midnight. Jonas couldn’t sleep at all. He was thinking about that party. That room where it was just them. And no one else. When Wuan sang that song, a love song, was it on purpose? Was he overthinking it? He called Dondó up, wanting someone to talk to.
“Hello…?” He picked up, his voice raspy from just waking up
“Don, it’s me.”
“Jonas? What the hell do you need right now?”
“Can I talk to you?”
He was annoyed that Jonas called him at almost three in the morning just to talk but he said yes anyways. Besides, it had to be important if it was this late.
“Sure.”
“You remember that party you dragged us to? Like two weeks ago?”
“Yeah?”
“Well, while you were doing whatever you were doing, uh, I found Wuan in this room.” He paused. “It was like, empty. Well, except for him. And he was playing guitar. And he just looked so beautiful. I shouldn’t say that. But he really did.”
“Yeah.” He wasn’t really paying attention.
“And I think I’m gay, man!”
“What?” He was paying his full attention now, even leaning up in his bed.
“I asked him to play a song and he did! A love song, Don! It was a love song!”
“Someone’s got a crush!” He said in a singsong voice
“I’m serious!”
“Okay, well, what song was it?”
“Does it matter?”
“Yeah.”
“It was a Beatles song. ‘Love Me Do’?”
“Oh, man.”
“I know! I don’t know what to do!”
“Relax, man. The world’s not gonna end because you’re gay.”
Maybe it was because Dondó was always laid back, or because he was barely awake, but he seemed so calm. Jonas thought that he would probably atleast call him weird or something, but he didn’t.
“I guess you’re right.”
“Get some sleep, dude. You need it.”
He hung up the phone before Jonas could even respond. He was right, he really needed sleep.
He fell asleep with “Love Me Do” stuck in his head. Great.
—————
“Hey, dude. I won’t be able to show up to practice today. Sorry about that. Uh, bye.” Dondó listened to the voicemail Jonas had left him.
He knew it had something to do with what he told him last night. He was so annoyed about that. Their lead guitarist and vocalist just ditching them?
Wuan was already there, mindlessly plucking at his strings.
“Hey, Wuan. You can play guitar, right? Jonas said you could.”
“Yeah, I can play.” He smiled like a little kid at the thought of Jonas remembering. Dondó pretended not to notice.
“Let’s do this thing then.”
—————
“Love, love me do
You know I love you
I’ll always be true
So please, love me do”
He stared at the speakers of his radio. It felt like this song was following him everywhere. Or maybe it was just Wuan’s memory that was.
He kicked the wire, which caused it to fall out and abruptly stop playing. He looked at his room. His posters were barely hanging on, and his clothes were thrown everywhere. He didn’t feel like cleaning. He didn’t feel like doing anything at all.
He plugged the radio back in. It was playing a different song this time, so he turned it off. He decided to take a walk.
Theres not much to see in his town. It looked just like any other. It was hot, which was unusual for the month. His feet hurt like hell, but he didn’t want to stop walking. Besides, he was basically lost, so what else could he really do?
He looked up and somehow he was at Dondó’s front door. He felt kind of guilty for just not showing up to practice and toyed with the idea of entering. Dondó always left his door unlocked in the daytime, he knows because he always yells at him for it.
”Oh, what the hell.” He opened the door, the sound of drums blasting him as he heard his own music being sung to him with that voice. The voice that kept him up last night and the nights before.
He didn’t make a loud entrance, he didn’t want to be noticed. He wanted to hear that voice forever, or at least for another minute.
They stopped once they realized Jonas was in the room.
“Oh, uh, hey.”
“What are you doing here? And how did you get in?” Dondó asked
“I felt bad for not showing up. Also, your door was unlocked. Again.”
“Oh. You wanna play or something?”
“Sure.”
Wuan was about to hand over the microphone when Jonas stopped him.
“You sound better on this song. You should sing.” He smiled nervously.
—————
It was February. Jonas hated the cold, as he had to start wearing jackets and he thought those were stupid. The band was playing at another club. Their fifth or sixth show. It was actually going pretty well for them, as they started selling more merch and gaining actual fans.
Wuan sang more on songs. Jonas didn’t mind at all, in fact, he wanted him to sing more.
The show ended and the three of them decided to stop by the bar. Jonas wasn’t really a drinker, but it was a special occasion. Well, not really, but the rest of guys would probably drink, too, so he might as well join them.
He pressed his lips against the beer can without actually drinking it. Wuan was halfway done his and Dondó was on his second. Dondó was barely with them as he was flirting with some girl that caught his eye.
It was kind of awkward, but the drinks helped loosen any tension as the both of them drank more and more. Wuan and Jonas were talking and laughing like old friends.
“Hey, Wuan, has anyone ever told you your eyes are pretty?”
“Uhh, no, they haven’t.”
“Well, they are. They’re…. very pretty, actually.” Jonas was giggling as if he was joking but he knew he was dead serious.
“Jonas, are you gay?” Maybe it was an unfair question to ask, considering the amount of people near them but he didn’t care. It felt like it was just them, anyway.
“I don’t know.. Probably.”
“Because I am.” He tried laughing it off as if he were joking, but he also wanted him to know he wasn’t.
“You are?” He giggled, not in a way to mock him but in as a genuine surprise.
“Yeah.” He took another swig.
He smiled, maybe the first genuine smile in months. He stared into his eyes, maybe it would be a little creepy if not for the beer, but Wuan didn’t mind. His face was bright red at this point, but he didn’t care.
“You know that day.. That party when you were playing ‘Love Me Do’.”
“You still remember?”
“I think.. I think I realized something about myself that day.”
“Oh.” He chuckled nervously, not really knowing where this was going.
“I think about that day a lot. It was so.. beautiful. You were. Not in a girly way or anything, in a different kind of way.” His words were spilling out of his mouth at this point, but he still meant every word. “And I think I like you.”
He didn’t know how to react, so he just did the first thing that came to mind. He leaned in and gave him a quick kiss.
Jonas sat there, lips parted. A smile turned on his lips as he returned the favour.
“I like you, too.”