The Party Scene Got The Best Of Us...And Look Where We Ended Up.

Travis was typing on his computer, watching as the minutes slowly ticked away. Sitting on the sofa and on the bed in the basement which had been transformed into his room were various people, some of which were Travis friends, and others whom he only knew by the face. It was Wednesday which meant band practice and Travis was running late as usual. The others would not be too pleased, but he couldn’t be bothered to care. He swung around on his chair, and struck up a conversation with the friend who sat closest to him.

“I think I’m gonna head over to the Gaskarths. Ian will probably be waiting for me, pissed off too if I’m right,” he said with a carefree attitude, running a hand through his dark hair.

“You got band practice?” his friend Skinny mumbled, pieces of the cupcake he was munching on flying everywhere.

“Uh yeah, try not to tear the place down when I’m gone, yeah?” he earned a quick nod from Skinny, picked up his guitar, heard a few mumbles of “goodbye” and made his way upstairs.

Many people would consider it an odd behavior to let friends and acquaintances stay in the house while neither of two living there were around. But Travis was used to it, he didn’t really care and in fact he was kind of tired of being constantly alone. Just as he was about to head out the door the phone rang, irritated Travis picked up and answered with a voice that wasn’t hiding any of his annoyance.

“Hey kid, it’s me,” Travis heard the voice of his father and sighed.

He breathed out an almost unhearable, “whatdoyouwant?” but his father who had the same way of talking heard him perfectly.

“Just wanted to know how you’re doing. You haven’t burned the place down have you?” the older Flyzik chuckled and Travis rolled his eyes.

“No, but of course I could be lying. When are you coming home to check up on me?”

“I’ll be there for the weekly dinner. Who’s hosting it this weekend?”

“Merrick’s,” Travis grunted “You promise you’ll be here?”

“I promise kiddo. I gotta go now, some douche has fucked up badly and I need to go sort it out. Take care, seeya Friday.”

Travis sighed and hung up, not bothering to exchange the quick goodbyes. He really wanted to believe that his dad would be home for the weekend but deep inside Travis knew that he wouldn’t. How many times hadn’t his dad let him down already?

Travis made his way over to the Gaskarth’s in less than five minutes, seeing as none of the families lived far from each other. Before he had the chance to knock on the door, it opened and Bryony stumbled out backwards and collided with him.

“Oww shit watch it,” he growled but she simply laughed and ignored him.

Ian appeared on the threshold and muttered something like “about time”. Travis laughed and flipped Ian’s hat, making it land on the floor behind him. Ian glared at him and picked his hat up, coming face to face with Mr. Gaskarth.

“Hi there Travis,” Alex nodded. “Is Matt back home yet?”

Travis slowly shook his head, “Nah, he’s still on tour.”

Alex smiled and seemed lost in thought as he heard those words.

“Ah those were the good days. Nothing beats being on tour,” Alex said with a dreamlike expression. He turned to Ian pointing a meaning finger at him “I hope you make it with that band of yours.”

Ian sighed, and Travis thought that even though his father was constantly absent, at least he didn’t have the pressure on him to become something big.

The two boys walked in silence to the house which belonged to the Dawson’s. Travis knocked on the door and Kara opened with a big smile on her face, and tried to keep the dogs from running outside. Ian and Travis returned the smile and hurried down the stairs to the basement. Even though Rian’s daughter wasn’t in their band, he was still kind enough to let the boys borrow his basement for their practices. They were greeted by Joshua and Ben, the band’s drummer and bassist. Travis got his guitar out of the case and started playing a little something but Ben interrupted him and said that he had something to tell them.

“Umm guys... I’m... I'm kinda dropping out of the band,” Ben mumbled and three pair of eyes instantly turned his way.

“What? Are you crazy? You can’t just drop out. What are we gonna do without a bassplayer?” Travis growled.

Ben didn’t meet his eyes and instead fixed his gaze on his shoes. “I’m sorry but you can always find a new one.”

“But why?” Josh asked a little startled.

“It just feels as if we’re getting nowhere. We’ve been playing the same old songs for ages, and nothing’s happening y’know?”

“Leave. Now!” Travis interrupted and glared at Ben.

Ben sighed, picked up his bass and walked out of the basement. None of them could deny that Ben’s words had been true, it was all getting old and boring, but Travis hadn’t thought that any of them would drop out. They would get better, things would become easier and soon new brilliant ideas would pop into their heads. That’s what Travis believed and until now he had been sure that everybody else had thought so too.

“Is anybody else leaving?” he demanded to know.

As Ian and Josh shook their heads Travis let out a sigh of relief. They started playing a cover of Ian’s dads old band, but it didn’t sound right without Ben and they quickly gave up. They decided to call it a day and as they were heading up the stairs Joshua said;

“We could always ask that Barakat kid to join us. Whathisname? Alec? I heard he’s a pretty good at playing bass.”

Ian seemed totally against the idea but Travis put this into thought as he walked home with the guitar-case on his back. The kid was only fifteen but he decided to ask him about it at the dinner this weekend.