The Best Is Yet to Come

“We’re starting a band,” Josh told me simply. My gaze shifted from the small TV on top of my chest of drawers to look around at him.

“Right…” I replied, slightly dumfounded. He tore his own attention away to smile at me. “And what are you going to be playing? Triangle?”

Irritation flashed across his eyes before he came back smoothly. “We were saving that for your talents actually.”

My eyes narrowed and I nudged him in the ribs.

“Ow!” he protested with a laugh, he grasped where I’d hit him dramatically. I rolled my eyes.

“Drama queen,” I muttered, a smile lifting my lips at his reaction. “But seriously, Josh, you broke Max’s guitar after one strum.”

“That wasn’t my fault!” he protested vividly, he jumped up from leaning against my headboard to sit up and express the argument he’d been teased about many times before. He also twisted around to face me face to face so we could talk, or argue, better. “It was bound to happen sometime or another. Oh fuck off,” he added under my stare and recoiled with a huff.

“It was brand new,” I countered, one eyebrow raised. I swear he growled as he scowled at me. I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Look that’s not the point! Anyway I’m still learning! Max will be playing guitar anyways, Joe’ll be on drums and Jack’ll be on bass!” He seemed really enthusiastic about the project. Then something clicked in my mind, so… guitar, check. Drums, check. Bass, check. Vocals…?

“You’re going to sing?” I asked in utter disbelief. “You are going to sing for the band? You?”

Josh’s eyebrows knotted together and his bottom lip jutted out ever so slightly, his expression conveying his offence.

“Oi!” he objected. I raised both my eyebrows and crossed my arms waiting for him to explain. “I can sing!”

“Suuuure.” I giggled, he didn’t respond well to that.

“How brilliant is my sister?” he argued. He had me there. Elissa Franceschi was the best singer I had ever heard; her voice was so flawless and beautiful, she was as equally talented with piano. We’d been to every single one of her acoustic sets since she’d built up the confidence to get up on stage a year ago, from much encouragement from her younger brother. “It runs in the family, I’m telling you.”

I doubted it. Elissa composed music easily, it rolled off her pen onto paper as easily as breathing - the girl had talent. Josh on the other hand seemed to lack that artistic flair.

“Is she going to write the music for you?” I asked curiously.

Again, the boy was outraged by this. “Are you implying that all five of us lack the musical talent to write our own stuff? Anyway, we’re going for a different style to her.”

“I wasn’t implying that they lacked the skill, just you.” I smiled sweetly as Josh glowered. “So what you’re going to be the next Busted?” I teased. I knew that would irritate him, I knew the boys music taste well.

“Ha ha, we were thinking something along the lines of Fall Out Boy but a bit… different.”

“Right…” I answered again, my tone more sceptical, but I still kept my voice playful. He did growl this time as he shot daggers at me.

“You know you’re not being very supportive!”

“I know.” I grinned at him. “I’m the annoying best friend who’s supposed to take the piss out of you, just doing my duty. You got a name for it yet?”

“For you?” he asked blankly.

“The band, thick shit.” I rolled my eyes and shook my head. How he was going to keep up a band I never knew.

“Not yet but we’ll come up with something,” he reassured me with a dazzling smile.

“Maybe not you,” I added my last insult for that conversation as I ruffled his hair.

“Can you go off duty?” he begged and crawled back over to my side to watch the end of the film.

“Sure,” I nudged him gently and turned my attention back to the screen. I didn’t think much of the conversation that we’d just had. That’s because I didn’t expect anything to really come of it. I doubted Josh’s singing ability, even though I’d never actually heard him sing. I’d heard Max on guitar, before Josh broke it and he was amazing, but he stuck to covers. I’d never heard Joe play drums, but hey, how hard could it be? Neither had I heard Jack on bass. The thought drifted from my mind as the film continued, I really didn’t think they would make much of it; it was just a phase, a small high school band…

***

“Die bitch, die!” Max spat, his fingers were a blur on the controller in his hand. Both his and Joe’s eyes were glued to the screen as they battled each other.

“Boys,” Katie muttered, shooting a glance at me and shaking her head. Her loose ash blonde curls bounced slightly and down over her shoulders. I smiled and nodded at her. Jack, tall and as blonde as Katie, scanned the room for a seat. There were six of us, six best friends – Myself, Josh, Max, Joe, Katie and Jack.

“Franceschi, you’re living room’s too small!” Max shouted from his game when Jack shoved him onto the floor to sit down. Max’s statement was true. The room wasn’t terribly small but there were a few of us in here. Now Max had moved to scrambled forwards to occupy much of the floor, it did look a lot smaller. Jack settled into Max’s single chair, Joe resting on the arm of it. Josh, Katie and I occupied the other small sofa.

“Heyler, shut the fuck up.” Josh shouted back. “It’s not my fault you have a love affair with my Xbox. You want to play it somewhere else? Fine. But you won’t bloody leave my house because I’m the only one that has it.”

“I love you Joshy,” Max responded, his eyes still transfixed to the screen. Everyone laughed and Jack slapped the back of Max’s head.

“SHIT!” he cried out as his side of the screen went black. He turned around and attacked Jack. Katie and I were in fits of giggles at the sight of the two. Joe and Josh egged on the fighting boys loudly. Max had tackled Jack to the ground but, Jack (being older, stronger and bigger) soon flipped it and had Max pinned within seconds. The room was filled with Max’s cries of surrender. Suddenly, a piano I hadn’t noticed had been playing stopped and then there were thunderous footsteps overhead. Seconds later the door behind us opened. Elissa entered the room looking very pissed.

“Shut up,” she hissed pointedly the boy.

“Elissa darling!” Max chirped up from the floor, his voice strained from Jack sitting on him.“My love!”

Elissa narrowed her eyes at him and her eyes glanced around the room, they rested on me. She shot a smile at me and Katie.

“Hello girls, how you put up with this lot I’ll never know.”

“We don’t actually know why either,” I answered as Jack finally let a ruffled Max up from the floor.

“Keep it down!” she warned.

“I sent my guitar off today,” Max announced, very pointedly, at Josh who just rolled his eyes.

“How long do you reckon ‘til you can get it fixed properly?” Jack asked.

“A week, tops,” he answered.

“It’s alright, you can use a school one for Wednesday,” Jack said.

“For what?” Katie asked blankly.

“No one’s told her?” I asked, slightly annoyed but honoured that Josh had told me first. “They’re starting a band.”

“A band?” she repeated confused. “Really?”

Elissa caught end of the conversation before she’d left the room and spun around on her heel.

“Yes!” Max enthused. He clambered back over to the TV, the conversation had captured his attention enough to stop him turning the Xbox back on.

“Yeah, they’re serious,” Elissa informed a gaping Katie, she folded her arms and looked around the room again. “They’ve got Max on guitar, Jack on bass, Dan on drums and Josh on vocals.” She walked up behind Josh, gently tapped the back of his head and he slid across to make space. We all moved along until Elissa could fit on the end, it was rather a tight squeeze.

“Oh my god,” Katie breathed. “Do you have any songs yet? Ooh! What’re you called?” she asked excitedly.

“We have neither,” answered Jack. “But Josh’s working on lyrics and we’re all considering names.” The first part of that sentence caught my attention and my eyebrows shot up.

“You’re doing the lyrics?!” I asked Josh disbelievingly. “You’re suck at English!”

“It’s not English, it’s songs, there’s a difference,” Josh disputed as he played with the zip on his hoody. He sunk down further into the sofa, his chin resting on his chest. He mumbled stubbornly staring down at his hands. “You lack such faith in me.”

I felt guilty about that. I really hadn’t given him that much credit.

“Sorry,” I whispered so only he could hear. He looked up side wards and smiled weakly.

“So you have nothing at all?” Katie asked disappointed, she dropped back into the cushions of the sofa.

“We will, we’ve got rehearsal Wednesday,” Max told her.

“This is going to be so cool,” Katie told the room. “You guys could get famous!”

“What’d you mean could?” Jack grinned.

“We’ll have all the girls,” Max said gleefully.

“All but you,” Joe threw a pillow at him.

“Douche!” Max ducked it.

“Right, I’m going,” Elissa announced when Max grabbed a pillow for revenge.

“No!” Max whined playfully.

Max’s words sunk into place and I grew more hesitant about their latest craze. Were they doing this to get girls? I tried to think about what girls in our school would throw themselves at a bunch of band wannabe’s, but failed. I didn’t say anything to them, I couldn’t… I chewed on my lip as I looked around the guys, my gaze rested on Josh and I looked quickly away when I caught him staring at me. From what I’d caught, his eyes were narrowed ever so slightly and there was a small pucker between his eyebrows. I knew the boy, he was my best friend, and as well as I could read him – he could read me. I ignored his stare and forced a smile onto my face. I wasn’t about to dampen the mood. The subject had passed, or had bored Max’s short attention span and he and Joe had reverted back to battling each other on the Xbox. I kept my opinions from my thoughts and my face…

The next day was tiring, I always hated Monday. I was always completely fucking shattered from the weekend. I collapsed besides Josh in English with a huff and dumped my pink patterned rucksack on the desk in front of me. I may have been tired and my awareness was most probably off but it didn’t stop me noticing the lack of comment from my right. My eyes traced over my best friend expecting some snide remark but he remained still. His forehead was resting on his left hand, his fingers merging into his hairline causing the front of his hair to stick out awkwardly .In his right was a pen which he was using to scribble onto on a cluttered and rough looking piece of paper.

“Josh?” I asked to no response. “Josh!” Still nothing.

My instincts kicked in and my gut twisted uncomfortably under his rejection. What had I done? - that was my first thought. I aimed a kick at him under the table. He jumped a mile.

“Josh James Alphonse Franceschi!” I laughed at his reaction. Then I saw him pull a white headphone from his earlobe. I looked for the wire but couldn’t see it from his position. His straightened longer-than-eye-length concealed his ears and his school hoody was hitched high enough to conceal the headphone lead that probably lead the entire way down his body to the iPod concealed in his pocket.

“Don’t use my full name!” he pointed his pen at me.

“Or what?”

“You’ll regret it,” he told me simply. I grinned at the teasingly threatening tone in his voice. He was fine with me, but he wasn’t with himself. There was something not right about him. His smile faded as quickly as it had came and he slumped backwards into the seat twirling the pen in his fingers.

“You alright?” I asked him quietly as the chatter of the classroom picked up. He nodded and scribbled randomly on the front of his book. My eyes dropped to the headphone now dangling over his grey hoody. My eyes traced over his body and to his pocket, I could see the lead so I snatched the iPod discreetly from his pocket. ‘Futures’ by Jimmy Eats World was playing, of course.

“Hey.” He took the iPod back and skipped to the next song. He shoved it roughly back into his pocket and tapped his pen irritably on the desk. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what was wrong with him. He wasn’t angry about something, he wasn’t upset… He reminded me of when he wanted to ask a girl out. Click! He was worried!

“Who is she?” I asked in a hushed voice.

“Who?” Josh shot me a glance from his doodling as if questioning my sanity. I paused under his stare, wrong angle.

“Josh what’s wrong?” I asked anxiously.

“Nothing,” he muttered. I raised an eyebrow, my expression sceptical. He didn’t even spare me a glance. I bit my lip.

“Like shit,” I said and tapped his arm. “I’m your best friend, have been for some time now, give me some credit. You’re worrying about something. And it’s not about a girl…?”

“Not a girl, no,” he answered. Huh, at least that was a start. I twisted my torso and leant against the desk to face him to make the conversation more personal and private.

“Then what?” I pressed on when he didn’t continue. He took deep breath, his eyes focused on his piece of paper. My eyes dropped to it. There were words written all over it, hundreds of lines, most of them crossed out or scribbled out. “Are they lyrics?”

The boy had fast reactions; he snatched the paper out of view before I could blink. In his haste the paper crumpled and ripped under his hand. He shoved the paper into his pocket and sank forward onto the desk.

“Yes,” he admitted feebly. “They’re shit.”

“I doubt it,” I lied, but I was determined not to judge any of the boy’s talent until I’d seen some evidence.

“I’m struggling Jase! The guys are counting on me and I can’t fucking do it!” he spat through his teeth, he kicked the empty chair in front. Josh never got angry like that; he never lashed violently out at anything around him.

“Josh! Calm down okay?” I ignored the stares we were attracting. “It’s not important, this is a little hobby of yours, it’s not like it’s anything vital or anything! Chill.”

“You don’t get it Jasey,” he muttered.

“Get what?” I responded blankly.

“Never mind,” he muttered and put the headphone back in his ear. I was just about to argue when Mr Barber entered the room. Silence fell upon the class as if someone had hit a mute button. I didn’t get a chance to talk to Josh for the rest of that lesson. He was stressed about the bloody band thing, why was everyone so worked up about it?

*

The boys were very private about their little project. I wasn’t very bothered about it; they didn’t seem very bothered about it after a few weeks. Josh had finally calmed down and was back to his cheery self.

“So have you actually got anything?” I asked Jack as he uncapped my beer for me. “Thanks.”

“Yeah, we’ve got a few songs,” he answered with a shrug and handed me the bottle.

“Cheers!” I giggled and we chinked our bottles together before taking a measured amount of the alcohol.

“HA! I’ve got you, no Josh MOVE!” Max yelled from the next room. Oh great, they were back on the game and Josh had joined them. I audibly groaned and Jack’s eye brows wiggled.

“Oh shut up,” I hissed at him before taking another swig of the beer. “I’m not in the mood for Max cursing at the screen and complaining at Josh.”

“Nah, me either if I’m perfectly honest,” Jack agreed and leant against the counter. I quickly ran over to the door, shut it to muffle Max’s shouts and jumped up on the gleaming black work surface opposite Jack.

“So what have you done this week?” he asked me earnestly.

“Sod all,” I admitted solemnly staring at the half empty bottle in my hand. I gently picked at the label too shy to look Jack full on into his dazzling green eyes. “You lot have been busy, s’just been me and Katie. Doing homework, etcetera…”

“You’re a little ol’ spoff aren’t you?” Jack was being teasing but the words stung a bit. I lifted my gaze from the ripped logo to shoot daggers at him.

“Just because I’ve never had a detention. I don’t have a problem with school; I just want to get through it, unlike some people who will probably fail.” My lips lifted into a playful smirk. Jack’s expressions struggled between one of admiration, one of offense and one of begrudging truth. He settled on the mock offense.

“Hey, I can’t fail I’ve got you in all my classes,” he said proudly. I giggled to conceal my pride at his words.

“You’re still gonna fail,” I laughed. He contemplated arguing but just shrugged and took a swig of his beer with a smile.

“Ahh well. Got better things coming,” he said knowingly, jerking his bottle towards the door. I stupidly turned around to look at the invisible boys in the next room. Max was still shouting at Josh for playing the game wrong.

“You really think?” I asked him honestly, I dropped my voice and leant forwards towards him. Jack’s quick flicker of uncertainty convinced me before he could persuade otherwise.

“Yes, this is going to go really well Jase, I can feel it.” Something wasn’t right about his expression, I wasn’t sure so I took a sip of my drink. After a moment of internal debating, an issue that was bothering me overpowered my will. I jumped down off the counter, put my drink down and stepped towards Jack. The boy was tall, much taller than me. I looked up into this eyes to make the promise meaningful - I wanted to show him I was concerned about them.

“Promise me you won’t throw your future away on this.”

Jack wasn’t sure on how to respond, his mouth fell open ever so slightly and he struggled to find the words to respond to my request.

“Jack,” I pleaded and lifted my arm onto his to emphasise my concern. “And make sure the others don’t either.”

He looked at me long and hard for a moment before he nodded slowly. My breathing eased just before my heart spiked from the sudden opening of a door behind me.

“Bloody twat,” Josh grumbled as he stormed into the kitchen. I jumped a mile away from Jack.

“What’s wrong?” I asked innocently whilst I re-caught my breath. Josh picked up my disowned drink and downed the rest of the bottle.

“S’okay, it’s not like I wanted the rest of that or anything,” I muttered angrily. Josh ignored me and jumped up into my previous seat.

“What’ve you two been up to?”

“Just talking,” Jack told him and, as Josh had, finished his drink in one.

“Of course you were,” Josh said suggestively. My cheeks burned and my lips pursed as I glared at him.

“Shut up,” I spat through gritted teeth and hit his arm. Jack scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. Was that a good sign? I’d been best mates with Josh, Max, Joe and Katie since year 7, I’d known them for ages but all of them were just mates to me. They were my brothers and sister. Two years ago, Jack had come along, with his gorgeous smile and charming personality. Since then I’d liked him, but I’d never ever done something about it.

Josh sniggered but it came to an abrupt halt as my hand collided with his bare arm yet again, this time much harder.

“Ow!” he complained to which I rolled my eyes. “Shouldn’t you be getting home? It’s late.”

“You kicking me out?” I asked dubiously to the boy still recovering from the slap I’d given his arm.

“I might throw you out if you’re not careful,” he countered.

“I’d like to see you try,” I laughed and pushed past him into the living room. Josh caught me around the waist from behind and lifted me into the air. I screamed and kicked my legs around wildly.

“Josh! Put me down!” I protested hysterically. Jack then joined in by snatching my feet and their pair swung my playfully. I swear my screams reached a whole new frequency. “I mean it! I’m going to kill you both!”

They swung me in unison and over the back of Josh’s sofa; I landed onto the layers of squishy pillows with a fresh shriek. I was suddenly pelted with pillows before I could blink.

“You were saying?” Josh stood over me looking too smug for my liking. I threw a pillow in my hand very hard at him.

“And you!” I shouted at Jack and I aimed the nearest pillow that I’d snatched up at him.

“You really don’t want to do that Jase,” he warned and backed up a few steps. I got to my feet and stood high over the boys in the room. It felt good to be taller than them for a change. I soon noticed they were all grasping pillows too and all eyes were on me. Shit.

“Uh ho.” I ducked back down and raised my weapon over my head to transform it into a shield as the pillows rained down on me. Ten minutes and one broken pillow later we collapsed onto the sofa gasping for air. Max was looking very guilty about the ripped pillow in his hands but Josh dismissed it.

“We’re so mature,” I giggled.

“We’re part drunk,” Jack opposed. I absorbed his explanation for our childish actions gratefully and smiled satisfied. I snuggled into the Franceschi’s comfy sofa next to Jack and looked around at my boys. My slightly drunken elated mood couldn’t stop me from grinning. Friendship was the most important thing in the world to me, simply because it was all I had. I was lucky enough to be friends with the best people in the whole wide universe – well, they were to me at least. My body shifted into a more comfy position against Jack as Josh switched the TV over from the Xbox (much to Max’s protests) and settled on a film. To add to my high Jack lifted his arm so I fell against his chest and I moved my feet up onto Josh’s lap to which he had no complaints.

My mood crashed for the rest of the weekend. The boys claimed to be “busy” Saturday night with their little project, so I was stuck with just Katie. She really didn’t help because, without me knowing, she’d buggered off to a party on the Friday. I could have stropped with her, but it would have meant I would have been home alone on a Saturday night. No way.

I kicked a stone with the tip of my cream ballet shoe as I gently rocked forwards on the swing. I leant against the right chain, my body half twisted to face Katie, but I refused to look at her. She jabbered on about the night before not picking up my signals. She’d made out with some boy named Tyler two years older than her. What had really, really pissed me off is that she’d gone with fucking Martha Bennett, biggest whore in our school.
I couldn’t take it anymore and kicked off my swing, I slipped my hands into my jacket pockets and turned away from her.

“Hey you okay?” Finally. I locked my Jaw and turned to face her, my expression fixed.

“So you just happened to get invited? Didn’t think to invite the rest of us?” I asked bitterly as the cold night air. The slightly breeze stung against my now rosy cheeks.

“Well, it wasn’t an open invitation,” she answered confused. I shook my head at her. She could be as dull as boys sometimes.

“We’re best friends Katie!” I hissed. She was quicker than boys at catching on. Her face faltered under the harsh orange glow from the street lamps and her expression twisted to one of guilt.

“Ohh,” she said quietly and silence fell.

“Yeah,” I said harshly after a moment. I shifted uncomfortably and shuddered in the freezing cold. I was already in a foul mood from being ditched by my other friends. Katie’s party news had broken me.

“I mean, you could have said no, you could have come and joined your friends.” I ground my teeth together. “But no, you’d rather go flirt with some fucking boys!”

“That’s not fair!” she shouted. “I’m sorry you have love interests in our friendship group-”

“What?!” I cut across her angrily.

“Oh you fucking love them all Jasey!” Katie sprang to her feet in her outburst.
“As brothers!” I cried in exasperation, my hand movements echoed the frustration in my voice.

“Oh yeah,” she said sarcastically. “Don’t you bloody lie to me! You’ve got a thing for Jack or Josh, I don’t know.”

Josh? Huh?

“What?!” I repeated for a second time. Katie rolled her eyes and shook her head. “At least I’m going for some decent blokes and I’m not slagging myself up for a bit of action!”

I realised my words were a slap in the face. The moment they escaped my lips I desperately tried to suck them back in again. Katie had never given me such a stare of hatred before. My face drained of colour and my words stumbled over themselves.

“Kat-I’m sor-Katie, come back!” I shouted after her as she stormed from the park, vanishing from the synthetic glow of the park light. I was completely torn inside – even though I was really pissed at her I didn’t want to leave her alone, in a dark park, at ten at night, and a fair distance away from her house. A drop of water splashed onto my cheek, soon followed by two more on my head. I pulled up the hood of my jacket as the rain started to pour. She’d be okay, wouldn’t she?

In spite of myself, I decided to go after her, even if I couldn’t apologise, I had to make sure she’d be okay. I turned a corner and she was only a couple of hundreds of yards in front of me. Damn, the girl was fast. My heart ached with guilt. Katie’s comfy canvases made no noise on the drenched tarmac. She turned right and down a street. A very dark street…

I froze in my tracks at the sound that followed and it had nothing to do with the cold. There was a scream, a scuffle and gruff young voice. My heart slammed against my chest; my limps rooted to the pavement. There were more shouts that I couldn’t understand and finally I unthawed and ran down the street. My heart leapt into my throat. A man in a dark hoody had Katie pressed against the wall, his hand pulling the large rectangle lump out of her jeans pocket – her phone. I sprinted down the street, my feet thinking for me. As usual, I was running head over heels into the situation. My best friend was in trouble, there was no other reaction for me.

The man heard my approaching footsteps but couldn’t see me. He pushed Katie away and she cried out. What had he done? Was she hurt? She fell sideward’s and onto the floor. It was too hard to see if she was injured. The attacker regained my attention, his eyes fell upon the bag on my right shoulder. I froze again, the adrenaline pulsing through my veins making my heart stammer with panic. A scream built in my throat but I could not voice it. Next thing I knew the bag was wrestled from me and instinctively I hit him across the head. I was an idiot. I tried to wrench my bag back but he was too strong. What the hell was I doing? I should have just let him have it. The man could kill me. Katie could be dead! Then he slammed me against the wall – I smacked my head on the bricks. A searing pain blinded me, the darkness consumed me and I was out.