What's the Point of Being in Love?

Because the drugs never work
They’re going to give you a smirk
‘Cause they got methods of keeping you clean

I sat in the café, sipping on my coffee with my ear buds looped up along my body, playing Teenagers by My Chemical Romance into my ear. A book was opened before me.

“Uh, are you Cayne?”

I looked up. The girl standing there had short, dark hair and chocolate brown eyes. She wore flare bottoms and a black tank top with flip flops.

“Yeah. Are you Emelda?” I asked.

She nodded, “Call me Emmie.” I pushed my bangs back and smiled. “So, c’mon.” I closed my book and shoved it in my bag, getting up and pulling out my wallet. “No, it’s on me. Trust me, my parents own the place, just like I told you.” I looked over at her. It was true; it’s the reason why she wanted to meet up at this café in the first place.

“Okay. You sure?” She nodded abruptly and smiled. I smiled back and she began to lead me to the back of café, through a door. It was a hall and had a couple doors. She led me to one and pushed open the door.

The room inside had concrete walls and a concrete floor with a puzzle carpet over it. A couch was pushed in a corner with a coffee table in front of it. There sat a boy with long-ish brown hair, brown eyes, and a kind smile. He was talking to another boy with short lighter brown hair and bright blue eyes.

“Hey, guys,” Emmie said. The boys turned and looked at her with expectant eyes. “This is Cayne.”

“Oh, hey,” the boy with the dark hair greeted. “I’m Erix and this is Brynn.”

“Hi,” I smiled back. I continued to gaze around the room. On the rug sat a microphone stand near the front and a drum set a little ways away, then an electric keyboard at one end. I tugged my mp3 from my ears and wrapped it up, flopping it into my bag. Along the wall were posters of bands taped kind of crookedly. Another plush couch sat opposite of the one the boys sat on, but a stark red and a little more broken then the brown one they sat on.

“Well, this is the room my parents let me use for band practice,” Emmie explained. “Brynn plays the guitar, Erix is our drummer and I do the keyboard.”

“And you sing, right?” Erix asked, standing up. I nodded, taking off my bag and dropping it near the door.

“Well, let’s hear some vocals,” Brynn smirked. I noticed that he was the one with the boyish charm in the band. And I bet that no matter who was added, he would always be.

“All you have to do is turn the microphone on,” Emmie told me. I nodded and walked over to it, taking it off the stand and switching it on. I thought back to the lyrics I had rehearsed so many times after I had found the ad in the newspaper looking for a bassist and singer for the band.

I opened my lips.

Tell me where our time went
And if it was time well spent
Just don’t let me fall asleep
Feeling empty again

‘Cause I fear I might break
And I fear I can’t take it
Tonight I’ll lie awake feeling empty

I can feel the pressure, it’s getting closer now
We’re better off without you
I can feel the pressure
We’re better off without you

Now that I’m losing hope
And there’s nothing else to show
For all those days we spent
Carried away from home

Some things I’ll never know
And I had to let them go
I’m sitting all alone feeling empty

I can feel the pressure, it’s getting closer now
We’re better off without you
I can feel the pressure, it’s getting closer now
We’re better off without you
Without you

Some things I’ll never know
And I had to let them go
Some things I’ll never know
And I had to let them go
I’m sitting all alone feeling empty

I can feel the pressure, it’s getting closer now
We’re better off without you
Feel the pressure, it’s getting closer now
You’re better off without me

I stopped singing and looked over at the band. They were all looking at me.

Oh no. Did they catch my voice when it got scratchy at ‘Carried away from home’?

Then Emmie leaned over them, and they all gathered together, talking in hushed voices. I began to scuff my feet against the carpet. My cheeks were heating up.

Then Emmie leaned away and straightened up, then gave me a small smile.

“You are by far the best singer we’d gotten in three days of auditions,” she told me. I felt a smile grace my lips. “And while we still have another two days, we believe that you would be the best, because you have a truly amazing voice and we’d love to have you in our band.”

*

In those two auditions, I was there when more people came in.

Some singers came, but they told them that they’d found their singer.

I’d learned that Erix and Emmie had been friends since freshman year and shared the same passion for music. They were currently in their junior year – like myself – and came up with the idea to start a band just recently. Their friend recommended Brynn – two years out of high school – to be the drummer, and so Brynn auditioned and they really liked him, so he joined.

Bassists auditioned, but we never really found the one, so Erix asked his younger brother, Abner, to audition, since he played, and he was really good.

And that’s how we formed our band.

We all sat around on the couches. We’d been in this band for three months now. We were good, but not perfect, and we still were doing covers. We had no name, and no genre of music just yet.

I learned that Abner – who had shoulder length hair that was lighter than his brothers but had the same eye color – is like puppy on steroids. Brynn was, in fact, that pretty boy I guessed him to be. Erix was the adorable one that didn’t hop from girl to girl like Brynn, he liked going out on dates and getting girls roses. Emmie was shy, but really funny once you got her to get out of her shell. And me? I was kind of all of them put together.

Which was great, they told me. The front woman should always be her whole band in one.

We all sat lounging on the couch. We just had band practice, and we had cracked open a couple cans of Pepsi and sat back, talking. Usually this was always the end of band practice. Just sitting down and goofing around.

Abner and Brynn were in a pretty heated debate about whether Courage the Cowardly Dog or SpongeBob SquarePants was better. We all sat watching them with amused eyes.

“At least Courage is cute,” Abner pouted.

“Are you saying that SpongeBob isn’t cute?” Brynn scoffed.

“He’s a sickly yellow sponge!”

“He’s a cute sickly yellow sponge.”

“The fuck ever!”

“At least they still play SpongeBob!”

“Just because they cancelled Courage the Cowardly Dog does not mean jack shit and you know it.”

“It so does.”

I cackled and leaned against Erix, rolling my eyes at the boys. We had all became very close.

“Guys!” Emmie shouted, interrupting the boys. They both shut up and gave her an irritated look. “Courage the Cowardly Dog is better. Now shut the fuck up.”

“Ha!” Abner jumped up, pointing an accusing finger at Beau. “I told you so!”

“Shut the fuck up,” Brynn rolled his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest.

“Don’t be a baby,” Erix told him, smirking. Brynn sighed.

“Aw, is Brynn okay?” I stood up from the brown couch and walked around the coffee table to plop myself next to him, wrapping my arms around his muscular body.

“Yes, mommy,” he chuckled. I grinned.

“Oh, don’t be like a Friday with two meanings, Brynn,” I told him.

“Oh my god!” Emmie squealed. We all looked at her, eyebrows raised.

“Uh, what?” Erix asked, eyes wide.

“Repeat that!” she pointed at me.

“Uh…Don’t be a Friday with two meanings? That?” I asked. She nodded her head so much I thought her head would pop right off her neck.

“Yes!” she screeched, hopping up and bouncing. I bit my lip nervously.

“What about it?” I asked slowly. She stopped and rolled her eyes.

“Guys,” she said in a tone that was initiating that we should know whatever the fuck she was going on about, “Friday with two meanings? Friday With Two Meanings!”

Suddenly, we knew.

Or I did, at least.

“It’s perfect!” I told her, eyes wide. The guys then looked at me, curious. I sighed. “A band name!”

“Guys,” Abner leaned forward, eyes wide, “we just picked our band name.”