Westbound & Down

It had been a whole week since Alan joined Of Mice And Men and in all honesty he was thinking of quitting. It wasn't that he didn't enjoy it because he did, he just hated the fact they hadn't even put together one complete song that actually sounded decent. In all reality Alan had only agreed to join this band was because his old friend from high school, Austin, wouldn't stop begging him to. Alan wasn't really keen on the idea at first since at the time of the call Austin was the ex-screamer of the band and because of the way he felt about Austin in the past. So even he got kicked out of his own band and Jaxin Hall, who was the guitarist, left to do other things. The band basically had members constantly joining and leaving which, to Alan, seemed like the type of band that wouldn't go any further than an overcrowded basement, but nonetheless Alan joined the band upon Austin's acceptance back into the band.

The other members weren't what Alan imagined them to be, in his head he had the idea that they were all like how Austin was in high school, the popular jerk who had all the female attention. Basically an asshole. Alan was terribly wrong, these guys were so much better and wanted to be friends with Alan as much as Alan wanted to be friends with them. There was Philip Manansala who played guitar along with Alan, and loved to smoke weed, who had very tanned skin and long almost black hair. Valentino Arteaga, who went by the name Tino or Your Boii, played drums and also loved weed, who was very chubby, like a bear, with a beard and black hair and Shayley Bourget who played bass and sang clean vocals who had short-ish brown hair which curled slightly and had amazingly blue eyes. The look of them all made Alan feel more at ease, only because to him, they looked normal, not overly pretty except the fact they all had beautiful smiles that made even Alan melt a little on the inside.

"So tell me again why you dyed your hair red?" Was the first proper conversation topic between them all.

"I don't know its better than the brown he had in high school. Alan had the bangs and stretchers thing going on, it wasn't a good look." Austin had commented as soon as Tino had made the statement. Alan simply flipped him off before telling them all about his short red hair.

Most days were like that, there was more talking then there was music and nothing got done. Alan and Phil's sounds never worked together, Tino couldn't find a way to fit in a decent sound to our guitars and Shay didn't even attempt to make a sound when he heard what Alan and Phil had come up with. Austin never helped he just sat upstairs writing lyrics.

"He seriously needs to get down here and sort this out." Tino sighed and put his drum sticks back into their container. Alan scoffed at Tino's statement. Of Mice And Men pretty much relied on Shay or Austin. Which made Alan feel pretty useless, even if he did something he thought was good Austin or Shay always shot it down.

"I think we all just need a long break." Alan stood and walked towards the stairs. "And by that I mean go home and rest for a couple days, maybe we'll focus more in our own environment and not cooped up down here like sheep." Alan just sighed in frustration when no one else moved, he grabbed his guitar and went upstairs into the hallway. Alan debated with himself for a good couple of minutes deciding on whether he should say goodbye to Austin or not. In. The end Alan decided against it.

"Alan? Where are you going?" Alan found himself sighing a lot lately, he turned to Austin, who still looked amazing in baggy shirts and a black tank. His long brown hair slightly curly and all pushed back. To Alan, Austin, in this moment looked scared.

"I'm going home to rest I'll be back in a couple days." To Alan's surprise Austin shook his head at him. Alan looked at the older male in disbelief, was he really stopping Alan from leaving? Alan held back the urge to blow up at Austin and let him explain.

"You can rest here, you know that, I don't want you to leave we've got so much to do." Alan just laughed in his face and backed towards the door. "I'm being serious Alan, if you leave I'll just drag you back." This only made Alan laugh more and slam the door behind him, he didn't care if there was a lot of things to do, this was stressing Alan out too much for his liking. Alan was just about to open his car door when someone grabbed his wrist and slammed him against the car.

"I'm serious Ashby, your not leaving." Austin growled in his ear and pulled him back towards the house turned recording studio. Alan was too shocked to do anything about the man who was currently pulling Alan back into the home he'd been stuck in for the last week. Realisation hit Alan and he began to struggle against his hold.

"Austin let me go." Alan groaned and dug his heals into the floor. Austin only dragged him harder along the driveway. "I'm being serious Austin, I just need a break, I've been in that house for a week straight and only went outside to smoke, I need a change if scenery, it's not like I'm leaving permanently."

"You just don't understand Alan." Austin mumbled, Alan continued to pull against him to try and get as far from him and this house as possible.

"Then make me understand Austin, tell me why you won't let us leave or why you want this done so badly when we've got all the time in the world." Austin stopped walking but didn't let go of Alan's wrist. After a brief awkward silence Austin nodded and began to drag Alan backdown the driveway.

"Where are we going?" Alan was slightly freaking out at the man dragging him along the street. Alan was sure he was going to kill him.

"To get coffee, maybe something to eat. I'll tell you why I want you guys to stay so bad and you can tell me why you want to leave so bad ok?" Alan nodded and continued to awkwardly shuffle behind Austin as he dragged him to the next block towards the beach. Alan took in the view of the sleepy beach he was walking next to, the sun was setting casting a golden glow on the water and sand, the tides sloshed into the beach lazily. The whole place seemed to be working in slow motion. Really relaxed by the setting sun that warmed Alan and Austin's bear skin when the gentle breeze passed occasionally. Austin pulled Alan into a small coffee and pie shop on the start of the pier. Alan decided immediately that he like it here. It was peaceful, the shop was all open so he could see the lazy tides and the sun setting behind the horizon. Alan just couldn't get over how Austin had bought him here so willingly. In high school Austin was the one who took the piss out of Alan and his friend Justin on a daily basis, now the two were having coffee.

"Here. So Alan tell me why you want to leave so bad." Austin didn't beat around the bush when he sat opposite Alan and slid his coffee across the table. Alan simply nodded and sipped his coffee. A blush crawling to his cheeks when he realised Austin attention was solely on Alan. Alan cleared his throat and wiped his hands on his jeans.

"It's just that, I'm stressing out about getting the last couple songs finished. Me and Phil can never get sounds that sound good together which puts Tino behind too, and Shay won't even try to write music because our sound is so bad and you just sit upstairs all day writing lyrics." Alan regretted saying this to Austin when his expression turned from relaxed to on edge, you could see him physically tense up as the words left Alan's mouth.

"Yeah Shay told me about the stress part, and I'm sorry I can't help you guys I just want the album to be finished as soon as possible so we can focus on getting it out there y'know?" Austin leaned back in his chair looking down into his cup of coffee.

"I just don't get why, we've got a long time before Rise wants our near enough finished album, they'll promote it Austin. They even said they would." Alan could never understand why Austin wanted the album done weeks before it was needed.

"Alan, I'm going to tell you something I've never told anyone else. I only want this album done so I have something to fill the time, so I'm not left alone with my thoughts. My mom passed a couple years ago and I started this band with Jaxin a month after she passed. I needed something to pass the time, to make her proud y'know? I just want to make her proud." At this time Austin let a few tears slip down his cheeks as he told Alan. Alan simply moved next to Austin and wrapped an arm around him.

"I'm sorry Austin, we need to meet in the middle ok? We need breaks where we can go home for a day or two to rest up, or even just have a day of rest at the house and you need to help us and we'll help you. You can't stay away from us, we're the best help you can get in this situation Aus." Alan just let Austin lean on him and cry a little before finishing his coffee and looking Alan dead in the eye.

"Ok deal, but you have to promise not to leave me."

Alan smiled, "I won't leave Aus, doing this band thing. This one's for you."