Your Melody Sounds As Sweet As the First Time It Was Sung

Chase and Tyson were great musicians. I didn’t expect it from their reluctance to play for me; they wanted to play video games instead, but Seb threatened them by refusing them food, and that pretty much did the trick.

Chase was a skillful drummer. He had such a sense of rhythm it was amazing. Even subconsciously, after playing almost perfectly the drum line to ‘First Date’ by Blink 182 his foot was still tapping along on the bass drum, although he was so attuned to the sound that I don’t think he realized that the rest of us could hear it, and his fingers were twitching slightly, evidently itching to elaborate on the simple beat. For a guy as cocky as he was before, he sure didn’t believe me when I told him how good he was. He just made a sex joke and moved on.

The same goes for Tyson. His bass guitar… whoa. For starters, it was the coolest instrument I’d ever laid eyes on. Metallic purple in color, stickers of glow-in-the-dark hearts, stars and lightning bolts plastered in random places and fluro orange strings. I fell in love with it. But that’s just the instrument; Tyson’s fingers danced so quickly along the neck of the guitar that they almost blurred… slight exaggeration but you should expect that from me. I don’t know how long he’d been playing for, but I reckon he really is a Pete Wentz in the making. But like Chase, he all of a sudden became the epitome of modesty and didn’t listen.

Compliments aside, after that first Blink song we just played. We played for what was probably hours and we didn’t get bored. A few days later, we did it all again. And then a week after that. And then it became common for us to meet up, and if we had nothing else to do then we'd just jam. Or 'marmalade', as Seb so humourously liked to call it. It was a good thing we generally liked the same kind of music, even though Chase was the one who liked a little hardcore, Tyson liked slow love ballads and sad songs, and Seb liked classic rock. Just delving a little deeper in these interests, some of Chase’s music involved screaming backing vocals so that they almost sounded animalistic, Tyson’s made me cry, Seb and I got into arguments due to his infatuation with The Beatles that I didn’t understand, and as for me I’ll always be a punk-pop rock girl at heart.

Regardless of all this, we still all liked a lot of the same music and we often ended up playing songs by Jimmy Eat World, Radiohead and The Smashing Pumpkins with such smooth and unspoken transitions that we barely noticed what we were playing. My eyes would close and I would get lost in the music. I hadn’t felt so happy and at ease in a while. I hadn’t felt like that since back at high school with my bestest best friend by my side. Even if my feelings weren’t entirely reciprocated, it was good just knowing he was there. I missed being able to hug him. I missed being able to joke and muck around with him. I missed everything about him…

Stop it! God Charlotte, what are you doing?! You’re supposed to be forgetting him, not pining over him! Or at least trying to forget your feelings for him… Oh crap. Now I’m talking to myself. You can just tell I’m on the road to success, can’t you?

One day, we were halfway through playing a Fall Out Boy song when Pete called me. I didn’t answer because Seb and I were singing the chorus to ‘The Pros and Cons of Breathing’, but somehow after Wentz’s untimely interruption the song died and we realized that our fingers were blistered, our arm muscles were sore, and we needed a break. This break came in the form of Doritos, popcorn and MTV. Sure, sometimes MTV played good music, but more often than not it’s just ridiculous Barbie dolls dancing around in bikinis (which explains why Chase loves it) or stupid dating shows that are so obviously set up anyway. Thankfully, though, when we turned it on it was just a new music playlist.

I didn’t even realize how exhausted I was until I started falling asleep on Tyson’s shoulder. I could hear Seb and Chase making fun of me, but I was already too far beyond the line of consciousness to even try and shut them up. There was something else, however, that managed to jolt me awake, heart racing, in but a second; an extremely familiar bell pattern, followed by a voice that I would recognize from the other side of the world.

“Oh, well imagine, as I’m pacing the pews in a church corridor and I can’t help but to hear, no I can’t help but to hear an exchanging of words…”

“Holy crap Charlie, you scared me!” Tyson exclaimed, the hand that had previously been playing with my hair now covering his heart. “What the hell was that?”

“Yeah Charlie, are you okay?” Seb asked. He sounded concerned, but at this point I really didn’t care enough to answer them.

I was too focused on the figure on the screen in front of me. It was a face I knew only too well, only minus the red glasses I was so accustomed to. He looked even paler than usual, and his lips were standing out red in comparison. His beautiful brown eyes were outlined in eyeliner; liquid, if I'm not mistaken, and I felt a small pang of sadness at the fact that it wasn’t mine. I know I used to make a big deal out of it when the guys stole my eyeliner, but I loved it really. And now it was gone. Brendon was dressed up as some sort of ringmaster or something, complete with bowler hat and red tail coat. I couldn’t take my eyes off him. It had only been five months, yet it was apparent that he had changed so much. Without me.

I could hear my new friends continually asking me what was wrong, but I ignored them. I couldn’t explain my feelings right now. Elation and depression mixed together. They had done it. They were rockstars on the television screen in front of me. I laughed when my best friend brought his finger to his lips at the point in the song where he usually said ‘whore’. There were tears in my eyes. This was the face I’d been avoiding. How could I ever want to avoid my best friend?Because I was, regrettably, madly in love with him.

As the chorus picked up I saw my other friends in the background. My God… What have they done to their hair?! Brent’s usually brown-blonde had been dyed some weird brown-red, as had Spencer’s. Brent’s was straightened and cut in some sort of retarded lengthened bob making him look – and I apologize for how horrible I sound right now, but it’s kind of true – like a rather ugly girl. Spencer’s was cut in a strange bob, at least of normal bob-length… and holy crap so was Ryan’s… dyed black… oh my Lord… What was this?! Brendon’s hair was the only normal one… wow. Strange.

“Charlie? How do you know the words? They just said this had never been played before.”

I didn’t even realize I’d been singing along until Seb brought it up. Caught.

“I… uh… these guys…” Oh what the hell. I guess I better tell them the truth. Well, part of it. They’d probably find out eventually anyway. I sighed. “They were my best friends in Vegas. I miss them a lot.”

“Are you serious?” Chase asked.

“Damn girl,” Tyson started. “You've got connections!”

I chuckled a bit. “Yeah. I guess I do. But let me just say now, their hair wasn’t that weird last time I saw them.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Seb asked. He seemed a little hurt. I lowered my eyes.

“I don’t like to talk about them much. It just makes it harder that they’re not here.”

“Okay,” he said sympathetically, clearly regretting accusing me of keeping it from him personally, before pulling me into a hug that the other two promptly joined.

As sad as I was that my bestest best friends in the whole world were gone, I wasn’t alone. I had my new friends. I’d never try to replace Brendon, Ryan or Spencer, but I have people to keep my mind off them. I’ll be okay. I will.

Buzz Buzz. Buzz Buzz. Buzz Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Biting my lip and trying to change the emotional air with my mind, I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone to look at the caller I.D. Pete. Again.

“Yeah?” I answered casually.

“Charlie, you should come over here soon. It’s Kiah. She’s not… well, you’ll find out. Just… will you come over?”

“Yeah of course,” I answered immediately, worried about my friend. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s best not said until you’re here, okay?”

“Um, okay...” I was worried. Pete didn’t get this fidgety over nothing. “I’ll be there as soon as I can. Your place?”

“Yep. Thanks Char. See you soon.”

I hung up confused.

“What’s going on?” Seb asked, a frown on his face.

“Can you drive me to Pete’s? I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s something to do with Kiah.”

“Yeah of course. Should we leave now?”

“Yeah. Thanks Seb, I owe you.” I gave him a peck on the cheek and grabbed my jacket, but left the rest of my stuff here. I’d get it back eventually.

“Sorry for ruining tonight, guys,” I apologized to Tyson and Chase.

“That’s okay,” they dismissed it. “I just hope your friend’s okay.”

“Thanks,” I smiled. “I guess I’ll see you when I see you. I might be back tonight, but I might not. I don’t know.”

“We,” Seb stressed the syllable. I turned to look at him.

“What? No, you don’t have to stay if you don’t want to…”

“But I do want to. I want to make sure Kiah’s okay and that you have a ride back if you need it. I’m staying with you.”

The determination in his eyes told me not to argue. I just smiled a little and headed out the door, fretting over what could possibly be so important.