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Sam remembers the night when his kid brother was born. He stayed over with Seb while his parents were at the hospital in Zuzu City.
He remembers when JojaMart opened, and how suspicious Evelyn and George were about it. (Now that it’s long gone and the space where it used to stand has been turned into a movie theater where the three of them sometimes go after band practice, he can see the old folks were right – his boss there was kind of sleazy.)
He remembers when his dad went off to war, and when his dad came home again.
He can’t remember a time before he knew Sebastian.
They’ve been hanging out since… preschool, at least. Unless you count being babies on the same oversized quilt on the floor as the start of a friendship, in which case it’s been even longer. His mom has pictures of him and Seb as toddlers sitting on the kitchen floor banging on pots and overturned bowls with wooden spoons. (“We should’ve known you would start a band someday!”)
These days band practice takes up a lot of their time. It’s important. They want to be good enough to play gigs in Zuzu City someday. Plus it’s also just really fun.
When they started the band people raised their eyebrows about Abigail. Gus thought the boys were going to wind up fighting over her. A lot of people seemed to think that, actually. It used to make him mad: why would people assume two guys couldn’t be friends with the same girl?
Also, Abigail 100% wasn’t his type. He wasn’t sure what it felt like to be “into” someone, but all the books and movies made it pretty clear there were supposed to be some kind of fireworks. Like every time you saw them, your heart felt too big for your chest. Like the way hitting just the right chord could make your toes curl. Like the mystical effect of drinking stardrop tea.
Sam felt that way sometimes during band practice, but it … wasn’t because of Abigail.
He tried not to think about that. He was not about to burn his best friendship over the slim possibility that Seb might feel the same way he did.