Chapter Text
Brian’s been walking around the mall for nearly twenty minutes now. He had a fuck ton of free time this week as most of his bandmates were busy with their personal lives, so he had to keep himself entertained somehow. He passed by some strangers who gave him weird looks. One girl openly laughed at him, but he didn’t really seem to mind. In fact, he actually enjoyed the attention, good or bad.
He was lost deep in his thoughts, and after mindlessly wandering for God knows how long, Brian stumbled upon a record store. It was pretty empty, nobody was at the checkout either, but he liked browsing through records to kill time, so he decided to check it out anyway.
The bell above the door jingled when Brian stepped inside, the air thick with plastic and dust and whatever cheap cologne the clerk probably bathed in. The fluorescent lights above him flickered slightly as he headed straight to the CDs, scanning the titles lazily.
“Uh, can I help you find anything?”
Brian glanced over his shoulder.
Some kid was gawking at him, looked like a high schooler at most. He almost laughed.
“I think I can manage.” He replied dryly.
The guy shifted awkwardly. “Right... I just– I work here.”
Brian’s eyes dropped to the plastic name tag clipped to his shirt.
“JEORDIE”
“…Right.”
The next thirty minutes were spent with the kid almost desperately trying to sell Brian a bunch of bullshit albums. Clearly this store didn’t do great in sales.
“What about Ministry? You look like you listen to Ministry. We have…We have The Land of Rape and Honey, and uh…”
“Dude, I really wasn’t planning on buying anything.” Brian interrupted, irritation creeping into his voice. He shoved all the CDs and tapes Jeordie had handed him back onto the racks, glaring at him.
“Oh, okay…I just thought maybe you’d like some of these…” He trailed off, unsure of what to say. “I, uhm…I like your tights.” Jeordie blurted out.
Brian froze. “What? My tights?” He blinked.
“Yeah, they’re kinda cool. I don’t see that kind of clothes often.” He stammered, looking anywhere but at Brian.
“Oh…yeah. I got them from our guitarist.”
Jeordie’s head snapped up. “Guitarist? Like, you’re in a band?”
Brian nodded. “Yeah. Something like that.” He said casually.
“That’s so cool. Me too, actually. Amboog-A-Lard. You should check it out. We play around sometimes. Not like…big places or anything…”
He raised an eyebrow. “Amboog-A-Lard. Never heard of ‘em…” He tried not to laugh. Failed a little. “What do you play?”
“Guitar.” Brian could barely contain his laughter. He leaned against the rack. watching as Jeordie frowned. “What’s so funny?”
“Nothing, you just…You look more like that one annoying guy who hangs around the band, not…an actual member.”
“Oh, uh…no…I’m actually in the band…” He cleared his throat. “You never told me your name, by the way.”
They talked until, eventually, Jeordie had to get back to work, but agreed that they’d hang out after his shift ended. Brian wasn’t really sure why, maybe he was just extremely bored. So there he was, leaning against the wall, waiting for the fucker to leave the store.
“So how old are you?” Brian asked. He’d brought Jeordie to this abandoned house near the mall. It was pretty old, had a few tags on the walls, which were splintered and gray from years of neglect. He liked it here, especially the balcony that was damn near falling apart, which they were currently sitting on.
“Seventeen.” He replied, brushing some strands of hair out of his face.
“Hm.” So Brian was right. He is a high schooler. “So you into like…music and stuff?”
“Yeah…I guess. Music’s kind of all I know.” Jeordie said, his legs dangling from the edge of the balcony. “My mom was a go-go dancer for The Kinks back in the 70s. I was born on the road, too, so I’ve basically been in the scene my entire life.”
“Really? That’s cool. My parents were just conservative church freaks.” He trailed off. “Are you religious?”
Jeordie shook his head. “Nah.” He shrugged. “I’m gonna have to go home soon.”
“Why?”
“It’s gettin’ late. My family’s probably waiting for me.” He said, getting up.
Brian watched him brush dust off his jeans, unsure of what to do, or say, before he started digging in his pockets for a pen or a marker. “Wait, wait, have my number.” He blurted out, grabbing Jeordie’s arm and scribbling his landline on it. “Don’t lose it.” Brian mumbled.
Jeordie looked down at his arm. “Guess that’s fair,” he said, taking the marker from Brian and writing down his own number…well, his mom’s number, on Brian’s arm as well.
With that, he got up and walked back into the house, before going down the stairs and leaving. Brian watched him leave, enjoying the silence. He sat there for a while before realizing that it was indeed getting pretty late and the sun was beginning to set. He should probably head home as well. It gets really cold at night and his current outfit wasn’t exactly going to keep him warm, considering he was only wearing a pair of ripped up shorts, a T-shirt and the tights that Jeordie had complimented earlier. With a sigh, he got up and also made his way downstairs and out of the house.
Brian didn’t wash the number off when he got home. He forgot about it, and only noticed it again when he was brushing his teeth, the ink slightly smudged across his forearm.
“Jeordie.” He muttered to himself.
Weird kid.
Still, he figured that it was too late to call him now, Jeordie was probably sleeping anyway, so he’d have to wait until tomorrow.
Jeordie woke up to the sound of someone yelling his name.
“Jeordie! Phone!” One of his younger brothers yelled from the living room.
He groaned and buried his face into the pillow for a moment before dragging himself out of bed. “Yeah, yeah, I’m coming.” He muttered, rubbing his eyes as he walked down the hallway.
“Some guy’s asking for you,” He said, handing him the receiver. “Didn’t catch the name.”
Jeordie frowned slightly and pressed the phone to his ear.
“Hello?”
“Hey. Took you long enough.”
“Who’s this?”
“Brian. From yesterday.”
Right. Jeordie looked down at his forearm, seeing the ink that he had failed to wash off in the shower the previous night.
“What’s up?”
“Nothing much. Wanna hang out?”
“I can’t today, sorry man.”
“Why?”
“I have to go to school.”
Brian paused, before he spoke up again.
“Skip.”
“What?”
“Skip.”
“I can’t just skip school.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s school.”
“Exactly. It’s boring, right? You’re sitting in a room listening to some teacher drone on about…what even? Algebra? Pfft. Come on, I promise it’ll be more fun.”
“I don’t know…” Jeordie hesitated, glancing toward the hallway where his mom might pop up at any second.
“You’re seventeen and you’ve never skipped school before?”
“No, I have…I mean, I’ve ditched class, but…” He paused. “Like I was just sitting in the restroom with my friends and sometimes smoking cigarette butts off the ground, not hanging out with a 20 year old off campus.”
“It’s just one day. You’ll survive.”
“I literally can’t. My mom would kill me if she found out.”
“Didn’t you say she was cool the other day?”
“Yeah but…she still cares if I don’t show up to school.”
“Live a little. I promise nothing bad’s gonna happen. It’s not like I’m asking you to rob a bank.”
Jeordie hesitated again. “…Fine.”
He didn’t know why he agreed. Maybe he didn’t want to seem like a loser, especially since he had so much in common with Brian. It would be a shame to lose him just because he was too much of a pussy.
Jeordie wasn’t exactly popular at school, not that he was getting bullied or anything, he just didn’t have that many friends, and he basically shared no interests with the ones he already had.
He did know a few kids around his age that were into the same music as him, but it felt different with Brian. Even just a few years older, he seemed to understand him more than any other guy his age. It felt nice being around him, he seemed more mature, in a way.
Despite his 18th birthday coming up, nobody actually treated him like an adult. He was still a teenage boy in most people’s eyes, so being around Brian felt validating.
They decided to meet up at the mall again. Jeordie had one problem though, he usually walked to school with his younger brother, who was a freshman at his high school. He had to find an excuse as to why he suddenly felt like going alone.
After going back upstairs and getting dressed for school, he went to his mom’s bedroom.
“Mom, I’m gonna head to school earlier today.”
“Huh? Why?”
“Oh, no reason, I just…” He trailed off, avoiding her gaze. “I have a test today and uh…my friend and I are gonna study before class.”
She looked at him skeptically. Jeordie wasn’t the type to show up to school early to study for a test, not that he was completely stupid, but she figured that if Jeordie was actually that focused on studying, his grades would be better. Which wasn’t the case, since he averaged a D (or a C, if he was lucky) on most of his tests.
“I mean…Alright then. So you’re going alone?”
“Yeah. I have to leave now.”
Jeordie hugged his mom and grabbed his backpack. He had emptied it– no point in dragging his books around, but still left some random stuff in it so no one would notice it was empty.
He slipped out the front door, the chill morning air hitting his face. He headed towards a bus stop that was far enough from his house that nobody could see him out the window. The streets were quiet, just the distant hum of cars and a few early risers. “Just one day,” He told himself. “It’s fine.”
By the time he reached the bus stop, he was breathing a little heavier, partly from the pace, partly from excitement. He checked the time on his watch. Brian was probably already at the mall.
The bus finally showed. He hopped on, finding a seat near the window, staring out at the passing street. The engine rattled along, making its usual stops. Jeordie barely noticed, his mind kept drifting back to Brian. He rubbed at his forearm where the marker was smudged, a faint reminder of yesterday’s meeting.
When the bus finally slowed to the stop near the mall, Jeordie jumped up before it had even fully stopped. He practically ran the short distance between the curb and the entrance, scanning the crowd. He pushed through the sliding doors, eyes darting between shoppers.
Brian was leaning against the railing by the food court, watching people move between the greasy fast-food places and Chinese takeout counters. The smell of fried food hung in the air and some kids were running around.
“Over here,” He called out, waving lazily when he noticed Jeordie.
His stomach flipped. He jogged the last few steps, nearly tripping over his own feet. “Hey.” He said, trying to sound casual.
“Hey.” Brian grinned. “I thought you’d chicken out.”
Jeordie laughed nervously. “Nah, just…there was some traffic.” Liar.
The hang out went surprisingly well. They spent most of their time calling this girl who ran a small jewelry stand on a payphone and making ridiculous death threats to her.
“You do it now, Jeordie.”
“Huh? What do I say?”
“I dunno, just...say something that’ll freak her out.” Brian said, grinning like a kid.
“I’m not sure what to do.” He said, staring at the receiver.
“Just pretend you’re really pissed off. Make her think you mean business.”
“Uh, alright then…” He said, hesitantly lifting the receiver to his ear. “Hi, uh…Listen, we’re about to…” He paused and glanced at Brian, who was looking at him expectantly. He cleared his throat. “We found your address and…you better watch your back ‘cause we’ll break into your house and slaughter you.” He stammered. The girl just gasped and immediately hung up.
“Oh my god, no, that was awful.” Jeordie muttered, handing the receiver back to Brian. “I sounded like a total idiot.”
“No, no, it was perfect! Keep going!” He urged.
They dialed her number over and over again. Apparently, Jeordie had taken a liking to their…activity, and now Brian was on the phone with her.
“Yeah, we’ll cannibalize you and eat your dog, so–” Before he could finish, the girl hung up. They tried calling her again, but she didn’t reply. A few minutes later, they saw her running out of the mall in tears.
They both burst out laughing, clutching their stomach.
After this they ordered some food and wandered back to the abandoned house from yesterday. The wooden steps creaked under their weight as they went up the stairs to sit on the balcony again.
“That was fun.” Jeordie mumbled.
“Yeah, it really was.”
They stayed silent for a while, enjoying each other’s presence, flakes of old paint peeling from the railing as the wind pushed through the broken windows of the house. Finally, Brian spoke up.
“Jeordie?”
“Yeah?”
“You should meet my band sometime.”
His eyes lit up. “Really?”
Brian grinned. “Yeah, I feel like they would like you.”
Jeordie tried not to smile too much. If Brian’s friends liked him too…Maybe he’d get to stick around.