1 The Boy With The Thorn In His Side

#1

"The boy with the thorn in his side

Behind the hatred there lies

A murderous desire for love"

:plug: - the music stops for me as my earphones are yanked out by Poos.

"Yo, what are you listening?"

"Some music"

"Duh, obviously. Let me check it out"

:plug: - Poos plugs in my earphones into his ears. Gross.. I don't want his ear shit to get on my earphones..

"Dude what the fuck is this?"

"It's the Smiths"

"Sounds so gay man. What the fuck is up with this guy's singing"

"It's Morrissey man"

:plug – drop: - Poos yanks out my earphones out of his ears and throw them down onto my desk

"You should listen to some proper music, This sounds like some new age gay shit"

Jesus, he has no fucking clue – I see no point in talking back.

"No wonder your band isn't going anywhere. You have no rock spirit in you and you are listening to this kinda shit"

"You just don't get it"

"Nah, to me this is shit. No grit, no screaming, no thumping drums, no balls"

"The lyrics are amazing"

"I didn't even pay attention to the lyrics. Music has to sound good in itself, lyrics are secondary"

"Obviously I think the music is good too and Morrissey's one of the all time greatest singers"

"Oh please, I hear this voice for 3 seconds and I know it's shit"

"Ah, fuck off"

:plug:

"And if they don't believe us now

Will they ever believe us?

And when you want to live

How do you start?"

Poos has shrugged and walked off. I don't know who 'they' are, but these words hit me hard.

I bury my head in my arms as I slouch over my desk.

School's over finally and I'm walking back home. It wasn't an unusual day. It was just like any other day – which means it was a bad day. But I try not to dwell on negative thoughts. I'm actively resisting to become a moody boy in his puberty cliché.

The sky looks the same as yesterday too, and the day before. Sky's not so blue as people say, at least not where I live. It's usually greyish blue, no, actually it's more grey than blue – yeah, grey sky with a very faint hint of blue

Shit, I have to stop this thinking. Only a teenage depressed wannabe would think about how the colour of sky is reflecting the feelings in his heart. THAT, sounds disgusting.

:Boom: - ouch Something hit me on the back of my knee. My legs automatically give up and I'm falling face down. But at least I don't plant my face as I managed to get my palms on the ground first.

"uh.. oh… sorry, are you okay?"

Who the fuck did… I turn to look back and see a girl standing there next to her bicycle, she must have hit me with its front wheel.

"yeah it's okay"

"Are you sure? I'm so sorry"

On second glance she is quite cute. I noticed how nice it was, the end tips of her short cut frisky hair brushing against her slender neck just an inch below the jaw line.

But my instinct kicks in fast and there is an alarm ringing in my head. Shit, this is bad. This looks like those 'girl crashes into a boy on the street accidentally and somehow they find out they go to same school and romance develops blah blah' – disgusting stuff.

"Oh, your uniform… we are in same school..?" – the threat to my identity asks me incredulously. Fuck this is really turning into that. I can't let this happen

"yeah it's okay. No worries"

I throw a short smile, turn around and walk away. After I had taken a few steps I hear her shouting, probably with her hand formed around her mouth – "I'm sorry!"

It's not that I'm awkward with girls – or people in general. I have no problem communicating with people. I'm not shy. I have friends, although I generally look down on them. But it would be a lie if I said I didn't enjoy hanging out together. We have fun messing about in and out of school, Poos being one of my best friend since God knows how many years ago.

I live in a small town and there are only two schools for elementary, middle, and high school. Pretty big chance that you go to same school with someone through out your entire school life – like me and Poos did. Inevitably there is some rivalry between the two schools, but it is stupid arguing who is the king of a boring ass suburban town.

I arrive back home, climb up to my room (I hate that my room is on the second floor, such a cliché student room) and plump myself on the bed. Ah this is goo –

:Rrrrring:

Ah fuck off who is this, I take out my smartphone from my pocket and raise it to check – it's Nico.

"yeah what's up"

"where the fuck are you?"

"huh? I'm at home"

"why the fuck are you at home?"

"er, cuz it's my home?"

"We are having a band meeting today you idiot!"

"huh we are?"

"Man I told you we have an important thing to discuss, get your ass over here right now"

"gees alright man"

Nico is our band's "leader". He sings, writes music, writes lyrics, provides us with practice rooms in his home studio, and even lend us his instruments for us to practice at home, so yes, he is the boss in every sense.

I get changed quickly to jeans and hoodies and walk outside. It's raining but nothing big. I never carry umbrella anyway..

By the time I reached the bus station, 10 minutes' walk from my home, I am completely soaked. I feel the cold shiver running down my spine. Man I don't want to do this today.

"Yo Nico"

"Where are you?"

"I'm at the bus stop"

"You just got off?"

"No I haven't got on yet"

"…the fuck, Toobo! You are already so late!"

"erm, you know, it's raining, I'm wet and it's kinda cold, can I skip this for today? I'm sorry, you can text me what happened later"

"Stop fucking around! Come right now!"

:hangs up:

Gees. Nico can be overbearing at times, but today he sounds extra ill-tempered

After long bus trip with slow traffic in rain, I finally reach Nico's flat in the city, right in the centre of one of the most trendy place in our capital – yes he's loaded.

When I enter the living room I see Nico and our manager (his equally intimidating mum…) sitting on the couch. They give me a coordinated glare with their arms crossed. A silent Hmpf.

"Erm.. sorry I'm late – what's the big deal today?"

"Everyone has already left. You are over an hour late", snaps Nico.

":sigh:… anyways, the reason why I wanted everybody here is that I had an announcement to make"

"what is that?"

"We are going to record our album at 3KHz studio, with Ian Gran as our producer"

"Holy shit! What happened?! We got signed?"

"No. I have set up an independent label and we will be releasing our album through that"

"um…? How do we tank the cost?"

"The label will take care of it" – Nico's mu… our manager nods approvingly as her so…band's leader says this.

"wow that is fantastic.. when is this gonna happen?"

My mind reads – disappointing, we are basically just paying ourselves to record and release..

"Three months from now, so you better step up"

"Ok man"

"Alright, you can go home now"

"Wha… you made me come all this way just to tel….(I notice the mu…manager glaring at me).. tell me this.. oh thank you for telling me such great news (my best fake smile)"

"No problem Toobs. See you at practice this Saturday"

I'm on the bus back home. The rain is still going strong but the roads are emptier now. I put on my earphones and turn on the demo recordings of our band's songs. So we are going to record these properly and get them published huh… despite all the uncoolness of the whole arrangement, I can't help but admit that it is kinda cool and I'm a little excited. I close my eyes and try to visualize how we'd look on stage with massive crowd.

:tap:

I feel something on my shoulder

:tap tap:

what is this?

:tap tap tap:

someone tapping on me? Well I'll ignore I don't want to be disturbed

:plug:

"it's you – isn't it? I'm sorry" – a girl's voice, I'm startled. I turn to look back and there's a vaguely familiar looking girl sitting behind me, the damn bitch pulled out my ear phones, how rude..

"excuse me..? I don't understand"

"Sorry, I crashed you from the back with my bike earlier today"

Oh.

"Er.. I guess. It's okay. Don't worry about it"

:Plug:

Boom Boom Boom – the music resumes.

:Plug:

sound of rain hitting the window of the bus

"I'm sorry"

"I said it's okay. You don't have to keep telling me this" – man what the fuck is this. I'll just ..

:Plug:

Boom Boom

:Plug:

"I said I'm sorry"

"Okay! Okay! I get it. I'm ok so that's it. Ok?"

"What class are you in?"

"3B… er, what for?"

"Wow I'm in 3A, we are in the next classroom"

"So are 30 other guys in our classes.."

"Hey what are you listening to"

"Some music"

"Duh, obviously"

:Plug:

This bitch grabs my earphones and plug them in her ears.

3 seconds later.

:Plug:

The bitch stares at me blank for a moment

"Oi, gimme back my earphones"

"It's shit"

"Huh?"

"This music. It's shit.

'What the… man, forget it, you are crazy"

"Which band is this?"

"It's my band" – oh shit I totally didn't mean to say that just now

She gives me a blank stare for a moment again, then blinks once.

"I'm sorry.. it's just that… I thought it sounded shit… I'm sorry"

"Then stop saying that already. It's none of your business and I really don't care what you think"

"So you are playing in a band? Do you have an album?"

"Actually, we are about to record and release our first album, hah!" – erm… maybe I didn't want to say that

"Who would sign a band like th…. Oh I'm sorry…"

I give her my best evil glare. She can stand my eyes for a few seconds but then gives up. I won. I plug in my earphones, turn back to face forward again – I have a satisfied grin on my face she can't see – now the music continues – boom, boom, boom

:Plug:

my earphones are yanked out again – oh come on I'm gonna kill this bitch... I turn around and yell back at her

"What the fuck do you want?!"

She pauses for a second, and then tells me this straight to my face

"You should listen to some good music if you want to get better"

"Oh man what do you know.."

"Check out the Smiths"

The girl taps my right shoulder once with her hand and walks away to get off the bus, without turning back again.