My Heart's 4/4 Beat [Closed]

Uncultured-Buffoon

Uncultured-Buffoon

Senior Member
Yuzuke ran his thumb along the first chord of his bass guitar and let the low growl it created run through his bones and bring him to a smile. The sound was sweet and quiet, just like him. He was sitting towards the back of Leigh's basement where the boys practiced every day. The girls had claimed the music room in the school with a stern reminder from the nuns that they did not want the girls practicing as long as the ears of any of God's children were around. The two bands were always fighting over who would get what stage in what place or who had the better musicians. Even though Yuzuke had no choice but to save his dignity and stand up for himself as much as he could he wished with every fiber of his being that the two bands would stop creating so much tension. It had now gotten so bad that it grew to the neighborhood as well.


Yuzuke tore his eyes away from his bass guitar, whom he named Elizabeth, and looked around at the garage. Yuzuke was sitting next to a drum set for Dylan and there was a guitar up front for Leigh. The garage was small and only lit by a lightbulb that hung from the middle of the room on a chain. To turn the light off you had to pull on another flimsy chain next to the lightbulb and Yuzuke remembered when he first came here and hit his head on the light as he walked through the room. Around them he could make out posters on the walls and a garage door but that was all. It was very eery for the most part and the whole basement made Yuzuke extremely uncomfortable.


"Are we going to practice or what?" Yuzuke said sheepishly as he wondered what the girls were doing right now. Practicing their butts off he bet.
 
Dylan masterfully twirled his pair of drumsticks between his fingers, a habit of his. "Sure as hell hope so," he answered Yuzuke's question. With his right hand Dylan softly hit the symbol beside him while stamping his foot against the pedal to begin a rhythm. The sound was so familiar to him, the way a home you've lived for years is easy to map and memorize. The rapid, beating sound of drums eased him, gave him a place to leave reality and simply ignore what was really there.


"Yo, Yuzu," Dylan said. He normally called him that, and he has for years. "Which song are we going to practice,"
 
Emily finished a song on her bass, having quietly hummed along the whole time with the vocals. No one had heard her voice before, and she didn't intend to change that today. The song ended and she looked at the other girls. They had taken over the music room, forcing the guys to practice elsewhere. Emily was a quiet girl, so she waited for more instruction from another member of their all-girls band.


While she waited, she rubbed her finger along the strings of her bass guitar. She liked the annoying grinding sound it made and knew it made the others freak out. The guitar was periwinkle, with a white cat on the front. She really, REALLY liked cats.
 
Yuzuke suddenly began to feel his heart beat faster. He would be making a decision? What if they didn't like what he chose? What if they laughed at what he chose? What if this was all a prank somehow and they already had a song in mind but he just wasn't listening? All of the songs that the band knew and had practiced before flew out of his head all at once and he shook his head vigorously, heat rising in his cheeks. He hated himself for being like this and throughout all of Dylan and Yuzuke's friendship he envied Dylan's somewhat care-free attitude. Even more he envied Leigh, who was also shy like him but laid back about things and a lot nicer to spend time around. Yuzuke blinked several times and looked down at his bass.


"I-I don't know. Ask Leigh or... you choose." He muttered under his breath.
 
Dylan shrugged his shoulders. Knowing Yuzuke, he wasn't one to make decisions or play the leader. Dylan occasionally tried to get Yuzuke out of his shell, which would help him build confidence, and that would especially help when their band got more well-known. But, seeing how this center of attention almost-phobia was how Yuzuke always was, Dylan tends to leave his personality alone.


"Last Truth is good enough for me," though he did have pride in their songs, Dylan didnt have a preference for what they would practice every time they did---as long as Dylan got to play the drums he was okay with it.
 
Yuzuke nodded and sighed deeply. He had chickened out once again. Walking toward his spot next to Leigh on the guitar he flashed a sad smile at Dylan, silently thanking his for being a good friend. He was suddenly jerked back and a loud whining sound coursed through the small basement and made Yuzuke shiver in disgust. He had forgotten to unplug Elizabeth, and the amp he had been using next to Dylan whined its protest. Hot embarrassment rushed all throughout Yuzuke's body and he buried his head in his hands.


"I. Am so. Sorry." Yuzuke said into his hands. He massaged his eyes with his palms and tugged at his hair with his fingers, raising his head and groaning loudly. He was especially sorry for Leigh, whose house this was in the first place.
 
Dylan picked at his ear with his pinky finger, as if trying to get that loud noise out of his head. "You don't gotta be sorry," he said, face entirely indifferent. Dylan was quite accustomed to Yuzuke's mishaps, he learned not to always raise his voice at him. To the day they had first met as children, Dylan wouldn't forget. He himself was practically the same---a hothead that never gave a damn about what anyone said. They met during lunch time when Dylan was drinking his Coca-Cola. Yuzuke bumped into him and Dylan spilled his drink, in result, yelled at him and stormed off. The next day he protected Yuzuke from some bullying kids. So here they are now, friends and in their own band.


Dylan twirled his drumsticks again. "Are we all set to start now?" he rubbed at his shoulder like it ached. He was just tired of waiting.


((Is the whole naming the bass Elizabeth thing a K-ON! reference? xD ))
 
((Maybe...))


Yuzuke nodded and grabbed the chord of his bass, dragging it along the floor towards him. He made his way back to the amp slowly and placed it in the front, next to Leigh. It didn't matter what positions they practiced but they wanted to get as accustomed to the band positions as they could. He plugged Elizabeth in again and played a couple of chords. They all sounded just find and Yuzuke smiled at his band mates. He was suddenly confident and looked from Dylan over his shoulder to Leigh.


"Ready Leigh?" He asked.
 
Dylan nodded to Yuzuke and Leigh with a lopsided smirk to his face, his way of letting them know he was ready to play. Dylan brushed away his pale bangs out his face a little. No matter how many times it got in the way sometimes, he never wanted it too short. Dylan then tapped drumsticks together for a clicking sound as the normal way some songs started out.


"One, two, three..." Dylan said out loud.
 
((lol, ironically enough I was going to make Emily name hers Elizabeth as a K-On! reference, but ya beat me to it. Also, I wish the girls would reply -_- lol ))
 
((sorry for the late reply! >A<))


Nelly smiled and grabbed her guitar. She had that baby for years now, and she loved playing it to relieve her stress. She looked at the bass player, Emily, and grinned, sending a fist upwards. "Alright! The way we're practicing, it sounds like we're gonna be the best band ever~!" she said cheerfully and played briefly with the chords of her guitar. She had delicate and skillful fingers, so she used that on her favor to play the guitar. With those fingers, she was also good at sewing, but she didn't show that to many people as she figured it wouldn't be as interesting.
 
Emily shot Nelly a small smile and started playing in sync with her bandmate. They played pretty well together, even improvising. She figured soon the others would join in but she enjoyed the no-words communication she had with the guitarist who she'd known for quite some time. Emily was unlike Nelly. Nelly had perfect guitar-player fingers. Emily, well... She was short with fingers to match. The strings of the bass looked huge compared to her digits, but it had never stopped her before.
 
"Soundin' good!" Nelly said cheerfully. She enjoyed playing with Emily, the two of them made a nice team when it came to music. A bass player and a guitarist, now where was the drum player..? Well, for now, it was good enough. They were only practicing after all. Practice made perfection, that's what she always told herself. And if it kept like that, they would soon go to stage and earn the heart of everyone!
 
A loud whining broke Leigh's train of thought, he wasn't much of a day dreamer but he couldn't stop the thoughts about his favorite bands that flowed through his head, he wondered if any of them started off in a damp old shed like this one before they made it to the big stages playing for thousands at a time! He looked at Dylan then to Yukuze and a his limps curled in to a faint smile, he was glad to be in this band and acknowledged both of their strive to make great music. Leigh grabbed his Fender guitar which he called 'Junior' and tapped the strings preparing to play, after quickly checking his amp settings and ensuring Junior sounded right he stood by the mic ready to play.


"Ok, I'm ready!" Leigh muttered in to the mic. As Dylan tapped his sticks and counted down Leigh swayed his body ever so slightly in the tempo of the taps, Leigh begin strumming the strings and together they sounded great. Leigh sung the lyrics in to the mic doing his best to keep his tone and volume perfect. As his fingers slid from fret to fret he felt that amazing rush he always got during practice, Leigh knew that this band had a good shot at making it big and he took great pride to be able to contribute to it's anti-corruption sound. Leigh skipped a fret on accident, an uncommon mistake for him, but kept playing ignoring the minor mistake.
 
Dylan struck the drum pieces he was supposed to hit, with the energized tempo that he was very used to, and it gave Dylan a shot of adrenaline. He always liked the sound of his loud drums, the way it had a lot of possibilities for different beats.


When Leigh began to sing the lyrics, Dylan memorized his parts when the rhythm had to change. He ceased his arms for this part but continued stamping his foot against the pedal, this time in counts of three instead of one. Then Dylan twirled one drumstick and hit the symbol to his right. He smiled a bit, satisfied.
 
Emily smiled at Nelly as they played near perfectly together. She'd known Nelly longer than any of the other girls in the band. It was so long ago that they met that Nelly was more like a sister than a best friend. Still no one else had joined in, but it was common for just the two of them to jam out together.
 
In the song, Nelly sang the lyrics of it. She was also a pretty good singer, so when she had to, she covered the singing parts. When the song was over, she sighed softly to take a breath and smiled at Emily. "That was good!" she cumplimented. Having known her for quite a while, it was easy to synchronize with her in the songs.
 
Emily nodded with a small smile. She liked Nelly's singing voice. Emily was a wonderful singer but much too shy to sing around other people. Ever. "I think we're so good someone should just sign us right now." She said in her quiet voice. She grinned a little at the thought.
 
"You're right!" Nelly said cheerfully, leaning her guitar against the wall carefully, then walked to her friend. "You know, you should sing next time. Your voice is beautiful!!" she said, putting a hand on the other's shoulder
 
Leigh slides his fingers from fret to fret playing the first verse perfectly, Leigh's voice matched very well for the grunge style of music switching from a deep calm to a loud shout in a way that seemed to flow with the instruments perfectly. Leigh enjoyed sharing his voice with his friends however the very thought of singing it to hundreds or even tens of people made him sick with anxiety, but thoughts like that had no place in Leigh's mind when he began strumming. It was the reason he played music, when he's with his friends playing music there isn't room for anything else in his mind.
 
Emily blushed. "N-no, that's okay." She said, waving her hands in front of her defensively. "Wait, when did you-?" She tilted her head to the side. The only time she ever sang was when she was alone, so the only way anyone would have heard was if Emily didn't know they were there. "Did you spy on me when I was practicing??" Her face turned an even darker red. She always sang along if she was practicing alone in the music room.
 
Yuzuke went through the notes he had to with a frown plastered onto his face. If he made that mistake on stage one day he would embarrass all of them and maybe even make them lose fans. Once again the fear that he would be kicked out of the band surfaced in his mind and he bit his lip. At the end of the song, with his fingers no longer in use, Yuzuke realized he was bleeding and stopped. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and turned sideways to look at the others.


"We're getting better." He offered. "Wonder how the girls are doing though."
 
"Well, your voice when you're speaking is already cute." she tilted her head with a bright smile on her face. "So I just figured you probably have a beautiful singing voice as well!" Nelly giggled and put both hands on her hips.
 
Dylan scoffed, resting both drumsticks in one hand. "Probably practicing some stupid song as always," he answered. "As you all know," he stretched his arms. "I work up an appetite after practice," it wasn't as if Dylan couldn't work up an appetite anytime, he had such an endless stomach. "What do we all start eating after this?"
 
Leigh took Yukuze's words in and began thinking, the girls band presented a problem for them and Leigh wondered if they were making bigger leaps in improving than the boys were. Leigh wiped the sweat form his forehead with his shirt before taking a seat and a sip from his water bottle. "You know, I was thinking of maybe listening in on one of their jam sessions sometime. But I'm not really the sneaky type..." Leigh states with a slight chuckle. "I'm sure they'd be upset if one of us was caught, that could cause some drama if we're not careful too."
 
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