the new day - samuel kiszka (greta van fleet)

4- the music is you

Rowan

"What an asshole." I grumbled to myself.

Sam gave me a wild grin as he made fun of me and despite my efforts not to, tears started to fill my eyes yet again. I'm all for a good joke or whatever but the timing wasn't the best and he should have realized that.

I looked at him blankly and instead of responding I just sighed. I didn't want to yell at him. That was what he wanted. Sam quickly realized that I was crying,

"Rowan, I was ki-" he started to yell through his window before I slammed my window shut and walked away. I didn't want to deal with him, at least not when I was already upset. He seemed to know just how to make things worse.

I decided to read a little bit more, this time in my bed. After some time, I turned my phone on and put a random playlist on shuffle, drifting to sleep not long after.

The next morning

I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, turning to the clock to see what time it was. The clock on my nightstand read 10:38. I was surprised but greatful for the sleep. I got up from my bed with a yawn, stretching and making my way through the hall. Today was my dad's first day of work so he would be gone for a while but I didn't mind.

When I was about half way down the stairs, I heard a loud knock on the door and I sighed. After quickly running the rest of the way down the stairs, I cautiously opened the door to see a curly headed Kiszka smiling down at me.

"Hey, sleepy head." he said with a warm smile, ruffling my messy hair. I could feel my face turning rosy as I internally scolded myself yet again.

"What's up, Joshy?" I said smiling back.

"I was wondering if you wanted to go to the record store with me and Jake?" He said, gesturing towards the Kiszka house as Jake made his way out the door and down the porch stairs.

"I'd love to but I'm not really dressed for the occasion." I said with a laugh, looking down at my disheveled appearance.

"That's okay. We can wait, right Jake?" he said, giving Jake, who was now standing next to us, an expectant look.

"Yeah that's fine. We aren't in a rush, Ro." Jake kindly said, shrugging.

"Okay, well, you guys can come inside and wait if you want. But Josh, no messing anything up. You're incredibly unpredictable." I said, pretending to be annoyed and pointing at him with my best serious face.

"Who me? I have no idea what you're talking about." he responded with a grin. Jake simply laughed at us as I gestured for them to come in, closing the door behind us once we all made it into the living room.

"You guys can just hang out in here, I'll be back." I said with a smile before I hastily ran up the stairs to change. I decided it would be best to throw something simple on, so I settled on a pair of overall shorts with flowers embroidered on the front and a sage green colored under shirt. I brushed through my golden brown hair before grabbing a sage green bandana to tie around it. After throwing it on messily, I grabbed my brown high top converse again and brought them down the stairs with me.

"Ready" I said with a giggle as I walked into the living room where I could see both of the boys admiring my dad's record collection. I couldn't blame them, it was pretty impressive. Both of the boys mumbled, seeming to still be in a trance or something, before pulling themselves away and towards the door where I was now waiting. We all stepped outside before I pulled the front door shut, locking it before turning to follow the boys.

"It's pretty close," Jake said, glancing at me, "We're just gonna walk there." I hummed a simple response, smiling at both of them as we made our way through the sun-lit streets. It was the end of June and the weather was beautiful. It was hot but not the kind of hot that causes gross sun poisoning and sticky discomfort. It was the simple hot, a light breeze could still be felt, counteracting the suns blazes.

I observed the twins silently as we all took in our surroundings; they seemed to be deep in thought, as was I. They were adorable, in a somwhat conventional way. Their personalities incredible and their features warm and admirable. They treated me like I was simply another little sister, and for that I was grateful. I'd always wanted to have siblings.

After about ten more minutes of walking, we arrived downtown. It was beautiful and quaint. I hadn't seen it before but I already knew I was going to love it.

"Here it is, Ro." Josh said, tapping on my shoulder and pointing to the cute building in front of us, a bright smile etched across his face.

"This is so cool." I said excitedly, wasting no time to make my way inside, not paying any mind to whether or not Josh and Jake were going in yet. There were shelves filled, floor to ceiling, with records of all different genres. It looked so organic, it was beautiful in the strangest way. It was ethereal almost.

I continued to explore, making my way over to the "J" shelf. Searching through the endless rows of records, I stumbled upon the John Denver ones. I'd recently gotten into John Denver and really liked his music so far.

"Hm, Back Home Again." I mumbled to myself, reading the title of the first record I picked up.

"The music is you." Josh said as he approached me without warning. It scared me a little bit, but I didn't want him to know that.

"The best song on the record." he added with a smile before turning around to go see what Jake was rummaging through. The boys continued looking around before Jake settled on a Stephen Stills record and Josh picked a Fleet Foxes one. I didn't end up getting anything; I was just happy to hang out with them. They're probably the nicest friends I'd ever had.

After checking out, we all made our way out of the shop. We decided to extend our walk so they could show me around downtown before heading home and I was really glad they did. I was starting to find beauty in Frankenmuth. It's nothing like my town back in Florida. I found it almost refreshing as we made our way past a plethora of different coner shops and resturants. The simplicity was really beautiful.

We walked around for about thirty minutes, talking about random things. They told me about their favorite spots to eat and shop before we decided it was time to head back home. The walk was nice, it started to cool off a little bit more as clouds hid the bright sun. I didn't know what time it was, but in the moment none of that stuff really mattered.

Upon approaching our houses, we saw Sam standing on the Kiszka's porch, pacing as anger and annoyance fueled him.

"What the hell guys?" he yelled at us, running down the stairs as we got closer to him. Josh simply chuckled as Jake rolled his eyes.

"We aren't even that late Sammy." Josh said simply, shrugging it off though Sam was really upset.

"It's almost three o'clock. Practice started at two." Sam deadpanned, looking at me, not as harshly as normal but still in a somewhat rude manner. Wait... out of curiosity I spoke up,

"Practice for what?" I questioned, looking up at Sam expectantly.

"Your boyfriends didn't tell you?" he laughed in an unamused manner, earning a look of shock from me and sighs from the twins who were evidently bored of Sam's dramatic outburst.

"We have a band."

*okay this chapter kind of sucked but it was a filler :)*