the drummer and the runaway- gareth/male reader

cassette tapes and crucial conversations

It had been four days since Gareth had seen that guy at the lake on Friday, even though he'd gone every day since then when he could. But right now, he was at band practice and he just couldn't focus on whatever the hell the song he was supposed to be playing was. At one point he got so lost in thought that he had stopped playing entirely. This caused Eddie to get even more fucked off. 

"Dude!" he yelled, getting Gareth's attention and causing him to drop his sticks. And before he was even able to get out a single word, Eddie cut in. 

"What the hell has got you all spacey right now? You're supposed to be practicing, not just sitting there on your ass," and while he scolded him, Eddie gestured wildly with his guitar. 

Feeling cornered and his mind absolutely not traveling back to seeing Y/N, Gareth resorted to simply trying to deny Eddie's claims. "What do you mean?" he scoffed,  trying to play dumb. And with that pathetic attempt he had equally failed to deny anything Eddie said to all his bandmates. 

"Cut the shit Gareth, you've been acting like this since Friday," Jeff was the one to speak this time. To be honest, he really was. There was just something about Y/N that he couldn't stop thinking about. 

"It's nothing," he brushed off. "There was just this guy I saw at Lake Jordan that's not from here and I dunno it was just–weird I guess."

Band practice was now completely forgotten with the introduction of "this guy". Another one of his bandmates cut in after everyone's attention was redirected. "Why was it so weird that there's someone new?"

"How many times have you seen someone move to Hawkins without some sort of reason?" Gareth deflected. And to be fair, he had a point and he knew it. Everyone who moves to some shitty place everyone wants to get out of, is because they've got some shit about them.

"Mmm, no," was all that Eddie had to add to that for everyone to be, once again, be completely off set. All eyes focused back on the oldest, he flopped back onto the ground, his guitar being gently cast aside.

"I'm just saying, everyone has their stuff and you've never gave a damn until now with this "mystery guy" you saw at the lake," Eddie's tone was exposing. Even if Gareth didn’t want tp admit to it, Eddie was right. There was more to Gareth being so invested with Y/N, but he wasn’t sure as to what it was. And to be honest, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to know and reveal that deeper meaning to it.

“Whatever,” Jeff interrupted. Thank god. “How about less about Gareth’s boy crush and more about actually playing music?” Gareth takes back every nice thing he’s ever thought about Jeff in his life with that one sentence. 

While everybody else laughed it off, Gareth’s face had turned a bright pink and Eddie only chuckled and glanced at him with a knowing smirk. Bastard.

- - - 

You’re sitting in your pickup, bouncing your leg, debating whether or not to go back to the lake he found. Try and see if Gareth might be there, your mind supplied. It was already a bit later in the evening at this point. So even if you do go, there isn’t a high chance Gareth will even be there. But at the same time you were bored out of your godforsaken mind from just sitting in an empty motel room.

Suddenly still, you reach over into your glove box and open it. And in it, there are bunches of loose papers and maps, but you set those to the side, revealing the bundle of various cassette tapes. Rifling through them, you finally decide on Fleetwood Mac and stuff it in the player. 

A few minutes that consisted of 30% of the time driving and the other 70% on trying to figure out how the hell you got to that lake in the first place, you see something in your mirror. More like someone. Gareth; it was Gareth riding his bike behind you.