Rival Bands

Cassette Tapes

Narrator's pov

Moonlight shon through Gareth's curtains , while he lay awake , way past the time he should've considering he was going out tomorrow . All he could think about was this evening / afternoon , so caught up in thought . He always had a comeback for every joke , always had some snarky comment up his sleeve to retaliate , but he felt paralysed . He had no words to say , nothing to reply with . It was so hard to come up with a simple sentence , before his speech stuttered like an idiot and his face went up in flames .
Then that chat in the music room ? No normal guy says stuff like that upon first meeting someone , and how did he read Gareth so well ?
It was like he knew exactly what he was thinking and what he wanted to say .

Frustrated , he rolled over in bed , like he had been for hours , tossing and turning so the sheets were practically tied in a knot around his legs . Rubbing his face , his eyes closed but were still filled with images of what had happened today . Now , he was tired , but just couldn't sleep . Hours of fidgeting and thoughts , causing him to eventually fall asleep with the pillow laid next to him , his head pressed against the top as his arms wrapped round the rest . No matter how hard he tried to sleep normally , he always ended up waking up embracing something , curled up next to his pillow that magically ended up in the position of another person lying next to him .

One of the reasons he always insisted sleeping on the floor if at a sleepover was this . He resented the thought of waking up to him hugging another , the embarrassment of the thought alone enough to terrify him , but was more concerned on how the other person would feel .
But it always helped him sleep in the end , the stress of trying to fall asleep any other way would cause him to just stay awake .

——

10:00
Y/N's alarm blared in his ears . Eyes still shut , he reached his hand out , flailing it around lazily until it hit the alarm off the bedside table . He just lied there for a bit , breathing deeply , sprawled on his back , arms and legs comfortably starfished along his covers , allowing his thoughts to wander .

Was I too forward ? Or did I make him uncomfortable at all ? Was touching him a lot kind of rude ? He didn't seem to mind that much but he didn't say anything .

He smiled into his pillow . At least he's on the same page as me .

He thought back to how he'd asked him about his group , the whole sexuality thing . It really was a shot in the dark , he was just hoping he understood where he was coming from . In all honesty he thought it'd go to shit , the other teen spouting all sorts of names at him or laughing at him . The teen did nothing like that ; he agreed with him . To be honest , he wasn't expecting him to then talk about what it would've been like in the 60s - he was right , of course , but not what he was expecting .
To be fair , y/n didn't exactly know why he was acting like that with Gareth . Charm wasn't normally what he went for when meeting someone new ; with the other , however , he just felt different . As weird as it sounds , it felt fun to act that way around him .

——

Gareth hoisted himself out of bed , and stuffed some tapes into his bag , his Walkman and headphones . His bag clunked with spare change already , so he left his wallet on his bedside table . Despite only going to the park , he felt the need to put some effort in , combing his wild hair , and wore freshly washed clothes , instead of the same old clothes strewn over his desk chair . It was still cold outside , the middle of autumn started getting more chilly recently , so he wore a thick red jacket . He thought about what he'd say to the other teen - how he'd acted yesterday was so weird , and he wanted to start again . 

Running out of the door , Gareth shouted a goodbye to his mother as he hopped on his bike . Still , he thought of how he could ... apologize ? He didn't know if it was an apology exactly , just sort of making up for his awkward behavior the day before . Feeling the breeze in his face felt freeing , the cold wind sharp but refreshing - just be yourself , calm down it's not like you 'like like' him or anything . As much as he tried to tell himself that it didn't matter , he still felt nervous .