slowly drifting ★ circa waves

I.

-

"we were singing our lungs out
in the backseat together,
and the seatbelts
were burning our fingers,
in the t-shirt weather."

-

"plummer, hurry up! we're packing the van! seriously, we need to go. either right now or you're out of the band!" sam calls from the front seat of a volkswagen van.

sian plummer appears in the doorway with a dull look on his face. "i don't want to go."

the rest of the band stops what they're doing and looks at the boy standing between the frames of the door.

"you're kidding, right?" joe asks, laughing unsure. "i mean, this is the band we're talking about. you can't just call it quits."

"come on," kieran joins in. "we'll talk about this in the van just get in."

sian shakes his head. "no, that's the point, kieran. i'm not getting in the van. we need to talk about this now."

"fine. what do you want to say?" colin sighs, gesturing his hand over to plummer.

sian takes a deep breath. "the thing is, i just don't feel it anymore. the rush of performing, the satisfaction of writing new songs. i mean, it feels like all it is is a job. you know? and i don't like that."

"are you done?" colin questions.

"well," joe begins, "what are you going to do now then, huh? what's your grand ol' master plan? working at tesco again? is that it?"

it takes plummer a second too long to think.

"exactly." kieran mutters from behind the steering wheel.

"sian-" sam begins, hopelessly.

"i just don't want to come, ok?" sian raises his hands before turning inside and closing the door, rather harshly, too.

the four remaining boys share a sigh of annoyance before giving up on waiting for the door to open back up.

without any of them saying a word, kieran starts the car and they drive down the winding road.

-

a few hours later, they're emerging from the van, and climbing into piercing heat.

"wow, i did not expect this," gasps sam, putting on his sunglasses.

"me neither," kieran agrees.

"joe, why do you still have your jacket on? this is t-shirt weather, mate," colin ridicules.

"it's not that warm. i'm fine, and the air conditioning is usually freezing," retorts joe.

colin sends him a 'suit yourself' look and they walk down the pavement bordering the brighton beach.

they come to a coffee shop, but try and order ice cream. after they're sent back up the road, sam speaks up.

"so...plummer? is he gone, or what?"

"he's dead to us now," joe monotones. colin bursts out laughing but quickly shuts up with a menacing glance from kieran.

"i don't know, okay? and for once i don't care, so we're just going to go with it until we can't ignore it any longer," kieran commands. the other three simply nod their heads, eyes on the ground.

colin pulls open the door to the ice cream parlour, and the bell on the top of the door rings.

-

"have you heard this song?" emma shouts over the loud music.

"no," eleanor shouts in return. "but it's good, who's it by?"

"the circa waves!"

"the circus caves?"

"no," emma giggles. "circa waves!"

"cool cool," eleanor chimes.

the door to the staff room is flung open and their boss walks in.

"my daughter loves this band!" their boss, dave, says. he's about 30 with too-big glasses and greying hair.

"so do we!" emma responds. dave was so nice, not like most uptight bosses. no one usually came into this ice cream parlour anyways, so it's not like there's a job we'd need to be doing.

"you can take some ice cream from out there, it's so hot today. hey, emma, how do you manage with that cardigan? this is t-shirt weather."

emma shrugs before following eleanor into the front room. they're opening the glass showcases before they hear the shop's bell ringing.

-

hello. this is a new story about this band that emma (emmathegryffindor) and i like. hope you enjoy. if not then idc anyways.

(song is t-shirt weather by circa waves of course)