ADD IT UP ✰ RODRICK HEFFLEY x MALE! OC

CHAPTER 19

     For as long as I could remember, I faded into the background. I was simply a placeholder in people's lives— a placeholder with struggles, and aspirations, and unreachable dreams. Until a drummer with a smile that could light up a room and a heart as big as the ocean stumbled into my life. And when he did, I realized I had a shot at a fairy-tale ending with my own Prince Charming.

       I just wished that we didn't have to fight dragons to earn it.

       Because life was never that whimsical. Real life was ordinary, mundane, tiring, hours upon hours spent in a dimly-lit garage, attempting to plunk out a simple melody on an ancient guitar. But I liked it that way.

      "Couldn't we just ditch this and play Devil's Diaper?" Ben whined, after we scrapped what felt like our millionth idea for the song that could make or break our career as a band.

      "You guys have made dozens of songs, right?" I asked, my fingers sore from playing for so long. "Why don't you just go through the process that you usually do when you write?"

     "That's the problem," Rodrick groaned. "We can't improvise our way through an audition. We really have to think this through."

      "What if we did, though?" I asked, and began to play a mellow, acoustic ballad on my guitar, which piqued Rodrick's interest, and behind me, I heard the beat of a kick drum, as he decided to play along, keeping a steady rhythm as I repeated the harmony over again. Chris eventually caught on, and played the root of the simple chords on his bass. All that was left was Ben.

       Ben stood, nervously, his face overwhelmed with concentration, clearly attempting to think up lyrics that didn't have anything to do with diapers and shit. However, Rodrick began to think up a simple melody, and hummed along with the instruments, evidently bored of Ben's lack of contribution. Ben glared at him, and pulled out his phone, annoyed.

       But then, Ben began to sing.

     "I wanna take you to the Amashero market,
      Buy you a rum cake, promise you will like it,
      Break it off a piece, put it in your mouth,
      We'll mouth together, oh wow..."

       Looking over Ben's shoulder, I noticed that his phone was open to a text from Eden, but then he turned off the device and put it in his pocket.

       "I wanna buy you a lamb shish kebab,
      And I will not lie, the parking's gonna suck,
      But just you wait, until you try that peaking duck..."

     "Ben," Rodrick began, after wrapping up the final chord on my guitar. "These are the best lyrics you've ever come up with since Devil's Diaper."

      I rolled my eyes, chuckling when Rodrick decided to run the entire song again. Successful take after successful take, the next two weeks of preparation were much more confident than they had been during the first round of auditions. Every rehearsal was better than the last, and it seemed almost undeniable that we would earn a spot on their record label.

✰

       That night, I dreamt of Firefly Hollow. The sky was scattered with twinkling stars, hues of pink and purple spilling through the otherwise jet-black heavens. One by one, little, yellow orbs of light lit up a path through the grass. The creek reflected the starry, night sky, and standing just beside it, was my father.

      I slowly approached the figure, his face growing more and more foggy as I drew nearer. "Hey, squirt," his voice said, radiating crystal clear despite his blurry appearance. "It's been a minute, hasn't it?"