In Love With The Bass Player

A Summer Job?

To Rocco, school straight up sucked. The periods seemed to drag on and if he wasn't passed out on the desk, he was probably doodling in the margins of his notebook.

Didn't like lectures, didn't like teachers...

Like usual, he caught himself nodding off as the teacher's monotonous voice droned on about god knows what. He wasn't paying attention. His brain was more focused on getting those extra hours of sleep he missed the night before.

"Rocco."

He could feel himself sink into the fuzzy, warm jacket bundled into a pile. His eyes fluttered closed, his mind melting into the lovely nap.

"Rocco."

Someone was shaking his shoulder and interrupting his dreamscape. He refused to move or look at them directly in hopes they would think he really was asleep and leave him be.

"Roooccccooo."

Nevermind. It didn't seem like that wasn't going to happen. He recognized the voice as his dearest friend Casey. Casey wouldn't dare back off because he was the type to continue bugging and bugging until you answered. Rocco squinted at him, his gunmetal irises meeting with Casey's dark ones.

"I was just about to crash." He said. Casey pulled the jacket out from under his head and arms before quickly throwing it over his normal clothes. A small wet mark was visible. "Great you drooled all over my sweater. I've been trying to tell you the bell already rung, Gayboy." He snickered at the little nickname he created and adjusted the pullover to fit more comfortably. His friend wasn't as amused. Rocco flipped him off, afterward glancing around the classroom for the teacher. Thankfully no one else was around to see the gesture.

"I'm not gay, dude." He countered with a grin. "You don't see me flaunting off my junk and playing prissy for cock do you?" Casey decided to help him shove his notebook and various coloured pens and pencils into his bag. "Save it, man. I've seen the way you make heart eyes at Jordan when you think no one's looking. Practically the whole school knows except you two." He walked leisurely to the classroom door, leaning impatiently against it with his own black Jansport hanging loosely from frayed straps.

Rocco slung his bag over his shoulder before following him out and continuing their discussion. He listened as Casey pressed on.

"You're like their OTC-"

"OTP."

"What? I thought it was OTC."

"The acronym stands for one true pairing."

"Yeah whatever, you know what I mean. Anyway to cut it short, you've both been the center of the girly gossip since Monday. "

It wasn't surprising that Casey knew exactly what the girls in school were fussing over lately. He was one of those guys who hung around multiple groups of people instead of sticking to one clique. Even in Elementary he was an extremely sociable individual . Well liked. Popular. Friendly. "How can they be shipping us? We don't really talk." A look of bewilderment crossed Casey's usual king-of-the-hill expression. "I'm talking about you and Jordan. Where did you get boats from?" Rocco couldn't help but laugh. He adjusted his bag to stop a stray writing utensil from stabbing him in the back. He'd almost forgotten that the average person had absolutely no idea what shipping was. "Just nothing. Come off it."

~

Hours later Rocco found himself sprawled out- arms and legs splayed freely- staring at his bedroom ceiling.He was thinking about the earlier conversation he had with Casey. The entire thing circled around only one person and surprise, surprise it happened to be Jordan. He couldn't get the soft voiced, dorky guy out of mind no matter how hard he tried. His bashful smiles were what fueled him through the day but now there was a new problem bubbling up that threatened to cause those genuine twinkles of happiness to disappear. If Casey was telling the truth then that meant there was a slim chance of someone telling Jordan about his crush or worse, Jordan finding out personally. It also meant that his infatuation with the bass player was more obvious than he thought.

"Ugh, goddammit! Stupid. Stupid!" He covered his eyes with the palms of his hands. His cheeks heated him with embarrassment, causing him to emit a low guttural groan of frustration. At this point he realized he had been lying to himself. Of course it was a one hundred percent chance of Jordan finding out, why did he even convince himself it was slim? He rolled over and pressed his face into his bedspread, trying to get the situation out of his head. The one time he was actually allowed to fall asleep, he couldn't. Everything was against him. He wasn't able to get comfortable enough to doze off.

Rocco ended up deciding to head downstairs to where his mother was making dinner. He skipped over the steps with ease and glided through the kitchen, sitting down on one of the tall cocoa bar stools. "Dad not here yet?" He asked. His mom shook her head and continued stirring whatever she was stirring in the large pot. Probably a soup of some sort. He didn't say anything else and to avoid the awkward silence, the only option was to head back upstairs

He was halfway to his room with a Gatorade bottle refilled with water when she called him down for a second trip. "What?" He shouted so she could hear him. "Some lady called looking for you! She mentioned an application you filled out! She wanted an quick interview." His heart skipped a beat. "When did she call?" He ran downstairs again, toward their home phone. Beside the machine was a bright orange post it note that included a sliver of his possible employer's information in semi legible handwriting.

Ms. Lucille Ansley

(***) ***-****

Future boss for Rocco

Interview at 2pm 05/26

He glanced at his phone for the current date. Great, tomorrow was the twenty-sixth. Luckily he didn't plan anything with Casey until later, later. Late in the night, later. He had enough time to quickly get through the interview and still have Casey show up early. "Thanks for scheduling it for me." Maybe he would actually land the job with this Lucille Ansley instead of failing yet again. No mucking up, he thought, cringing at the memories of other interviews that went horribly wrong.

A/N: If you liked it please comment, vote, add to your reading list or library, recommend it whatever the hell you want. I just hope you enjoyed it. Like I said in the description, updates on Fridays or Saturdays. Each chapter will be a minimum of 1000 words

Next Update: 04/29 - 04/30