I cannot see the road

by millie_grace

Summary:

I’m not quite sure actually

Jonny and Thom are so sweet

Notes:

Hello if your reading this I do hope you like it it’s just for fun I haven’t done this before lol

The titles from the song stupid car because that’s what I was listening to

Chapter 1

“Coz. Coooz… Colin Charles Greenwood!”
Jonny poked and prodded at his dead asleep older brother. This lazy git. Jonny would not be missing his first day back in school, as much as he had his mixed feelings about it. A few more impatient shoves finally earned Jonny an annoyed groan. More like an awakening from the depths of who knows where, he thought.
“Jesus Jon what time is it” Moaned Colin, still trying to open his eyes and squinting at his baby brother as if he were the sun or brightest light in the world.
“Uhhh.. Go time? please come on you said you’d drive me at least the first day.”
Last year, and every year before, Jonny has had to slowly take as much as he could of his belongings to go in his dorm over the course of the first week back, on the packed bus too, and now Colin’s got his license there is no way he wasn’t going to make him his personal chauffeur.

“Alright then, get your shit together”

Colin sighed as he rolled out of bed. Jonny nodded but he had been ready since 5 in the morning.

A few minutes later Colin stumbled down the stairs with about 700 pounds of luggage for his own dorm.

“Uhh hey Jonny so I forgot my car wasn’t exactly insured quite yet but I’ve just rung a friend to come pick us up.” That made Jonny slightly nervous, he wasn’t exactly a social butterfly. Obviously Colin caught the look on his face (that Jonny didn’t even know he was pulling), and reassured him that he was a good mate and that they were sharing a dorm this year.

Colin and Jonny were left waiting outside in the cold when a beat up truck-ish car sped in the driveway along with a lovely blasting of some form of heavy, but very generic British sounding music, Jonny was trying to decipher the band when it was turned off and a short, skinny, but very handsome boy with blonde hair and an odd looking left eye stepped out.

He immediately went up to Colin and roughly slapped him on the back a couple times as some form of ‘hug’ but Colin did the same so it must be normal, Jonny thought. The thought also crossed his mind that they must be pretty good friends, it was interrupted when the guy looked right at him.

“Hey you’re the little brother Coz has been rambling about”

he spoke as he stuck out his right hand, Jonny took it nervously with a sheepish smile, immediately taking note of his small, calloused fingers. Maybe he plays an instrument? He looks like he would play an instrument. Yeah, I think it’s the hair. Well now he’s looking at me strange and I don’t know what I did. Why does awkwardness follow me like… Well now I have to think of an appropriate analogy. Like a fart in a crowded space? Oh good one Jonathan. Ok, now he’s looking at me like I’m such a boring drag to the point I’m holding him hostage by being here or something. Oh, maybe it’s because I am holding him hostage.
He looks down at his hand that has been grasping onto Thoms, in an accidental tight grip, for the last 3 or so minutes. This would be a good time to die, Jonny declares in his mind.

Thom, however, doesn’t seem to mind, although he goes a bit red. He’s not as indifferent as he thinks.

Thom turns away from Jonny and begins throwing his and Collins bags in the boot.

Thoms driving was horrid. Downright horrific. He’s all go with very minimal, un-warned stopping. A mixture of obnoxiously loud music and glass bottles clanking in the back. Does this guy have a license? I’d rather the uninsured car, or the bus, I miss the bus.. Jonny thought. He, in the back, with god knows what, was trying not to throw up. Colin looked used to it, somehow. And Thom, Thom just doesn’t care.

Is that a badminton racket?

…

“Thanks for the ride mate, see you around.”
Colin politely waved the spunky blonde guy before asking his brother if he knew where to go from here, in which he nodded.

Jonny dropped his stuff with a loud plonk, he’d unpack, one day. He check ed his timetable and trod off to his first class, wood tech, where he sees his friend Andy.

At lunch he finds Andy and sits opposite him. Andy looks behind Jonny and shoots an annoyed look back at the table behind them, where Jonny peers behind him and finds Thom.
“Bloody siblings”
“I didn’t know he was your brother”
“It’s not a pleasant experience, trust me.”
Jonny understands what it’s like to have an irritating brother, But Colins more protective of Jonny, he wonders what it would be like to have a guy like Thom as a brother. Scary.
Thom is laughing at a joke another older boy looks to have said, there are 4 or 5 of them at that table, all just as intimidating as the last, Jonny thinks. That just about sums Jonny up, everything is intimidating, and he is a weak, skinny boy. However, he so badly wants to be friends with the older boys. He wants to be just like them.

“Hello, Jonny? Who r’you look’n at”

Jonny swivels around in an instant. “Nthngh”

“What?”

“Nohtngh..”

“Jonny, your mumbling”

Jonny just starts back on his rock hard pizza.

…

Colin said his dorm was the very end…of the third floor…Of the far right building…
Theveryendofthethirdfloorofthefarrightbuilding Theveryendofthethirdfloorofthefarrightbuilding Theveryendofthethirdfloorofthefarrightbuilding
This should be it.
He knocks, expecting his brother, but a ray of blonde and blue opens instead.
“Ah! Jonny wasn’t it? Cmon in”
Colin jumps off the top bunk
“My dearest baby brother! Thom here ended up as my roommate believe it or not”
Jonny goes a bit pink at being babied, even as a joke, in front of the older boy.
“Yeah, well I think I’m with Andy this year too.”
He picks at small scabs on his knuckles
“Hah, good luck with that one mate” Thom mutters out loud
Jonny looks up and smiles at that. Colin asks if he and Andy want to join their group for dinner down in the hall.

Jonny is thrown out of the water when he sits next to Thom and Colins friends, all of them being around 3 school years his senior. In fact, he thinks the guy named Phil is 5 years ahead. And then there’s Ed, who Jonnys seen around before, he seems nice. Andy stands up and says he’s going to unpack a bit. Jonny thinks of following him but, he wants to stay with the older boys for a bit. He quietly eats his potatoes for a while, listening to them bicker, before ed asks a question, throwing him slightly off guard.
“So Jonny, do you have any interests? Hobbies?”
He thought for a moment but slowly started to wonder if they would think his interests were just plain lame, he was about to reply ‘not really’ when Colin interrupts.
“He’s actually pretty sick with the harmonica”
Everyone smiles at Jonny
“That’s awesome, has Colin told you about our band?” Thom says enthusiastically
Jonny gets excited, too excited, but keeps his usual calm, nervous expression. It’s not like they would ever want him in their band. But imagine if he did get in. Thoms obviously the leader, would he ever let him in? No, get over yourself you play the harmonica for gods sake, and not even that well, for that matter.
“Yeah I think so.” “I also play the keyboards a bit” He says bravely, even though he doesn’t actually really, Colin doesn’t know that and even if he did he wouldn’t out him right?

Thom continues smiling and raises an eyebrow at his friends
“You should come to our practice, our bands called the headless chickens.”
The headless chickens, who came up with that?
Jonny’s just happy to be invited, wait, he’s invited, what.
Oh come on Jonathan stay level-headed, you’re only watching. But maybe this could be my ticket, he thinks (just to give himself a clip around the ear for his stupid hope a minute later)

“Name of the band wasn’t my idea by the way, Jonny.” Ed quips.

Chapter 2: Chapter 2

Summary:

This is very fun to make

Jonny blows dust off his harmonica, he should have practiced a bit last night.
That’s alright, they’re probably not even going to need him as of yet, but he’s going to learn, he’s going to be just as good as everyone else. Jonny realises he has 30 minutes before the time they said, so he reorganises his cd collection, fiddles with a brain puzzle thing he got for Christmas, begins to look through one of Andys raunchy magazines, ugh, no.
He almost distracts himself with a crossword until he remembers his lie from last night about the keyboard, damn it.

Ok, so that was successful.
Jonny had the keyboard turned off for the first few songs before they decided to take a break, and nobody noticed, Thom even told him he was adding a bloody nice texture! Well perhaps he just wanted to be nice. Thom and Colin were having a smoke,
Thom offers Jonny one,
he takes it,
Colin gives him a perplexed look but doesn’t say anything.
What was good about Jonny not actually playing anything, (whilst pressing a few keys here and there) was he could observe everyone else. Thoms voice was indescribable, it was so smooth but rough in parts. He broke all the singing rules in the best way possible, if that makes sense. Jonny noticed how he played the guitar, he made it look so easy even with his short fingers.
Jonny decided to stop off at the local rock shop before he went back to his dorm, he learnt a few chords from some of the talking heads songs they played today. He played until the shopkeeper ushered him out at closing time, and ran all the way back to his dorm

…

Months passed and Jonnys trick was still working, however sometimes on the songs he had practiced at the rock shop the day before, he would turn up his keyboard, just a little.
He also slowly learnt the guitar, and he was pretty good at it. His long, nimble fingers made it easy to reach the difficult chords. He became more comfortable around the group to be himself. Jonny to some may look like a shy, lanky shadow of a boy, but his new friends saw deeper than that. Especially Thom, Thom noticed his eccentric personality and humour inside almost immediately. He let him in on whatever everyone was talking about in his year, he invited him to the record shops after school sometimes, he hung around often when Jonny was on his own, he even checked up on him today and lent him one of his Cd’s before heading off to a party in one of the other blocks.

Thom woke up in the corridor of what looked to be Ed’s dormitory block? He didn’t know. There were a couple other dead asleep teenage boys scattered around the hall with bottles by their sides. He gets up and immediately feels hundreds of metal rods in his neck and back. Ed’s door is wide open, revealing Colin and Phil on the floor. Colin is spread out like a starfish on the ugly purple rug. Phil found a blanket and is curled in a ball. Ed is collapsed on his bed. What’s a terrible way to wake these buggers up? Right, Ed’s whistle he stole from the football coach.
Luckily it was term break. Nobody could believe they have one term left before they go off to, who knows where. Well, at least 4 of them would, Jonny had more years to go, which sucks, because all he wants to do is go wherever the band goes.

“Jon Jon, what are your plans for the next 2 weeks?”

Thom claps a hand on Jonnys back, he smells like a hall party (one that Jonny should have had the nerve to go to)

“Erm, I think I’m just going home, Coz too.”

“Cool, I’ll see you there.” He smiles

“Huh?”

But Thoms grabbing Colin and their bags and their heading off.
Ed and Phil say bye to Jonny on their way out too.

…

That 2 weeks was filled with Thoms random appearances for practice, actually the entire group would show up at his doorstep most of the time because it became the designated practice spot. Thom ended up leaving his guitar at Jonnys a couple times, to which he make the most out of instead of trying to practice on Colins base, because that didn’t really work, sorry Thom, but Jonny was saving up his chore money to one day buy his own. He’d decided at this point music was who he was. Jonny moseyed around in his room, listening to his borrowed Cd from Thom, when he got a phone call that Thom and his girlfriend had gotten in a car accident.
Jonny panicked and caught the bus to the local hospital where he met his brother and Thoms parents.
It took ages for Colin and him to be let into the room to see Thom, he looked rough, bruises and tiny slits from glass peppered his perfect skin, but nothing was serious. Jonny was still internally worried out of his mind, but to his surprise Thom just laughed, and laughed, and laughed, until at last both Colin and Jonny started laughing with him.

He ended up selling his car and never driving again, though.
Him and his girlfriend also ended up splitting.
Jonny secretly, and selfishly, liked that bit.

Nobody was happy to be back in school, but it was mostly everyone’s last term ever, which is pretty exciting. Everyone had plans to go to university, Thom promised Jonny the band would still get together on weekends and holidays.

On the last practice with them all in school (it was more a hangout than a practice) Thom and the band were on the floor passing around a bottle of vodka Ed pulled from out his jacket, somehow. Jonny was fiddling with the drum peddle as he listened to Phil blabbering about how one day he’ll have his own fan club, to which everyone just laughed. At the end of the session it was dark out and everyone, including Jonny, (although not nearly as bad as the others) was drunk on the mysterious vodka.

“Are you really gonna make me carry you back to your block Edward” Colin slurred

“You the one that needs carrying mate.”

The three of them ended up hobbling back together, leaving Thom and Jonny,
poor Jonny,
stuck with Thom,
who’s off his head.
“Y’know, youur llike.. My best frieend Jon Jon…”

“That’s good to know Thom, you’re my best friend too.”

“Yyyeah… an’its weird right? I coomee t’ you for everythngggg.”

Jonny just smiles, and Thom doesn’t know it, but his hearts beating really fast.

Thom nudges one of Jonny’s gangly legs, Jonny hair does its best to cover his blushed face.

“Come on Thom, get up. Up I mean, not roll on the floor.”

The journey dropping him off at Colins dorm was no easy feat, but Jonny loved every second of it.

Chapter 3: Chapter 3

Summary:

I just want to say that the timelines and stuff might not be accurate it’s just a story

Notes:

Thank you for reading :)))

1991

Jonny had been at this college for…. A month? A few weeks? Long enough, anyway. Him and the group had been practicing even more after most of them had graduated.
Jonny was working on one of his projects that he put off to the last minute because he really didn’t want to do it, when his landline sprung to life.
“Jon Jon!”
Thoms voice bounced around his ear, he was just glad to have something to distract him from doing this.
“Hey Thom how’s it going” He fidgeted with a sticky note on the wall
“Awesome, you know we’ve just got this massive band deal from EMI”
Jonny faltered, did he hear that right? He’d have to give up uni, not like he’ll be missing it anyway.

“Your kidding!”

Turns out, he wasn’t.

“We’d better change the name, then.”

“Yeah well I think I got one”

“Do you now?”

“Yeah it’s from a talking heads song, trust me it’s brilliant”

“God almighty…”

1992 - 1993

Alright, making a record, should be simple.
Jonny watched as Thom sat with his knees to his chest on the recording studio floor, writing something down in his notebook and then erratically scribbling it back out.

“Got something!”

They fiddled with rhythms and melodies for a few hours and made decent progress, this thing would take what, a week? Two? Three to finish? Fantastic. After their time in the studio was up Thom and Jonny went back to Jonnys for more, whatever it is they were doing, and Jonnys poor mum had to hear the lot of it.

“Thom thom, do you think we should get a flat together? As a group I mean.”

“Yeah that’s what most bandmates do isn’t it… Search for one tomorrow.”

Thom prodded Jonny with his toes. Euuuugh.

“Get your bloody feet away from me”

Thom responded with tackling Jonny playfully, they rolled around on the floor, Jonny ending up on top of Thom, when out the corner of his peripheral vision he spots one of his records he was looking for for months. You bastard. He smacks him on the head, they roll around some more.

…

The group was in the studio for another recording session, nobody was feeling particularly bright, except for Jonny, because of a party at the small bar gig they played last night, but something he wasn’t so bright about was Thom had wrote a new song. Jonny hated the song. Everyone else was fine with it but him, he covered his dislike for it as the lyrics being ‘wimpy’, and ‘girlish’, but the real reason was that those lyrics were about a girl. Thom wrote them about a girl, one he fancied. Even though that girl rejected Thom in the end, for some strange odd reason Jonny was jealous, jealous that he had this affection towards her. He didn’t know how she didn’t reciprocate, in Jonnys mind, Thom was perfect. He was secretly thankful, though, and he doesn’t know quite the reason why.
He was still angry, how long did he even know her for? I mean he saw her at one or two gigs. Jonny, in his pent up frustration, turned up his guitar and broke the flow of the quiet song with three loud and unforgiving strokes, just before the chorus. To his surprise, Thom kept singing, and everyone kept playing, great. Did no-one get his point?

“Well I think that’s it” Colin put his hands on his head

The five of them sat scattered around on the couches of their new flat (it was far from new)

“So what d’you thinks gonna happen now?” Asked Thom

“I dunno” Groggily replied the rest

 

It turns out that no plan B was needed, for now. Many people around the world loved the album, especially that one song called creep (the one that has come back to haunt Jonny whenever he goes into the supermarket), huge bands have noticed this brand new band because of it, and now instead of travelling around England in a little van like they had planned, they were now going to head around the world.
They’re not sure if they’re ready for it, but it’s happening anyway.
Annnnnd the flights cancelled, of course, leaving them in the airport for a wonderful 9 hours to come.

“Can someone check out the donuts with me please I’m starving”

Ed and Colin both lift their heads from the cold metal seats and wander off with Phil

Jonny sits on his own for a while, doing a crossword puzzle from a newspaper, until Thom comes back with something silver dangling in his hand

“Jonny I’ve got you a present!”

Jonny breaks out into a sheepish grin and puts the newspaper down

“Me too, actually”

“What? Yer serious?”

“Yeah I got it when you were held back for your luggage”

He pulls out a simple green string necklace and hands it to Thom, who shoves it over his head with his stupid laugh. Thom hands Jonny a thin chain bracelet with two words hanging from it that look to be in Latin or something.

“What does that say”

“I don’t know, I asked the lady at the shop and she didn’t either”

“I love it”

Thom shoved his bags under the seat and lay down next to Jonny.

At this point in time, neither one knew what was next, what was ahead. Thom knows he would be really bloody paranoid if he didn’t have his greatest mate by his side. He doesn’t really know how to tell him that, though. Jonny might think he’s being weird. All he wants to do is tell him how much be appreciates him, as a friend. A friend.
Jonnys bony elbow pokes Thoms ribs. He turns his head to look at him to see Jonny looking back. Thom wants to grab his face, Thom wants to grab his hair. Jonny looks like he’s trying to figure something out in his mind. Jonny is so beautiful, Thom thinks, but all he can do it stare.

 

“Thom you wouldn’t believe it. They ran out of fuckin donuts.”

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The four out of five boys were entirely exasperated by the time they reached the hotel, one however was eager to explore the city and wouldn’t stop nagging the rest of the fatigued crew. He even dragged Jonny out of the lobby while they were waiting for their keys to look outside.

“Isn’t this awesome?! Look they got like cool fuckin uhm.. street light things?”

“Yeah Thom it’s great, really.” Jonny rubbed his face with his palm. Where did this guy get his energy from? It always comes out any time but normal, daylight hours.
His blonde hair glowed under the city lights. Does he have a t shirt on? It’s like negative degrees out here.

“I wish we had more time here, you know, to actually take a look around the place.”

Jonny sighs long and hard

“We can check out town tomorrow before the show then Thom, but can we please go back inside I’m freezing my arse off.”

“Alright then you big wuss”

“I’m not a wuss it’s genuinely frigid out here”

Thom breaks out in laughter, Jonny just blankly stares at him as he continues snickering. He just really done at this point.

“Frigid… What about nippy, Jon Jon? Is it a bit nippy?”

“Oh sod off”

A tired grin cracks out on Jonnys face either way, and Thom pulls his back into the hotel lobby where the group is just finally getting their keys. They now needed to sort out who was rooming with who. Colin, who at this stage looked like he’d died last week, wearily handed Jonny and Ed a key, one for Phil and himself, and one for Thom on his own.

“I’m gonna be pissing lonely am I?”

“Thom, none of us are putting up with you tonight, sorry lad.” Groaned Colin

The others looked at him in agreement, with accusing raised eyebrows.

“I’m not that bad…”

…

What is that? No, who is that. Is it a he or a she? I can’t tell, they’re too far away, come closer I just want a chat. I think I’m in Oxfordshire, but it looks different than usual. The pharmaceutical shops on the corner aren’t there any more, and everything else is either nondescript or closed. The persons back, they’re smoking a cigarette I tttthink? They’ve got light hair, and I think I’m seeing things strange but their eyes are like, slightly uneven. It’s a guy, I’m pretty sure now. He’s, it’s Thom. Thom! I call out to him, he hardly acknowledges me. For some reason I can hear into his thoughts, or I think it’s his thoughts, he’s regarding me as Colins pesky younger brother, apparently. Nothing more, nothing less. He hates me, or he doesn’t even like me enough to hate me, that doesn’t make sense… He’s walking away now, I sort of want to throw a rock at him. Wait, he turned back. He’s telling me something? It’s barely a mumble so I lean in closer. Fuck you? Is that what he’s saying? Really? You know I don’t know if that’s necessary you could have just kept walki-

“Fuuuuucccck youuuuuu!!!!”

Jonny opens his eyes,
It’s Ed, he’s got a mad expression on his face, but he’s asleep.
Jonny gets up anyway, just incase it was meant for him.

He puts the standard white scratchy hotel slippers on, grabs his set of keys (just incase nobody takes him in), and walks out into the hallway. First he tries what he remembers to be Colins and Phils door, but all he hears is very loud snoring from behind the door, so he walks over to Thoms. There’s no snoring, and he almost immediately answers after Jonnys knock. He’s got these dark bags under his eyes, but he looks well alert and awake, the same as a couple hours ago.

“Hey Thom Thom uhm, Ed was kind of like, sleep talking and stuff.”

Thom giggles, it’s a funny sound.

“Come in then.”

Jonny gets a first look at Thom’s hotel room, which is somehow a larger mess than his room back at the flat, and they haven’t even been there a night. Clothes and random items are scattered near his suitcase, like he was searching for something, the coffee table is covered with papers and a couple of his notebooks, where’d he get that guitar from? Anyway he’s pulled out all the spare blankets from the cupboard, which are now on the coach, I guess he’s finally decided it’s cold.

“Jesus Thom, it’s been like 5 hours”

“Yeah well I was getting comfortable and also being productive”

“Right”

Jonny decided to use his shower since he hadn’t had one in his own room, he grabbed one of Thoms shirts off the floor, it’ll have to do, and headed off to the bathroom.
Once he got out, he found Thom sitting on his knees beside the coffee table, scribbling things in his notebook, he looked up at Jonny, then his eyes turned mischievous, oh no.

“Jonny, your gonna help dye my hair.”

Jonny didn’t know what he expected, but it wasn’t this.
It was like, 3 in the morning. Seriously.
I mean it’s not surprising, it’s Thom.

“Do we even hav-“

“I bought the hair dye at the 7/11 on the way here.”

“Why? What colour is it.”

“Well it’s just bleach, so I can be lighter, y’know?”

“Ooookay… Let’s do it”

Jonny kinda just wanted to touch Thom’s hair, so…

Thom sits down in the shower, he fishes out the bleach from his toiletry bag and hands it to Jonny, who reluctantly screws it open. He’s going to regret this, haha…
Oh wait, his hair needs to be wet. Jonny grabs the shower head, but Thom protests about not wanting to get drenched and they decide to do it in the sink, poor sink.
Jonny angles Thoms head to be in the sink and turns on the tap, he takes some bleach in his fingers and roughly applies it to Thoms overgrown hair. Once he gets a good enough layer he makes himself stop stroking Thoms mop of blonde (that’s about to get blonder)

“Wait there I want to get my camera”

“NO!”

…

Jonny finishes with the hairdryer, the time on the television read 4:13, Thom heads back to the bathroom to check in the mirror.

“Well it’s something” Jonny says over his head

“What are you on about, I love it!”

Thom smiles a crooked smile in the mirror, then turns back toward the bedroom at collapses on the couch. He looks back at Jonny, noticing his stolen shirt. He finally looks worn out after doing his hair.

“You can sleep in the bed Jon Jon”

“Thanks, see you in the morning Thom.”

But Jonny didn’t sleep

Chapter 5: Chapter 5

Summary:

If anyone is reading this and notice I use the wrong ‘their’ or ‘they’re’, like constantly, I’m sorry

Chapter 5

Thom woke up with a slight smell of bleach still in his hair. He had slept curled in a ball, so he stretched for a while before standing up and finding a pillow on the floor to throw at Jonny to wake him up. It hit the back of his head, he was sprawled on his stomach, his long limbs spilling out the side of the bed. Jonny clutched his head and rolled over to look at the culprit. Annoying prick.

“Cmon, going to town, remember?”

Jonny flops out of bed looking like a moody teenager, isn’t he like 21 this year? He stumbles around scattered belongings, mostly Thoms, to go back to his own room to get ready. Jonny wonders if Eds up, he might be a bit confused. Thom calls after him to hurry up as Jonny grabs his keys and shuffles out the door. When he gets in his much tidier room, Eds still asleep, he figures he’d like to come with them to explore the city so he thinks of how to wake him up more politely than how he was awoken. Is that his favourite star top? And to think it was in his suitcase this whole time…

Once everyone had been gathered they caught the bus to town and generally enjoyed the overcast day they had before the gig later on. Ed was just looking forward to getting wasted at the afterparty.

Thom dragged the rest along the soggy, overcrowded streets, popping into every small fascinating little shop he sees.

He went home with a sick new leather jacket, some sunglasses which are wholly unnecessary in this weather, and four other miscellaneous items.

…

In the back rooms before the show, Jonny watches Thom fiddle with the lace of his shoe with a cigarette in his mouth instead of doing his vocal warm ups. Colin, Ed and Phil were semi - frantically pacing and doing breathing exercises, because they had never done a show of this scale before. Jonny was frantically pacing too, just in his head. What
If he messes up, the whole band comes to the conclusion that he’s a shite player, and he gets kicked out? What will he do then?

“You look very worried over there, Jon Jon.” Thom giggles

He was, have you seen how big the venue is? It’s sold out too, imagine all the people staring up at him. Is there going to be a curtain on the side? He hopes there will be so that he can go behind it.

“He does doesn’t he.” Colin laughs at Jonny too, Jonny realises he hadn’t even replied to Thom, he just kept blankly staring at his guitar. Jonny looks up, the staff call their name, they go on stage.

He thought it would be scarier, but Jonny ended up being distracted by Thom’s performing the entirety of the first song, when he gets to a bit where he’s not needed he just stares through small openings in his hair. Thom acts like it’s the easiest thing in the world, he even gets a bra thrown at him.

In the end of “you”, Thom looks over at Jonny. He sings the words -

“You, me and everything caught in the fire”

Thom hugs the microphone stand tight, Jonny gets shy and looks back down at the pedals. Thom smiles and looks back to the audience to finish the song.

That whole night was filled with these seemingly small interactions, but they took a toll on Jonny, and left him stuttering off the stage and wanting to forget everything. Okay, but he still wasn’t sure about the afterparty, maybe he should go back to his room and catch up on sleep while Ed isn’t there to tell him to fuck off, even if he’s sleeping.
Just as he fished his keys from his pocket, Thom grabbed his wrist. Jonny looked up to see a face that wasn’t budging. It meant, or said, that he was going to have to stay. To Jonnys confusion, Thom grabbed his other wrist, he looked over his shoulder to see Colin approaching, Colin snatched the keys from Jonnys fingers and threw them to a smirking Ed behind his back. Oh no, this wasn’t gonna be a half and hour say hi to everyone and run situation as he planned out.

The crew grabbed a booth at the back of the bar, a blur of stereotypical looking rockstars and skinny girls filled the packed centre. Phil, Colin and Ed sat on the side opposite to Thom and Jonny. Thom climbed over the table and went up to the bar to order everyone drinks, he came back with overflowing glasses of whiskey, it looks like he even got one for Jonny, how thoughtful…

“Thom.”
“Jonny.”

Thom slid over the ‘extra’ glass.

“I’m being bloody peer pressured like it’s high school…”

“Like that time Ed said how funny it would be if someone threw a rock at the lady in the fountain and you fell for it?”

Everyone including Jonny laughed

Jonny picked up his glass and gulped it down, coughing and sputtering at the disgusting taste.

 

Jonny Greenwood had completely unfolded around an hour later, he had a pink flush on his cheeks, he didn’t hold back his strange and unusual jokes, which was great because they always ended up landing, and even his hair was being pushed to the side instead of sitting right infront of his eyes.

Everyone loved seeing him laugh, but even drunk he still covers his crooked teeth.

A plethora of girls approached Thom that night, he was kind but uninterested, Phil was the true chic magnet, at the end of the night he had been hauled to another table with a group of very pretty ladies with bold eye makeup, this was the first form of his future fan club, he decided.

Colin was sprawled in the corner. He was vaguely listening and watching, with one hand on his eye and a mildly impressed look on his face as Ed showed his hand tricks with coasters from the table. Thom and Jonny went outside for a smoke.

Thom rolled something up and offered it to Jonny, Jonny surprised himself and took it from his short fingers. It was cold, there were couples huddling around each other on the street infront waiting to cross the road, but neither Thom or Jonny could really feel it. They had a flight in a couple of hours, this would be the second night in a row Jonny would have to go without sleep, he didn’t mind, he was having a great time.

Jonny thought back to the way Thom had looked at him during the concert. He was probably teasing, Jonny needed to think about something else, that was the entire reason he agreed to the party (apart from being forced) and the whiskey and the spliff, and now it was resurfacing again.

“HEY, are you the creep guy?”

Chapter 6: Chapter 6

Summary:

Colin and ed are so cute

Chapter 6

Everything was silent back in the apartment. The hanging strips of paint were in the same place, the music collection was intact in the corner of the ‘dining room’, except the stacks of vinyls were covered in so much dust it looked like they had been away for decades.

It was funny how you get drained doing all these shows every night on tour, but also get drained once your back and have to think hard what to do next, you also get a bit bored. Thom was bored.

They had gotten a lot of mixed reviews from the press, but nobody minded, they just sort of wanted to move onto the next thing. Jonny was sitting upright on the couch near the kitchen, it was so low he was almost on the floor but Ed refuses to sell it and get a new one. He tunes his guitar and spots one of Thoms notebooks in the crack between two cushions.

Jonny sets his guitar leaning on the armrest and fishes it out. It doesn’t have Thoms name on the front or anything, but Jonny knows it’s his at the handwriting in the first page. It’s not very organised, he finds early lyrics for Pablo honey scattered around from pages shoved in. Jonnys eyes widen at what he reads on a random page at the back somewhere. It read

“Well what am I to do?
I know all the things around your head and what they do to you.
What are we coming to?
What are we gonna do?”

The next part was heavily scribbled over. Jonny could just make out the last few lines

“What am I coming to?
I’m gonna melt down.”

What’s all that about? Jonny was more interested in who’s it about.

…

Jonny kept getting more curious as the day went on. He thought of asking Thom but that would mean he’d have to admit going through his notebook. I mean it wasn’t like a diary or anything, Jonny knew Thom wouldn’t mind.

Thom was in his room when Jonny knocked and let himself in. He plopped himself on the bed and inspected the book Thom was reading, ‘pulp’. The two had the kind of friendship where you didn’t need to announce your going to do something before you do it, sometimes they sat in a comfortable silence, not even doing anything together, where either one could retreat back to their respective rooms, but they don’t. Other times they couldn’t stop speaking. Jonny and Thom are the last two people you’d expect to become friends on this level out of the group, but that’s just how it was. Jonny lies back on the soft mattress next to Thom. It caved in slightly because of their weight, Jonnys arm brushed the other boys.

“Are you having dinner? Colin made tacos.” Jonny turns his head to look at Thom.

“M’not hungry”

“Your too skinny Thom”

Thom seems to take offence to that, he scoffs and starts to get up

“Wait! Sorry, shit.”

Thom looks back and flops back down, Jonny ponders if he has any good dvds lying around somewhere. He remembers the lyrics he read earlier that day and takes the small notebook out of his back jean pocket, Jonny hands it to Thom.

“Oh thanks Jon Jon I’ve been looking for this for days.”

“It was in the couch, I found those new lyrics you wrote.”

Thom raises his eyebrows, he knows the lyrics Jonnys talking about. Thom can’t tell Jonny who they are about, because he doesn’t really know himself. Well, that’s a lie, he does know. He just can’t let Jonny have this information, he can stay curious.

“Yeah erm, do you like it? It’s nothing important I just thought it sounded nice.”

Jonny looks at the fidgety blonde boy peculiarly, but then gets up to grab his guitar to begin to play around with the song and maybe find a movie to put on.

Ed and Colin run home in the rain coming back from the corner store. They end up having to stop to take a breather. Both had given up staying remotely dry 3 minutes ago, so it didn’t matter.

“Why couldn’t we have sent Phil or something, doesn’t he have a car?” Colin pants, Ed just giggles, he thinks this is a joke doesn’t he? God..

“But this is fun isn’t it Coz? Get your adventure on we’re back home don’t you love this place..”

“Get your adventure on?”

“Yeah you’re right that is a bit cheesy.”

Ed and Colin laugh

“And what do you mean don’t I love this place? Look at this shithole! I want a bit of sunshine again!”

Ed and Colin laugh harder, you’d think they were a bloody married couple if you walked past. (Although nobody except them was outside)

…

The following Monday, the group went back to the studio to start the new album. They had quite a bit to make music about from the last, so that’s a bonus.

After the session Jonny and Thom stuck around and messed around with their guitars. Then, Thom had an idea.

“I challenge you to fit more chords in one song than me.”

“Bet”

They went at it for the next 45 minutes and ended up with an actually decent sounding song, Thom was even planning lyrics for it.

 

Coming home from a restaurant, Thom was completely recked but insisted on heading off to the studio to record his vocals for something or whatever.

“Thom, no offence but your gonna sound… Interesting.” Said Phil

Everyone else snickered a bit, as kindly as snickering goes.
But no, Thom insisted. He passed out in the corner after recording the lyrics and Colin was left having to drag him back to the apartment.

It seemed everything was going pretty smooth, but every day being back in the studio with Thom reminded Jonny of something he had been hiding deep inside for a very long time now. The way he would do one of his crooked smiles when they got a song right. The way he would mess around with Jonnys hair. The way his whole face would crease in a funny frustration when he was working something out. The way he would look at Jonny whenever he did something cool on the piano, making Jonny feel proud., and embarrassed. Sometimes Jonny wondered if Thom knew, because some days he felt as if he was downright teasing him about it. The way he would do something like tackle him on the dusty practice room floor in the apartment, or just simply look at Jonny whenever he was trying to complete a task that needed concentration.

Oh well, it wasn’t like anything was ever going to happen.

But then Jonny’s door flung open, Thom walked up to where Jonny was sat at the side of his bed and stood Infront of him.

“Jonny”

Jonny was confused

Thom moved and sat beside him, they looked at eachother, Jonny’s eyes were the size of planets.
Then, when the brown haired boy least expected it, Thom gently grabbed his face and kissed him on the lips. He then proceeded to look at Jonny, who was startled, realise what he had done, and run back out the door.