Chapter Text
Lincoln Bay High came alive faster than usual that Friday.
Most students dragged themselves into the cafeteria half asleep, but today was different. Word had gotten out. Flyers had appeared mysteriously on lockers. Someone posted cryptic messages on the school’s group chat. Someone else leaked a grainy photo of the G’s rehearsing outside SlamFM.
The rumor spread quick. The G’s were doing a lunchtime show. Right in the courtyard for free for the whole school.
By third period there were already kids planning where to stand, kids asking each other if the band would play their old stuff, kids wondering if Tara would make an appearance even though she told literally everyone she hated attention.
Devon arrived at school with her shoulders up around her ears, headphones on, music low. She had not slept well. Stacy’s words still clung to the edges of her thoughts, sticky and embarrassing.
Don’t get the wrong idea. Don’t misread things. He’s just friendly. Everyone knows that.
She knew she should not have believed it but she had because part of her already feared it was true. She kept her eyes on the floor as she walked. She heard bits of conversation around her.
“Are you going to the show”
“Heard they’re playing the new bridge”
“Gabe apparently sounds way better now”
Devon’s heart lifted a little, like a flicker. Even if nobody knew she was part of it, she did.
She slipped into Chemistry early and took her seat on the far right, her usual corner. She pulled out her notebook and tried to focus on equations but her brain kept drifting toward the courtyard stage set up outside the cafeteria windows.
She was not going to stand near the front. That would be weird, too visible, too much but she wanted to hear it. She wanted to hear how the song sounded in open air. She wanted to see Gabe perform it but that thought she pushed down. Buried under all the reasons she shouldn’t care.
Gabe, meanwhile, was living his own personal emotional tornado. He stood behind the school’s portable stage clutching his bass and trying not to sweat through his shirt.
“You ready dude” Gavin asked adjusting his guitar strap.
“Yeah, for sure. Totally, absolutely, obviously” Gabe said rapidly.
“You sound like someone who is not ready,” Grayson commented while plugging in the keyboard.
Gage twirled a drumstick “If he passes out I get dibs on his soda”
Gabe flipped him off without heat then took a deep breath.
The courtyard was full, kids filled the benches. Some sat on the concrete ledges. Some stood crookedly under trees. More crowded the staircases.
He saw people holding their phones up already. Taking videos before anything even happened.
He saw teachers pretending to be annoyed but clearly excited. He saw Tara with her backpack unzipped as she set up a small speaker. Gavin waved to her and Tara waved back and then he saw from the far back, almost hidden, almost missed…Devon.
She was tucked between two brick pillars near the cafeteria window. Hands wrapped around the straps of her bag. Her braid resting over her shoulder. She looked so out of place but her eyes were locked on the stage.
Not the crowd, not the hype, the stage more specifically on him and his breath caught.
She came. She’s actually here. Oh man. Oh no. Okay. Don’t freak out. Don’t be dumb. Just do the show. She’s in the back. She won’t even see you clearly. Chill.
He looked away fast but his stomach kept flipping.
When their student DJ plugged in the last cable he yelled “G’s, you’re up”
The crowd erupted with kids shouting, whistling. Someone screaming “I LOVE YOU GABE” even though she was in the tenth grade and absolutely did not.
Gabe stepped up to the mic. The sunlight in his eyes, bass heavy in his grip, heart pounding like it wanted out. He breathed in then out.
“Hey Lincoln Bay” he said
The courtyard roared.
“We’ve been working on something. It’s not done yet but… we wanted to show you what we’ve been up to.”
He glanced toward the back again. Devon was still there, still watching, still small and still steady.
He swallowed hard, then nodded to the boys, “One. Two. Three. Go.”
Gage hit the drums, Grayson laid the intro chords, Gavin played the climbing run and Gabe, this time did not force the vocal, did not hide it under volume. He let it fall, just like she taught him.
The sound spilled out across the courtyard. The kids who came expecting a messy high school performance froze. Then leaned forward and then went silent because it actually sounded good. Better than good, it sounded like a song, a real one.
Gabe’s voice cracked slightly in the second verse, intentionally. He let the emotion sit there and didn’t try to mask it.
Gavin’s harmony slipped in smoothly, Grayson’s chords lifted the moment and when they hit the bridge, the new one, the one Devon shaped from scratch.
The whole crowd seemed to exhale at the same moment. It worked. It really worked. Even the breeze moved softer.
Devon pressed a hand gently to her own chest, feeling the song she helped carve become real in the air. She didn’t smile, not fully but something in her expression warmed, glowed. Quiet pride blooming in the smallest way.
They did it. They actually did it and the bridge sounds exactly like it should.
She swallowed hard, trying not to let her eyes sting. Her music, her choices, her invisible fingerprints. Lived in the middle of their sound and the whole school was hearing it. Even if nobody knew it was her, she knew. That was enough or at least she told herself it was.
The song ended with a soft fading chord. Gage lifted his sticks triumphantly. Grayson threw his head back dramatically. Gavin gave a little guitar flourish.
The courtyard exploded with cheering, laughing and shouting.
Someone yelled “GABE YOU KILLED IT”
Someone else shouted “THAT WAS ACTUALLY FIRE WHAT THE HELL”
Gabe lowered his mic, shoulders rising with relief, face flushing with adrenaline. He looked out, scanning too fast, eyes jumping from one cluster of students to another.
Until again, they landed on her. Back of the crowd, hands clasped, expression soft like she had captured sunlight in her eyes and didn’t know what to do with it. Their eyes didn’t fully meet, too far, too many people but he felt something… a pull.
You did that because of her because she helped you figure out how to mean it.
He almost smiled real, wide and warm but then a crowd of kids swarmed the stage, distracting him.
The boys packed up quickly. Everyone high on the excitement. Gage nearly fell off the stage and blamed the sun. Grayson got roped into talking to the Show Choir director. Gavin and Tara argued playfully over whose idea the bridge really was.
Through all of it Gabe kept checking the edges of the crowd. Waiting to see if Devon would come close, waiting to thank her properly but she stayed at the back. Almost hidden until slowly she slipped away.
He felt something hit his ribs, s mix of panic and urgency.
“I’ll catch you guys later” he muttered to the band
Gage blinked “Where are you going”
“Bathroom” he lied terribly
Gavin snorted “Smooth”
But Gabe didn’t slow down. He hopped off the edge of the stage and threaded through clusters of students. Trying not to look suspicious. Trying to find her without looking like he was trying to find her.
She was halfway down the side walkway, heading toward the far building. Her braid bouncing slightly as she walked, her steps small and quick.
“Hey” he called, voice cracking a little.
She stopped and turned slowly, surprised and uncertain.
“Oh” she said softly “hi”
He jogged the last few steps, suddenly out of breath. Nerves buzzing in his fingertips. “Did you uh… hear the set” he asked stupidly
She blinked and then nodded, “Yeah. I did. It was… good.”
Her voice was quiet but the sincerity in it made something warm explode inside him.
“You’re the reason it sounded good” he blurted. Then immediately regretted his entire existence.
She looked startled, then confused.
He rubbed the back of his neck “I mean like. Your mixing and your uh… Notes. The feedback in the studio. That stuff. Not like. You know. I’m not saying you’re the reason we’re good. I mean you helped. In a good way. Not like you fixed us. Even though you kind of did but not like in a weird way I just mean thank you”
He shut his mouth, mortified.
Please put me in a hole and bury me alive I am begging someone.
Devon shifted her bag on her shoulder. Her eyes softening a little, then lowering again, “You’re welcome” she said gently.
He took a breath trying again, trying to be real, to mean it.
“No really. Thank you. I haven’t felt like that on stage in a long time. I felt like… like the song actually meant something because you helped us find it.”
Her lips parted, urprise flickering across her face and color rising slowly into her cheeks. She glanced down, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.
“That’s good,” she whispered “I’m glad.”
There was a pause, a soft fragile moment floating between them.
Then Gabe panicked, the sincerity felt too big.
He laughed awkwardly “Also if we ever get famous we’re gonna tag you in all the posts like our tiny wizard gremlin who bosses us around with sticky notes so get ready for that”
The change in her face was instant, her expression shuttered and her posture closed in. “Oh,” she said quietly “right. Funny.”
His stomach dropped
Wait no no no that came out wrong. That sounded like I wasn’t serious. That sounded like I didn’t mean the thank you. Fix it. Fix it. Say something real again. Come on man.
But the words wouldn’t line up. They tangled in his throat and turned into static.
Devon nodded again, smiling politely. The kind of smile someone wears when they step backward off a cliff.
“Well,” she murmured “I should go. I have a quiz next period.”
“Devon wait” he tried to say but it came out too soft too late
She stepped past him, carefully avoiding eye contact. “It’s fine,” she said “Really.”
But it wasn’t, he could hear it, something in her tone cracked gently. He turned half around, watching her walk away. Something twisting painfully in his chest.
Why did I joke. Why did I ruin it. Why does she look hurt. Why does this matter so much. Why can’t I just talk like a normal person.
Devon didn’t look back. She slipped into the hallway. The door shutting behind her with a soft click.
Gabe stood there alone. The cheering from the courtyard fading replaced by an ache he couldn’t name. He kicked softly at the ground frustrated and lost.
“Nice job idiot,” he muttered under his breath.
You finally thanked her and then you made it sound like a joke. No wonder she walked away. She probably thinks you never meant any of it.
He didn’t know, he wouldn’t know. That her withdrawal started long before his joke. That Stacy’s words still echoed in her mind.
Wrong idea. Chasing him. Background girl. Embarrass yourself.
Devon walked down the hall with her hands clenched around her bag straps. Her heartbeat too loud and her breath too thin. She replayed the moment again and again and again.
Of course he didn’t mean it. He was just being polite. Friendly. Everyone knows he’s friendly. You misread it. Again. Stacy was right. Don’t do this to yourself.
She kept walking, blinking fast and refusing to let tears form.
At the same time Gabe stayed in the courtyard. Hand pressed to the back of his neck. Eyes on the school door she disappeared through. Lost, confused and hurting without knowing why.
Two people. Two opposite hallways. Two hearts and one completely avoidable misunderstanding. The first real fracture between them, small but growing and neither of them knew how to fix it.