High School Days Ch 29 Scene 6: Alan's Night Out

Scene #1 for August, 2017 (God I'm so behind on posts)

Universe: High School Days

Tags: Rat, Hyena, Raccoon, Fox

1,363 words

High School Days Ch 29 Scene 6: Alan's Night Out

Illustration by Donryu

***

“How could you do this?

How could you say that?

How could you just leave me here like this?”

The music flowed through Alan, like a wave crashing down around him, but the wave never stopped. The beats were fast, the song a power ballad, and the rat played as hard as he could; trying to put everything he had into each note. Part of the grey rat was frantic to be perfect in every way, to somehow live up to the energy of the song that he, Shane, JD, and the fox drummer were playing. His mind was racing as his fingers struggled to keep up the pace, but Alan didn’t think he could stop now even if he wanted too.

“Why didn’t you see me?

Why didn’t you touch me?

Why didn’t you say you loved me back?”

The music was in control now, the beat of his own song pounding through his body as Mystic’s onstage speakers blasted out each cord he struck on the bass guitar.

Beside him, Shane was playing his own guitar just as hard, the raccoon’s rainbow tail and spiked hair flashing as the two of them screamed out the lyrics at the top of their lungs, voices mixing with the notes as they rocked out together.

The song was written for two voices, and did something that Alan was really proud of, now that he heard it performed properly for the first time.

Each line started out with the raccoon and rat singing the same words, together one the same beat, but the end of the line was different for each of them, so that what started as a harmony became dissonant and conflicting, as if they were shouting questions back and forth at each other, before singing the next line together again as a duet.

“Who were you talking to?

Who were you meeting with?

Who are you seeing behind my back?”

They sang both in and out of sync with each other, each of them looking only at the other, their attention fully on only one another as if the audience and even their other band mates weren’t there.

Alan knew that without Shame matching his timing, without the raccoon's vocal skill, the song would be a total mess. Every time he'd sung it before, it had been a mess. The guys in his old band simply didn't have the voice to pull it off. But now, he and Shame sang in unified disharmony, and it sounded amazing.

It was like when they’d stayed up all night singing and comparing lyrics, but with a pounding baseline as the screamed the words of the song at each other like loves having a quarrel.

Alan remembered how Shane had looked at him that night, and saw that same passion there now, and that made it easy to sing these words, both their voices full of passion and anger, even though neither one of them was really upset.

“Where were you last night?

Where were you last week?

Where were you when I needed you most!”

This was how the song was supposed to be sung, the two of them, screaming the words out as loud as they could, each guitar fighting with the other, each voice crashing together. The song was about passion, about being so angry with someone you couldn’t even hear them, about two lovers who would never speak again after what they said to each other.

Behind them, Alan was only barely aware that JD and the fox were playing their own parts with just as much skill as Shane. Alan hadn't written an electronic track for this song, but the hyena had understod the song, and scored it with two themes, one for each other, with a minor theme for both JD and the fox too, as the unspeaking witnesses to the arguement happening on the stage.

I thought I loved you

But it turns out we're both trash

Just crumple me up then, toss me out

Get out of my house, be for I toss you out

Alan and Shane traded off lines now, moving around the stage more, as the next few verses showed how the couple was drifting apart. Their mingled lines told a story which was still being sung together, but now decidedly separate, their previously clashing guitar riffs melding into a single beat that mixed with the rhythm and pounding of the drums, and the haunting electronic notes of the synthesizer.

Well fuck you too, I’m leaving you

I ain’t talking to you

I'll see you over my shoulder,

It’s my life and now I'm free,

You’ll never get me to come back.

The song came to an end with a slower music section, each instrument starting off in sync and slowly trailing off, each of the four musicians making a single melody that was coming apart slowly.

Alan had written the part without ever hearing it played together, trying to make it sound as if the band members themselves were splitting up and walking into the distance, and in the moment Alan closed his eyes, shocked at how well the trick worked. Each section of the song parting and fading into the four corners of the room.

It was a beautiful bit of trickery with the sound channels, each instrument fading into a different channel before dropping away to nothing. The rat opened his eyes and looked at JD, who flashed him a wild grin and gave him a thumbs-up, and the rat flashed him a grin back.

Out in the audience, the goths and rap fans who had come to Mystic on what was supposed to be an off night were outright cheering, whooping it up as the music trailed away. Apparently, the song was a hit. Better yet, it appear to have impressed the Diamond Dogs themselves. Twist the dingo was rubbing his chin and leaning in to say something to Killer, who looked kind of stunned by the song’s delivery. The two of them began talking animatedly, and looked very excited by the music they’d heard.

Twist said sonething, and Killer's face flushed red, and he began arguning heatedly with the coyote.

Alan felt a twist in his guts seeing that. Maybe it hadn't been the music that shocked them, but the message? There was no hiding what the point of the song was, the lyrics used all male pronouns, and both he and Shane were guys. But then… why did Twist look excited, even though Killer was barking something at him.

were rappers, and fuck… rappers and queers didn’t mix. Alan felt a quesy flutter in his stomach again, and carefully adjusted one of the guitar’s pegs to make sure the damn thing stayed in tune. He’d beat the strings to hell during the song, and the damn old thing had slowly drifted on him towards the end. The rat glanced nervously back out at the Dogs, and this time his eyes were caught by something that froze him in place.

What brought Alan to a halt was that the two band members had been joined by a third, and it was the big dog himself, Derek Diamond.

He’d leaned forward from his place at the table, coming into the light so Alan could see him better, and Alan knew exactly where the dog was looking, directly at him. The Doberman sat perfectly still, his famous face staring up at the stage and focused intently on Alan. Their gazes seemed to lock, and Alan stared into Derek’s fierce brown eyes as the next song’s intro music began to play.

Alan tried to breathe, but all he could do was think, oh shit oh shit, I just sang in from of Derek Diamond, the biggest thug in rap, and it was a queer breakup song. Oh shit... he’s gonna think I’m gay too, and he’s looking right at me…

The Doberman’s dark eyed stare was so intense that Alan almost missed his cue. He jerked to attention just in time though and began to play, fingers responding on muscle memory alone as they began to play one of Shane’s songs this time.