The two walked down the wooden steps to Ninten's basement - a small white painted room which Ninten used to escape the outside world and relax. Ness followed his friend, Mick trotting down the stairs behind them happily, then hopping up onto the small white couch that sat up against the wall, a blanket resting on its surface.

The room itself was Ninten's favorite room of the house. Painted a cream color, it held a single barred window near the ceiling at the top of the wall, letting the spring sunlight into light the room up, no electric light needed. Posters of the boy's favorite band of D.C.M.C, The Runaway Five, and many others hung on the walls, and a lever-action air rifle hung on the wall for a display. The rest of the room was quite messy, typical of a thirteen-year-old boy. Song sheets and lyric papers scattered the wooden floor, a black stereo sat near the couch and a small orange amp on the other side. A large cardboard box of records sat nearby on the floor, the vinyls stacked higher than the box could hold, some even sitting on the floor in a messy display. A large black speaker that reached Ninten's chest sat by the couch too, that of which held a binder full of sheet music and a large cassette player on the top. The speaker itself was one that Ninten had saved up for months for. Not only did it have a huge speaker, it had dials and a CD player, and much more.

The boy in the bandana threw his bag to the ground. "Put your bag anywhere!" He cheered happily, grabbing his electric guitar from its stand and hopping on the couch, plugging it into the amp. His father had given him the instrument for his tenth birthday, and he had played it ever since. He took off his jacket and adjusted his hat, strumming away and looking to Ness.

Ness, on the other hand, opened up his bag and pulled out two pieces of vinyl of Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller. "Want to play along to these in a bit?"

Ninten, on the other hand, looked a little disappointed. "Don't you have anything better…? Anything more… rock and roll?"

His best friend smiled and grabbed his guitar as well from its stand, which he kept at Ninten's house for music practice. "What were you thinking of?" He smiled, looking at Mick, who was wagging his little tail excitedly, eager to listen with the boys.

The dog's master leapt up excitedly and ran to the record box, looking through it with excitement in his veins. "It was around here somewhere… C'mon, c'mon, where are you?" With no Luck, he ran to the small bookshelf on the opposite side of the room, the first shelf holding CD's, the bottom holding more pieces of vinyl. He pawed through them. "Maybe it's in the milk crate…? Here we go!" Tossing a Rolling Stones album to the floor for later - a band both he and his best friend enjoyed - he pulled out the green and pink record sleeve: Rockihnroll by Greg Kihn. He smiled eagerly, showing it off. "Wanna jam?"

Ness winked, plugging in his teal electric guitar as well. "You know which song."

Running to the record player, and plugging it into his speaker, he pulled the record out and placed it on the turntable while Ness got the microphone ready in its stand. Good thing they were home alone in the basement - they could be as loud as they wanted.

Ness passed Ninten his guitar, and they stood in front of the microphone once the record started for one of their favorite songs. They tapped their feet to the funky rock guitar beat, smiling, hearts racing playing along to the music. Ninten leaned into the microphone

"We had broken up for good just an hour before, uh-uh-uh, uh-uh-uh-uh-uh."

"And now I'm starin' at the bodies as they're dancin' cross the floor, uh-uh-uh, uh-uh-uh-uh-uh."

"And then the band slowed the tempo, and the music gets you down, uh-uh-uh, uh-uh-uh-uh-uh."

"It 'was the same old song with the melancholy sound, uh-uh-uh, uh-uh-uh-uh-uh."

Both teens leaned in, blasting their guitars.

"They don't write em' like that anymore! They just don't write em like that anymore!"

As they sung, Ninten went deep into his music-loving mind. He loved these pastimes with Ness, and this wasn't something they rarely did. Just the week before they played along to the entire White Album and Ness' vinyl of News of the World, singing so loud Ninten's mother had repeatedly told them to turn it down. But it was never hardcore rock n' roll, either. They had their blues moments. Their moments where they had a duo of Johnny B. Goode, or when Ness' smoothe voice sung Beyond the Sea from Bobby Darin, or Ninten playing his old The Ink Spots records, which still were stacked in the back of a yellow milk crate from the last time Ness was over.

Music gave them an escape from reality. Let them find and discover things about themselves deep inside they never knew about. It was sweet and magical, and awesome. It made the two teens bond closer as friends, and it would always be a part of their lives. Ninten still remembered The Combat Rock Ness got him for his birthday… and Ness still remembered the cassette player that Ninten had got him when he was nine… when his dad told him he would be leaving after that painful divorce… and he still never admitted how many times he listened to the mixtape Ninten made for him to go with it over and over and over again. His ears had rung with The Runaway Five, The Rolling Stones, Benny Goodman, and a lot of the old favorites that they had still jammed out to till this very day.

Was it the fact that they had a love of music to help each other?

Or was it the fact they had each other to help with their love of music?

Or maybe it was the same thing, and they had to look at the different picture: they would always be there together, strumming away their problems in that basement in a world that nobody understood but them.