Saturday was the first day they spent together as a band- as a group. They really just hung out and got to know each other, but, it was fun. Next practice they'd work on music. Eventually, when practice was over, Sean and Mark were left sitting on the couch together. They were both so happy, honestly- especially Sean. Sean had been going on for the past 5 minutes about how good of a band they'll be, and how much fun they're all going to have together. Mark just smiled and listened- watching him ramble on. He was honestly sort of.. well, cute when he rambled on like this. It was so beautiful, the way his eyes lit up, and his cheeks went pink, and he just- looked so nice. Sean stopped after a minute. "Did.. a-am I talkin' too much?" Mark immediately shook his head. "Absolutely not! No, I like listening to you. You can keep going, If you want..!" Sean smiled. And he did continue. And Mark did continue to stare at him. It wasn't long before Sean had asked a question to Mark- and Mark, of course, was too busy admiring the other's strong facial features bafore he got a weird look. Mark's cheeks heated up a little, and he gave a meek "What?" In response. Sean raised his eyebrows. "What were you lookin' at?" He asked, earning a nervous chuckle from Mark. "..was just, spacin' out. No big deal. Why?" He looked up at Sean and- Sean just smirked, knowingly. That made Mark's stomach drop. Sean just hummed, giving a small "Right," before carrying on talking. What a tease.
Mark suspected after this, things might be awkward between them- but it was back to normal. Mark was thankful for that. A few weeks later, they'd have their first concert. Mark? Mark was psyched! He'd been performing in front of people since he was young. It was his forte. Sean, however? Well, he had cold feet. He'd never played the drums in front of anyone aside from Mark, his mum, and his brother. Mark just gave a little laugh and wrapped his arms around Sean's shoulders, assuring him that he'll be absolutely great. Sean was hesitant, but agreed to go onstage anyway. When they got onstage- wow. Almost the whole high school was there. They only put up a few fliers, and so many people showed up. Sean smiled at this. Maybe it won't be so bad after all. Their performance was pretty great- being a band who wrote 4 songs in about 3 weeks and got everything down so quickly? It's almost amazing, how well they did. Sure, there were a few mishaps, that's the way the cookie crumbled, but- by the end of the show, everyone was cheering and fuck, did that make Sean happy. When the show was over, Mark slung his arm around Sean's shoulder once again. "I told you you'd be great," He hummed, making Sean laugh and elbow him. The 4 of them decided that they'd sneak off to get some beers- their guitarist happened to be pretty popular in school.. and he certainly had connections. Their bassist was a chick, Amanda was her name.. and she certainly wasn't unattractive- in fact, she was pretty hot -but she was really, really gay. Like, extremely gay. Nobody in that band had even the slightest chance with her. I guess that's why she was popular, really- she was so open and honest about being gay, and everyone could respect that. Sure, not everyone liked it, sure she got made fun of- but everyone respected her, even if they didn't show it.
When Danny had come back with beers, they'd all been sitting in the diner that was just down the street from where they'd performed. Sean grinned- he was the first to grab a beer. He was also the first to finish a beer. In Ireland, the legal drinking age was 18, so he'd drank before. Plenty of times. Mark was drinking his beer rather slowly- his first beer. It was weird, how tipsy he already seemed. He really must have been a lightweight. Everyone else at the table was on their 4th or 5th beer by the time the waitress came over (the restauraunt was busy) and pulled out a notepad to take their orders. Mark gave her these- weird eyes when she approached. Was he.. flirting? He kept biting his lip and looking her up and down when everyone else ordered their food and- she was doing the same back to him. Jesus, he was- he was FLIRTING with this lady. Sean felt a tang of jealousy in his chest. God, he- felt like he was going to cry and puke everywhere at the same time. He tapped his fingers on the table, impatiently. Whenever Mark had finished his order, Sean just muttered out that he didn't want anything and watched as that waitress walked off- curvy hips swinging back and forth with every click-clack of the heel of her shoe. Sean earned a light elbow from the choppy-haired blunette at his side. He glanced over to Amanda when she elbowed him a second time. She raised her eyebrows, mouthing an 'everything alright?' his way. Sean simply shrugged his shoulders and looked back forward, making her frown. She could tell he didn't want to talk, so she didn't bother pressing him any farther about it. Mark glanced at Sean, raising his eyebrows. Sean looked mad about something. He put a hand on Sean's shoulder- and was about to ask what was wrong, too -but he found that hand was quickly shrugged off. Mark winced at that, but decided he'd just let it go.
The waitress came back with everyone's food and drinks, sending a wink in Mark's direction. He licked over his lips and- Sean nearly flipped the whole fucking table, the entire thing when he saw she slipped Mark a piece of paper with 10 digits written on it. That- that bitch. That absolute bitch, that slut- He was only angrier now. He looked over to Amanda, biting his lip. "'Scuse me, can y'let me out? I need t'go to the bathroom." She gave a gentle frown, then a nod, standing from the booth to let Sean squeeze his way out and practically rush to the bathroom. Fuck. He wanted to scream, he wanted to punch something, he wanted to cry, he-.. didn't know why he was so upset. Why? Why did he care that Mark found a hot girl that likes him? Why should Sean care? Was he jealous that he didn't have a girlfriend? No.. no, that's not it. Is it..? No, it can't be. That's just, stupid, that he even thought that. There's no way he's jealous of the waitress, is there? Sean swallowed thickly. He's not going to answer that question for himself. That's just stupid. There's no way. Sean eventually calmed himself down, heading back out of the bathroom to find that Mark was suddenly missing. Where did he go? Sean sat back down on the end, since there was now an empty space and enough room for him to do so. "Where's Mark?" He asked. Danny gave a little laugh. "He's out in that waitress' car or something- they're making out in the backseat. We leavin' without him, or are we gonna wait?" Sean felt his heart drop in his chest. He felt it drop to his fucking stomach- no. There's.. no. Sean looked down to the table, pulling off his beanie to run a hand through his hair. "S'up to you guys. You wanna leave or hang out for a bit?" Danny looked a little confused at the other's sudden change in mood, but answered anyway. "I'd rather be here than home. Besides, I think we're all gonna crash at your place.. since it's only a walk away, and, well, we're all pretty trashed- 'specially Mark. Poor kid's hammered." Danny laughed at his own comments, running a hand through his own long hair.
Mark eventually got back into the restaurant, about 30 minutes later. His hair was a mess and his glasses were askew on his face. Sean couldn't bare to look at him, so he didn't. The next morning would be an absolute mess for all of them. They all headed home soon after, and the moment they got home Sean shut himself in the bathroom and emptied the contents of his stomach into that god-forsaken porcelain bowl for almost an hour- and not (just) because he was drunk. By the time he got out everyone had passed out- Danny on the couch, Mark on the floor, Amanda in his bed- cheeky bitch. He plopped his ass down next to the toilet, closed the lid, and slept right there. The next morning, Sean was the first person awake- probably because it was 5 am and he slept a whole 2 hours. Good. That's good. He sighed and got up, groggily heading to the kitchen. His head was pounding and all he cared about was coffee. He pushed himself up onto the kitchen counter, making himself a cup. This is what he needed. 4 hours later, after hours of sitting in the kitchen and scrolling through his phone, Amanda was awake. Then Danny not long after, probably hearing Amanda wake up. Mark was the last to wake up, about 30 minutes after Danny. Amanda and Danny were conversating and drinking coffee, whereas Sean was trying to avoid any contact with anyone- he felt like shit. Mark smiled over at Sean when he headed into the kitchen, to which Sean looked away. Mark didn't really notice, pouring himself a cup of coffee. The rest of their morning was- awkward, to say the least. It wasn't until about 12 in the afternoon did anything interesting happen- Amanda gave a grin over to Mark and asked a question about- last night. Sean didn't really pay much attention to what she asked, something about fogging up windows- then it came to him. Did Mark just have sex with some girl he doesn't even know? God, he.. he never thought Mark was THAT kind of guy. Mark froze up, laughed after a minute, then pulled down his collar to flash something at Amanda- a dark hickey, right there on the side of his neck. Suddenly, Sean felt sick again. The more they talked about it, the closer Sean felt he was to crying. Eventually he had to leave the room, making some sort of excuse of being hungry so he could go into the kitchen and stop listening to that. He heard footsteps behind him a few minutes later, and the door to the kitchen was opened, and then shut again. He turned. It was Mark. Sean sighed and turned back away. Mark put a hand on his shoulder, turning him back around. "Why're you acting so weird?" Mark murmured, making Sean huff and move away from his hand. "I'm not. Leave me alone, I jus' came in here t'get somethin' t'eat." he retorted, annoyance obvious in his voice. Mark gritted his teeth. "Why're you so mad at me? I don't understand what I did wrong!" Mark was annoyed now, too, which made Sean snap his head back to Mark. Why was Mark getting snappy with him!? He did nothing wrong! Mark's the one who acts like he likes him- stares at him, flirts with him, makes him feel good about himself- then just, crushes that beneath his heel. Sean took a step closer to Mark. "Get out. I told yew t'leave me alone, and I don' want anythin' t'do with you right now. Jus' leave me alone! Go talk to yer girlfriend or somethin'." Mark seemed genuinely confused. "You mean that girl from last night? Why are you mad about that? Did you like her or something? I really don't even like her that much, she just came onto me, man-" Sean cut him off. "No, you were the one who came ont'a her!" Sean was raising his voice now, and Mark's eyes widened. "I don't understand why you're angry! You look like a fucking crazy person right now, what the hell is your problem?" Sean clenched his fists at his sides as Mark spoke. "You! Yer my problem, man! Y'make me feel like a babblin' idiot, and I don' know how to feel around you, ever! From minute one y'pulled this dumb prince charming card on me! Y'compliment me, y'stare at me, y'flirt with me, then y'go an' shag someone in the back of their sleazy BMW! Why do 'ya fuck wit' me head, Mark!?" Sean was shouting now, and it wasn't three whole seconds after Sean stopped speaking that he was pressed back against a wall and swollen, slightly-chapped lips were pressed hard against his. Sean's hands snaked up the other's back and to his raven locks of hair, slender fingers sliding through them and holding tight. Mark pulled away after a few seconds, and it took them both a little while to catch their breaths. "God, I hate you." Was all that Sean murmured before pulling Mark down into another kiss.