Reggie always knew his family wasn't as, well, normal as other families. His parents were always yelling and screaming at each other, while the other kids in his classes at school were always talking about how great their parents were.
Reggie was always envious of how well off the other kids had it. They always had nicer clothes, nicer shoes, and from what Reggie could tell, nicer families that didn't spend all the time yelling at each other.
Reggie was so busy envying the other kids in grade school that he never actually talked to them, or made friends with them. He would play alone on the swings at recess and spend every afternoon in his room, coloring or listening to music on his boom box when his parents were being loud. He would also escape to the beach and just watch the waves when being in his own house just became too much.
It was a stroke of luck when he found an old bass guitar in the attic of his house. He had never gone up there, and, from what he could tell, neither had his parents. The thing was way too big for him, but he didn't care.
He tried to teach himself how to play. He checked a book out on guitars from the school library, but it didn't talk about bass guitars, so it wasn't very helpful. He eventually swiped his mom's credit card and signed himself up for lessons. He wasn't sure of his mom would do it herself, and Reggie didn't want to risk asking.
So, every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon, without fail, Reggie would walk the two-mile walk to his guitar instructor's house and learned how to play his instrument. His parents never said anything about it, so he was pretty sure that they didn't even know he was gone.
In fifth grade, his teacher asked everyone in the class what music class they wanted to take in middle school next year. Reggie was over the moon when he heard there was a band class.
Reggie brought his bass with him on the first day of sixth grade, the most excited that he could remember.
When he walked into the class, Reggie sat down next to a chair with a blue guitar laying across it. When the teacher signaled for the class to start, a boy with shaggy light brown hair and an orange beanie who had previously been talking to the boy at the drum kit sat down in the seat that held the blue guitar.
"Hey," The boy whispered over the teacher towards Reggie. "I'm Luke."
"Reggie." He replied, and they shook hands.
"Is that your bass?" Luke asked.
"Yeah," Reggie replied, blushing a little. Luke's guitar was clearly newer and much nicer than his. "It's kinda old, but-"
"It's super rad." Luke interrupted him. Their conversation must have been getting a little loud because the teacher shot a warning look in their direction.
They played a little in that class, and Luke was good. Like really good.
When the bell rang, Reggie went to leave the room for his lunch period but was stopped by Luke and a blonde boy that Reggie recognized as the drummer.
"Hey, Reggie, wait," Luke said, heaving his backpack on his shoulder as he walked. "This is Alex." He said, gesturing to the blonde.
"Nice to meet you." Alex smiled, and Reggie waved back.
"We were wondering if you wanted to sit with us at lunch?" Luke approached.
Reggie was a little taken aback by Luke's question. No one had ever asked him to sit with them before.
"Sure." Reggie smiled finally.
"Cool," Luke said, slinging his arm over Reggie's shoulder as they left the room.
Luke and Alex accepted Reggie as a friend faster than he could even imagine. He never knew having friends was this awesome. He could go somewhere after school that wasn't his own miserable house, and he actually got to sit with people at lunch rather than sit by himself and get made fun of for it.
The three of them hung out almost every day after school and had jam sessions at least once a week. They always did those at Alex's house because his drums weren't exactly mobile like Reggie and Luke's guitars, and Reggie was happy with that. He didn't want to bring his friends to his house and scare them off with his parents fighting.
His parents only got worse as Reggie got older. They had moved on from fighting about dirty dishes and laundry left in the machine to why Reggie was such a fuckup and why he felt the need to steal his mom's credit card for bass lessons. Reggie was finding himself spending more and more time away from home. Even when he wasn't hanging out with Luke and Alex, which was most of the time, he was out doing something else.
The three of them were having a jam session over at Alex's house one afternoon when Luke brought up a crazy idea.
"We should start a band," Luke said, out of the blue.
"That sounds cool." Alex said, "but can we really start a band just the three of us?"
"Yeah, no trios ever make it." Reggie pointed out.
"Ok, then we'll just look for a fourth member." Luke decided.
It took them a while, but they finally found somebody. At the beginning of ninth grade, a new kid named Bobby who could shred on the rhythm guitar started going to their high school. He was kind of a tool, but they needed a fourth member and he could really play, and his singing voice wasn't half bad either.
They started practicing almost every day in Bobby's garage, which his parents let them turn into a studio for their band.
Reggie started to feel jealous of Bobby's parents. They supported his dreams of becoming a rock star and didn't scream at him when he wasn't getting A's in his classes and actually made him dinner at night, unlike his own parents. But it was ok. Reggie would get over it.
It took them a while to figure out a name for their band. They threw around a bunch of ideas until finally setting on Sunset Curve when they were all sitting on the beach at sunset and the name just came to them (Bobby liked Sunset Swerve better, but he got outvoted).
Reggie didn't tell his parents about his band. Why should he? That would just be one more thing for them to ruin. They seemed to do that to everything in Reggie's life without really trying. There was a reason he never brought his friends around his house. He just didn't need it.
There was one night when the fighting got really bad. Reggie could hear every word that they were screaming at each other and they were throwing plates. Reggie had tears streaming down his face and flinched every time a plate smashed.
It got to the point where Reggie just couldn't take it anymore. He just needed to get out of there.
He opened the window and climbed out, thanking God that his bedroom was on the first floor. At first, he didn't know where to go, because he didn't want to tell anyone about why he snuck out in the middle of the night with tears running down his face.
He decided to go to the studio. He figured no one would be out there at this time of night since Luke and Alex would be at home and Bobby and his parents would be asleep.
He got to the studio and climbed up to the loft where Bobby's parents stored extra pillows and blankets and made himself a makeshift bed up there and fell asleep peacefully for the first time that he could remember.
Reggie sneaking out started to become a regular occurrence. He was pretty sure his parents never noticed. Even if they did, they didn't say anything. He would stay in the loft at least once or twice a week so he could get a good night's sleep and not have to listen to his parents scream at each other all night.
When Alex came out, Reggie was really happy for him. He didn't care who his friends loved just so long as they were happy.
He was having a harder time at home, though. He started sneaking out at least twice a week and sleeping in the loft in the studio so he could just get away from his parents. There were a few times he saw Luke and Alex come in and just make out for a while or watch a movie or something, but he just turned the other way and didn't let them know he was there. They would tell him about them when he was ready and he didn't want to intrude.
Seeing them together left Reggie lying awake many late nights and wonder whether he liked guys, too. It was very confusing for a long time, but he eventually came to the decision that he liked guys and girls, even if there wasn't a name for it. But he didn't have to tell everyone yet. He could keep it to himself for a while.
By the end of their sophomore year, Reggie was only sending about one night a week at home when his dad didn't come home. There was no fighting those nights, but it was pretty bad when he came back. Reggie was always out of the house before then, though.
The first night after school ended, he walked to the studio with a backpack on and found Luke and Alex cuddling on the couch, Alex with tears on his face. They explained how Alex came out to his parents that night and it didn't go well. No one mentioned why they were cuddling, despite the fact that they never told him they were together.
When questioned about his backpack, Reggie explained about his folks fighting, and Alex and Luke took it really well.
The three of them spent the night in the studio and started practice early the next day. It became kind of like a routine for them over the summer, except Luke spent most of his nights at home. He was spending nights there more and more often as the summer went on, though, Reggie noticed.
That summer, they played gigs everywhere. It felt like they had one every other night. They all loved performing and how much time they could put into the band when they didn't have school to think about.
By the end of the summer, Reggie was pretty much living at the studio full-time and was home only once every few weeks to get clothes or something. He really liked hanging out with his friends all day and night. It was kind of like an endless sleepover. Reggie tried to leave for a few hours each day, though, to give Luke and Alex some alone time. He felt like he was third-wheeling all the time, despite the fact that they insisted he wasn't and that they wanted him there. He would just go hang out at the beach and watch the water or something. It was really relaxing.
One night, right before the start of school, Reggie snuck back home to get clothes and some books. He was alone when he got there, but while he was in his room, both of his parents showed up and started fighting. Reggie tried to leave through the window, but it was stuck and wouldn't open. He walked out of his room and through the hall, hoping that his parents wouldn't see him on his way out. He was sorely mistaken.
"Where do you think you're going?" His mom asked as he passed them.
Reggie considered just ignoring her and walking out without saying anything, but he decided against it.
"My friend Bobby's house. Where I've been all summer." Reggie answered.
"What do you mean?" His dad asked. "You've been here all summer."
Reggie started laughing. it was involuntary, at first, then he just kept going. His parents looked confused and angry, so he started to explain.
"You really didn't notice?" Reggie asked. He could feel tears starting to fall down his cheeks. He had stopped laughing once the initial hilarity of it all wore off, and now he was just upset. "You didn't notice that I've only been home like, what, three times this summer? That half the clothes in my room are gone? That my guitar is gone? If you knew anything about me, you would know I don't go anywhere without that thing. But I guess you guys really don't know me at all."
Reggie stormed out without another word, leaving his parents shocked and speechless behind him. He cried for the entire walk to the studio, where he found Alex and Luke sitting on the couch.
"They didn't even notice I was gone," Reggie said as he walked in and sat down on the empty section of the couch. "I've slept at home like three times all summer and they thought I was there the whole time. They didn't even notice I was gone."
Reggie felt more tears falling down his face, and his friends pulled him into a hug.
School started, and life went back to normal. By the time Christmas rolled around, all three of them were living in the studio full-time.
And on New Years Day, they got the best news of their lives. They were going to play at the Orpheum.
They spent the whole next month rehearsing during every spare moment they had. All four of their grades were slipping a little bit, but none of them cared. They were playing the Orpheum!
About a week before their performance, Alex and Luke broke up. They swore it was a mutual thing and that they decided they were just better as friends, but things were a little awkward for a few days. By the time the day of their performance rolled around, though, everything seemed to be back to normal.
Reggie was over the moon that night at soundcheck. All of them were. That was the best the band had ever played. Reggie rode that high by flirting with their fans and grabbing street dogs with his best friends. Little did he know that those were the last street dogs they would ever eat.