It was two days before the dance, Gamzee had convinced me to go with him to the east side of town to get my tux. After getting fitted he told me he would pick it up for me tomorrow, when we walked out he grabbed my wrist and took me to a mechanic shop, "Gamz are we even allowed in here?" "Yeah bro I had to pick something up anyways." He walked over to a large muscular man with long black hair tied in a pony tail "Hey Equius is my ride ready?" Gamzee asked trying to sound demanding. The man turned to us he had cracked sunglasses (why wear them if there cracked?) "Ah, Mister Makara, yes it's ready." Equius was Gamzee's paid body guard (even though he sucked at it) he had dropped out of school last year and worked full time at this mechanic shop, and with the look he was giving me he doesn't recognize me (which was a good thing) he led us to the other side of the shop, the first thing I noticed was the shining indigo and dark orange flames. It was an indigo 1996 Chevy Silverado (it looked well built, in fact it looked like it just came out of the shop that day) "Damn Equius! It looks good as new!" Gamzee commented with excitement. "Well it wasn't fully destroyed when you set it on fire last time. It was easy to restore." About seven months ago Gamzee went to a club; he ended up pissing some Hood off. Well that Hood set Gamzee's truck on fire, Gamzee had lied to his father that he did it by accident (because it was about the tenth time his father had warned him to be careful in the west side of town, and every time he wasn't his father would try to convince him to go to a private school) Gamzee opened the door to the driver's seat "Thanks for painting it like how I wanted it bro it looks so miraculous." Gamzee said as he turned the steering wheel pretending that he was driving "I still question why you wanted orange flames on it, it looked exquisite just being indigo." Gamzee looked at Equius though the window of the passenger seat "Because anything with sick fires looks badass." I leaned over the hood of the truck just admiring the paint work (the flames looked realistic) "If that is what you wish sir but, having them panted on…well…it looks like something one of those strays would drive." I shot a glance at Equius (Upperclassmen called Hoods 'Strays' to be hurtful, even though I'm not really a Hood the word seemed to hurt me too) "Equius what the motherfuck did I tell you about using that word around me! You know I don't think of those guys like that." Gamzee said as if he was offended too "Just give me the motherfuckin keys man, I'm driving home." He looked at me "Come on bro get in the truck." He said as if he knew that word offended me too. Equius tosses the keys to me as I jump into the passenger seat, he takes off his sunglasses to get a better look at me "Do I know you from somewhere?" he asks. I hesitate "I…uhh…I guess I l-look like one of those guys w-who looks familiar to everyone…heheh." You stutter out, he just gave me an odd look before Gamzee interrupted "Eq stop acting like everyone I hang out with is suspicious, he's a friend." (He knew that if Equius found out who I was he would try to hurt me, Equius hated Hoods as much as my brother hated Upperclassmen, which means he hates them more then he loves to breathe.) You give Gamzee the keys; he takes them and starts up the truck. I closed the door of the passenger seat before giving one last glance at Equius. He walks over and slides up one of the garage-like doors, Gamzee slowly drives out; he rolls down the window and gives Equius a glare "Getting real tired of your shit Equius." Gamzee rolled up the window and drove out into the nearly empty street. "I'm sorry about what Equius said Tavbro." Gamzee sighed "It's okay Gamz, it's not the first time I've heard that, and like you said if I know it's not true…why let it get to me?" Gamzee turns and smiles at me "Yeah motherfucker, I guess you're right." He turns, keeping his eyes on the road. He stops at a red light. I hear a faint beat of a song from the radio, a song I was familiar with, I turned up the volume and it was the song I thought it was (What hurts the most by Rascal Flats) and I couldn't help but sing along
"I can take the rain on the roof of this empty house, that don't bother me. I can take a few tears now and then and just let them out."
I hear a choked chuckle from Gamzee, "What?" I asked. The light turned green and he started driving down the street "I knew this motherfucker had a wicked voice, but I never knew you could sing." "Oh is that so? Mister Lead Guitarist and Singer of some stupid band." I teased, he laughed "Hey bro don't diss the band." I playfully rolled my eyes "Yeah whatever, well if you think you're so good why not sing this with me?" I challenged playfully "Well hell yeah I will." I focused back on the song
"Never knowing what could have been."
"And not seeing that loving you is what I was trying to do."
I smiled at him, and we both started singing at the same time.
" It's hard to deal with the pain of losing you everywhere I go. But I'm doing it, it's hard to force that smile when I see our old friends and I'm all alone. Still harder getting up, getting dressed, living with this regret. But I know if I could do it over I would trade give away all the words that I saved in my heart that I felt unspoken."
I stopped singing when I hear a slight choking noise, I also realized he stopped singing, I looked over to him; he had tears running down his pained face. I quickly turned down the volume "What's wrong Gamz?" I asked. We stopped in front of the tracks, he wiped the tears off his face, smudging his paint on his arm "It's…well…this song reminds me of my parents…my old man would always fight with my mom when I was little…and one day she left without a word, she left a note saying she couldn't take it anymore, and she left me with my dad…he treated me like shit, I never knew why and when I asked one of the maids they just said that I looked so much like my mom…if my mom wouldn't have left…my pops would have sorted it out and we could have been a regular family again…I just don't know why, but this song always gets to me." I looked at him with a sad expression on my face (I had told Gamzee about everything that happened with my parents, but he never mentioned anything that had to do with his mother until now) "Oh…I'm sorry Gamz; you could have said something I would have changed the station or something." Gamzee wiped more tears off, smearing more of his face paint. When he stops at another red light he glanced over at the side mirror of the car, he sighed "Fuck it." He grabbed a napkin from his pocked and wiped off his face paint (well most of it) I looked at him. This was literally the third time I have ever seen him without his face paint, I winced when I saw the three vertical scars across his face. He told me about them but I've only seen them once, we drove up to my neighborhood "Hey bro," Gamzee says "I…uhh…shit how do I say this…" he trailed off biting his lip. We drove up to my house "I have to tell-" He was cut off when he noticed Rufioh walking up to the truck. I rolled down the window and Rufioh leaned into it "Damn this is one nice set of wheels." He commented "Yeah thanks man, just got it back from the shop." Gamzee says. Rufioh raises a brow "The shop? I was just there with a friend of mine, I didn't see you two there."
sHIT…tHINK OF SOMETHING, tHINK OF SOMETHING….
"We went this morning when you were still asleep, we've just been cruising around." I said as if it was obvious, he gave me a look before he stood up straight "Okay then, so bro I was thinking we could go shoot some pool over at Kankri's place, he's out of town this week and he told me to go check whenever he got mail or something." "Sure bro," I turned to Gamzee "See you at school tomorrow." I said as I got out of the car. "You won't forget to pick it up will you?" I asked "Bro I would never forget something that has to do with my Tavbro." He laughs "I'll see you tomorrow." He waves at me before driving off. Rufioh and I walked into the house "Hey bro, when did that friend of yours get those wicked scars on his face?" Rufioh asked "Oh…uhh, it happened last year he was jumped." "Damn, he shouldn't be wearing that clown paint then, because those scars make him look bad ass. Hell he could be the new baddest hood just with those on his face." I rolled my eyes. "He doesn't like showing them; people get scared, so he wears that face paint." Rufioh jumps on the couch, resting his shoulders on one of the arm of the couch "What ever bro, you got some weird ass friends you know." He laughs as he pulls a cigarette from his pocket "Rufioh don't you dare light that in here, if you're going to smoke go do that outside you know I hate smoking." I said. Rufioh just rolls his eyes before getting off the couch "Fine, fine." He grabs his lighter from his pocket and lights the cigarette before walking out the door.