Band practice.

I don’t think it should be very surprising that I don’t have a lot to say about our day of practice. At least, not unless I go into painful details on every mistake we made during a full day of practice. The only thing of note was how Steven and I seemed to be struggling to get in sync with the others, but it wasn’t a surprise at all.

Steven and I were bedroom guitarists. We were used to playing solo. Meanwhile, Luna and Ruby played together all the time and Eric had four years of music club experience. Only practice was going to fix the issue.

We had lunch outside with the girls. I only anticipated a single issue, and I’m happy to say that I had nothing to worry about in the end. Eric not only behaved, but I could sense no lingering feelings for Noelle. Well, no romantic feelings, that is. There was still some shame from his past actions that made it hard for him to look her in the eyes, and I can’t say I blame him. Still, they both acted as proper adults and, while not exactly friendly with each other, got along perfectly well.

Mila showered Steven, Luna and Ruby with questions that the three were more than happy to answer. Mila’s always been really good at getting people to feel comfortable talking about themselves. On our side, though, there was no way we were escaping the one question.

“So… How did you guys end up in this… sort of relationship?” Luna asked.

“It’s more simple than you think,” Grace said with a small shrug. “We all like him and we don’t mind sharing. That’s pretty much what it boils down to.”

“Lucky son of a gun,” Steven teased, grinning.

“Exactly,” I said, nodding.

At one point, though, Luna’s eyes accidentally met Fern’s and the two girls flinched and looked away. I admit, I didn’t think there’d be an issue there, but that was naive of me, I guess.

Luna and Ruby did play a cover of a song Fern requested. Their way of apologizing for turning Fern’s genuine praise into hate towards me when we found them playing in the mall. That said, this was the first time they’d seen each other face to face since then.

Fern was obviously just nervous because these were people she had a single, unpleasant interaction with and didn’t know what to say or do. On Luna and Ruby’s side, the shame was resurfacing, and it seems like the two musicians couldn’t hold it anymore.

“H-Hey. F-Fernanda, right?” Luna began.

“Y-Yes?”

Luna and Ruby looked at each other before turning back to Fern. “We… really should apologize for that one time,” Ruby said. “We didn’t treat you fair, and we know it.”

“We just… held a one-sided grudge with Oliver and ended up being rude when you were praising us.” Luna said. “We’re very sorry.”

“N-No, it’s f…” Fern pursed her lips, then sighed. “Okay, it’s not actually fine, but I’m over it and clearly so is Oliver. So… we’re good.” She smiled at them, and that lifted some weight off of the girls’ shoulders.

We immediately went back to practice after lunch.

As she picked up her violin again, Luna sighed and turned to me. “Oliver, can you let me say something inappropriate?”

I had a good idea of what she was gonna say, partly because she’d already said it before once. “Go ahead.”

“Your girls are all so fucking hot.” She groaned in frustration. “It’s almost unfair that you’re hogging them all.”

“Not only that, but they’re all super nice, too,” Ruby said, sighing. “I fully expected them to hate us, but either they don’t or they’re polite enough not to show it. I’m so damn jealous.”

Eric and Steven blinked in silence, stunned by the comments.

“Um… I thought you two were dating?” Steven asked them.

“Hm? Oh. Sorry, we do this all the time,” Ruby admitted with an embarrassed smile. “We used to… check out other girls before we started dating.”

“Each and every woman we found hot, we would comment on it,” Luna said, her cheeks heating up. “Each and every one… except one another.”

“At one point we finally admitted that we liked each other the best.” We could see Ruby’s cheeks lightly reddening. “Then we started dating… but continued bantering when checking other girls out.”

“Huh. That’s pretty cute,” I said. “In a weird way, but I approve of weird.”

“No kidding,” Steven said, nodding. “Weirdly romantic.”

“And you’re okay with them saying that about your girlfriends?” Eric asked me with a raised eyebrow.

“I mean, she did ask for permission, so it’s fine.” I shrugged. “After all, they ARE all gorgeous wonderful. It’s when people start bothering and harassing them that I get mad.”

Eric grumbled quietly. “Think you three could share just a speck of that confidence?”

“What? Worried about your girl?” Steven asked.

“Even though I know I shouldn’t,” Eric said with a grimace. “It’s not that I don’t trust her, okay? It’s just… she’s way above my league.”

I sighed. “You already asked my opinion before, but I’ll tell you again. You’ll be fine, even more than fine. Just don’t look down on yourself so much. I’ve got it on good authority that it’s pretty annoying.”

“He’s right, you know?” Luna said.

“Alright…”

“Okay, as fun as this is, let’s get back to practice,” Steven said.

So we did. We actually practiced until 8:30 pm, and the best part of the whole session was that it actually helped to give us a fair bit of confidence. We were nowhere near as bad as I thought we’d be and we were getting used to playing together fairly quickly. Of course we needed to practice more, but we started to feel like we could realistically do this if we were diligent enough.

We agreed that they’d come over again during the week, even if they had to leave a bit later. As such, I suggested to Eric that he leave his drum kit here for now and he agreed.

I saw them off at the gates, then went back into the house.

The day might have not started well, but at least it ended well. Or rather… it had yet to end.

Author's Note: Going on a break during October. I'll be very busy and won't be able to upload cosistently. The Patreon is going on break, too, so no new chapters there this month. This story is currently at chapter 856 there, if you're interested, but you'll still be charged the first month.

I'll be back in November. Stay safe everyone. Thank you for reading and for the support in the comments.

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