Six Like The Number

Paradox

*Six’s POV*

The next day at lunch, Drew and Nate huff as they sit down.

“Rough day?” I ask them.

“Our front man f*****g quit the band. And we have a show booked next weekend so we’re basically f****d,” Drew tells me.

“Axle can sing,” I blurt out. I look at him and quickly add, “Sorry that just came out. Probably should have let you offer if you wanted to. No pressure.”

“No, it’s fine. I didn’t know you guys were in a band.”

“Yeah, I play bass and occasionally vocals, Nate plays the drums and then Connor, from the basketball team plays guitar and we had Brent from the football team as our rhythm guitarist and lead vocals but apparently his mommy thinks he needs to focus more on school and made him quit.”

“What kind of music do you play?” Axle asks.

“Mostly alt rock. So you sing?”

He nods. “And play guitar.”

“Huh cool, for some reason I did not peg you as the musical type. How about you come by Nate’s place tonight and we give it a try? If you’re interested, that is.”

“Yeah, I could come by.” He looks over at me and I smile widely at him.

“Okay, sick. Here, this is the set list and the sheet music. Some are covers and some are originals.” Drew hands him a folder with a bunch of papers in it.

“What’s your band’s name?” I ask.

“We’re called Paradox,” Drew tells me.

“If the rest of you want to come hang out and watch you’re welcome too,” Nate says.

“Yeah, you guys should totally come! We go all the time. Watch some music, have a beer, order takeout. It’s a good time,” Cleo says.

“I can’t, you know, because of Theo,” I say.

“Just bring him,” Drew says.

“You want me to bring my kid to your band practice?”

“Yeah, why not?” Drew says. I hesitate. He does make a good point. They all know now and I could really use some more semi-normal human interactions outside of school and Shaunice.

“Alright, sure. I’ll bring him.”

“Sick. I’ll text you guys the address and then I guess you guys can just meet us there.”

“Sounds good.”

After school, I go pick up Theo and he tells me he painted a picture for Axle which he insists on bringing with us. When we pull up to the address that Nate texted me, I see both Cleo and Axle’s cars out front which is not a surprise. Everyone else lives much closer than I do. I hold Theo’s hand and follow Nate’s instruction and go around to the door at the side of the garage and knock. Cleo answers and instantly kneels down and says, “Hi buddy!”

“Hi! I like your hair.” No surprise there, blue is his favourite colour.

“Aw thank you. My name is Cleo and you must be Theo. Our names rhyme!”

He giggles and she says, “I think my heart just melted.”

“Yeah, he has that effect on people.”

“You ready to go meet some more people buddy?” I ask him and he nods. We walk further in and Axle comes over and Theo says “Axle, I painted you a picture!” and hands him the paper with blue paint smeared all over it in an unidentifiable blob.

“You did?” he looks at it and I can tell he’s trying to figure out what it’s supposed to be and looks at me for help and I stifle a laugh and just let him struggle. He gives up and just says, “I like the colour you chose. Thank you so much.”

“You’re welcome!”

I point everyone out and tell Theo their names. “Alright, you think you can remember all that?”

He nods his head. He’s got a pretty good memory so I think he should remember most of them. I walk him over to the far end of the garage where there’s a table and a couple of couches and chairs shoved in the corner. Jameson is sitting on one couch with Cam and Ethan and Luna and Lexi are on the other one.

“Alright, cars or colouring?”

“Colouring!” He says and I pull out a couple colouring books and some crayons out of the bag I brought and set them on the coffee table. He sits on the floor in front of it and gets to work with, of course, the blue crayon. I don’t even know why I bother with the other colours.

Cleo comes over and sits on the floor beside him and asks him if she can colour too. He nods exuberantly and proceeds to climb into her lap and pull the book over. She looks a little surprised and I say, “Yeah, shyness is not something that kid suffers from.” She pulls out a purple crayon and starts colouring with him. I look over and see the guys setting up to start playing.

I walk over to Axle and place my hands on his chest as his arms go around my waist.

“You should feel special, Theo does not give out his masterpieces to just anyone, you know.”

“I do. But, what exactly is it supposed to be?”

“No clue. You’ll have to ask Theo. Also be prepared, that probably isn’t the last piece of paper with blue paint smeared on it you’ll receive.”

“They’re always blue?” He says, raising an eyebrow.

“Always. It’s his favourite colour and he literally refuses to paint with anything else. I’m hoping he outgrows that soon though because our fridge could use a change of scenery,” I joke.

“Alright, Axle are there any from the setlist you’ve played before? I think that would probably be a good place to start,” Drew asks.

He leans down to kiss me on the lips quickly and backs away to grab his guitar and says, “I know most of the covers. How about Creep?”

“Yeah sure, sounds good. We’ll start and you can come in when you’ve got the vibe, yeah?”

He nods and I go back over to the couches, taking a seat beside Luna. They start playing and when Axle joins in and starts singing, I once again find myself mesmerized by his voice. He sounds great with the rest of the band. You would never know this was their first time playing together. My eyes are still glued to Axle when the song ends.

Everyone claps and Drew claps him on the back and says, “That was great dude! Maybe it’s a good thing Brent ditched us.” Axle laughs and then looks over at me with a smile and winks. I look towards Theo quickly and find Cleo looking at me with a smirk on her face.

“What?” I ask her.

“Nothing,” she says and returns to colouring. I’ll have to ask her about that later.

The guys start making their way through the set list and take a break after an hour for a beer and to order a pizza. I cut up Theo’s into bite size pieces and he walks up to Jameson and says, “Can I sit with you?”

“Oh, no Theo, come sit with me,” I tell him.

“It’s fine, I don’t mind,” Jameson says.

“Are you sure? You’re likely going to end up covered in pizza sauce.”

He shrugs and says, “I’m wearing black.”

“Alright, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.” He picks Theo up and puts him in his lap and I set the plate on Theo’s legs. When Theo finishes eating, the damage is thankfully minimal. The pizza sauce is mostly just on Theo’s hands and face.

I pull out a baby wipe from my bag and hand it to him, instruct him to wipe himself. He does and then puts it on the plate which he hands to me and says, “Thank you,” When I take it from him.

“You’re welcome,” I say with a smile.

“He’s got better manners than you do Axle,” Jameson says.

“f**k off,” He blurts out and then says, “Oh s**t sorry! Agh! Sorry.” His cheeks turn red as he rubs the back of his neck awkwardly.

I laugh and say, “It’s fine, it’s nothing he hasn’t heard. He knows not to say bad words.”

“Bad words are for grownups” Theo says.

“Exactly, Theo. Good job,” I tell him with a smile. God I love him.

After a little while longer of the guys practicing, I see Theo rubbing his eyes. He’s getting tired which is always risky business. He’s usually pretty good but I would rather not take any chances.

In between songs I tell them that we have to get going and they decide they’ll call it a night too. Axle walks us to my car and I buckle Theo into his seat and then go up to Axle and sling my arms around his neck. “You were great today.”

“Thanks. I actually had a really good time,” he says placing his hands on my hips.

“I’m glad,” I say and kiss him. He moves his hands into the back pockets of my jeans and pulls me into him. I groan into his mouth and I pull away a little and say, “Axle, don’t start something we can’t finish.”

He tilts his head back and says, “Ugh, why do you have to be so responsible?”

“One of us has to be,” I say with a wink.

“Fine, I’ll see you tomorrow. Goodnight baby.” He kisses my forehead gently and then removes his hands from my pants and walks away.