Pens In Unison

 

Category: Character prompts

These were done by creating an original character and putting them in certain situations or themes

 

 

Forest: Lost

 

 

It is October 3rd, 1996. The day of Forrest’s first big show. Over 200 people will be attending, and his band, ‘In Person’, is the only band playing, and they’re getting paid. Not a lot, but paid, nonetheless. Forrest was very excited to say the least.
    Forrest pulled up in his band’s car, a shiny new black 1989 El Camino. He hoped out, and went to the bed of the car. He removed the tarp, revealing his gig gear. His amp, some drum kit pieces, his bassist’s amp, a microphone stand, and a gig bag with many different cables required to set up the PA that the host was providing. He went around to the stage, which was about 15 feet from his parked car, and he and his bandmates set up the stage to their liking. It was only 2 hours until the show. Only 2 hours until he was on top of the world, the punk rock superstar his dreams painted him to be.
    He hopped on stage, and plugged in to the PA. He signaled to the sound man to plug his amp feed and mic into the main two lines. Forrest set up his distortion pedal and jacked his guitar into the amp. He flicked the amp on, and played a few messy power chords. He flicked his pedal on, and the distorted crunch of the guitar roared through the woods around him, causing the stage to vibrate a bit, seemingly shaking the trees around him. A silly grin covered Forrest’s face as his began playing ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ on his own. He felt like Kurt Cobain him self as his guitar roared through the song, almost like it was being played straight from his Nevermind cassette. He angrily screamed along with the riff “WITH THE LIGHTS OUT, IT’S LESS DANGEROUS, HERE WE ARE NOW, ENTERTAIN US!” A group of twenty-some odd people congregated in front of him. His eyes closed, in complete ecstasy with his instrument, he did not notice. They banged their heads, and whistled and cheered towards the end of his sound test. He opened his eyes, and flinched at the cheers and claps. He had never known appraisal before. The only people who had heard him were small groups of less than 20 people, and more so, just his friend Jackie. She was so into Kurt Cobain and Nirvana and all Punk Rock, it was scary almost. She would frequently compliment Forrest on his voice, and how similar his band could be to Nirvana. Forrest had to admit that he really enjoyed her company and compliments. After all, they were both shy and pretty punk rock, so they got along well. Both Jackie and he played guitar, so they were able to jam on occasion too, doing Nirvana covers and improv sessions when they would hang out. “Hey, Forrest! Help me set up!” Tracey, Forrest’s drummer called for him. Forrest set his guitar down on the stand and walked over to Tracey. “Whatcha need man?” Forrest looked at the 3/4ths of the way set up drum kit. “My crash and hi hat are in the Camino, can you grab them for me?” Tracey nodded in the direction of the car. “Yeah, one sec.” Forrest hopped off the stage, and jogged over to the vehicle. He opened his door, and saw the cymbals sitting in the back seat of the car. He grabbed all three of them, and walked back to Tracey. “Here you go man.” Forrest handed him the crash, and then the hi hats. “You all done? Mic’d up?” Tracey beamed at Forrest, “Hell yeah man! We’re gonna rock this crowd!” Forrest and Tracey high fived, and let out an excited cheer.
    As time for In Person to perform approached, Forrest was excited to spot Jackie- and a new friend of her’s, Maize. He set his guitar down, and ran off stage to greet her, as she and Maize sat down in the bed of his car, much like she and he did when they played together. “Jackie! Hey, you made it out!” He exclaimed at her, as he walked up. “Of course I made it out, why the hell would I miss your first big show?!” She laughed at him, and he at her. “Hey, you’re.. Maize! Maize, right?” Forrest turned his attention to the picture perfect punk rock girl. Maize nodded and smiled. “I heard your band is kickass, and that your voice matches Kurt’s almost perfectly. You can’t suck, so I’m here.” She giggled at this remark, and Forrest giggled back. Jackie laughed along and looked back to Forrest. “Hey, Forrest, could I talk to you for a second?” She said to him lightly. “Uh, yeah, sure, I guess?” Jackie looked back at Maize and gave her a nod, and Maize nodded back, saying it was okay with her. Jackie hopped off the bed of the car, and walked away from the small crowd, so that Forrest and her would not be heard.
“So, uhm… I have like a question to ask you..” she paused as her eyes did that thing, where they widened and shrunk back down after a bit. “I need your advice… o-okay? But you can’t tell any one what I’m going to ask you, you can’t, okay?”
Forrest slowly nodded, not at all bothered by Jackie’s awkward nature. “What’s up Jackie? Are you okay? Everything cool?”
Jackie swallowed nervously. “What do you do…” She swallowed her nerves again.
Forrest waited a moment, and nodded as to tell her to continue her question.
“What do you do if you… what do you do if you kinda think you….” Her eyes widened again, and returned after a long moment. “What do you do if you like someone? How do you tell them?”
Forrest flinched and backed up a bit, unnoticed to Jackie, who was looking down at the ground, embarrassed. “I- uh- I.. I- uhm, I- I don’t really.. I don’t know.” He kicked a bit of dirt up. “I’m no… I’m no lover doctor… maybe just show it…?” He chuckled lightly to lightened the awkward nature of the conversation. ‘Maybe just tell her, you idiot.’ He thought to him self.
“Th-thanks, Forrest. You’re so great.” Jackie smiled a bit at him, and turned away after a moment, walking back towards Maize. 
In this very moment, Forrest threw up. He was stunned. The girl he’d known for so many years, the girl he’d spent this much time with, just asked him how to ask someone else to be her’s. He gave up right there. He gave up because he loved her. He loved her and he never said a word about it. He was lost. He lost what he wanted the most- Jackie’s heart. It wasn’t her fault though, she didn’t know it. It was no one’s fault but his own. He walked away, towards the stage. It was time for In Person to perform.
    Forrest climbed onto the stage, and picked up his guitar, the only woman he had left to love. He turned on his amp, and adjusted his mic. “Hey, we’re In Person. I’m Forrest, the guitarist and vocalist.” He played a little riff on his guitar, causing an uproar in the crowd of 200 he spoke for, and then he muted it with his palm. “That’s Tracey, our drummer.” Tracey played a drum fill, causing another cheer. “And that’s CJ- Clint, our bassist.” A short bass riff was played by CJ, and the crowd cheered again. “And we’re In Person!” 
    Forrest started into the opening of ‘Talk to Me’ by Nirvana, as the crowd’s cheers died down. He made eye contact with his microphone. This was Jackie’s favourite Nirvana song, and he learned it just for her. He lost it in the show.