AllFreeNovel
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One week later...
“Stop! Stop, stop…” I step back from the microphone, holding my hands up in the air, the wane of instruments abruptly halting with an off-key shriek. “Am I the only one who can hear this isn’t working?”
“What’s wrongnow?” asks Jaxon, letting his sticks hang down by his side. Sweat beads on his forehead and his shirt’s glued to his chest.
We’ve been at the studio all day, rehearsing for the tour, and I know I’m being a royal pain in the ass, but something about the last set just isn’t sitting right with me. Something’s off with the tempo, and this is the fifth time I’ve pulled the pin and called it out.
“I don’t know exactly,” I tell the guys, who are all just standing there staring back at me with impatient expressions. “Our timing is off, or maybe the lyrics aren’t working with the amount of time we have. Maybe it’s the bass or something? Can we please just go over it once more, right from the top?”
“If that’s what you need.” Quinn nods. He meets my gaze, his head lifting ever so slightly and I know he’s silently asking me if everything is alright. I nod back quickly, and he says, “Let’s take a quick break. Grab a drink, take a leak, whatever. And then we’ll go from the top again.”
“Thanks.”
Before I take my place behind the microphone, I feel my phone vibrate in my back pocket and I fish it out while Kael and the others grab a drink and reset.
Tink: Hey.
I stare at the screen for a few seconds, trying to make sense of what I’m looking at.Hey?What the hell does that even mean? She hasn’t answered one of my text messages since I dropped her off at her apartment over a week ago after we’d been to my mom’s place.
She hasn’t answered my calls, and she’s totally left me hanging with our series marathon. I’ve been dying to know what happens next, but something stopped me, and I quickly realized it just wouldn’t be the same watching an episode without her.
I’m considering my reply, or lack thereof, when another message pops up on my screen.
Tink: We need to talk.
Me: Good to know you’re still alive.
Tink: Been busy.
Me: Sure.
Tink: Can we talk now?
Me: At the studio right now. I’ll call later?
Tink: Thanks.
Me: Everything alright?
Jaxon starts counting us in with his sticks, and then Kael fingers his guitar so lightly it makes me dizzy with how sweet the sound is, so I shove my phone back into my pocket before she replies and we get on with our rehearsal.
An hour later and we are all completely exhausted and done with rehearsals for the day. It took another four takes, but we finally nailed the timing of the song that was troubling me so much, and I felt a million times better once we were done.
If I hadn’t persisted with it, I would never have figured out what was wrong, but on our second run-through, the most fucking brilliant idea hit me completely out of the blue.
A pause.
A break.
Complete silence.
That’s what the song needed.
And so, I had the guys run through it just one more time. When we hit the back end of the second verse, I stopped singing, and Kael and Quinn covered the strings with their hands, Jaxon’s kit silenced for three whole beats, before we all kicked back in again, and finished the song with as much enthusiasm as it deserved.
It sounded fucking brilliant.
A victory lap around the studio might have been taking things a little too far, so instead we all just high-fived each other like the fucking rock gods we are.
