Authors: Jade Allen
****
“You’re serious that you want to bring Sophie into
the studio?” I shrugged off Nick’s question.
“Why shouldn’t I?” I took a hit from the pipe Nick
handed me; we’d decided to take a break outside, in the little courtyard behind
the studio. It had been a month since we’d started over on the album, with
Mark, Alex, and Jules working together with Jack during the day and Nick, Jules
and me working nights. “She has the night off at Respects, and she wanted to
see the studio.
“We’re already struggling to get anything done,”
Nick pointed out. He took the pipe from me and lit the bowl.
“How is that
my
fault?” I leaned against
the stucco wall. “If we could all work together, at the same time, the way we
were supposed to, we’d be further along.”
“Mark is being a bitch, fair enough,” Nick said.
He passed me the pipe. “Just don’t want you to be distracted.” I rolled my
eyes. I was starting to feel the dope; Nick always got good stuff.
“You don’t want me to be distracted, but we’re
smoking out?” I snickered.
“We’re smoking out because it helps us get through
the night,” Nick told me.
“Do you have a problem with me bringing Sophie
in?” Nick shrugged.
“Not per se,” he replied. “Mark still isn’t
talking about whatever the fuck his issue is.”
“Word on the street is he’s going through Tinder
dates like the world’s about to end,” I said. Nick snorted.
“Whatever he’s got to prove to himself,” he said,
shaking his head. “Anyway, bring her in if you want. Just don’t be surprised if
there’s fallout.”
“What fallout could there be?” I handed the pipe
to Nick and he cleaned it out, slipped it into his pocket.
“If it gets back to Mark,” Nick said.
“It’s been a fucking month and a half almost,” I
said. “How can he still be pulling this shit over her?” I shook my head. “It’s
got to be something else.”
“But what? None of us knows. Until we do…” Nick
combed his fingers through his hair.
“Until we do, we let Mark run shit in the band
because he’s being a whiny asshole,” I said irritably. “Instead of actually
dealing with whatever the hell his issue is.”
“Hey--we’re getting the album done. That’s the
important thing,” Nick said, raising his hands helplessly.
“Yeah, the crumbling structure of the band is just
not important at all,” I pointed out sarcastically. “I agreed to do it this way
as a short-term answer to Mark being a shit about things. How are we going to
promote or tour this album if he can’t deal with me?”
“So do something about it,” Nick said. He gave me
a wry grin. “I mean, it’s slow going anyway. Instead of bringing Sophie in, find
a way to get Mark to come to the studio and have it out with him.”
“Sophie’s already coming by,” I said.
“Well, if he’s got a problem with you dating her,
what better way to get it all out into the open than to get him to confront the
two of you together?” Nick patted his pocket, gave me another quick look. “Send
Jules and Jack and me home when Mark gets here, and hash out whatever it is you
need to hash out.”
“You’re assuming I can get him to come in,” I
countered. “He’s not answering any texts from me.”
“Or me, or Alex, or Jules,” Nick said. “The only
people he’s talking to outside of the studio are Jack, Ron, and his family--and
whoever it is he’s hooking up with off Tinder. So figure out what to do to get
him in here.”
“Do you really think it’s going to fix anything?
We don’t even know what the hell he’s pissed off about.” Nick laughed.
“Man, all I know is that I want to keep being a
part of this band,” Nick told me. “And the only way I can do that is if the
band continues to exist. Stop being a baby and get Mark to talk to you about
whatever is up his ass. If you feel like it, set up some cameras. Maybe he’ll
throw a punch and we can get a decent video out of it.” I rolled my eyes, and
Nick went back into the studio. I sat down at one of the tables and lit a
cigarette, thinking of what he’d said. After a month of working as parts of a
group instead of a whole, I knew I wasn’t the only one who was starting to feel
irritable about the whole mess. But from what Jules, Alex, and Jack had to say
about it, Mark did little more than come in, record, and take instructions from
Jack. He didn’t chat with anyone, he didn’t offer any explanation for his
behavior.
When Ron had met with him, he’d told us afterwards
that Mark had barely been convinced to even continue working at all; though Ron
hadn’t been able to get out of our drummer whatever it was that had set him
off. Mark had mostly agreed, Ron had told us, because he didn’t want to be
kicked out of the band; that was the next move from the label, if the album didn’t
move forward. I had to admit to myself that I didn’t want another drummer for
the band either: I wanted our own drummer to stop being such a dick.
Would it really solve anything if I had it out
with Mark? I knew he was pissed at me--apparently, above and beyond the rest of
the band, since he didn’t even want to be in the same room as me--but I
couldn’t even convince myself that it had that much to do with Sophie. If it
had been over Sophie, then hooking up with a handful of girls on Tinder would
have taken his mind off of it and he’d be over it by now. It had to be
something more than that--at least, as best as I could figure.
The real question is: what possible harm could
it do to meet with him?
As bad as things were in the band, I didn’t want to
risk making them worse. But how much worse could they really get? We were
already at a point where whether or not we managed to actually get the fucking
album done, we weren’t going to be able to promote it properly, or tour it. If
Mark didn’t want to have anything to do with us, and especially me, it was
going to be impossible to keep the peace on a damned bus.
I went back inside, and found Jack in the control
room. Nick was in one of the side rooms, laying down a guitar track for one of
the songs Mark had worked on earlier in the day; Jules was on the phone with
Fran in the break room. “I need a favor,” I told Jack as soon as I sat down.
“What kind of favor?” I pressed my lips together
and considered whether I was really willing to go through with what Nick had
suggested. If it came to a fight, it wasn’t like Mark and I were in any danger
of actually killing or hurting each other seriously. But I was goddamned tired
of having to meet with every other member of the band but him, and having to
hear about him secondhand, or having to listen to the tracks he’d laid down
hours before and figure out which one I agreed with the other guys on. We
worked best when we worked together, and Mark was fucking that up for all of
us.
“I want you to call Mark,” I told Jack. “Have him
come in--whatever pretext you want to give him.”
“I thought you’d all agreed to split up the
sessions,” Jack said, looking at me askance. I shrugged.
“I’m tired of it,” I told him frankly. “I want to
get whatever the hell the problem is out into the open, and deal with it. Are
you having any fun doing the recordings this way?” Jack laughed.
“It’s getting done, but it’s more work than fun,”
he told me. He sighed, glanced at the panel and then looked at me again. “You
want my input on the situation, whatever was going wrong between you guys was
going wrong before you started dating some girl Mark had his eye on.” I
shrugged.
“That’s about what I’ve decided,” I said, nodding.
“But until I get him to at least talk to be about whatever his malfunction is, it’s
going to keep being like this.” I lit a cigarette and Jack shoved the ashtray
towards me. “If something doesn’t change, we’re going to lose the band, and the
record will never even see the light of day.”
“Worse,” Jack said, glancing again at the meters
on the boards. “It’ll get made, and the label will put it out, and it’ll go
nowhere on the charts because none of you guys will be able to coordinate
enough to make anything happen.”
“So you’ll do it?” Jack considered.
“Give me thirty minutes and I’ll see if I can get
his ass in here,” he said. “Maybe I can pull a fast one on him if I think of
something good enough.”
****
The whole time that I waited to hear that Mark was
coming into the studio I was distracted; I didn’t even need for Sophie to be there.
Nick came in from doing his play-through of the guitar parts, and I went into
the bass room to do my own part. Jack had told me to give him thirty minutes,
but between one thing and the other, more than an hour passed and I had next to
nothing to show for it; I kept flubbing a particular part of the bassline, and
I couldn’t seem to get my fingers to work right, in spite of the fact that I’d
nailed it in practice earlier in the day.
I took a break and ran into Jules, hanging around
outside; he’d been chatting with Fran about something, to judge by the look on
his face. “What’s on your mind tonight, Danny boy?” I shook my head.
“I told Jack to call Mark into the studio,” I told
him. Jules raised an eyebrow and took a drag from his cigarette.
“Tired of all the bullshit?” I nodded.
“Either we’re going to stick together as a band or
we’re not,” I said. “Either Mark really is this pissed off about me dating some
girl he was hot for, or he’s got some other issue, and I’m just fucking
exhausted with recording this way.”
“It’s shit,” Jules agreed. “What are you going to
say to him?” I smiled bitterly.
“It’s probably going to mostly be repeats of,
‘what the fuck, dude?’ until something happens,” I told him. Jules laughed,
tilting his head back against the wall.
“You want me or Nick to hang around when he comes
in?” I thought about it. Nick had suggested that it should be just between me
and Mark, and I’d pretty much been on board with that idea--but this was
something affecting the whole band, not just me. Should I have the rest of the
band be around for whatever was going to happen?
“He’s not talking to any of us,” I mused.
“Obviously he’s not only pissed off at me, if that’s the case.”
“Yeah, but he’s especially pissed at you,” Jules
pointed out. “I’m not saying he’s got any reason for it, just that it’s a thing
you need to keep in mind. But if you want me or Nick to be here, mediate or
whatever…” I shook my head, coming to a decision.
“Either he’ll talk or he won’t, and either it’ll
get figured out or it won’t,” I said. “Whether you and Nick are here or not,
the outcome will be whatever-the-fuck it’s supposed to be.”
“Try not to get under his skin right away if you
can help it,” Jules suggested. “He’s already going to be pissed that Jack got
him here on false pretenses.”
“Yeah, I know,” I told him. “I just want to get
this over with. Whatever his fucking deal is, I want it out in the open and I
want us to figure out where to go from here.” Jules thought about that for a
moment and then nodded.
“How’s Sophie?” I grinned.
“She’s coming by in a little bit.”
“You don’t think that’s trying your luck, with
Mark supposed to come by too?” I shrugged.
“It either will be or it won’t be,” I said. Jules
exhaled a plume of smoke and pressed his lips together.
“I want this cold war bullshit over as much as you
do,” he said, stubbing his cigarette out. “Just make sure you don’t nuke the
band.”
I went inside after he’d gone to work on his own
parts of the songs we were supposed to be recording that night, and found Jack
and Nick in the control room. Jack looked up from his boards and nodded to me.
“Mark said he’d come by at one,” he told me. “I
couldn’t talk him into coming in any earlier than that.”
“Jules and I will be out of the studio by then,”
Nick pointed out. “Especially Jules. You got this?” I nodded.
“Whatever is going to happen, it’ll all go down
tonight,” I said.
“When’s Sophie coming?” I checked my phone.
“She’s on her way now.” It was 10:30, and I could
count on a couple of hours of working, hanging out with her, and maybe a little
break in one of the unused studios before Mark got there. It should have made
me relax, but it was just more tension.
I went back into the bass room and tried again on
the parts I needed to nail it for us to move forward. Jack was a great producer--he
had Jules working in one room and me in another, and somehow he was able to
keep track of us, to give us each individual instructions on how to fix
whatever we were doing wrong, or direction on how to change our playing. Even
still, though, it was fucking miserable--and I knew I wasn’t the only one who
felt that way. Even Mark had to be feeling like shit. None of us were playing
with the same vibe we’d always had, and the early mixes of the songs we’d
managed to finish in the first month and a half of recording weren’t what any
of us wanted.
Either we’ll still be a band at the end of this, or we won’t,
I told myself.
By the time Sophie showed up, I was on edge. I
stepped out of the studio to meet her, and immediately brought my mouth down on
hers, pushing her up against the wall. I breathed in the smell of her hair and
skin, felt her body against mine. “Sorry,” I said, when the moment passed and
my heart started to slow down.
“Sorry?” Sophie gave me a crooked smile. “That was
pretty exciting.”
“Mark is coming by later,” I told her in a
whisper. “It’s going to be a showdown.”
“It’s going to be a shit show, you mean,” she
countered. She looked up at me with her big, dark eyes. “Do you want me to
leave?”
“No.” I shook my head. “I want you here. Just maybe
not when he gets here.” I took a shuddering breath and exhaled slowly.
“I can go before he gets here,” Sophie said, her
voice breathless. I kissed her again.
“Maybe just be scarce,” I suggested. I was already
half-hard, just from kissing her. “He’ll be here sometime after one.” Sophie
nodded, trembling slightly against me, taking a quick breath.
“I don’t want to be accused of distracting you,”
she told me. I chuckled lowly.
“I’ve been distracted all night--it’s not like you
being here is going to make that any worse.”
“Will everyone agree with you on that?” Sophie
pushed me away gently when I went for another kiss.
“Sometimes I wonder if you care more about my band
than I do,” I murmured in her ear.
“Sometimes I do, too,” Sophie said, giving me a
wry smile. “Why is it only a month later that you’ve finally decided to have it
out with Mark?”
“I don’t want to talk about that with you,” I told
her. “I’m settling it tonight; that should make you happy. Hell, it should make
everyone happy.” I kissed her again and Sophie didn’t resist. “I’m on edge,
babe. I just want to have you here, and I want to know I can keep being with
you with nothing causing drama, and I want to know what the hell kind of future
the band has.” Sophie took a deep breath and nodded slowly.
“I thought you told me we were going to fool
around in an empty studio,” she said, a little teasingly.
“We can still do that.” I dropped down to her neck
and nibbled just under Sophie’s ear. “In fact, before this whole idea of
getting Mark in here came up, I had this great image in my mind of bending you
over this big stack I saw in one of the other rooms…” I brought my mouth back
up to Sophie’s, and kissed her hungrily.
“That does sound promising,” Sophie said, her
breath hitching in her throat as my hands wandered over her body.
“Give me an hour til the next break, and I’ll show
you just how promising it can be,” I told her. I could barely make myself pull
back; my cock was starting to get harder, and the thought of having Sophie to
myself in one of the unused studios, of screwing her brains out before Mark
arrived, was so fucking hot that I almost couldn’t stand it.
“Can you walk?” Sophie slithered out from between
me and the wall and gave me a teasing grin. I snorted.
“I’ve had way more embarrassing hard-ons than this
one,” I told Sophie, taking her hand and leading her towards the entrance.