3. Grant
1085 Words
3
Grant
“Dude, I got that track from last week,” Corey called out. His hair was spiked up into a faux hawk with a backward trucker hat resting about halfway back on his head. He wore black shades at all times even in studio and alternated between different colored deep V-neck T-shirts underneath loose plaid button-ups.
I’d been working for Corey for almost two months now, and I still didn’t know what to make of him. The guy was a genius in studio, but social skills were limited to which obscure band he was into that week.
“Can I listen to it?”
Corey shrugged. “Yeah man.”
He fiddled with the controls as I walked into the studio and crashed back into one of the plush leather armchairs. A few seconds later, Life Raft filtered in through the speakers. I sat forward in the chair as the guitar rift picked up and I belted out the first verse.
It was…perfect.
Our s**t demo that thousands of people had listened to was nothing compared to this version. A real studio made a hell of a lot of difference. Which f*****g meant I’d get ‘the talk’ from Miller again today at rehearsal.
I hadn’t told Ari yet, but Hollis, the Pacific Entertainment manager for popular rock band, The Drift, had called Miller to try to recruit us. Despite the fact that I’d managed to piss off Hollis after storming off stage on New Year’s Eve and then proceeded to get into a fist fight with Donovan Jenkins, the lead singer of The Drift. Apparently the success of Life Raft had jolted us into the spotlight, and a part of me didn’t want it to be a reality. I f*****g liked waking up to my beautiful blonde every morning, going to the studio, and playing local gigs. But the guys weren’t content with playing the Ivy League, and I knew they weren’t f*****g going anywhere without me.
“This is the f*****g s**t. Can you send this to me?”
Corey nodded. “I had extra time.”
He popped a disc out of the network of computers, dropped it into a case, and passed it over to me. It had a black cover with the band name, ContraBand, slashed across the front in lime green. The words Life Raft EP were scrawled underneath.
“EP?”
“I couldn’t get Hemorrhage out of my head, so I put together the other tracks you were working on.”
“f**k man. Thanks.” I reached my hand out and shook Corey’s.
“Sure thing. Just get me tickets to Madison Square Garden when you guys make it.”
I laughed. Madison Square Garden. Yeah right. “Will do.”
Once I reached my blue truck, I stuck the CD into the player and listened to our music on the drive home. Corey deserved a f*****g medal for this s**t. Every song was so clear and crisp. Flawless.
It was exactly what I needed after Ari’s mad dash out of my apartment this morning. Work had kept me from thinking about her, but Life Raft was her song. I couldn’t keep my mind off of her with those lyrics pouring through the speakers.
I’d never been in a relationship before, so this was all knew to me, but I’d never had chicks run away from me. I knew we had issues we still had to deal with from before Christmas break, but something about it wasn’t right, and she was going to f*****g tell me what the problem was.
“Hey dipshit,” I said, when I walked through the garage door at my place. I smacked Vin on the back of his head and veered toward the sound system.
“Fucker!” Vin shot back. “Where the f**k have you been all damn day?”
“At work. Where the f**k do you think I’ve been?”
“Following around your piece of ass like a whipped motherfucker.”
“What did you say about Ari?” I growled, taking two steps toward Vin before Miller intervened.
“Can we go two days without you two at each other’s throats?”
Vin glared at Miller and crashed back into the couch. He still hadn’t gotten over the fact that Miller had hooked up with my cousin Sydney at the ski lodge the weekend we’d performed at the Poconos music festival. Vin had taken Syd’s virginity in high school and acted as if he had some claim over her. When the truth was that she was even more of a slut than I had been before Ari, and that was f*****g saying something.
McAvoy walked into the room a minute later, surveyed what was going on, and then reached for a joint. “I’m probably going to need this, aren’t I?”
I ignored them and inserted the EP into our stereo. “Just listen to this.”
The music blasted through our sound system. McAvoy slowly put the joint back behind his ear, Vin leaned forward in his seat, and Miller’s jaw dropped open. “Is that us?” Miller asked.
“No. I gave someone else the rights to our songs.”
“We sound f*****g killer!” Vin cheered.
“Corey put together an entire EP for us.”
We spent the next twenty minutes of practice listening to the recordings. We had put them together to ensure we looked more professional if Pacific lost interest.
Except Pacific hadn’t lost interest. As much as I wanted them too.
“Hey, have you heard from Pacific lately?” I f*****g hated saying Hollis’s name. The guy was an asshole who had preyed on my relationship with Ari. He would have to figure out his place with us before I’d even consider signing with them.
“Hollis sent me the final deets about The Drift tour. He wants us to meet him at the NYC kick off,” Miller said.
“He wants us to f*****g hang out with Donovan and his s**t band mates?” I stood and stopped the track that was playing.
“Bro, be glad that he wants to see us at all after what went down with Donovan.”
“The motherfucker deserved it for what he did to Ari.”
Signing with Hollis was one thing, but the thought of being around Donovan Jenkins made my blood boil. That asshole had kissed Ari and insinuated that he’d f****d her. It was one thing to want us broken up, but it was another to actually act on it.
“Where is Ari anyway?” Miller asked.
That was a good f*****g question. Normally we’d already be a half hour into rehearsal and working on perfecting the new song I’d dropped on Miller last week. Ari hadn’t missed a rehearsal since we’d gotten back together. She might be lost in a mountain of chemistry homework on the weathered couch, but she was still here.
I was used to singing Life Raft to my life raft.
So, where the hell was she?
- Writer
