“All that stuff you just said,” he replied. “Were you this calm the first time you were in the studio?”
“He was the only one,” Johnny said as he leaned against me,a chuckle slipping out. “The rest of us were trying to rewrite shit at the last minute, and completely fucking it up, I might add, while he just sat there on the couch, the picture of calm, rolling a guitar pick over his knuckles.”
“You weren’t worried at all?” Kit asked.
“It was too late for all that,” I replied. “We were there, with a limited amount of time to record the best album possible; worrying would have just gotten in the way.”
“He’s right, you know,” Johnny said. “We wouldn’t be doing this if you weren’t ready. You wouldn’t be here if you weren’t ready. We need you to believe that, trust in yourself, and do what you love.”
“That simple, huh?” Kit muttered.
“Naa,” Johnny said. “It’s the hardest thing in the world, but once you can, the possibilities are limitless.”
I saw when it clicked with Kit, and he pulled Johnny into a one-armed hug, then hugged me fully, murmuring in my ear.
“Thank you.”
“You’ve got this,” I told him and let him go so he could confer with Ozzy.
“So, how long have you guys been dating?” Johnny asked. “I know I miss a lot of shit not sharing the bus with you, but when did you make it official?”
“Official?” I said, watching Kit talking to Ozzy. “We’re not…”
“Dude, you aresodating,” Dash said, nudging my shoulder. “Everyone can see it.”
I glanced between my two best friends, both nodding with stupid grins on their faces. “Yeah. I guess we are,” I admitted, face stretching into a goofy grin when I watched Kit crack a smile. “It just happened. I love him.”
“I can tell. It’s a good look on you. You need to be sure to tell him that too.” Johnny said. “But we will hogtie you, cover you in French fries, and leave you for the gulls to find if you break his heart.”
“Why am I the one getting the shovel talk?” I asked, elbowing Johnny.
“Because we know you,” Dash said, so I flipped him off.
At exactly nine forty-five, Kit stepped into the studio while Ozzy joined the audio engineer in the booth, and things were soon underway. As I always did, I retreated to the couch, flopped down, and closed my eyes.
I didn’t expect to nap, but my mind drifted, and the next thing I knew, I was being prodded awake by Dash and told that it was my turn to record.
Wow. If he was done already, that meant I’d been out for a while.
“Dude, do you want to know what we’ve had to endure for the last two hours?” Johnny said and held his phone up so I could listen to myself snore.
Laughing, I headed in, did my usual checks to make sure my guitar was tuned the way I liked it, closed my eyes, and thought back to the moment that had spawned this song.
Pure chaos.
Stage diving.
Outdoor festivals were the best. Wild. Primal. Bodies colliding. Trying to mosh the stars from the sky.
Energy. Exhilaration. Tapping into what I’d felt that night was easy. The breathless rush that followed flinging myself off the stage. Being crowd surfed, with beach balls flying overhead, bright against a night sky crisscrossed with laser lights, was an almost mythical experience.
Trippy.
One of the most amazing shows of my life.
Only Dash had viewed it differently, because he’d had nothing but technical difficulties that night. Somehow, we’d managed to weave his frustrations with my jubilation, into one long, twisted rollercoaster ride of a song.
I tweaked it a handful of times before I got what I was after, minor things that made certain parts stronger. We ran through it a few more times, and then that was it for me on that track. On guitar anyway.