Happiness and Heartbreak

Three months later we were stepping into the studio for the first time. Hopeless had flown us to California to record, and I was getting to work with their previous producer Matt Squire. It was my ‘internship’ I guess you could call it. Things at the apartment before we left had pretty much continued as they were, except for Alex and Megan. Surprisingly, they didn’t make it past two months, and Megan was the one that broke up with Alex. He was a little upset the first few days after they broke up, but he healed in his own way. He wrote about it. Jack and I, well we were still going strong. Jack was on his best behavior (which was still crazy for him), and it was working. Today was their first day recording and my first day actually in the studio.

“Cate, come in here. Set up the sound stuff.” Alex yelled, pointing at the array of buttons that made the sound mixer.

“You actually have to be making music for me to do that Alex.” I laughed, sitting down.

“Who’s going first?” I yelled into the living room area.

“Rian is! Drums and bass are the easiest. So Rian will record, then Zack, then me, then Alex. He needs the most work!” Jack yelled, obviously eating. I laughed and set the sound room up for the drums.

“Ok Rian,” I said, “Give the count and I’ll start recording.”

Tracking the drums was easier than I thought, and was very fun. We had to track it multiple times because Jack kept playing with the sound mixer and screwing around with the levels of bass volume. Matt occasionally changed things, but was content to let me just play around and get used to recording today. He was a really cool guy, and the guys obviously loved him.

As we left the building that day, Jack wrapped his arm around my waist and kissed my head. I heard the guys make a chorus of awes as we laughed and flipped them off, walking out to the rental car.

“What are we going to do now?” I asked, wondering what we were going to do for the rest of the night, we were in a new place you know. Well I was, the guys had recorded here before.

“Sleep.” Rian answered, laying his head against Alex’s chest.

I quickly snapped a picture, memories for the scrapbook I was planning on making for the guys once recording was over and the cd was released.

“Let’s go out on a date. Just you and me.” Jack said.

That sounded like a good idea. Since the boys got serious about writing and practicing the last few weeks, Jack and I hadn’t had a chance to hang out. Hell, the only time we saw each other was mainly when we crawled into bed at night. They had been practicing at Flyzik’s place and writing at the apartment.

“That sounds perfect.” I said smiling.

“Hey, what about us, what are we going to do?” Zack said, giving me and Jack a puppy dog face. “I want to go out with you guys too.”

“Too bad, Zack. I want to spend time with my girl tonight.” Jack answered, smiling down at me.

“I prefer to be called just Catie. Not your girl, Jack.” I said, poking him in the side.

“Jeez, ok.”

“So, where are we going?” I asked, thinking of how big the city of LA was.

“How about, I’ll take you out to dinner at a restaurant of your choice and then we’ll go walking around and shopping. Who knows what we’ll find. It’ll be fun!”

“That sounds perfect.”

“Just like you.” Jack replied, causing me to start laughing.

“That was so cheesy.” I laughed, and then of course, Alex chimed in.

“And such a lie.”

“Can it, asshole.” I said, still laughing.

“I love you, sis!” Alex said.

“Sure, Alex, sure.”

When we got back to the house that we were renting, Zack, Alex and Rian hopped out, while Jack and I headed to Pomodoro’s to eat.