Sequel: Painting Flowers
Status: Completed!

What You Do to Me

002.

The car ride over to the studio was fairly silent, Pete talking every once in a while about this or that, about how excited he was for the Believers Never Die Tour (which I knew featured All Time Low, but he never mentioned it), how big Bronx was getting.

I nodded absently and stared out the window of the Land Rover to at all the stony buildings, flashy cars and glamorous people we drove by. All those people, they all looked so happy, buzzing around in their mindless little worlds. I wanted to feel like that. I didn’t want to have a care in the world. Well, I didn’t in a way. It wasn’t necessarily that I didn’t have a care. It was just that I didn’t care.

“We’re here,” Pete said, pulling into a generally empty parking lot. It was 5:30 on a Saturday afternoon, so this didn’t really surprise me. There was a Jeep Wrangler rental out front, which I assumed to be Travis’s. He didn’t live in California, apparently, but had flown out a week or two early to prepare for Warped Tour.

I got out of the car and followed Pete inside, trying not to drag my feet. I wandered down the hallway after him, glancing at the posters and records that lined the wall. I knew what I was looking for, almost hoping there was a picture of him there. But at the same time, I didn’t want to see him. I didn’t want to see that lopsided smile, that side-swept hair. I hated him and I didn’t want to see him. But that didn’t stop me from looking.

“Let me see a smile,” Pete demanded, stopping at a conference room door, hand on the knob. I sent the best grin I could muster, and he frowned, obviously not pleased with the result, but opened the anyway.

The first thing I noticed when we entered was the loud music – The Beatles. Well, at least this Travis character had good taste. ‘And Your Bird Can Sing’ poured from the stereo system at one end of the room, and a tall redhead was pacing back in forth in front of it, playing air guitar and bobbing his head, singing the lyrics softly to himself.

He didn’t notice us at first, and Pete and I stood in the doorway for a moment watching. The guy stopped abruptly and moved to the end of the table, grabbing a pencil that was sitting there and scribbling down some notes.

“Trav,” Pete greeted, finally catching the redhead’s attention. “My favorite ginge. How are you man?”

The short, dark haired bassist strolled over to the tall russet haired singer and hugged him as I hung back awkwardly.

“Hey man, I’ve been good. Trying to get some inspiration flowing,” the taller one stated, motioning to the speakers.

“Yeah, well, I brought someone who might be able to help with that,” Pete offered, turning his back to Travis and giving me a ‘come over and here and introduce yourself’ look. God, he was acting just like a father. “Trav, this is Jency. Jency, Travis Clark.”

“It’s great to finally meet you,” Travis said, smiling and shaking my hand.

“You too,” I responded, taking a better look at my new writing partner. Now that I was closer, it was actually kind of scary how tall he was. Definitely over 6 feet to my petite 5’3. His mass of soft red hair fell down to his shoulders, and looked like it could have held a few families of small woodland creatures within it, and his bright smile was compounded by his lip ring. And his skin was incredibly pale. It was his eyes that struck me though – a light blue, completely full of life, energy, and excitement. I already knew I was going to have issues with this kid. He was way too fucking perky.

Travis lowered the volume on the stereo and we all sat down at one end of the conference table, Pete at the head and Travis and I on either side. I could sense the We The Kings frontman’s leg bouncing under the table and fought the urge to kick him.

“So, Jen, I know we said before that this was going to be collaboration between the two of you, and that it should progress into a duet, right?” Pete began, looking over at Travis for confirmation. “So, I figured it would be a good idea for you two to start working now a bit. I mean, I know you’ll both be around each other on Warped this summer, but we know how crazy tour can get with schedules and stuff. Trav, when are you hoping for the album to be out?”

“Before the New Year, hopefully.”

I watched as Pete shifted into business mode, discussing the contract details, payment plans, touring opportunities and what not that should occur if and when this song ever got off the ground. I wanted to stop him right there and say that we hadn’t even started writing yet, let alone begin to think about performances and music videos, but he was a on a bit of a roll. I glanced over at Travis who I could tell was doing his best to pay close attention. His bouncing leg was distracting me, though.

“Sound good, Jen?”

“Huh?” I asked, stupidly, looking back over at Pete, who was staring at me with disproval in his eyes. What? It wasn’t my fault that the Ginger was practically causing an earthquake with his leg.

“I said that obviously Travis will have the lead on it, since it’s his band and it needs to fit within their album, but he’s agreed to let you have as much creative sway over it as you want.”

“Oh, right,” I said, nodding, my gaze flicking up to Travis who was smiling over me.

“Just out of curiosity,” Pete continued, turning away from me. “What kind of stuff do you have so far?”

“Oh,” Travis said, sitting back and shuffling the few papers in front of him. “Well-”

He was cut off by Pete’s phone ringing. Pete pulled the phone out of his pocket, running a hand through his dark hair as he looked at the caller ID.

“Sorry, it’s Ash,” he said, standing. “I’ll be right back.” He left the conference room, leaving me and Travis sitting there in awkward silence. I looked down at the table, tapping my fingers lightly along to ‘Got To Get You Into My Life’ and trying to avoid Travis’s gaze.

“I’ll be honest,” he chuckled lightly, once Pete was safely out of the room. “I don’t have a single thing written for this yet. Well, except what I just got down right when you walked in.”

I looked up at him, fairly surprised. Well, since we were being honest...

“I haven’t thought about this duet in months. Nor have I listened to your music,” I responded.
I was expecting that smile to leave his face and be replaced with annoyance or offense, but instead his grin just grew.

“Well, this I guess this collab is going to suck, then isn’t it?”

Why the hell was he so upbeat about things? He should be panicking. No songs when you want your album out by January?? That’s insane.

“Can you stop bouncing your leg?” I asked, annoyance finally breaking my determined silence on the subject.

“Oh, sorry,” he said, still smiling. “I’m a bit ADD. Well, not a bit, quite a lot actually. People get annoyed with me a lot. I’m kind of hyper.” The bouncing stopped, only for him to start twiddling his thumbs on the table. Kinda hyper? Fantastic. I rolled my eyes.

“Sorry about that,” Pete said, coming back into the room. “Bronx is sick and Ash wants me home, you guys will be okay, right? You can start brainstorming a bit. Trav, you wouldn’t mind taking Jency home, would you?”

“No problem.”

I groaned inwardly. Pete shook Travis’s hand and then leaned down to give me a hug. I limply responded, squeezing his shoulders lightly.

“A little effort would be nice,” he whispered in my year before leaning back and giving me a pointed look. “For me.”

I bit my lip apologetically. Right. Effort. I could do that. For Pete.

He left the room, this time for good, leaving me staring across the table at Travis who was still smiling at me. It was getting really unnerving. Neither of us spoke for a moment, and I dragged my eyes away from his to look at anything else in the room – the white board, the blinds, the white tiles on the roof. Anything.

“You like the Beatles then?” he asked, breaking the silence. I saw him looking at my fingers, which were still dancing silently across the table to the beat pulsing through the speakers. I quickly withdrew my hands and put them in my lap.

“Yeah. They’re my favorite.”

“Me too,” he beamed. “Cool, we have something in common.”

“Great,” I replied, unenthusiastically. I saw his ever-present smile falter for a second, and a shot of guilt tore through me. Damn me and my conscience. Ok. Effort.

“Um, so what do you have written?” I asked, raising my eyebrows and glancing at the papers in front of him.

“Oh!” he said, the smile returning ten-fold. At least he was easy to please. “Well, only a few lines and a bit of melody, but it’s something.” He slid the paper over to me and I looked at it briefly.

“A song about Los Angeles?” I asked, skeptically. “Don’t you already have a song about a town?”

“Ah, so you have listened to our music,” he grinned and I felt myself frown at him. “Well, yeah, and I’m thinking about writing another one about Bradenton, but I mean, coming to LA is like such an experience, you know? And I was going to throw some other stuff in there, it’s not only going to be a song about the city.”

“Well, it’s a start,” I said, sliding the papers back over to him, not willing to admit that I actually thought the sound could be catchy.

The silence then continued, and Revolver came to an end, so the music stopped as well.
Travis tapped his pencil on the table and I did my best to ignore it.

Ok, I thought. Song ideas. I knew I actually had to do this, so I might as well try and get it over with as soon as possible.

“Want to get out of here?”

“Huh?” I asked again. God, this kid was going to think I was the most intellectual person around.

“I can’t do work in a room like this,” he elaborated, motioning around at the dark walls and boring furnishings. “It’s gorgeous out. Want to get out of here and go for a walk or something? We can get those creative juices flowing.”

I knew he wasn’t going to take no for an answer, so sighing, I nodded my head. Travis grinned again and the two of us left the studio headed out into the afternoon sun. Travis made sure there were no awkward silences this time, talking animatedly about everything under the sun – Warped, their recently wrapped European tour, his dog Elvis, his hometown back in Florida. It bothered me at first, the incessant talking. I mean, weren’t we supposed to be thinking about this song? But eventually I tuned him out, just happy that I didn’t have to talk as well.

“What about you?” He asked, dragging me (unwillingly) into the conversation. “Are you excited to leave for Warped?”

“Yeah,” I said, not sounding it at all. “I mean, it’s the first tour I’m going on with my band, so yeah, I guess I should be excited. I’m looking forward to performing.” That part of the statement was true, I was looking forward to performing. Belting out songs always had an oddly calming and healing affect on me.

“Yeah, me too. We’re one of the headliners this year.”

“Congrats,” I offered.

“Thanks! You know, feel free to come hang out on our bus whenever you want. I’d like to meet your band mates. Your brother is in it, right?”

“Yep,” I said, popping the ‘p’. “And two of our friends.”

“Cool, I have two brothers in WTK as well. Well, they aren’t my brothers. But they’re each other’s brothers, you know? Is yours excited for touring?”

“Holden?” I scoffed, rolling my eyes behind my sunglasses. “It’s hard to see him getting excited for anything. I think he’s more concerned about finding a merch guy at the moment.”

“Don’t you have a manager to that?” Travis asked.

“Yep.”

“Oh. Well, what about Eric and Quinn? Those are their names right?”

“Yeah, I’m sure they’re looking forward to it. I haven’t talked to them I while though.”

“Are they not out here?”

“No, they’re back in Philly. They should be flying out on Friday though for the start of tour.”

“Yeah. Hunter, Drew and Dan should all be flying out tomorrow or so I think. You should meet them, you’ll really like them.”

Oh really? I wondered why he thought that, as I was definitely not giving off the friendliest vibes. But I chose to not ask. “I’m sure I’ll meet them on tour if I don’t see them when they’re here,” I pointed out.

“Oh, yeah, that’s true. Oh man, Warped is so much fun. So much crazy shit goes down when you get that many guys together. I remember this one time, my friend Jack - ”

I missed the rest of what he was saying, as a loud buzzing filled my ears and my heart jumped to me throat. Jack?

“Jack Barakat?” I bit out, cutting him off mid-sentence.

“Yeah, you know him?” Travis as excitedly.

“A bit, yeah,” I muttered. Travis continued on with his story, but I wasn’t listening. I completely forgot that they were friends. Travis is a cool guy, you’ll like him, Alex had said. They were God damn friends. Fan-fucking-tastic.

“So, song ideas,” I stated suddenly, again cutting Travis off in the middle of his story. “I was thinking about doing something about being young. You know, you...you are writing another song about Bradenton, right?” Travis nodded down to me, not looking the slightest bit put out that I had interrupted him so unceremoniously. “Well, write something about your childhood, or a friend or something.”

I was pulling this all out of my ass, trying to get him away from the subject of ‘Tour Antics with All Time Low.’ Personally, I thought my idea sounded like shit, but Travis smiled and nodded energetically.

“No, we could totally do something like that. Like, like a boy and a girl (that you be you and me, obviously) singing about how life used to be, or how their relationship had changed or something.”

He looked down at me, eagerly seeking approval. He reminded me of a puppy, cute but in a pathetic kind of way. Puppies can be entertaining, but they also pee on the floor and lick your face constantly. Travis was like that. Not in the literal sense, of course. Well, I guess I can’t say that. Rock stars were notorious for peeing in the most inconvenient places and he could very well be the face-licking type, I just didn’t know him well enough yet.

“Sounds great, Trav,” I said, shooting him smile I would give a five year old who just spelled out his name correctly for the first time.

“Hey!” He said, clapping his hands together and yanking me into a hug. I stiffened at the touch and the fact that my face was smashed into his chest, but he didn’t take any notice of it. “We have an idea and you smiled!”

Yep. This was going to be an incredibly long and painful process.
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Wow, I feel like I should stop updating so quickly or you'll expect a chapter every day! But, I'm warning you now, exams are coming up, I'm off on a trip to Dublin (without my computer) and I'm flying home in less than three weeks (sad times) so I might not be able to update as regularly. I say this, but then of course I'll probably have three more chapters up by the end of the week. We'll see how this goes, lol.

So, yeah. Jency is now a cynical bitch. But at least she's aware of that fact and feels slightly guilty about it. And can I just say that I LOVE writing Travis. I find him to be the epitome of adorable in real life, so i had to include him somehow. So, here he is.

I am also fully aware of the fact that 'We'll Be A Dream' features Demi Lovato. But not in this world, sorry. :P

Thank you all so so so much for the support. TRL has ten stars, and this one has 4 already it's only the first chapter. I love you guys!!!