Save the Day

All my attempts to stay out of the studio the past few days actually backfired. I did all of the copying that needed to be done for the rest of the CD so that left me with about two hours of work before I had to go inside the studio. It also didn’t help that they only had to record three or four more songs.

I was sitting in my usual chair off to the side watching the band play some song (strictly instrumental) when a loud ringing blared through the room.

The band had no idea seeing as they couldn’t hear, so Ed glared at me. “Answer that,” He snapped as I frantically looked around the room for the source of the noise. It ended up being Uncle John’s cell phone and I quickly walked out into the hallway to answer it. “Hello, John Fields’ phone.”

“Where is John?” A female voice asked rudely.

“He’s busy at the moment. I am his intern, how may I help you?” I asked, ignoring the woman’s tone.

“Ugh,” she grunted. “Well, tell him that Catherine Rufo called to say that Miley is going to be late for her recording session today.”

“How late?”

“A few hours.” The woman said and hung up, not letting me question her further.

I sighed and shut the phone, “Fantastic.” I mumbled to myself as I stood outside the door and waited for the light to go off. It did quickly and I walked into the room and was instantly attacked by my uncle.

“Who was on the phone?” He asked, grabbing the phone out of my hand.

“A woman named Catherine Rufo. She told me to tell you that Miley is going to be late for her recording session today.” I answered calmly.

“Typical,” I heard Nick mutter sharply from behind my uncle.

“How long?” Uncle John asked, ignoring Nick's comment.

I shrugged, “All she said was a few hours before she hung up on me.” Telling him all I knew, I sat back down in my chair.

“What are we going to do?” Nick asked my uncle. He was the only one here; I didn’t know where Kevin and Joe were or why they weren’t here. But (as usual) I didn’t ask.

Uncle John glanced around the room, searching for an answer. Suddenly, his eyes landed on me and he started to smile. This cannot be good, I thought as he started to walk towards me. “Morgan, we could use your help again.” He said coyly, not getting straight to the point.

I narrowed my eyes, “Doing what?”

“Would you mind singing Miley’s part for us so we can isolate Nick’s voice and not waste time?” He asked sweetly.

“Yes,” I said simply.

“Great, then let’s go.” He said as he started walking towards the studio door.

“Um, John, I think she meant yes she would mind.” Nick said noticing that I didn’t move.

“Correct.” I said smiling at Nick.

“What? Why not?” My uncle asked.

“Uncle John, you know I don’t sing.” I said, crossing my arms across my chest.

“Now that’s a lie. I hear you in your room all the time and you have a great voice. It’s not like we’ll be recording you, you’ll be fine.”

“Okay then, let me rephrase. I don’t sing in front of people.” I said, stressing my last words.

Uncle John sighed, “Please Morgan.” I shook my head ‘no’. “I’ll give you ten bucks each time we make you sing it.”

I narrowed my eyes; he knew how to get me. “Twenty.” I said. “Twenty bucks each time or no dice.”

He huffed, “Fine.”

I smirked and started walking towards the band booth.

“Um, Morgan,” Nick said, stopping me. “You’re in the solo booth with me.” He said, pointing to the second microphone that was placed in there today.

“You’ve got to be kidding.” I said looking around the small space that we had to share.

Nick just shook his head. I sighed and walked reluctantly into the booth. There was only about an inch of space between us, and it was getting really hot really quickly.

“So, there is your music.” He said pointing to the music stand in front of me. “The highlighted part is when you sing.”

I nodded and quickly read over the lyrics. Since I listened to the band before, I knew the melody of the song already. It was a cute song, all about love, heartbreak, and rain. I sighed and pulled my headphones onto my ears. “Let’s get this over with.”

I heard someone laugh and noticed Nick’s body shaking next to me. “Don’t worry. I’ll try and do it quickly.”

“Oh, don’t worry about doing it quickly. I want to squeeze as much money as I can out of this.” I said smirking.

“I heard that Morgan.” Uncle John’s voice flowed through my headphones. This just caused Nick and me to start laughing harder.

“Anytime you two are ready, we’d like to start.” Ed’s voice came through.

“Right, right… I’m ready.” I said as I tried to shake away the nerves.

“I’m ready.” Nick said.

“Alright, it’s all you John Taylor.” Ed said. I waited for the band to start playing and I closed my eyes. I imagined that I was in my room, alone and I was reading the new song I just wrote (photographic memory is awesome). I pictured myself strumming my guitar and I started singing.

No this isn’t what I wanted
Never thought it’d come this far
Thinking back to where we started
And how we lost all that we are

Nick started singing his part, but I kept my eyes closed. I stayed in my imaginary room for the rest of the song.

***

“That’s a wrap. I think we have enough. Thanks again Morgan.” I heard Ed’s voice ring in my ears.

I opened my eyes for the first time since we started recording. “No problem and that will by 120 dollars Uncle John, just in case you weren’t counting.” I smirked and slid the headphones off my head and hung them around the microphone stand.

“Great job Morgan. I wasn’t expecting pipes that good.” Nick said to me.

I turned towards him (which didn’t take much effort since we were still in the solo booth) and narrowed my eyes, “And what did you expect? Suckage?”

His eyes widened, “No, no, of course not. I mean I just wasn’t expecting you to be so good that I’d contemplate not putting Miley on the track.”

I smiled as a slight blush rose to my cheeks, “Oh, thank you.”

“Are you two coming out any time soon? Some of us want to eat.” Uncle John said as he opened the booth door.

“Right,” I said sighing. “Back to work.” My shoulders slumped as I walked out of the booth. “I’m guessing the usual Chinese food.” I said to the room collectively and I got nods back in response.

“Actually,” Nick’s voice suddenly appeared from beside me. “I was wondering if you’d like to get lunch with me. You know, as a thank you.” He said to me, adding the last sentence quickly.

“Uh…” I said and glanced at Uncle John. “Can I?” I asked, pleading with my eyes. I really didn’t want Chinese again.

His gaze flashed between my face and Nick’s who was still standing beside me. A smile appeared on his face, “Sure. We’ll just get it delivered.”

I smiled gratefully at him as I followed Nick out of the room after grabbing my bag. We walked to the elevator silently and listened to the pang of the bell as it rang repeatedly as we passed each floor. We took the back exit out of the building so Nick wasn’t hoarded by paparazzi and we were on our way (on foot seeing as neither of us brought a car).

“So where are we going?” I asked as we turned down another street.

“I don’t know, it’s your choice.” Nick answered.

“Well, the only place I know around here is the Chinese place and the Starbucks that’s across the street from the Chinese place. And I’m pretty sure we don’t want either of those things. So, you choose.” I said, trying to look in his eyes (which was difficult with his sunglasses on).

He laughed, “Okay then. How about burgers?”

“Burgers sound amazing right now,” I said smiling widely. He smiled back at me and guided me to a burger place a few blocks away from the studio.

“Two please,” He said to the hostess who was standing by the entrance. For being in the middle of the city, it was very bistro like. From the outside, the restaurant seemed rather small, but there were tables with people who were casually eating their lunches outside as well.

“The only table for two we have is outside, is that alright?” The hostess asked calmly, glancing between Nick and me.

I just shrugged (I really didn’t care where we sat, I just wanted food). “That’s fine.” Nick said and the hostess led us to our table.

“Enjoy your meal.” She said, handing each of us a laminated menu.

“Nick!” I exclaimed glancing at the prices. Twenty bucks for a burger was not okay. “This is way out of my price range.”

He smiled and laughed slightly. “Well good thing I’m paying then.” I opened my mouth to protest, but he held his hand up. “I won’t take no for an answer. I said I would take you out as a thank you and that is what I am doing. If it makes you feel better you could pretend you sang the song seven times instead of six. Here’s the other twenty dollars.”

I narrowed my eyes and placed down the menu. “Fine, but I won’t enjoy it.” I said just as the waiter came.

We each ordered our (insanely priced) burgers and were left to our conversation.

“I just realized,” I said as I traced the rim of my cup with my finger. “That we’re having a sit-down lunch.”

“Wow, it took you this long to figure that out.” Nick said smirking.

I rolled my eyes but I couldn’t help a smile from forming on my face. “What I mean is, don’t we have to be back so you can record with Miley?”

Nick just shrugged, “Not really. If she gets there before us, they’ll just play my voice and the band back into her headphones. John’s probably sent everyone home by now anyway.”

“That’s true.” I said and glanced up at Nick who was looking at me. “Who is she?”

Even with his sunglasses still on, I could see the confused expression on his face. “Are you serious? Do you live under a rock?”

“No I do not,” I said with a laughing tone flowing throughout my words. “I know who she is. I just want to know who she is, or was, to you. If you don’t mind me asking. You didn’t seem shocked when I said she was going to be late.”

“Ah,” He said as he leaned back in his chair. “She was my girlfriend for about two years. We started dating when I was fourteen I think. During those years she was late for quite a few things. Least to say, nothing that she does surprises me anymore.”

“If she’s your ex from, like, a year ago; why are you recording a song with her now?”

“Well we ended on a bad note, I guess you could say. The song is kind of for closure – for me it is anyway.” He said shrugging.

Right then our orders came and we dug in switching to a lighter conversation topic.

“Alright I have to admit, I did enjoy that burger.” I said, rubbing my full stomach as we walked out of the restaurant.

Nick laughed as he walked by my side, “Well, I’m glad you did.”

“Nick! Nick!” Someone started yelling from behind us.

“Shit,” Nick whispered to himself as he looked frantically at me. “Ready to run?”

“What?” I asked wide eyed.

“Nick! Nick!” The voice was closer, and there were more of them. “Who’s the –”

“GO!” Nick yelled at me and jolted down the street.

I glanced over my shoulder quickly and saw the large group of men with cameras running towards me. My eyes widened and I started running (extremely grateful that I decided against the black skirt this morning). I followed Nick as closely as I could, but we couldn’t lose them. For old men, they were quite agile.

“In here,” Nick said, grabbing my hand as we turned a corner. He pulled me into a store that had its door wide open and we hind behind it. We heard charging feet pass the doorway, but then it was quiet.

“Are they gone?” I whispered to Nick.

“Hold on,” he said and started to walk out from behind the door.

“No!” The woman behind the counter (who we didn’t notice before) said suddenly. “Wait,” she said and walked out the door.

She came back shortly and closed the door and pulled the shades down over the windows. “And this is why I keep my door opened.” She said and turned towards us. “Nick Jonas, I assume.”

Nick stood protectively in front of me, his grip still firm on my hand. “Yes…” he said hesitantly.

“I’ve been waiting for you or one of your brothers to run in here one day.”

“Excuse me?”

I was really creeped out until I glanced around the room. “Nick,” I said softly. “It’s a wig shop.” I said as I walked out from behind him as I looked around. There were wigs of every shape, size, cut, and color all around the room.

“Yes my dear,” The woman said smiling. “Welcome to Wanda’s Wigs Yes, my name really is Wanda.” She walked up to me and placed my face in her hands, turning it left and right. Wanda wasn’t that old, about fifty years old I would guess, and she had a full head of gray hair cut in a short bob. She was naturally pretty, didn’t have an ounce of make-up on, and had piercing sky blue eyes. “You would look good in a pixie cut.” She said, smiling as she removed her hands from my face.

I touched my shoulder length, wavy brown hair with my free hand. “Really? I always thought of cutting my hair short but I was afraid that it would be too short and –”

“Sorry to cut you off Morgan, but I don’t think we’ll be buying any wigs today Wanda.” Nick said from behind me.

“Really now?” She asked, a smile tugging at her lips. “Then how do you expect getting back to the studio ten blocks away without getting noticed.”

I glanced back at Nick, “She does have a point.”

He sighed heavily, “Alright, then.” He said, letting go of my hand. “Go.”

Wanda laughed, “Oh no, honey. You’re first.” She said, pointing to Nick. “It’ll be fun putting those curls under a wig cap.”