Kiss My Ass

“Alex, what do you think?”

Alex shook his head, snapping out of his daydream. Instead of registering what they had said, he just looked blankly between his band mates. He met Jack’s eyes through the glass and his best friend rolled his eyes. “Huh?”

Rian sighed. “Matt asked for your thoughts on changing the chord progression during the pre-chorus,” he told him.

“Oh. Um. Lemme hear it,” Alex said, running a hand over his hair.

Matt motioned for Jack to continue before looking back at Alex to gauge his reaction.

Alex nodded and told Jack to play what it had been before, then to repeat the new chord. He nodded again. “I like it. Who thought of that? That sounds great.”

“It was Lyle, actually,” Zack said, a small smirk on his face.

Alex frowned.

Lyle’s cheeks flushed slightly and she kept her eyes focused on the sound board.

“Jack, go back to Plan A,” Alex said.

Lyle scoffed and turned around in her seat—she could not ignore that blatant insult. “What?”

“The fuck, Lex?” Jack asked. “You just said it sounded good.”

“It sounded better before,” Alex told him. “Don’t change it.”

“Dude, we all think it sounds better now,” Rian said.

“I don’t like it.”

Rian rolled his eyes. “Let’s take a vote—majority wins.”

“No, we’re not taking a fucking vote,” Alex snapped. “We’re not changing it.”

“Alex, it doesn’t fit without the change. It sounds strained, and it doesn’t flow. Even when you add in the bass and the drums, it still sounds awkward. If you don’t change it, the song is going to sound like a cluster-fuck,” Lyle told him honestly. It wasn’t that the song was bad—she actually enjoyed it thus far. But there was something off about the chord progression, and if they didn’t change it, then she knew the meaning of the song would never push through.

“You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about, Lyle,” Alex told her. “Don’t change my music.”

“Kiss my ass, Gaskarth, it’s going to sound like shit if you don’t change it,” Lyle said through gritted teeth.

Alex stood up and tossed his notebook to the side. “It will sound great because it’s our band. I wrote this and I vote that we’re not changing it,” he said. “And that’s final.”

“Lex—“ Rian protested before the singer cut him off.

“What don’t you guys get? We’re not changing the song,” he repeated before walking out of the studio.

Llyle clenched her jaw to avoid from saying something else, and she really wanted to follow him. But she knew that wouldn’t be for the best.

“What the fuck just happened?” Matt asked, eyes landing on Lyle.

Lyle’s eyes widened. “Don’t look at me! He’s being stubborn.”

“That’s Alex for you,” Erika mumbled, briefly looking up from her laptop.

“He’s just…sensitive when it comes to people suggesting that he change his music,” Rian said.

“Don’t make excuses for him,” Zack said.

“He didn’t change it because he knew it was my idea,” Lyle said. “I think we all know that.”

Matt glanced between the rest of All Time Low before fixing his gaze solely on Lyle. “Go.”

Lyle sighed. “But—“

“I said go,” Matt repeated. “And you better fix it or today’s your last day.”

Lyle didn’t say anything—she just grabbed her hoodie before walking out of the room, determined to find Alex.

Erika bit her lip awkwardly as she watched Matt sigh and lean back in his chair. “Are you going to fire her?”

“If she and Alex can’t get along, yes,” Matt said evenly. “The label can replace an intern; they’re not going to risk losing the band.”

“So, let me get this straight,” Rian said. “Just because Lex is an idiot who can’t get over anything, Lyle is going to lose her job?”

“It’s not technically a job until she graduates,” he corrected, “but, yes, that’s the gist of things.”

“That’s not—“ Zack started but he was interrupted.

“Life isn’t fair, Zack,” Matt said. “Take five. We’ll start up again when Alex returns.”

+

Lyle walked around the floor for about fifteen minutes before giving up and asking one of the other interns if she had seen him. Typically, the intern giggled at the mere mention of his name before saying he had gone into the bathroom. Oh, of course, Lyle thought to herself. She debated knocking on the door to the men’s bathroom but decided she didn’t care. She barged right in and turned around quickly when she saw Alex standing at the urinal.

“Why am I not surprised?” Alex murmured, fixing himself and zipping up his jeans. He turned to the sink and washed his hands, eyeing Lyle’s reflection in the mirror. “I’m decent now.”

“You’re never decent,” Lyle muttered.

“So did you sneak in here just to see my dick?” Alex asked.

Lyle scoffed. “I see your ego has only gotten bigger with time,” she commented, crossing her arms over her chest and leaning against the wall.

Alex shrugged. “What do you want?”

“We have to start getting along,” Lyle told him.

Alex laughed. “Right.”

“I’m not kidding, Alex. Trust me, I wish I was,” she said through gritted teeth. “Matt’s going to dismiss me from this project if you and I can’t get along.”

“Sucks for you.”

Maybe part of Lyle wasn’t really surprised that he didn’t care; but she was more frustrated because a part of her actually believed that he could’ve. But that was probably the old Alex. “I know you probably don’t understand the severity of the matter, Alex, but this is my future. I’m the only intern that Interscope has ever promised a job to before they even graduate. I want to work here, and I don’t want our past to get in the way of my future here,” she explained to him easily.

Alex shrugged. “I don’t see how that affects me.”

Lyle sighed. “Maybe it doesn’t,” she said with a shrug. “Maybe I was just hoping that we both could agree to be mature adults, so that we both could get what we want.”

“Your mistake,” Alex muttered.

“Yeah, I don’t see what I was thinking ever hoping that you could be an adult,” she snapped.

Alex smiled softly. “Same attitude, I see,” he mused.

“My attitude has changed greatly, Alex, it’s just hard to prove that whenever you’re around,” she told him. “I just don’t see why you’re letting fucking high school get in the way of our respective futures.”

“Because you lied to me,” Alex said.

Lyle pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. “I don’t see how any of this has any sort of relevance to now. I also don’t see why I have to explain myself to you. But I never lied to you, Alex. I never slept with Ryan. Not that I owe you a damn thing considering you made my senior year hell, that’s the truth,” Lyle said before taking a deep breath. “But since I see you’ll never be able to rise above it, I’ll just go tell Mat that I have to go.” She never wanted to say those words but it seemed like she honestly didn’t have any other choice. So she simply walked towards the door to open it, but Alex stopped her.

“You never slept with him?” Alex asked, walking over to her and shutting the door, trapping her between his arm and the wall.

Lyle couldn’t help but get a little defensive—why the hell was everyone believing her years later instead of when she tried to deny it in the moment? “No,” she snapped.

“Why did you never tell me?” he asked his voice soft.

“You never let me.”

Alex sighed. “You called me pathetic,” he reminded her.

“And I’m not taking it back,” Lyle said.

Alex couldn’t help but smile a little bit at that. “You know, you’re a lot mouthier now than you were in high school,” he pointed out.

Lyle shrugged. “People change.”

“Yeah,” he agreed, nodding slowly as he briefly studied her face, “they do.”

Lyle couldn’t ignore the way she knew her face was heating up slightly. “But obviously you didn’t,” she said. She ducked under his arm and opened the bathroom door, walking back out.

“Hey!” Alex protested, following her out of the room. “I did change, Lyle. I’ve grown up.”

“You’ll never grow up,” Lyle said calmly. And okay, she wasn’t expecting this reason. The Alex she knew would have given up and let her say whatever—he never would’ve tried to prove her wrong. And now he was following her through the halls of Interscope, trying to convince her that he had changed. She kind of liked it.

“I did, Lyle,” he insisted.

“I don’t believe you,” Lyle said, stopping and turning to face him. “If you did, you would care more about how this situation affects me. But no. You’re still the same self-centered asshole that you were in high school. You don’t care about how things affect anyone else but yourself.”

Alex didn’t have a comeback for that—and he usually had a comeback for anything. “Okay. You should probably go talk to Matt, then,” he told her.

Lyle bit her lip. “I should,” she agreed, before turning and walking in the direction of the studio. Half of her hoped that Alex would stop her, tell her that he would try harder, that she shouldn’t have to leave. But he never did. And while she could easily blame him for it, she couldn’t exactly hate him for it. When she walked into the studio, she sucked in a deep breath and sat down. She knew she would have to tell him soon, but she didn’t want to just yet.

“You good?” Matt asked.

Lyle shrugged; that seemed to be his signature phrase. “Yeah. What’s up?”

“Where’s Alex?”

“I’m right here,” Alex said, walking in and sitting back down on the couch.

Matt looked between Lyle, who had her arms crossed over her chest, and Alex, who was refusing to acknowledge anyone else’s existence. “O…kay…”

“Hey, Jack,” Alex called out.

Jack looked up from his guitar, his dark eyes wide. “Yeah, Lex?”

“Change the pre-chorus,” he told him.

Rian sat up in his seat. “Wait, what?”

“You guys are right,” Alex said blandly. “Change it. We can always change it back later if necessary.”

Jack nodded slowly. “Alright, bro. You sure?”

Alex looked at Lyle, who seemed hesitant to meet his eyes but did so anyway. “I’m sure,” he told them.

+

Once they were finished recording for the day, Lyle decided to speak to Matt about stepping down. She zipped up her hoodie and watched him as he packed up his bag. She shifted from foot to foot, unsure of how to start the conversation that she was dreading. She didn’t want to step down. She wanted to keep working on the album. But she knew that, at that point, it just wasn’t a possibility.

“Do you need something, Lyle?”

“Yeah,” she said quietly. “It’s about me and Alex.”

Matt nodded. “Did you guys work it out?”

“Not really—“

“Yeah, we did,” Alex said, walking back into the studio.

Lyle paused and turned to face him. “What?”

“We worked it out,” Alex repeated.

Lyle frowned.

“Good,” Matt said. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow.” He waved towards Alex before patting Lyle on the shoulder and walking out of the studio.

Alex watched Matt walk away and he shoved his hands into his pockets, rocking back and forth onto the balls of his feet. “So…”

“So why did you lie?” she asked, frowning at him.

“It’s not a lie. We can work it out,” Alex said.

“Really? Because the last time I check, I tried and you refused. What? Did you think I needed you to swoop in and save the day or something?” she asked.

Alex sighed. “This is me trying to apologize, Lyle. I’ve been a dick for the past few days,” he told her.

“Try the past few years,” she spat.

Alex paused. “Okay, yeah, I deserve that.”

“You deserve a lot more than that.”

“Dammit, Lyle, can I at least apologize?” he asked her.

Lyle thought it over for a minute. And, okay, Alex rarely apologized. She should have at least respected him for that. But she was finding it very hard to respect him when it had taken him years to get to that point.

“I at least owe you that, right?”

“You owe me a lot fucking more than your half-assed apology for your own gain, Gaskarth.”