Among Broken Guitar Strings

"Everyone else up in the studio." ,Paiden says. "They told me it was my job to come and find you."

"Up in the studio?"

"Yup." She nods her head as I follow her out of the room and torwards the floor's main hallway. "That's why they're putting us up in such a fancy place when most record companies don't give a damn about newly signed artists until they start bringing serious money. Their office and everything is on the top floor here."

Oh, so there wasn't really an actual penthouse here afterall? I have to admit, that bummed me out a bit.

The elevator's walls are all mirrors, so it's like a barrage of red and blue fire reflecting from one mirror to the other the whole ride up to the point that I felt like I was going to be sick. She was right about one thing for sure. Our hair colors clashed horribly, but there was no way in hell I was going to be the one to cave first and dye my hair.

Paiden has to swipe a card key just to get the elevator to open on the top floor, but once the doors open I can see why. Word cannot describe how white, and black, and expensive, and amazing that place was. A woman sitting behind a small, half circle shaped desk greeted with the most perfect display of fake enthusiasm I'd ever seen, and Paiden just rolled her eyes and slid the card key across her desk to her as we walked past.

We went down a narrow hall full of doors. My jaw keeps dropping. A few of the doors are labeled with the names of some of my favorite bands. I never even realized we were signed to such a big label even though the hotel and fanciness really should have been a decent giveaway.

We take a left and walk into a large recording studio. There are two rooms to it that are about the same size divided by nothing more than soundproof glass. There's four people in the room waiting for us, and they're all chatting it up like they've been friends forever. Ethan's one of them. I like how he left the room without telling me I was even supposed to be making my way in this direction. That's totally what 'friends' are supposed to do.

Three of them are about my age, but the last is a sharp dressed middle aged man with hard, black eyes. He just looked mean, if you know what I mean.

"Finally!" ,one of the guy's exclaims. He walks over to Paiden and I and puffs out his cheeks for a few second before deciding to blow the air out loudly. He looks at me. His expression is hardened suddenly. "You're going to have to really make sure you're on time if you want to be apart of whatever we're going to dive headfirst into."

"No one told me I was supposed to be heading up this way." I glare at Ethan, but he's too busy looking a Paiden's legs. I never really got what it was about bare legs that made guys go crazy, but I never really wanted to either until that exact moment.

"Whatever you say." He reaches out a hand. "Jake," ,he says. "I play base."

I force a small smile. "Sky," I shake his hand slowly. I didn't know people our age believed in handshakes anymore. I'd thought we'd successfully graduated into 'pounding it' instead, no pun intended. "I play guitar and I suppose sing."

"You won't be singing here." ,Paiden says with a small smirk. "I don't play any instruments, but damn, I can wail."

Yeah. I noticed.

"A guy with dark hair and eyes up nods at me from across the room. i nearly twitch. Whoever decided that was a decent greeting should roll over in their grave or go find one. "Martin. Drums."

Ethan looks at me and smiles his crooked smile. "Ethan. Lead guitar." My brow wrinkles. Did he just address me like we'd never even met before?

"So where you from?", Jake asks me. "Most of us are from boring small towns, but Ethan here apparently came straight out of New York."

I look at Ethan. i don't know how to respond.

Oh no, he did not.

But he did.