When You Got a Good Thing

[Brian's POV – Dec. 15th, 2010 4:00 P.M.]
Larry called us all into the kitchen and we took up seats around the room.

"Aright boys…and girls." He smiled at Sadie and Gena.

"By now you probably all know that Mike is not going to be touring with us anymore. So we obviously need to find a new drummer. I've been hectically calling all around to find available drummers in the area. I've put together a list and I'm going to try and get them all in this week. So I need you all here every day."

Matt let out a small groan. "How many are there Larr?"

"A good bit. A little over twenty. I've called them all and set up times. We've got three that can come in today. Two tomorrow. None the day after. And then seven on the eighteenth. Eight on the nineteenth. Then three again on the twentieth."

"Christ, there must be a lot of drummers sitting around playing video games in their basements." Zack mused. Everyone let out minor chuckles.

"So…we have…" Larry checked his phone. "About ten minutes until the first drummer gets here."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
[Dec. 19th, 2010 1:00 P.M.]
We'd gone through maybe half of the drummers today already and once again, nothing impressive. Nothing even worth taking a second look at. It was disappointing.

While sitting watching another average drummer play, I turned to Sadie. I still hadn't gotten her a birthday present.

"What do you want for your birthday?" I whispered in her ear and she giggled.

"That tickles."

"Oh I'll do it again then." She pushed me gently, making me laugh out loud.

"But no seriously, what do you want for your birthday? Anything you want." I said and she closed her eyes and thought for a moment, a smirk dancing its way across her lips.

"Don't ever say that Bri. I can think of some pretty pricey things."

"Nothing I can't afford I'm sure." She delivered a playful slap to my shoulder and said, "Don't be an ass."

"Okay, okay. But really…what do you want? I wanna get you something special."

She focused on the drummer that was auditioning at the moment. She let her eyes drift to the side, to me. "Birthday sex is special." She smirked again. She was so damn cute when she did that.

"It is. Is that all you want?" I pulled her back toward my body and attached my lips to her neck. I loved moments like this with Sadie. I tuned everything out except her.

"Yes. All I want is you." She whispered, leaning back completely against me and taking my hand in hers, intertwining our fingers carefully.

The next drummer walked in, or so I thought. Sadie burst out laughing, nearly falling on the floor before I caught her.

"Fuck! I was hoping you wouldn't see me!" The guy said. He had on a sweater vest sort of thing, black dress pants and his hair was long, brown and the bangs were combed to the side, revealing his face. He had a nearly full beard.

"Nothing gets past me." Sadie said, standing and stepping over to hug the guy. I wasn't sure whether to be confused or pissed. He was obviously an old friend or something.

"Lies. That's a lie. Damn it I missed you." He said, kissing her on the cheek. She wiped her hand across her cheek and then on is shirt.

"Eww. Spencer germs." She turned to the rest of us, who were pretty confused. "This is my brother Spencer. He's in the band Panic! At The Disco."

There was a sigh of…relief?...I guess, from everyone. We introduced ourselves to him. She had told me that she had a brother, just never explained who he was exactly.

"So this is le-boyfriend? Have you told Dad yet?" Spencer asked in a mock-French accent. I shook his hand.

"Pff. Hell to the no."

"Oh good, same with Ali for me." They both laughed.

"So, how exactly did you find me Spence?"

"Brent. I left Brendon with them for the time being. Lena may kill him."

"I was gonna say, Lena is going to murder his ass. I was hoping you'd come visit me. I missed you a lot." Sadie slung her arm around her brother's shoulders.

"You aren't trying out, right? I mean you are not a metal drummer."

"Oh hell no. I just came to visit. I saw some other guy sitting out in a beat-up old car though. That's probably your next one. I think I've seen him before. At a concert or something." Spencer explained. I asked Larry for the paper with the list of all the drummers and their audition times. The next one was Arin Ilejay, formerly in the band Confide. I don't think I'd heard of them but it wouldn't surprise me if Sadie had maybe seen them in concert. Her music taste is so diverse.

Arin stepped in through the doorway. He had a hat on over his short, curly-ish hair, and Aviators. He wore a simple dark grey v-neck, some bracelets on his wrists, dark skinny jeans and checkered Vans.

"Hi. I'm Arin Ilejay. Um…"

"Arin, nice to finally meet you. Maybe you can be our saving grace here." Larry said, standing, shaking his hand. They both laughed lightly, Larry hinting to the fact that we hadn't found anything impressive yet. Matt and Zack also introduced themselves and Johnny sort of did. He was off in his own world, fooling around with his bass.

"Hi Arin, I'm Brian. This is my girlfriend Sadie. And that's her brother Spencer." I explained and Arin's mouth dropped open.

"Like Spencer from Panic! At the Disco? I thought I saw you walking in here. I picked up your guys' new album. It's great! And Brian, you are an amazing guitarist. I'm just a huge fan of both your bands." He exclaimed quickly and rather nervously, I'd say.

"Well let's get started, huh? Is there anything you need?" Larry asked, leading him to the drum room. It had one of Jimmy's old drum sets still set up. The metallic green and glittery finished drums still held the same sound quality after all these years. No matter how hard Jimmy went on them, they never wore out.

I bit my lip as Arin sat at the set. Drummers had been using it all day. At first, we weren't going to use it because it was Jimmy's recording set, but Matt had made the decision for us all to let the auditioning drummers use it. Jimmy was probably looking down from Heaven, absolutely furious that we were letting other people touch his drums. A sense of guilt washed over me. I couldn't help but look up and apologize silently to him.

"So all day we've had terrible drummers try out. Hopefully you can be amazing and we can end everything right here." Matt said through the intercom thing. Arin nodded and smiled, testing the bass pedal.

"Go ahead and warm up and well pick out some songs and see what you can play." Matt told him, Arin putting a thumb up and beginning to warm up.

"What songs should we pick?" Zacky asked, but I was only half-listening. I watched Arin as he warmed up. And I was lost as to where Sadie was. I glanced around and didn't see her, or her brother. Maybe she was seeing him out?

"I think that's a good idea. Hey Gates, what do you think?" Zacky brought my attention back.

"What?"

"Wake up old man. We're gonna have him play some drum parts from songs from his old band. Sound good to you?" Matt asked.

"Oh yeah sure. Whatever." I waved my hand slightly.

"Are you okay? You seem really out of it today." Matt asked, a brow raised in question.

"No I'm fine. I'm just thinking is all. I still haven't found a good birthday present for Sadie. I know the ladies are planning a big party like Zack's though. I just want it to be special for her."

"Whoa Gates. Too much thinking. Chill about it. I'm sure anything you get her is gonna make her happy. I mean you are Synyster Fuckin' Gates." Matt joked, clapping a hand on my shoulder, which startled me slightly.

"Yeah. Did her brother leave? That was interesting." I commented. Zack took a seat by Larry and glanced back at me.

"He did. She was seeing him out. The world is a fuckin' small place man. I had no clue she was related to him. And we've made fun of his band at shows." He said, chuckling. Matt smirked.

"I kind of feel bad now. He seems like a nice guy." I nodded, agreeing with him. I felt a hand at my lower back. I turned, seeing Sadie, holding my guitar.

"You're not supposed to touch that." Matt said sternly. Her eyes widened.

"Well excuse me Matthew! I didn't know you owned this. I was going to ask my boyfriend if I could play his guitar. If that's okay with you."

"Bitch-mode." Zack murmured. Matt let out a bellowing laugh.

"I was kidding. Chill out." Matt pressed the intercom button and Arin halted is drum playing for a second. "So we were going to ask you if you could play some parts from some of your old band's songs."

"Oh…uh…yeah I can do that, but wouldn't you rather hear me play one of your songs?" He clapped the drumsticks together, obviously getting antsy, wanting to continue playing.

"What song did you have in mind?"

"Whatever you want me to play."

"Oh really? Well uh…oh, Sadie. Gimme a riff. Since you have the guitar." Larry plugged my guitar in and Sadie looked straight at me, worried.

"What? You don't want to?"

"Well no, I don't want to mess up in front of you." I laughed and stepped over to her, cupping her face in my hands.

"I don't care if you mess it up. Besides, you played 'Scream' perfectly in front of me. Whatever song you're thinking of playing….I'm sure you'll play it fine." I placed a gentle kiss on her lips and let her go. She smiled and glanced down at the guitar. She began to play the opening solo to 'Save Me' and yes, she messed it up a little, but for the most part she played it excellently.

And Arin nailed it. His timing was perfect. I was surprised he knew the song so well. Once he had completed the song and came out of the drum room, all sweated up, he just smirked.

"So, what'd you think?" He asked, twirling a cracked drumstick. All anyone could do was smile.

"We'll definitely get back to you." Larry said, ushering him out the door and thanking him, as the next drummer came in.

There would be no one that could match up to Arin. No one at all. We had our new drummer.