Wish You Were Here

“DREW YOU GOOFBALL! WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN ALL THESE YEARS BROTHER?!” Scott yells across the small space between us. I laugh and hug him when I get around the counter. “It’s nice to see you too Scott.” I move next to Reese and hug him. “It’s been too long kid, how’ve you been?” I ask as I hug him. He just smiles and shrugs. That’s typical Reese. Next is Drake, he looks unimpressed at first then his mouth turns up at the edge into that crooked smile that his girlfriend, Misty Davis, loves so much. “I’m so glad Annabeth found you. Being a studio musician may sound like fun but if you don’t do your job the way other people want you to do your job then you’re not worth anything. I’m so happy to be out of there.” I laugh and hug him and then move onto Annabeth who just grabs me by the shirt and pulls me forward and kisses me. I wrap my arms around her and get more into it until she pulls away. I breathe in as much and sigh. “Hi.” I grin and hug her as she hugs me. “Hi to you too” she says back. We let go of each other and I turn to all of them again. “We’ve got a lot to talk about it looks like. Let’s get started.” They all agree and they follow me to the top floor of the building which serves as my apartment.
“So this is where you’ve been staying since you left huh? It’s so small. I expected like extravagantly covered walls with extravagant guitars and such.” Says Scott commenting on my apartment and sits on the bed while the others find other spots to sit and I lean against the door until everyone is in, including for some reason Joe and Jarron. “Alright” I say as I move into the middle of the room. “Let’s talk about the reason why you’re all here. The reunion of Katastrophic Breakdown.” I point to Annabeth and smile. “You’re the one that wanted this right? How are we going to do it?” I ask as I sit down next to her. She thinks for a second, furrowing her eyebrows together and chewing on her cheek like she always did when we were in high school. It’s what made me fall in love with her in the first place. I took this time to evaluate her. Her hair had changed from the light blonde to a dirty blonde with strand of it colored green instead of blue or pink like she had in high school. She wore black thigh high laced up boots, black denim shorts with frayed bottoms around the thighs, a bright red belt with two sides of a skull as the buckle. On top she wore a black tank top with a vinyl jacket the same color as her belt. She wore Aviator sun glasses with Mirrored lenses on top of her head and her eyes were heavy with black eye shadow and eye liner. If I didn’t know better I might have mistaken her for Taylor Momsen from The Pretty Reckless.
I looked across the room and seen Scott. He wore an old pair of sandals with “Budweiser” faded on top of them. He wore tan cargo shorts that always held his sticks somehow and a KISS t-shirt, with the same Mirror lensed Aviators that Annabeth wore. Reese wore green and white Toms with regular blue jeans and a black long sleeve t-shirt. Drake had his white fedora on his head, black lensed aviators, a t-shirt that made it look like he was wearing a tie, black cargo shorts and white Chuck Taylors. I looked back up and realized that everyone was silent for a bit. Joe must’ve said something because they were all looking at him. “What?” he asked “I’m just saying you guys would be better off going straight to the recording studio and recording an entire album. Especially with the momentum from all the media going around about you guys.” He looked at me expectantly while Jarron’s nodding beside him.
“I think we should do it. We should go straight to recording a brand new album.” I look at Scott who nods his agreement. “Okay but where are we going to get the money to pay for the time in a studio? I’m not sure you remember but we were dropped from our label before you left Drew.” This time it was Annabeth who brought voice to the words I was thinking before I agreed. I start to say something when there’s a flash from a camera and the next thing I know I see Jarron playing with his phone and then showing it to me. “I don’t think you’ll have to worry about money for a bit. Everyone wants Katastrophic Breakdown back. No record company is going to turn you guys down when everyone is going to buy your first album from hiatus.” I take my phone out and see a notification on the Underground Rock Scene blog that I follow. A picture of the 5 of us together with Joe in my apartment showed up on my screen. Above it was the headline “Katastrophic Breakdown reunion; Album in the works”. I chuckle then put my phone away. “It looks like we’re making an album right away. Joe, would you mind calling DML? They seem to pick up the phone for someone who’s famous rather than someone like me who’s well...up and coming.” I stand up and walk towards the door before I turn around and look. “Today marks the reunion of Katastrophic Breakdown and the day that they start to take the world by storm.” The others laugh as I open the door and head downstairs to get my instrument and song sheets ready.
On the ride over, Joe calls me and lets me know that he finally got ahold of DML to let them know we were on our way over to record a full album. When we arrived we were greeted by a music producer whom I’ve never heard of but Drake and Scott seemed really impressed. “The name is Steve Albini and I’ll be you’re executive producer on your guys’ new album.” He smiled and held out his hand. I looked at him, set down my guitar and shook his hand. “I’m Drew Riggs-Parsons-Tuck or whatever you want to call me. It’s a pleasure to be working with you Steve.” He nodded and moved on to everyone else. I picked up my guitar and walked inside and was greeted by another music producer, although I knew who this one was. He stretched out his hand and before he could tell me his name I blurted it out first. “You’re Butch Vig! Wow! I can’t believe it! You’re one of the best producers I’ve ever heard of. I mean “Nevermind” was absolutely genius and “Gish” is one of my favorite albums of all time!” He just smiled and shook my hand. “It’s nice to meet you too Drew. I’ve heard a lot of good things about you from Joe and Jarron.” I nodded and smiled. “Are you working with us too?” I asked but he just shook his head. “No I’m not. I’m just here putting finishing touches on E.T.E’s new album.” I looked at him and blinked, confused about who E.T.E. was. Before I could ask though someone from the other room poked their head in through the door and told Butch something that I couldn’t hear. He nodded then turned back to me. “Good luck Drew. Making an album after a three year hiatus is tricky. The chemistry is either there or its not and everyone, I’m sure, is on a different skill level than they were three years ago. Nothing is going to be the same. Songs you guys thought were hard then, might be as easy as playing “Hot Cross Buns” now.” He smiled and walked past me and through another door. I sat my guitar down and went back outside to help bring the rest of the equipment in to the studio.
As Drake and I brought in the last of the drums for Scott and helped him set it up I asked Drake what was so special about Steve Albini. He looked at me, bewildered. “You seriously don’t know who Steve Albini is?” I shook my head and shrugged. Drake sighed. “He was one of the producers that put together “Nevermind” for Nirvana. He also worked with the Pixies. He’s one of the most brilliant minds in the music industry today.” I sat there shocked. I had only thought Butch Vig was the only producer for “Nevermind”. I didn’t know it was a whole team. I was too naïve to think that I guess.
Suddenly a voice comes over the intercom into the drum recording room. “Are you guys done yet? I want to get a song recorded before we go home today.” I could hear laughter in the other room. I smiled and waved as Drake tightened the last bolt and we walked out to the control room. I walked over and sat down next to Annabeth. She took my hand and smiled. “Ready?” she asked. I looked at her and smiled. “I’ve been ready.” I said.