Wish You Were Here

“Well I'd like to tell you all about my dream; it's a place where strip malls abound and diversion's mere moments away”
One of our songs is playing in the background as I walk through the studio’s kitchen area to grab a snack. We’ve been holed up in this studio for almost four months working on this new album. Steve has a couple of grey hairs from working with us, though I think he secretly enjoys all the perfectionists in our group. It took us a whole week to record the first song we were going to put on our album. I chuckled to myself softly as I listened to it over the speakers through the studio.
“Where culture's defined by the ones least refined and you'll be left behind if you don't fit in. It's all distorted in Americana my way!”
I had to admit, Steve did an excellent job on our album so far and he’s done a great job handling us. After we got everything set and started working on songs, our personalities changed and everyone went from being happy seeing each other and talking to each other again to yelling at each other about what should be in what song and who should sing what. Mostly it was Annabeth and Drake who made the final decisions about what songs were put on the album and who did what on them. I looked around the whole scene of Scott and Reese fighting with Drake and realized, they hadn’t even asked for my opinion once the entire time we were in the studio. It finally occurred to me that they don’t consider me the leader of the band anymore. That was probably a good thing considering what I had done to the band but it still kind of ticked me off.
I realized that if we were ever going to get something done on time for the buzz on us to not wear off, one of us would have to take control over the whole band. Drake and Steve figured it out too and Steve took matters into his own hands and just named the oldest of us the leader, at least until the recording is done. So now I stand here in the kitchen, listening to the first of fifteen songs that we were going to record and put on this “reunion” album, while Drake is in the studio working with Steve on the mixing and other recording stuff that producers do on albums. I look out the window as I take a drink of the water I grabbed out of the fridge and see Annabeth on the phone with someone. She was waving her hands around either excitedly or furiously. I could never tell with her. I watched as she stopped for a second then her shoulders sunk and she just shook her head and hung up the phone. She turned back towards the building and walked towards the entrance. I turned and headed out of the kitchen to cut her off.
“Oh, hey Annabeth!” She looks towards me and puts her hand up. “Not now Drew. I’ve got other things to worry about.”
I smile and high five her hand then put my arm around her shoulders. “Who was that on the phone?” I ask while she puts her arms around to hug me. “Believe it or not, it was your dad.” I lean back to look at her. “Since when did you and my father talk on the phone?” She looked at me and chewed on the inside of her cheek before answering. “Since the day you left. Everyone gave me their numbers in case you decided to show up again. He wanted to know if the rumors were true that we were getting back together and he wants to come see us working on the new album.” She again looked up at me and this time I saw the bags under her eyes. She looked like she was on the verge of falling asleep. She yawned and covered her mouth with her hand. “Now Drew, if you don’t mind, I’m going to go into the studio and help with the mixing.” She turned and walked through the door of the studio where a different song was playing. I think it was one of her songs that she wrote and sang. I followed her in to listen to it and see what I could do. I sat down on the couch next to Scott and Drake and watched Annabeth and Drake work with Steve. I looked around and saw the bags under everyone’s eyes; I saw how exhausted everyone was. “We need a break soon.” I said under my breath, apparently though Scott heard me. He turned to me and just nodded.
Suddenly my phone started vibrating in my pocket. I took it out and looked at the caller I.D. It was Dean and Sam. I hadn't called them since the day they visited. I had completely forgotten. I got up from the couch and walked outside to answer it.
“Hello?” I answered as soon as the door closed behind me and I walked to sit on the cement wall that the cars were in front of. “Hey Drew, its Sam. Have you considered our offer from FOUR MONTHS AGO!?” I chuckled softly and nervously. “Yeah sorry about that Sam, after you guys left everything just sort of happened in a whirlwind. I’m actually at DML right now recording the new album for Katastrophic Breakdown. So I haven’t really had time to go over it with the others yet.” There was silence on the other end and then a sigh. “It’s alright Drew. We haven’t had luck in finding another guitarist yet so the job is still yours if you want it and Annabeth agrees to it.” I smiled and sighed quietly. “Okay. On the bright side though, I got word from Joe a couple days ago that he had finally found someone who would salvage what he could from the bass and put it on another one just like it. So tell Dean he’ll have it within the next 2-3 days, he’ll just have to go to Joe’s shop and pick it up, free of charge.” Sam yelled in the background and then a shout of jubilee from Dean further back in the background. I laughed as Sam came back on the phone. “That’s great Drew, thanks for doing that for us.” I took a drink of water and smiled “Yeah no problem Sam. Look I have to go. I’ll text you later with the verdict of the reformation of Cryptic Sin.” “Alright bye.” I hung up the phone, put it in my pocket and walked back into the studio, back into the mixing room and sat back down on the couch. I look up and see Annabeth with her hand under her chin on the mixing board next to Drake and Steve.
“What’s up?” I ask as I get up and step over the table in front of the couch. Annabeth just sighs and shakes her head as Drake gets up and stares at the song board. “We need just one more song but everything is so far from done on every song we haven’t added that we’re going to need at least another month to just get it recorded and mixed.” Drake shakes his head and his shoulders sink in resignation. I walk over and put my arm on his shoulder. “Look at this dude. We've got 20 songs recorded, but we’re only putting 15 on the album. We've got 14 on there now, just pick two more and we’ll mix them and re-record them as much as we need to until Steve and the rest of the group says we’re done.” Drake looks at me and then turns back to the board. “You should’ve never left us in the first place Drew, now that I’m leader of the band; I realize just how hard you had it, replacing Matt with me and then having to deal with your father problems and your stalker lady. I can only imagine how close you came to completely losing your mind. I’m close to losing mine just after this.” He closes his eyes and pinches the bridge on his nose and sighs. I smile and pat him on the shoulder. “You can do it Drake. I didn't just pick you to replace Matt as the third guitarist. I picked you because I believe that if I ever failed to carry out my duty as band leader, you’d be able to step up and take control and lead us to being a better band.”
He looked at me and smiled. I smiled back and walked back towards the mixing board and stood next to Annabeth and took her hand in mine. She didn't look back at me, but I could tell she smiled as she entwined her fingers with mine. I looked to Steve as he looked back at me. “Let’s finish this and get outta here; we could all use a break.” He nodded his agreement and we all got back into work with a little more energy than before.