Wish You Were Here

“Finally the day is here!” I yell as I race through the studio throwing posters up on every wall in every room. “The day Katastrophic Breakdown officially reunites and starts touring around the country!!” I laugh as I poor the rest of the posters I had on to Scotts sleeping face to wake him up. “Ughhhhh! I’m trying to sleep dude! Shut up.” I laugh and sit down on the cushion he’s not taking up on the couch. “Why are you sleeping here anyway? You guys have hotel rooms down the road.” Scott moves the posters off of him and glares at me. “Steve wanted me here in case something needed to be cut or whatever and he wanted to make sure he consulted at least one person of the band before he did so.” I gave him an “okay whatever” look and turned toward the seat that Steve usually sits in when he does his producing magic. “Where is Steve?” I ask as I turn back to Scott. “Mnft mffting moftee mfn mefnots.” Furrowing my eye brows I roll Scott back over. “What?” “I said he’s out getting coffee and doughnuts.” “Oh, I see. Well alright then.” Just as I let Scott roll back over I hear a couple of people talking outside. I turn in time to see Steve walking in with coffee and doughnuts and talking to Annabeth, Reese, and Drake. Steve turns his attention to me and Scott on the couch. “Good Morning you two. I brought breakfast for everyone.” He smiles and puts the coffee and doughnuts on the table in front of me and Scott. I grab a coffee and sit down in the plastic chair next to the producer’s chair. “So Steve, is it finished? Are we allowed to send it to record companies now?” I’m literally so excited, I’m nearly bouncing out of my chair. Steve sits down in the chair beside me and sighs. “We’re not done quite yet Drew. There’s someone on their way here that wants to hear the album and go on from there. From my understanding of Annabeth’s and this person’s conversation is that they want to write and record a song with you guys and put it on here as a bonus track since we’ve already finished the actual album.” I frown and put my forehead on the back of the chair. “Who is it that’s coming?” Reese asks as he takes a bite into his doughnut. “Lzzy Hale” Annabeth says from across the room. Scott sits upright on the couch, Reese drops his doughnut onto the floor, Drake chokes on his coffee and I lift my head up off the chair. “You’re kidding……nope you’re serious.” Steve just smiles and Annabeth chuckles softly. “She especially wants to sing with you Drew. She’s heard nothing but good things about your singing ability. Mostly from me but others as well.” I smile as Annabeth tells me this and all I can think about is me and Lzzy singing together on a record.
Next thing I know, Steve’s already got Annabeth and the others putting down tracks for the song. Just as Drakes putting the finishing touches on the solo, I hear heels walking in on the tile floor just inside the entrance to the studio. I lean over to Steve and smirk “She’s here.” He smiles as Scott gets up from the couch. “I’ll go get her.” “Thanks bro.” I say as Scott walks out to greet Lzzy. Steve hits the intercom button that lets him talk to the people in the sound booth. “Okay Drake, that was good you can come out now.” Drake nods and puts hit guitar on his stand and walks out of the sound booth “This is going to be awesome!” I turn and see Scott walk in with Lzzy Hale from Halestorm. It’s still amazing to me that she wants to do a duet with me. She walks up to me and holds out her hand “Hi, I’m Lzzy. It’s so nice to meet you Drew; I’ve heard really, really good things about you.” I smiled and shook her hand. “It’s nice to meet you too Lzzy. I’m excited to be working with you. I’ll introduce you to the rest of the band. The guy that brought you in is Scott, our drummer and my brother. The guy coming from the sound booth is Drake, he’s one of our guitarists and singers. Reese is the guy on the couch, he’s another guitarist and singer, and you’ve already met Annabeth.” Everyone came up and shook her hand except Annabeth gave her a hug. “Well should we get started?” I ask. Lzzy smiles and nods her agreement.
*time skip*
Lzzy, Annabeth and me decided to take a break from writing the lyrics for the song to go down the road to a small dive in Huntington Beach called “Johnny’s Saloon”. As we walk in, we already feel right at home. The place is packed, during the day even, full of people pledging allegiance to the rock and punk genres of music. I smile as we all sit at the bar. After we order our drinks, I turn to Lzzy. “So how’d you two meet?” I smile as the bartender gives me my drink and I hand him a tip. “Well our bassist had actually taken some time off for family matters but the day he left we were opening for Avenged Sevenfold. We were going to cancel but instead Annabeth was actually there to open for us with her band Cryptic Sin. We were going to ask Johnny Christ to do it but we figured that’d be inappropriate so I asked Anna and she said yes. From that night till about 3 months later she was our bassist and Cryptic Sin’s bassist, though her boyfriend James didn’t seem too fond of us taking her for 3 months.” I laughed and shrugged. “I guess James didn’t like anyone who attempted to take you away, eh Anna?” She scowled at me which just made me laugh harder.
We left the bar after finishing the lyrics there and drove back to the studio and immediately got into the sound booth to record the song’s lyrics. The instrumental tracks come over the and then I start singing
“I caught a chill
and it's still frozen on my skin
I think about why
I'm alone, by myself
No one else to explain
how far do I go?
No one knows
If the end is so much better, why don't we just live forever?
Don't tell me I'm the last one in line
Don't tell me I'm too late this time

I don't want to live
To waste another day
Underneath the shadow of mistakes I made
Cause I feel like I'm breaking inside
I don't want to fall and say I lost it all
'Cause baby there's a part of me to hit the wall
Leaving pieces of me behind
And I feel like I'm breaking inside
The next verse is then sang by Lzzy in the other sound booth but I can hear it through the headphones I have

Out here, nothings clear
Except the moment I decided to move on and I ignited
Disappear into the fear
You know there ain't no comin' back
When you're still carrying the past
You can't erase, separate
Cigarette in my hand,
Hope you all understand

I won't be the last one in line
I finally figured out what's mine

I don't want to live
To waste another day
Underneath the shadow of mistakes I made
'Cause I feel like I'm breaking inside
I don't want to fall and say I lost it all
'Cause baby there's a part of me to hit the wall
Leaving pieces of me behind
Leaving pieces of me behind
And I feel like I'm breaking inside

I won't be the last one in line,
I finally figured out what's mine

I don't want to live
To waste another day
Underneath the shadow of mistakes I made
'Cause I feel like I'm breaking inside
I don't want to fall and say I lost it all
'Cause baby there's a part of me to hit the wall
Leaving pieces of me behind
Leaving pieces of me behind
And I feel like I'm breaking inside
And I feel like I'm breaking,
I feel like I’m breaking inside”
I walk out of the sound booth at the same time and walk up to Steve who’s just now getting the mixing done and out of the way so he can immediately put it on the album. He turns to smile at us. “Great job you two, great job.” I smirk and high five Lzzy. I have a feeling this relationship is going to last a while.