Summer's on Its Deathbed

The next day, as promised, when Brendon picked Alice up from school instead of taking her back to his apartment, he took her a few miles south to Firehouse Recording Studios where he, Spencer, Dallon and Ian had been working on a few new songs. Although they weren’t recording for a new album yet, they were all itching to make music together, so they thought they could write a few songs and release them online and then perhaps make them bonus tracks on the next album.

When they arrived, Alice was practically buzzing her seat. “Brenny, I’m so excited, can I play the guitar?” She asked, her to pigtails swishing from side to side as she looked from Brendon to the studio and back again.

He nodded his head, not even trying to hide his smile. “Of course.”

She squealed, delighted. “What about the drums?” He nodded. “What about the trumpet?” He nodded again. It carried on until they were all the way into the studio; he was surprised she knew so many instruments.

“What about the shakers?” she asked, but didn’t wait to hear Brendon’s answer. They’d entered the studio and the guys were running through an old Fall Out Boy song that they loved to play. Alice was in awe of the three other men playing music. Dallon was singing and playing the bass, while Ian sang too and played his guitar, and Spencer sat at the back of the room, pounding on the drums.

Alice’s mouth was literally an ‘o’ shape for the two and a half minutes that they stood there watching them run through the track.

“They’re…wow!” Alice shouted as soon as they’d done, running over to Dallon who was closest and looking in wonderment at his bass.

She put her hands on one of the strings and pushed it down, giggling and gasping in surprise at the deep note that emitted from the amp that Dallon was perched on top of. He began to play a walking bass line for her, dancing in his seat while he did so. From the delight that was written all over Alice’s face, Brendon could tell she’d already taken a shine to Dallon.

The next few hours were spent mostly jamming. Alice loved to shout out names of songs she knew and would ask the guys to play them. If they knew them they’d happily oblige…even if they didn’t they still gave it a try! After going through a particularly hard Backstreet Boys song, Brendon looked at his watch; it was almost 6:30.

He put his guitar down and grabbed his jacket. “Come on missy, I need to take you back to Yasmine.”

Alice’s face dropped immediately, and her bottom lip started to wobble. It was almost instantaneous, her eyes filled with tears and she looked at Dallon, and then over to Ian. As her tears started to fall, she buried her face in Spencer’s chest. He hugged tight and kissed her temple, he then handed her over to Ian who also hugged her goodbye before giving her to Dallon who propped her up on his hip and kissed her on hair.

When we both walked outside and Dallon tried to put her into the car she clung onto him for dear life. No amount of promises of ice cream or staying up late was making her let go.

“How about I bring you back here tomorrow after you’ve done your homework?” Brendon offered, seeing as the next day was Saturday, Alice could spend the whole day with the band.
As soon as Brendon mentioned returning to the studio, Alice’s face lit up, and she began to nod enthusiastically. “Okay, Bren! Bye Dallon, love you!” she called, elongating the vowels in her last two words.

Dallon chuckled before strapping her into the car and closing the door, he blew her a kiss as they drove away from the studio.

“Did you have fun, Alice?” Brendon asked, glancing down at the little girl who was still grinning widely.

“Yeah, it was so much fun, thank for taking me Brendon! I think Yasmine would love to see your recording place. She used to play the wooden guitar for me when I was really, really little.” Alice told him while looking out of the window, Brendon realised that the young girl must have meant the acoustic guitar.

“Did she now?” Brendon said quietly, talking to himself more than expecting Alice to answer him. He was quite surprised that Yasmine had never said anything about being musically inclined. So many times he’d brought over his acoustic guitar and he’d play songs for the Yasmine and Alice – he’d even taught her a few chords. He thought that was a great achievement as Yasmine would always say how bad she was at anything musical.

It didn’t take long for them to reach Yasmine’s apartment, when they got up to the fourth floor, Brendon was looking for the key that Yasmine had given him, but he didn’t need it because as they stood there, Yasmine opened the door.

“Looking for this?” She asked, holding up the key that Yasmine had given him just before he started picking up Alice.

He nodded with a silly grin on his face, while she ushered the two f them inside. Yasmine told Alice to go and wash up because dinner was almost ready, she tucked a strand of her straightened hair behind her ear as she picked up some of Alice’s toys from the floor and threw them into the colourful crate that was by the window.

Brendon helped her by straightening up the pillows on the couch. “How was your afternoon?” Yasmine asked, glancing towards Brendon as she began to clear the table.

“It was great,” he began, going into the kitchen to retrieve the cutlery and place mats so he could set the table. “I took Alice to the studio, she loved it so much.”

“Aw, really? When she was a baby she always loved to hit on pots and pans, like a little drummer. She actually had really good rhythm.” Yasmine told him, pointing to the picture by the TV.

It was a small clip frame that had one small picture. There was a border of white around the outside where the picture was slightly too small for the frame that housed it. But it showed Alice at maybe a year old, surrounded by pots with two small wooden spoons, one in each hand. Her face was bright red, but her smile was so huge that you could tell that she was enjoying herself.

“So, Alice told me today that you used to play guitar?” Brendon’s voice inclined at the end to make his statement sound less accusing and more curious.

Yasmine was putting peas and carrots onto three plates when she replied. “Yeah, I used to play a little when Yasmine was little, it was nothing serious. But I sold my old busted up guitar before I moved out here so I had a little bit more money.”

Brendon immediately felt bad again. Yasmine had given up so much just to move out here in the first place and then she’d had to give up her dreams once her parents passed away. He had always been so fortunate; he’d gotten his dream when he was barely 17, so he didn’t know what it was like to struggle to achieve your goals. It was then that he realised he had to make Yasmine and Alice feel as special as they deserved. He didn’t want to flaunt the fact that he was secure financially while they still struggled slightly, he knew Yasmine wouldn’t take too kindly to that, but he wanted to do little things for them. Like taking them to the beach, or to the pier, or maybe even to drive to Disneyworld.

“Hey Yas, do you want to come to the studio with us tomorrow?” Brendon asked, filling up the three glasses on the table with orange juice mixed with apple juice. It was Yasmine and Alice’s favourite drink and although Brendon had been perplexed by it at first, he’d slowly come around and learned to love the juice concoction as well.

She beamed over at him while she brought in two of the plates filled with dinner. “I’d love to, that would be so much fun!” She said with a grin that was identical to Alice’s.

Yasmine called her little sister to the table and they sat down to eat.