Sex, Drugs, Fame, & Love

I stood outside the garage watching the people build in the studio. I got a music studio for my sixteenth birthday, but I didn't just get it handed to me. I had to actually work for it by saving up money from my job at McDonald's, birthday money, Christmas money, and every allowance in between. The only good thing about having divorced parents is you get double the holidays, which means double the money. I wasn't the only one saving up for the studio, though. My friends Gwen, Jakey, Zach, and Justin all helped. We had to spend a little on the way for instruments, but we still barely coughed up enough to build a music studio in my garage. We chose my garage because I live out in the country with barely any neighbors, so no noise complaints!

We're a post-hardcore band. Kind of like Pierce the Veil, except we have a girl singer. We all play instruments. I sing and play piano, Gwen backup sings and plays guitar, Jakey plays the drums, Zach plays the bass, and Justin plays the rhythm guitar. We're a full band, and we've been that way ever since 2009, when it was just a dream. Now, it's still a dream, but we're closer to it, and actually thinking of our future and stuff. We already promised that if we do somehow get famous, we won't get like addicted to drugs or anything like that, because that's not the kind of impression we want to make.

The people building it in already had most the instruments hooked up to speakers, they just don't have my piano hooked up yet. I figured I should ask them before it's too late. I ran inside my house—stopping to get a drink of water—and ran upstairs to my room. My piano was sitting on my bed, it was an electric one, but it had all the keys and important stuff like that. I've had it ever since I was eleven, and that's when I started writing music. I picked it up and ran back downstairs and out the front door. I walked up to the nearest worker and tapped on his shoulder. He turned around and looked at me. "Hey, can you hook this up?" I asked in the sweetest voice possible.

He smiled, showing that he was missing a front tooth. That's attractive. "Sure can sweetie, where at?" he answered, trying to show the same level of sweetness.

"Over by the mic, in the back of the studio." I pointed to where I wanted it at, by the microphone stand. He took the piano and walked towards the garage and I followed.

"So, someone starting a band or something?" he asked as we kept walking.

"Yep," I nodded. "Me and my friends, we've been in it for a while, actually."

"That's great, good to see kids your age actually doing something."

I laughed nervously and nodded. He set the piano down on a random stool carefully and started hooking it up to the speakers. Every time his grimy fingers touched the piano I held the urge to swat them away, but I new better than that. Besides, I'll just disinfect my baby with Lysol wipes when they leave.

"So you excited?" he asked, breaking the silence.

"Oh yeah! I've already called my friends up so we can practice later!" I jumped around at the thought, actually being able to record in a studio instead of using my voice memo app on my phone is such a progression.

"Well it's good to know that our hard work won't go to waste," he chuckled.

"No sir! We'll use it everyday! My band mates all live relatively close so they can come here a lot!" Gwen comes over everyday anyways.

"That's good. What's your band called, anyways?"

"Picture Perfect Moment." I know this sounds really cheesy, but every time I say that name I always imagine it on an Alternative Press magazine as the headliner, or on a billboard, or something like that.

"That's a cool name. What kind of music do you play?" I appreciated the fact that he was making small talk, but he should really work on the piano!

"Post-hardcore," I answered.

"Oh, that hard rock stuff?"

"Yeah."

"That's cool, sounds like a lot of fun!" He let go of the piano and stood up. "Well! I think we're done here." He turned around so he could call out to the rest of the crew. "You guys all done?" he asked them all as they answered "yeah" in unison. He turned back to me and smiled again, "Well, we're done! S'all yours!"

"Thank you thank you thank you!" I wrapped my arms around his neck and gave him a hug. It was really surprising for me to do, especially since I could already tell he smelled like the underside of a truck, but I was just so excited!

"Whoa there, saying 'thank you' would've been enough!" he chuckled as he patted my back and pulled away from my grasp. "I gotta get going anyways, got other stuff to do! Bye sweetie!" He waved back as he walked back to the trucks with the rest of the crew.

Soon after they left my mom walked out so both of us could admire the studio. "Looks nice," my mom stated. I nodded in agreement and pressed a few keys on my piano. It sounded like every note was being carried off on angel wings.

"Hey Mom can you get me the Lysol wipes?" I asked.

"What for?"

"The people were really dirty and grimy and... germy." I cringed at the thought of that one guy touching my baby with his grimy hands.

"Germaphobe," she scoffed as she walked inside to get the wipes. She came back in five minutes and I wiped down every seat, instrument, speaker, and chord.

Shortly after my little cleaning spree, my band mates came over to check the studio out and maybe play a little. They all thought it was cool, and spent their money well. Of course Gwen and I flipped out and screamed and ran in and played around on our instruments and sung random notes into the mics. Justin, Jakey, and Zach decided to join in on the fun and played a little on their instruments.

"Hey guys!" Gwen called. "Are we just gonna use this thing for dillydallying? Or are we gonna play a song!?" She was standing on a stool to make her taller than everyone else. Typical Gwen, always trying to be all motivational speaker type.

"Gwen's right! Let's play Apocalyptical Despair!" I yelled. That was one of our latest songs we were working on, we already knew the chords and everything.

"Do you guys want to record it? We can put it up on YouTube later," Justin asked. He's the techy one, so we let him do the tech stuff.

"Shoosh yeah! What is this thing for?" I exclaimed. They all nodded in agreement and Justin set up the recording thing and we started playing.

The song starts off with the guitar first, just by itself, to create a haunting melody. Then after you hear enough of the guitar, the vocals and the rest of the music starts playing. That's my cue! I leaned into the mic and sung the words.

A broken heart is just a form of disguise,
The kind of thing that makes you look but you close your eyes,
Another thing that you hate but you can't deny.
You wanna breath but you can't cause you're locked inside

Then in the chorus Zach adds the faint screaming while I still sing.

(No hope!)
This wold is curse to lie another life.
(Below!)
Is where our soul will lie another time.
(Go home!)
Don't waste your time, it will never be right

It was a really haunting song, and it meant a lot to me. When we were done Justin hooked it up to the laptop and made a lyric video out of it and uploaded it to YouTube. We celebrated by drinking apple juice in fancy wine classes and playing music on my stereo. We partied in my garage until they all had to go home. Gwen asked if she could stay the night, and both of our parents didn't mind, she does it all the time.

As we got to our sleeping places, Gwen hit my arm. "Ouch!" I screeched. "What was that for!"

"I wanted to see if you were awake," she casually answered.

"Well I am! What do you want?"

"Nothing. I'm just excited."

I rolled my eyes and turned my back to her and closed my eyes.

"Oh my God, Jess, we're finally becoming something!" she whispered.

I just smiled at that. We were becoming something. Something great.