Sex, Drugs, Fame, & Love

I woke up the next morning around nine-ish. George wanted us all at Rise at ten. I had an hour. Fuck. I ran to Gwen's bed, she was still sleeping, and shook her awake. She shot up and out of bed to go wake the guys up. I took a shower last night so all I had to do was get dressed, do my hair, makeup, and brush my teeth. I did that all as fast as I could, feeling tired as hell. The guys got ready in fifteen minutes and Gwen and I were still applying makeup.

"Hurry up you guys! We're gonna be late!" Justin yelled.

"Shut up Justin! You don't know how much it takes to look this pretty!" Gwen yelled back.

"Oh Gwen you don't need makeup, you're already beautiful," Jakey assured.

"Shut up Jakey-bear, I want to look more beautiful."

"Darling, there's no such thing as more beautiful than you."

"Well I'm gonna make it possible!"

"Would you guys shut up and get ready!?" I asked, irritated. Gwen rolled her eyes and went back to her makeup. When we were done we hustled outside and called a taxi. We had fifteen minutes left, we were gonna be a little late.

When we got there it was 10:07, we weren't too late, which was good. We ran to the fourth floor and into George's office. Danny and his band was there, listening to what George was saying. He stopped talking and turned to us. "Ah! You guys made it! Great!" he exclaimed.

"Yeah, sorry we're a little late," I apologized.

"It's quite alright, I was just telling Danny about how we're gonna accomplish a lot today." Danny looked at me over George's shoulder and gave me a look that said "we're gonna be here all night". George didn't notice Danny's little message and continued. "I want to make a YouTube video out of your song, Apocalyptical Despair."

"But we didn't finish recording it," Justin butted in.

"And that's what we're going to do! In the studio you go!" George pointed to the studio and we walked in and grabbed our instruments.

"What about us?" Danny inquired.

"You guys discuss what you want your album cover to look like," he answered. George turned to us from outside the studio and put in a pair of headphones. "Alright, go," he spoke into the mic.

We played our song—with many interruptions from George—and finished it. George called us out of the studio and we walked out. He pulled a laptop out and went on some software for creating lyric videos. "Okay, who's the techy one?" he asked. Justin raised his hand and George told him to help him decide what they wanted.

I got tired of standing and sat down in a seat next to Danny. "Ahhh, I remember my first YouTube video from Rise. You're gonna be here a while," he chuckled.

"I'm gonna be sooo bored." I rolled my eyes.

"I'll stay here to entertain you."

"Thanks." I looked outside the window and sighed. "It's a beautiful day and we're cooped up inside."

"I know, it sucks. But you'll get used to it."

"If I'd have known we were gonna stay this late I'd get more sleep."

"Yeah, sorry for keeping you late."

"It's fine, but I have a question."

Danny looked at me. "Okay."

"Why did you take me to the top of that building?" I asked.

"I wanted you to know more about me," he shrugged.

"But why there?"

"It's my favorite spot. It's so quiet, and peaceful, it gives you an opportunity to just think things out, ya know?"

"Yeah, I know what you mean."

"Did you have your 'thinking spot' back in Wisconsin?" he asked.

"Well, I had two."

"Two?"

"One at my dad's and one at my mom's."

"So your parents were divorced then?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "Anyways, my spot at my mom's was—you're gonna laugh—but out in a cornfield."

Danny held back a chuckle. "What's your spot at your dad's?"

"In the middle of the woods."

Danny nodded. "I imagine that would be peaceful, too."

"Yeah, you could just hear the sound of nature, ya know?"

"That sounds like something that a hippy would say."

"Well it's true!" I yelled, a smile planted on my face.

Danny laughed then looked at George and Justin, working on the video. "Well, considering we're gonna be here a while, I want you to meet the rest of my band mates." He stood up and extended his arm out, I gradually grabbed it and followed him as he walked to the rest of the band. He pointed to a tall, lanky man sitting in a chair with one leg crossed over the other with a guitar in his lap. He had long, black stringy hair. "This is Zee. Zee, this is Jess." Zee flicked his hand up without even looking at us. "He doesn't talk much," Danny whispered. He lead me to another guy who was playing on his phone. "This is Mikey. Mikey, this is Jess." Mikey looked up and I noticed that he had striking green eyes with brown hair. He smiled at me.

"So you're the Jess Danny's been talking about for the past three days!" he exclaimed.

Danny's cheeks burned red as he smacked the back of Mikey's head. I giggled and Danny smiled. He lead me to another guy playing on his phone. "This is Alex. Alex, this is Jess." Alex looked up at me, he had blond shaggy hair and brown eyes.

"Hey," he muttered, I said hey back and Danny lead me back to the chairs we were sitting in.

"Well, that's all of them," he said.

"They seem nice."

"They are, and so is Zee, he just doesn't talk. He'll acknowledge you but he won't say anything. He talks to me and hardly to the rest of the band. But he's cool."

"Okay now I want you to meet my band!" I jumped up and grabbed his hand and pulled him to the other side of the room to my band mates. I walked him over to Gwen. "Gwen, this is Danny."

Gwen jumped up out of her seat and immediately started shaking Danny's hand. "So you're the Danny Jess can't shut up about?" I felt my cheeks get hot. "I gotta say, I'm pleasantly surprised! You're a good looking man!"

"You expected something less?"

"Yes actually. For some reason I thought you were that guy over there." She pointed to Mikey.

"Nah, I couldn't be him. He's gay," Danny shrugged.

"Are you being for real or are you just saying that to pick on him?" I asked.

"I'm serious. He came out in high school. But he's not like the 'oh my God will he shut up' kind of gay. He's more like the 'oh hey he's gay but he's not in my face about it' kind of gay. Like a 'not sure if he's gay but he sorta acts like it' gay."

"Yeah I'm pretty sure Justin is like that," Gwen shrugged.

"Yeah, he acts like it but I'm not sure if he is."

"Ooooh if he is maybe Mikey and Justin could get together!" It was so cute how Danny seemed so excited at that. I giggled and grabbed his hand and pulled him to Jakey.

"Jakey, this is Danny. Danny, Jakey." Jakey looked up and waved at Danny. "Jakey's Gwen's boyfriend," I added. I took him to Zach and introduced them. "And Justin's over there." I pointed to Justin over by the laptop.

"Oh, the techy one?" he asked.

"Yeah, he put our first song we ever recorded up on YouTube with lyrics."

"That's cool."

Danny and I sat back down waiting for the lyric video to be done. When it was about one in the afternoon or so they were finally done. "Guys! Come check it out!" Justin yelled. We all ran to the laptop to watch the video. George clicked play and it started. If you've ever seen a Rise Records lyric video, you'd know what to expect, the words of the lyrics would pop up when they are sung, there was a lot of movement, and all that stuff. That was what was in ours, and it was amazing. It had a reddish background with black words. "Well, what do ya think?" Justin asked when it was done.

"It's amazing," I gawked.

"Yeah, upload it now!" Gwen yelled. George went on YouTube and uploaded it. We celebrated for a short minute, then it was Devils Inside's turn to do a song.

Danny, Zee, Mikey, and Alex walked into the studio and grabbed their guitars and stuff. Danny's guitar was a solid red one, and it looked super cool. George put the headphones on and leaned into the mic from outside. "Okay, we already have the piano in this song recorded for the beginning, so I'm gonna play that, when it's your guys's cue you start. Is that clear?" They all nodded their heads and got in a ready position. George turned to me and slid his headset off. "You'll want to hear this song," he whispered. He pressed play and I heard piano for like five seconds and then they all started with their heavier instruments. Danny started singing, but I didn't really pay attention to the words, just his voice and his facial expressions. His voice was smooth, but husky at the same time, and his eyebrows would furrow together or raise, depending on what note he's singing. Now, the lyrics of the chorus is what really got my attention. It started off as screaming, kind of like our song does, but the singing part was different:

WAKE UP!!!
I can't live another day
ENOUGH!!!
Without you guiding my way

I realized that Zee did the screaming, but for the next part of the chorus it was all screaming, and Danny did it:

You said we wouldn't be done,
After the loss of the only one,
Who could save you
Who could save us

And then the wake up part started again. I actually got a feel for this song, it was so touching. It was obviously about someone dying, but I didn't know who, but I wanted to. But how would I ask Danny?

After they were done Alex was helping George, so I'm guessing he's the techy one, so I walked over to Danny. It was late now, probably eight or nine, and it was dark. Danny was gazing out the window, watching the night sky.

"Hey, Danny?" I asked as I approached him.

He turned around. "Yeah?"

"What was that song about?"

He didn't answer me. He looked passed me, and I don't think he was looking at particularly anything, just staring off into space.

"Danny?" I asked again.

"Okay, Jess, since I like you a lot, I'll tell you." My cheeks got warmer when he said 'I like you a lot'. "When I was like seven or eight, my dad walked out on me and my mom, I'm an only child, by the way. My mom was stricken with grief, and hanged herself. But right after he left, my mom told me that we were going to be okay. But she fucking lied!" He slammed his palm against the wall and balled his hand up into a fist. I could tell that he was mad at her, mad at everything that happened. "I was brought into a foster home and Zee and his parents adopted me. So Zee is like my brother, you could say. We bonded quickly, and became best friends. Now we're band mates."

"Oh Danny!" I ran up to him and wrapped my arms around him and buried my face into his neck. "I'm so sorry," I whispered. Danny was surprised at first, but eased up and wrapped his arms around my waist.

"Ooooh look at the love birds!" Gwen exclaimed. I pulled away from Danny and looked into his eyes. I just realized that his eyes were a dark shade of grey, almost black.

I sat back in a chair and threw my head back. I was extremely tired, all I could think of was sleep. My eyes started to drift shut. I couldn't help it, if I could, I'd keep them open, but I couldn't, and fell asleep in the chair.

(>‿◠)✌

I felt soft tugging on my arms and my consciousness was slowly returning. I heard a faint, quiet, husky whisper say, "Hey, Jess, wake up, we're done."

I wasn't totally conscious, so I said something along the lines of "Hhhhhaaaabaaaaraaaa". Don't ask.

The owner of the other voice giggled. I quickly realized who it was. Danny. I opened my eyes and saw his beautiful face in front of mine. "Hey sleepyhead, you were out for a couple hours. We're done with the video. Everyone left. Even George."

"So it's just you and me?" I asked.

"Mhm. I'll take you home if you want. You missed it but George offered you guys a small apartment, they all accepted it."

It's just me and him. I've got to start taking chances

I gently brushed my fingertips along the side of his face and he closed his eyes pleasantly. "C'mon," he started. "I'll take you home." He helped me up and half carried me to his car. He noticed me shivering and put the roof up and started the engine and drove in the direction of the hotel. He reached his hand out and grabbed my hand that was on my lap and brought it to the middle of us, holding our hands there.

When we got to my hotel he walked me up to my room. I hugged him again at my door, and we swayed back and forth. "Thanks," I muttered.

"No problem." He pulled away so we were facing each other. Our lips were so close, we could close the gap any minute. And you know what? We did.