Chapter 5
“Oh, God. Everything’s so loud,” I groaned the next day at work. Jake was out for the afternoon, leaving me to do the recording with the guys, so I was able to complain freely.
“Melody, have you ever been drunk before?” Taylor looked at me strangely.
“Once, but I don’t remember the hangover that well. If I had, I probably wouldn’t have had so much beer at that second bar we went to,” I groaned.
“Take a few aspirin and get a neck massage. It helps--trust me,” Taylor smiled, downing a few aspirin himself.
“I take it you had a little fun last night, too?”
“Yeah, me and my girlfriend Sammy went out to a party,” he nodded.
“I’ll make you a deal,” I said as I sipped on my coffee. “I’ll rub your neck for five minutes if you’ll return the favor.”
“You got a deal,” he shook my hand and took a seat. I stood up and began to massage him, my hands thankful to have something to do. For a 16 year-old he was pretty cute. Suddenly Isaac walked in.
“Hey, Ike, she’s doling out free neck massages here, I’d get in on the action if I were you,” Taylor raised his eyebrows.
“Well, not exactly free. You have to return the favor,” I said, smirking.
“Why don’t you give Isaac my turn. I just remembered that I promised Zac I’d go over the lyric changes with him before we started recording.”
“Okay,” I nodded, waiting as Taylor got up and Isaac settled into the padded stool. With him, I was a little more thorough. I massaged the base of his neck and then went down his back, massaging both sides of his spine. He slumped over, enjoying the back rub and closed his eyes. After five minutes had passed, I let up, rubbing my hands gently over his back.
“Switch,” I said softly patting him. He got up and traded me places and began massaging my neck and back, relieving some of the pains that had overtaken my body that morning. I arched my back and then slumped, feeling everything stretch as his hands moved deftly. I felt him move my hair to one side as he rubbed my neck carefully. When his hands moved away, I suddenly felt his warm lips kiss my neck softly and then move to the other side of my neck and kiss me again. His lips then went to my ear as his hands moved down my back and his thumbs massaged on opposite sides of my spine.
“Do you remember last night?” he whispered, kissing my earlobe.
“Yes,” I returned.
“I don’t regret anything....do you?” I could feel him smiling. I shook my head slowly before I turned around quietly and looked into his eyes. I stood up and put one hand up to his cheek while his hands went around my waist and up my back, pulling me tight to him. He smoothed a hand over my hair and then down my back, softly sighing. I moved slowly towards his lips, watching as they came closer and closer to my face, about to make a connection once again as they had the night before....
“Guys, it’s 8:00! We should start now!” Zac yelled from the other room.
I pulled away from Isaac quickly and laughed a little as he groaned with dissatisfaction, “No work, please? Can’t we just stay here?” He pulled me back tried to kiss me again, but I pulled away and swatted him.
“There’s a lot of work to be done, Ike. Now come on,” I took his hand and pulled him into the other room slowly. When I reached Zac and Taylor, I clapped my hands together. “Okay, today we’re going do the fun part! The interview portion. I figured we could just start by organizing what you want to say, put a few comfortable chairs in there and just start recording. How about it?”
The guys nodded.
“Okay, well then, let’s get started.”
***
“So how is this CD more mature than Middle of Nowhere?” I asked. The guys had requested that I be in with them asking questions so in case they needed them on the CD they’d actually have audio of someone asking them. They could have just dubbed them in later, but they said they preferred to have them there at that moment so they could remember why they laughed at a certain question or why they thought my voice sounded funny when I asked it.
“We made this one go to college!” Zac laughed.
“Yeah, we sent it with little books and it got to meet all the professors,” Taylor elaborated, chuckling. “No, actually we have a year’s experience under our belts now and that’s making all the difference. We know what the fans want and how they react to different things.”
“Basically, we understand the industry a lot better now and that’s really making a lot of the difference. We see how everything is supposed to go and everything is running more smoothly. Also, we’re all growing up and learning a lot of hard lessons about the world and people and girls especially, and that made a great difference in the writing portion,” Isaac explained.
“What are your individual favorite songs on this album and why? I mean, do you like how it’s written or sung or just the message?”
“Probably ‘The Hard Road' because of it’s message,” Zac said. He finally calmed down enough to answer seriously. “It really tries to say that there’s a lot of things coming your way that aren’t going to be easy to handle and that it’s just another one of those trials in your life that will make you a better person in the end, even though we all hate it.”
“Mine would be ‘In The City,’” Taylor smiled. “It’s the funnest song to perform and it’s kind of got a rock feel to it that makes it cool.”
“I guess would be 'Nightingale.’” Isaac spoke last. “It’s telling about never wanting to leave someone you love just because you're supposed to by society's standards. It came from Romeo and Juliet--the idea did--where Romeo is supposed to leave and he hears the lark but Juliet says that he should stay because it was only the nightingale. I feel like that sometimes.”
“Speaking of feeling like you’d never want to leave someone, the age old question: Any girlfriends?”
“Not for me,” Zac said quickly. “They cost too much, and I really don’t want to hassle with them. I’d rather just leave myself to all my adoring fans. I love you guys!”
“I’m seeing someone, but it’s not really official coupledom yet. Just kind of dating,” Taylor said.
“I have a girl in mind. I hope she’ll be my girlfriend someday, but right now we’ve only been on one date.”
I blushed slightly and quickly found the next question. “Okay, tell us some stories. Most embarrassing moment on stage, most interesting meeting, coolest celeb....”
“Man, I’ve got to tell about the embarrassing moment,” Taylor laughed loudly. “Okay, we were in Tulsa for the first time in six months and we were doing a benefit concert with other native Tulsans when Isaac was up on stage...” I watched Isaac slowly blush and laugh a little. “Anyway, he was trying to introduce the group ‘Six Boys’ but wasn’t saying the intro from heart. He was reading it from this teleprompter. Apparently someone backstage had something to settle with him because when he introduced the group he said ‘Sex Toys’ which was written up on the prompter.”
I laughed and then shook my head, “Thanks for sharing, but I don’t think that will make it onto the final cut Tay. We’re giving this to mainly 12-16 year olds. Anyway, you have some other stories.”
“Yeah, I got one,” Isaac smiled deviously. “Once we were at this recording studio and there was this intern that was extremely ticklish...” he winked at Taylor and Zac as I got up and started cowering away.
“No, no....please don’t....” I pleaded, already laughing.
“Sorry, it’s policy,” Isaac shrugged as he lunged at me. I dodged him and ran out into the booth and then into the waiting room. Isaac followed me and grabbed the back of my shirt, leaving me no escape. I wriggled and writhed as he pulled me close to him and began moving his hands quickly to my most ticklish spots: my sides. I screamed and laughed, hoping that Taylor would come and help me or Zac would pull Isaac off. Suddenly, Isaac loosened his grip a little and I took the opportunity to escape into the back room. I got behind an empty table and took a defensive stance, watching as he got on the other side of the table. He darted to one side and I darted to the other, only to see that he had done a fake and was grabbing me again. I moved the only way I could which was backwards onto the table. He got up on top of it too and continued to ravage me with tickling. I squealed in frustration as he held me down easily. After I had squirmed for a bit, he took a new approach and pinned my arms down with his hands and straddled me, his face no more than six inches from mine. Both out of breath we just sat there for a moment, breathing hard and giggling a little. Before I knew what was going through my mind, I kissed him. It had only been since the night before that I had kissed him, but it seemed like so much longer.
His hands soon left my arms and went under me to wrap around my back as he lowered himself closer to me. I wrapped my own arms around his neck and ran my fingers through his curly hair and felt the tiny hairs at the base of his neck. He shifted so that he laid beside me, and pulled away, placing the back of his hand on my cheek. I turned my head a bit and kissed his fingers tenderly, closing my eyes. I brought my own hands to his and began to kiss his fingertips one by one and then kissing the palm before placing it on my cheek and smiling at him.
:::Author's Note: "The Hard Road" and "Nightingale" are both fictional songs I made up to fit the story:::
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Chapter 6
Chapter Index