He woke up in bed that Monday morning alone for the first time all week; the past week he spent every night with Lexi. Most times if he went out, they would hook up there; then they would go back to his hotel room and have sex. Sometimes, she would meet him at the hotel and they would go together or he’d just call her and she would meet him after he was in for the night. That Saturday she took him around Los Angeles to all her favorite local spots. There were never a lot of people and he liked it that way; she even took him to this little family owned ice cream shop where they made their own ice cream. She reminded him of Shayna with things like that; they weren’t about big and expensive and they loved doing different things. He rolled out of bed and headed to the shower, the last thing he wanted was a lecture on being late for another studio session. Like he really wanted to go, since once again, his ideas were basically put on the back burner.
They were sitting around the studio, brainstorming supposedly, when Nick became frustrated with a chorus he was working on,
“God damnit!” He slammed his hand down on the table. All the guys looked over at him, Kevin shaking his head disapprovingly. Bite me Kevin, Mr. Fucking Perfection, he thought as he stood up. Brian looked over at him,
“Watch your mouth.” Nick looked down and mumbled,
“Sorry.” AJ’s head snapped up and he began to complain,
“Ah hell no, if me, D or Kevin had said that you would have punched us in the damn mouth; but Brian says it and you just say ok.” Brian just smirked in AJ’s direction as Nick looked over at him with annoyed expression,
“You jealous?” Brian laughed and followed Nick out of the room and they ended up sitting outside on a bench under a tree. He was waiting, come on Brian, don’t disappoint.
“So, how is everything going?” He nodded, he wasn’t in the mood to make this easy for him, he was just going to go back and report to the guys anyway,
“Everything’s great.” He glanced over quickly to see Brian wanted to say more,
“You and Shayna got back together?” Nick shook his head and faced Brian,
“Brian, I know you know I’ve been hanging out with a girl all week.”
“Dating Shayna never stopped you bef-“ He stopped but it was too late,
“You know what? Fuck you Brian.” As he stood up to leave Brian held onto his arm and made him sit back down,
“Don’t get mad at me, you know its true. So, you and Shayna are over for good?” He shrugged,
“Yeah.” Brian looked at him with a puzzled expression,
“What happened?” Nick snorted,
“You’re not shy about being nosey, you know that?” Brian laughed,
“Well, you should just come out and talk about it.” Nick shook his head,
“Talk about it for you? I don’t need to talk about it.”
“Calm down Nick, I just wanted to make sure you were ok, I know you don’t handle break ups well.” Nick began to shake his head even harder,
“Why, because poor Nick is fragile and will fall apart? Who DOES handle break ups well Brian?” He stood up and walked back into the studio.
“Well, now that you’ve finished your little break.” Nick was not in the mood and picked up a piece of paper for effect,
“I’m sorry Kevin, it wasn’t time for the scheduled break…you gonna make me stay while everyone else takes their potty breaks?” AJ laughed out loud and Howie simply shook his head as he looked over at Kevin who was not happy about being shown up by Nick.
“Look you little shit” Before anyone could blink Nick jumped up and was standing over Kevin breathing heavily waiting for Kevin to make a move. Once Kevin stood up AJ stood in between them with a hand on each of their chests,
“Alright calm down everybody.” They parted just as Brian walked back through the door,
“Come on men, we got some recording to do.” Nick and Kevin stared at each other for another tense moment before Nick smirked and walked away.
They were discussing the vocal arrangement of a song and they could not agree. The producer sat off to the side and watched as they argued, he couldn’t believe these guys performed so well together because right now the last they were doing was working together. Nick threw his hands up walked towards the door when he heard Howie’s voice,
“Where are you going Nicky? We need to fix this.” Nick turned to look at them,
“You don’t need me, just tell me my part and how to sing it and I’ll just sing it when you need me.” Kevin looked over at him,
“That’s a great attitude to have.” Nick shrugged,
“I could be in bed, why bother sitting through all this, nobody listens to me anyway.” They all began to argue but were stopped by the sharp whistle from the producer,
“Hey, you take as much time as you need, but just to remind you, it’s your dollar.” Once they all seemed to calm down he looked over at Nick,
“We’ve heard everyone’s ideas except yours and so far those aren’t working so lets have it.” Nick went over his idea and became more confident as the producer closed his eyes and nodded his head,
“You know what? That might be it, lets try that.” They all went in, recorded their parts and when they were done they all sat around to listen. They began to nod their heads and Brian looked over at Nick,
“Good job Nick.” Nick smiled over at Brian and they worked for another two hours before they called it a day.
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Chapter 15