I turned to him, “Yeah?” He positioned his chair to face me; this was going to be an important conversation.
He leaned forward on his elbows and frowned, “What happened Man? Why’d you go home?”
Shit. He had to ask now??? I was prepared to answer that once in the meeting because I knew that would be David’s first question due to the fact that I had just pushed back the deadline another two weeks. I cleared my throat, “I was just really out of focus. I needed to get away from here and clear my head." I paused and swallowed, " New York was getting to me.”
He nodded, “Feel better now? I was worried when you left our place that night. You seemed really distraught.”
I nodded; "I wasn't feeling all that well, and I wanted to go home to try and sleep it off."
He frowned, “You weren't sick. Zac, you would have been feeling bad all day if you were. What really happened? It’s me; you can tell me anything. You know that.”
I felt everything inside me drop to the floor. All of the courage and helpful advice from Grams flew out of my head. I didn't know how to talk to him. I wanted to tell him, but I didn't want it to be there in a stuffy office. I would have much perfered it to be at either his place or mine. Somewhere where we were both comforatble. I shifted in my chair and put the magazine back on the table, “Um, I was just…”
I was cut off by David opening his door, “Well Zac! It’s nice to see you back together in one piece! Isaac told me you were having some troubles, everything ok now?”
I smiled, “Yeah, everything’s cool."
He patted my back, “Good! I’m glad to hear that. Shall we?” I nodded and the four of us walked into his office. Once we were all comfortably seated on the couches, David picked up his notebook to jot down what we came up with. I felt like I was seeing a Shrink.
“Let’s get right down to business. I know Isaac and Taylor have some great ideas for collaborations and a few different angles we can take, so why don’t you two tell Zac what you thought of and we’ll go from there.”
Taylor started by going through some of the people he and Ike were thinking about working with and all of them sounded awesome. It seemed like it was a good start and that what I had to say was going to go over well because the ideas that they had were fitting in nicely with what I wanted.
Once we had discussed and finalized a few plans, David asked me what I had in mind. I sat back and looked out the window at the passing cars and massive amounts of people rushing about the streets, “Um, well I would really like to see Only You and Flip Side on the album if the mixing goes well. They have a good beat, catchy hooks, a solid Rock edge; all of the things we’re looking for to push ourselves a little further in the direction that we want to be in.”
The three of them were looking at me wide-eyed, “Zac you're right about the way the songs feel, but the label said that if Flip Side was on the album it’d have to be a single and that’s one of your leads. Are you sure you want that? That’s a hefty weight on your shoulders because it would probably be the first single.”
I nodded, “I know what that means, and I also know that if Taylor and Ike can carry it off I can too. You said it yourself Dave; we can go anywhere we want to with this one. The possibilities are endless, and this is where I’d like to go. But I was actually thinking that we could split up the lead into three different parts so that we all had a solo.”
Taylor was glaring at me; he didn’t like this at all. “How would you perform it?”
I shrugged and matched the look, “The beat’s an easy one. Not too strenuous. If you turned up my Mike then I’d be able to do it.”
Ike grinned at me, “I like this idea. It’d be like how we started, we’d be digging right into our roots.”
David sat back and relaxed, “Taylor? Is it a go?”
He ran his hands through his hair, not too sure how to react to my proposal, “It could work I guess. But to tell you the truth I like the song the way it is, and if Zac wants to carry a lead single than we should split a different song and let the man have his fifteen minutes of fame.”
He was ready to jump out of his skin, and I wasn’t going to back off on this. I wanted it and I wanted it badly. “Taylor, this isn’t about fame. It’s about us doing it our way again. On the last album, we did it the way we were told to do it. The label is giving us a hell of a lot of freedom to prove ourselves. We have a contract renewal coming up, and we’ve got to be doing something different to catch people’s attention so that we get re-signed. You told me you wanted us to dig within ourselves and push each other to the limits. That is what I’m trying to do.”
He scoffed and shifted positions, “That’s not what it sounds like.” He got up and poured himself a cup of coffee. We all just sat there; he was trying to push my buttons and I was concentrating on keeping my cool so that I didn’t lose it on him.
I took a deep breath, and looked over at Ike. He shrugged at me, “Well what does it sound like then Tay because that’s what I mean.”
The flame in his eyes grew into a bush fire, “I asked you earlier what happened at Libby’s and my place and you never finished telling me. Why don’t you do it now where everyone can hear you? The whole getting sick thing is bull shit and I’d like to know the truth.”
I felt my face lose its color. I had no escape, Ike couldn’t get me out and David knew better than to get involved if two of us were arguing. I felt alone, and unarmed. This wasn’t what I expected and I didn’t have an answer. I swallowed the lump in my throat, “I don’t know why. I was just not in the mood to be there.”
Tay shook his head, “There was more than that. It’s not like you to just leave. You find it rude most of the time so I’d like to hear what was really going on with you.”
He kept pushing me without letting up. Ike flatly told him to drop it and that I’d tell them on my own time, but Taylor wouldn’t stop. I sat there staring at the floor clenching my jaw. “Come on Zac, you were almost in tears. There had to have been something that caused you to want to leave. Did you get thinking about Marion again?”
I stood up and got right in his face, “Listen up you Fucking Asshole! You really want the truth? I’m in love with Libby. Now, why don’t you take it off my shoulders and you try dealing with it.”