Suzie’s House 555 : Studio Performance 1

“Hey. You guys busy?”

Bruce wouldn’t normally bother asking, but these old dudes staying at Emma’s house looked alright. Besides, the way Emma’s mouth was working, she wanted to say it but couldn’t. Also, besides, the band had just run off some dumb jock who might come back with friends to do a little gay bashing. It would be better if the old dudes got off State Street ASAP.

“We were just on our way to our record recording studio,” Tracy jumped in. “Wanna see?”

The old dudes – Peter and Gabriel or something like like – as if the two together made one musician. They shrugged at each other before agreeing. They were only a few doors down from the place anyway, so they all filed into the basement studio.

Gene tapped lightly on the door to the sound room because Pete, their recording tech genius, got really mad if you yelled or did anything loud even when he was expecting them.

“Come in!” The shout came right away, so he was in a good mood. He cocked his head as they all tramped in then said, “Oh, there are a lot of you.”

“It’s me, Emma, Tracy, Gene, Justin, and a couple of guys who are crashing at Emma’s house. It’s ok. They’re cool,” Bruce assured him.

“Aaaaand…. Kate?” Pete tipped his head just so.

The thing about Pete was that he didn’t really do facial expressions all that much. Not that he couldn’t or didn’t raise his eyebrows when he was surprised. Just that he didn’t typically do it while looking you in the eye. Probably a blind thing.

“Kate…” Justin’s voice cracked. For a chill guy, he wasn’t showing any chill now. “Kate is taking a little break from the band.”

“Among other things,” Bruce muttered.

Though Justin didn’t come right out and say it, everyone kind of guessed that Kate quit the band because the two of them broke up. Anyone in the band could have seen it coming. Except maybe Emma.

“Should we wait?” Pete kept that tipped head thing going.

No one came out and said it clearly, but they all kind of shuffled and grunted so you could hear it. No one expected Kate back. Not anytime soon, anyway.

“I thought you wanted to get this in one take.” He just had to say it like a persistent jerk.

“Justin will be playing kit drum. And some other stuff. The rest of us will take care of anything else we need.”

“So. No one on garbage cans today, huh?” Pete grinned like it was a joke. But the garbage can was already in the studio. He just didn’t know it yet. “So, shall we get to it?”

“Yeah. Let’s.” Tracy lead the way into the studio.

They didn’t want to be too slow about it. They were paying Pete by the minute just for this one song.