Worlds Apart

Chapter Fourteen

Recording with them wasn’t too different than I’d imagined, though it was an experience all on its own.

Flopping back down straight in my seat, I turned my back to them and looked questioningly at Cash as I took a sip of the beer. He just stared back at me thoughtfully.

“What are you thinking about?” I asked, lowering the bottle.

He pursed his lips pensively, not responding immediately and causing me to raise my eyebrows at him impatiently. I was almost at the point of prodding him between the eyes when he finally spoke up.

“We’re done earlier than I thought we’d be,” Cash informed me.

I just took another swig from the bottle, and said, “And?”

That awoke him to me, having him shake his head almost imperceptibly before he sent me a challenging look. I barely noticed the fact that my back straightened at the sight. What could I say? I’d never back away from a dare, and when challenged either I overcame or destroyed everything around me. It was a Turner family trait.

“Give me a half an hour to put a rough mix together, and we’ll see if you can manage to cut the vocals in time,” Cash dared, his mouth twitching in a grin that he refused to let full out.

Without hesitation, I responded, “Go for it.”

Sending him a mock toast of my own, I pushed up from the chair, turning to join the lovely trio behind us. We were soon joined by Manny when he escaped the studio space, putting his equipment away carefully.

Cash cranked the volume upwards to drown out our chatter, but that didn’t faze us.

It was a half an hour where we transitioned to another drink, laughter ringing out beneath the sound of the thumping music, rushing up and down the hall and shouted conversation into one another’s ears. They were infectious as Manny dragged me into half a dance when his bass line was the predominant sound thumping all around us.

It was amazing that with each person passing through the studio, I realized that not only did I have friends, but I missed them desperately. I never meshed to mesh well enough for more than a fleeting night. It had a tendency to make me believe that my only friends were in the band – they were my oldest and closest, truthfully. There had been a period of six months after our last tour that I’d gone into a alcohol and drug induced spiral where I’d been surrounded by people, but those weren’t exactly people I’d call to help on an album. It was a certain crowd, to be sure, and I didn’t even know half of their names.

Truly it wasn’t the same. And I was seeing all these friends and acquaintances from across my life in a different way that I’d never thought of before. People were always different inside the studio opposed to at a bar.

“I’m going to have to head down the hallway,” Jane yelled in my ear.

I barely caught the words over my isolated guitar that would go into the song, but I put two and two together. And it was enough to have my eyebrows dragging together as I remarked, “Sarah and Simon left hours ago.”

With a playful roll of the eyes, she gave me a light shove on the arm; she took a drag from her beer. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Manny jumping up and down with his arms flinging to the side, but Jane’s next words made sure I forgot about that sight. “I think I need to get in with those Harrison brothers. They’ve got quite the reputations.”

Taken aback, I replied in a shout, “What do you mean?”

“Oh, c’mon Jude, save the innocent act for someone else. I know you better than that,” she chortled.