Do it for the memories and for Baltimore

Chapter 16

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Rachel’s POV

Eventually Alex left to go set up in Blake’s studio and I hung around the lobby for a bit. Brent had told me that I had been booked with this solo singer who won a free recording session for the day. So once I met the girl, we got right to work on her song. I had to admit that I would have preferred to be working with All Time Low, but this was a one day thing and I knew that tomorrow I could always drop in on their session.

By the time 3pm rolled around, the girl who I had been working with was finished and I would mix the song tonight for her to pick it up tomorrow. I knew I would have a long night ahead of me. I headed into the lobby to see Emma behind the secretary desk, and immediately ran over to her.

“Whats going on Rachel?”

“Alex is here!”

She looked at me with her eyes nearly popping out of her head, “What?! How did you find out?!”

“We both walked here this morning and that’s how he found out I worked here! Sadly though, him and the band are working with Blake”

Emma sighed and then looked at her computer screen and then her eyes lit up.

“What are you thinking about Emma?” I asked her cautiously.

“Well, look!” I leaned over the desk to see the screen, “All Time Low are only booked for today! Whoever booked them in, only put them in for a day! You could be the engineer working for them for the rest of the time!” She exclaimed to me.

She did have a point. They were only booked in for today and then Blake’s schedule was open for the rest of the time.

“Hm, I’ll have to talk to Blake and then Alex to see if they’d be okay with that…”

“Hey, they dont have to know! I’ll just book them in with you for the rest of the-“ for some reason, Emma didn't finish her sentence as she looked up and stopped talking. I checked behind me and saw Blake walking into the lobby.

“Ughhh, I cant take them any longer!” Blake said in a furious tone.

“What’s wrong Blake? Arent you working with All Time Low?” I said casually.

“Yeah, and they wont take me serious! It’s like they're acting childish on purpose! I dont know how I’m going to work with them for the rest of the time”

“Um actually Blake,” Emma started. I turned and gave her a look that said drop it, but she just looked back at him continuing on, “whoever booked them in only booked them for one day, so you could ask them if they’d prefer anybody else because of creative differences between you and the band?”

“Oh thats some good news, thanks” he walked away back to the guys.

Emma giggled to herself and I just rolled my eyes.

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Alex’s POV

I had told Zack, Jack, and Rian to act more like jerks than usual so we could get paired with a new engineer. Not that I had anything against Blake, I mean, we had just met, but knowing that Rachel was up for grabs, I wanted to work with her. So we did just exactly as planned. We would purposely turn down any ideas that he had, some of them would have worked, but most of them wouldn't have. We would also just completely leave for no reason at all, take unneeded phone calls, or take nap breaks on the couches.

Blake had left for a moment, looking frustrated, and I smiled to myself.

“I feel bad for purposely giving him hell, but suppose your plan works…would we for sure be working with Rachel?” Rian asked me.

“It should! But if it doesn't work, then we could just request her.”

“Hey guys” Blake said coming back inside and sitting down in his chair, “so I was thinking, if you guys wanted to, you could switch engineers for the rest of the recording process?”

“Yeah we’ll take Rachel” I said a little too fast. “Uh, cause, I know her and have heard a lot of good things about her recording style” scratching the back of my neck, I was hoping that sounded like a good reason why I chose her so fast.

Blake sat there for a minute, but then leaned forward in his chair, “if that’s okay with all of you, then that’s fine with me.”

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*The Next Day*

Rachel’s POV

I arrived at work at my usual time, getting all cozy on one of the couches by the front door. Emma and I chatted casually when she arrived and had a mischievous smirk when I questioned who was going to be working with All Time Low.

“Wellllll….it might be you!” she said excitedly.

As if on cue, the doors to the building opened and in walked four guys, one of which was Alex. The way the sun was hitting the back of them and the way Alex flipped his hair out of his eyes, they looked like some sort of big important band like Kiss or The Rolling Stones. I took in what I was assuming, the rest of the band. There was a tall guy, a muscular guy, and an average height guy only holding drumsticks. Wait a minute! Back it up a second…The muscular guy…I’ve totally seen him before! He was the guy at the Ravens shop who I thought was H O T.

Alex turned his head towards Emma and I and grinned when he saw me.

“Oh hey there Rachel. This,” he motioned towards the three guys, “is the rest of All Time Low!”

Emma nudged me when I seemed to be frozen in my spot, so I got up and walked over to them.

“Hi guys, nice to meet you” I extended my hand out to shake all their hands.

“Well if it isn't the girl I saw in the Ravens pro shop a while ago!” the muscular guy said to me as I shook his hand, “my name’s Zack, nice to officially meet you.”

I shook the others’ hands and they made remarks like “So you’re Alex’s friend” and “Alex has told us a lot about you”. I blushed and tried to hide my face a bit when they had told me that Alex had been talking about me to them.

“So do you guys know who you’re working with yet? I heard that you only did day one with Blake and that was it.”

They all grinned at me and then Alex.

Alex began to talk, “Actually we’ll be working with you!”