Feel Real

Seventeen

Ara is now my roommate. Some may think we're rushing with how we've known each other for a couple months and how we've been together for a week. From what I've seen and from several people telling me she is a very responsible, respectful, hard-working woman. I am grateful to have her in my life. She's taught and is teaching me a lot, has appropriately put me in my place when I've needed it, she's a healthy person to be around.

Today is the livestream of Sleep off of Vol. 1. She's meeting John and Meredith for the first time. They're both really impressed and happy that the barriers have been brought down enough to let her in my life and to let her love me. We've to go to John's since, at the moment, we're recording everything in his basement. Vol. 3 was recorded in his basement.

Ara and I pulled up to John's to see Meredith and John chilling outside, talking as he smoked a joint. "They're great people, Ara. They are two of my bestest friends. Relax and be yourself babe. You'll like 'em." I assured her as I parked the car, sensing her nervousness. "Do some deep breaths with me, okay?" I gently coaxed her. Ara looked up at me and nodded. We did a few slow, deep breaths together. I held onto her hand, looked into her eyes as I helped her. The hand-holding and eye-contact is an assurance thing I do for her that I decided to do when I help her. After the rape, having someone help her like this is crucial. "Ready?" I softly asked, running my fingers thru her soft, half black and purple hair. Ara gave me a kiss on the forehead before calmly replying with a smile "I'm ready." We got out of the car and walked up to John and Meredith. "There she is! Oh my goodness you are adorable, Ara!" Meredith gleamed. I kinda blushed how she's geeking over my girlfriend. Meredith is the sweetheart friend everyone needs. "Nice to finally meet you dude! Heard so much about you and it's great to finally meet ya!" John is stoked to meet her. "It's great to finally meet you guys! And thank you guys for recruiting me for this livestream. I'm stoked to do this." Ara joyfully retorts with a stunning smile. "Hey it was his idea. He's been braggin' about ya." John told Ara. I blushed a little more, trying to hide it. Ara caught it and giggled, "Oh so you've been braggin' about me huh?" She playfully teased. I smiled, "Nope. Not at all." I teased back. "So y'all ready?" Meredith asks us. Ara, John, and I all said yes and the four of us headed in and started tuning and prepping for the livestream. "How would you feel about doing Devil's Door and Crippling Form after Sleep, Ara?" John asks her while tuning the bass. He plays bass. I looked up from tuning my 7-string to see Ara's priceless reaction. "Fuck yeah dude. I'm down." She replied happily. I forgot she has a good work ethic and professionalism so I didn't get to see the cute priceless reaction I wanted to see. That's another thing I absolutely love about her: her work ethic and professionalism. "It's gonna be badass to hear y'alls vocals together." Meredith excitedly chimes in as she was tuning her drums. "Ara is a beast. She may be tiny. Y'all just wait." I laughed when I called her tiny. "Oh yeah she is shorter than me." Meredith laughed. "Midget." John teased her. "Goddamn you Ryan." Ara giggled. We finished up tuning and got the camera set up for the livestream. Ara was at the piano on my right side not too far from me, John was to my left between me and Meredith with her being in the corner a bit. "Hey guys! We've decided to go live to do a few songs for y'all to entertain you between releases. Joining us is Ara, the former  front-woman of Nemesis." Meredith warmly starts the livestream. She's the mastermind and powerhouse of VCTMS. She is a genius. "Hey guys! Can't wait to jam with these great people." Ara warmly chimed. I'm stoked to jam with my girlfriend like this. "We are starting with Sleep. Then doing Devil's Door and Crippling Form. If y'all would want another song or two performed please comment what we should do. Now, onto Sleep." Meredith ends the introduction. We all quick looked at each other to give the collective go. I kinda half-smiled at Ara. Ara blushed a tiny bit. I only started playing since the first 40 seconds or so is only me. I could kinda see Ara subtly admiring me; only I can tell she's admiring me. How she's subtle about it is something only I can pick up on with knowing her body language and such. Ara, John (on bass), and Meredith then came in to play their parts. This is really cool. Jamming with my best friends and my girlfriend. At the corner of my eye I can see Ara feeling the music note by note as she plays. She's a queen with music. John and Meredith admired her passion with how she gets so into it. Sleep was so nice to cover; all four of us vibe so well and it's such a peaceful song to play in all honesty. Now we're doing Devil's Door. Ara, John and I got up to do this song. Kinda giving the people a virtual concert.
John is staying on bass for this and Crippling Form. These songs are gonna be so fun to do with her. Ara looked back at Meredith and John to cue em on readiness. Ara subtly looked at me with excitement and blew me a kiss that I gladly returned as hidden as possible. Ara and I don't want too much publicity on our relationship.
"I'm better off hanging from that ceiling" Ara belted out, jumping to the beat as John, Meredith, and I started Devil's Door. John and I are jumping around, spinning like we usually do during performances. On my parts where I do my backup vocals Ara and I would scream our parts into her mic. Honestly it was really cute and a little intimidating. Never have I ever seen a woman go so demonic in my face. For a good thing. John and Meredith looked a bit impressed how she adds more energy and power during breakdowns. When this girl feels music she feels it.
Leading up to Aiden's solo towards the end I cued John and Meredith to prepare for her gutturals. Typical show stance habits John and I backed up and looked down during the instrumental bridge as she did Aiden's part.