It was late Saturday night as they sat around the studio, working on recording their soon-to-be album, "Too Fast For Love". Harley and Mick spent most of their time huddled together, working slowly on the riffs to perfect it before getting into the booths.
They figured Vince would need more takes since he was the singer and could make more noticeable mistakes, so he sat slouched on the armchair, his sunglasses on with a bottle of beer in his hand.
Mick went into the booth, recording his section of the guitar. Each day, they got a small portion of time and money to spend in the booth. Suddenly, the tape line ran out, and Mick swears to himself as his line was cut off.
"That was a nearly fucking perfect run, what the fuck is going on?" Mick snaps, stepping out of the booth.
"We ran out, we need more tapes." Nikki explains.
"Well get more fucking tapes so I can get my portion done."
"We're trying to get more tapes,"
"Okay, everyone, we're getting more tapes, chill the fuck out." Harley waves her hands, getting up and heading into the main section of the recording booth. Harley rummages around in the area and winds up with nothing. She heads out of their studio to find the head people to figure out what was going on.
"Hey, we're out of tape, what do we do?" Harley asks.
"You have to pay for it." The girl shakes her head as if it was obvious.
Harley returns to the studio and walks in. "They said we have to pay for them."
"Fuck, I don't think we have enough." Nikki grumbles then turns to Tommy, who was perched on his drum set. "Tommy!"
"Huh?"
"Get to work, we need more tape!"
"Nah man, do I have to?" Tommy whines, making a face. Harley rolls her eyes as the two debated about which one of them had to sleep with the staff to get free tapes. "Fuck, fine, I'll do it."
Nikki grins triumphantly. "You better come back with the damn tape before Mars loses his mind."
"I will, fuck off, Sixx." Tommy groans, as Mick flips Nikki off. Tommy trudges out of the studio, grumbling to himself as he did so.
"You guys are gross." Harley sighs.
"You know it, baby." Nikki smirks at her, as Harley scowls back.
Out of boredom while waiting for Tommy to return, Nikki pulls out a bag of coke and sets it up on the table. Mick rolls his eyes as he sits the furthest away from them on the couch, and Nikki offers a few lines to Vince - who gladly accepts. He also offers it to Harley, but she declines.
"Do you just carry that around in your pocket?" She queries, watching as he snorts the lines.
"Yep."
Rolling her eyes, she turns away from Nikki. Vince remained in the original position when Harley last saw him, while she could tell Mick was getting bored sitting around.
"If we're just going to sit around all day waiting on the drummer, I might as well go home. It's getting late anyway." Mick announces as he puts his guitar in its bag.
"I'm gonna go too." Vince yawns, giving a slight wave as he follows Mick out the door.
That left Nikki and Harley alone in the studio as they awaited Tommy's arrival with more tape. Harley leans back on the couch, playing riffs that came to her mind. She played "House of the Rising Sun" for a while, before switching it up and playing "Merry Go Round" and "On With the Show". She was pretty sure Nikki fell asleep halfway through the songs.
After a bit, Tommy returned to the studio. "I have successfully landed us more time and tape for free."
"Congratulations." Harley claps slower as he bows in return.
"Aw, dude, we went to her house and she had the coolest fucking canopy bed thing." Tommy exclaims as he drops onto the couch next to Harley.
"Really?"
Tommy kicks Nikki's foot to wake him up, earning a grumble back from him. "Where's everyone else?"
"They got tired of waiting for you." Harley says.
"Of course. Well, we could start recording now, right? Get a head start on our parts?" Tommy asks.
"I think so," Nikki said. "I guess I'll go start my bit."
He gets up and grabs his bass, heading over to the smaller booth built to block out outside noise. Tommy and Harley were left on the couch now as they listened to Nikki's bass lines that filled the outside studio.
"When do you work again?" Tommy asks as he drums against the couch cushion.
"Tomorrow. I have the midday shift." Harley sighs, yawning slightly.
"Right. I think we're doing an at-home practice." Tommy said.
"Making the free tape last." She observes.
"Exactly."
They go back to silence, Tommy spinning his drumsticks and bouncing his legs as he did so.
"Should we head back?" Harley suggests, growing bored of being in the studio all day.
"And leave Nikki?"
"Sure, he's a big boy, he can walk himself home."
"Alright." Tommy shrugs, jumping up. He offers a hand to Harley to help her off the couch, which she accepts. She straps her guitar safely into its bag and slings it over her shoulder. The best purchase was getting a backpack-like case to make it easier on her shoulders.
The two exited the studio, walking down the Strip. It was about dinner time so the sun was just setting on the Californian horizon. The activity was bustling all around them, it was a constant party on that street.
"It seems like you and Nikki made up, with whatever happened." Tommy says.
"Mm, I guess so." She shrugs. They didn't really makeup, more so just chose to drop the subject entirely and both agreed to 100% ignore it.
Tommy wanted to know what had happened, but he wasn't going to keep pushing a button that didn't want to be pushed. "Aren't you kind of hungry?"
"Yeah. We should stop somewhere and get dinner."
"We can get Vince and Nikki something too." Tommy agrees as they start scouting around for a quick and easy burger joint to get food from. They get their food and head back out to the scene, on their way home.
-
The best thing about still working at Warped Vinyls - other than Jeanie - was their clean bathrooms. Harley was rather ecstatic about them, seeing as Motley's bathrooms were a complete shithole.
Of course, no public bathroom was completely clean. Harley didn't give a shit, at least their toilets weren't stained and walls and showers covered with period blood. And their sinks and mirrors weren't stained with black hair dye. Thanks, Nikki.
She sighs with the happiness of content and returns to the lobby.
"I love clean bathrooms." Harley tells Jeanie as she returns to the counter.
"Your's aren't?"
"God no. Whenever you're over, do not go to the bathroom. Go next door if you need to." Harley shakes her head. "It looks like a cult sacrificial grounds in there."
"Jesus." Jeanie said. Harley could only imagine whatever Jeanie was picturing was probably close enough.
"And the blood is there, don't think otherwise."
"Ew." Jeanie grimaces.
"Think twice before wanting to fuck Vince knowing how gross he is." Harley warns.
"It's also you, Tommy, Nikki, and a bunch of party-goers that are in there." Jeanie points out.
"I guess. It's less of me I know I'm clean in there."
Jeanie shrugs. "Are we still doing our usual dinner?"
"Sure. Hey, you should come to our Halloween show. It's also a mix of Tommy's birthday party since his was last week. He wanted to have a party mixed with a show."
"I'll try and come by." Jeanie nods.
"We might go for a Halloween theme on stage." Harley told her.
"Oh, right. Halloween is coming up, right?"
"Yeah, I think it's in 2 weeks? I can see most of LA is decked out for it." She nods. Most of the Sunset Strip was covered in Halloween decorations, like pumpkins, Halloween-colored lights, and fake bats. "Are you ready to go in a second?"
"Yep. We can close out, Mark and the others should be here at any minute." Jeanie nods in agreement.
Sure enough, a few minutes later Mark and Charlie came in for their shifts. Mark narrows his eyes at Harley as he passes, and she rolls her eyes in return. He was always suspicious of her since the Nikki incident, which makes her more annoyed at him when she thinks of it.
Soon she and Jeanie are walking out to the restaurant, which was also participating in the Halloween spirit. They order their usuals and wait.
"You guys are in the studio recording, right?"
"Yep. We were there yesterday, I'm not sure when we will go back." Harley says.
"I'll have to get a copy when it comes out. Maybe we can get some in at the shop?" Jeanie suggests.
"That'd be great. We don't have a record deal yet but I think we might just make our own. It'd be nice to get one soon, though." Harley tells her.
"Aren't there a lot of record places around here?"
"I would think so." She shrugs, and the waitress comes around with their food. "Mm, good food."
"Why'd you sell your apartment? It would've been nice to have now." Jeanie asks.
"I guess, yeah, I kinda wish I still had it. It's nice to an extent though to live with them, cause at least I know them better now and I don't miss out on things that happen behind the scenes." Harley explains.
"That's fair. It's probably weird sleeping with a guy in a nonsexual way." Jeanie says.
"I just like to pretend that he's not there."
Jeanie laughs as she takes a bite at her food. They finish their food and head out into the cool night air. Harley walks Jeanie home - it's always safety in numbers with girls in a place like this - and then goes on to her own home.
a / n ; i apologize for the shortness of this chapter, the next one should make up for it.