Chapter 04: The Radio Station
Callie considered E.T's proposal carefully. She recalls her conversation with E.T.
"Torment soul?" I asked. E.T. fell silent. He hesitated for awhile before he opened his mouth.
"I don't know if I should say, or could say, but well," He thought about it for awhile.
"Heck, since this conversation is going to be just between us, I'll tell you." He added.
E.T mentioned about Patrick's parent's divorce and shortly after his mum jumped off the window as she couldn't handle the heartache.
And all these happened just after that incident.
"He has not been coping well at all." E.T. replied.
I wondered if all these where the result in his change to this obnoxious man people were describing to me. However, what made me most curious was, why was his attitude towards me still the same old him?
I needed to find out more. I need to find that missing 6 years between us and if E.T. thinks being nice to him would be a good start; I'll am open to the idea of taking that risk.
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Callie slept soundly that night despite the day's drama.
She was up and awake before the alarm rang and she was also the first one down at the hotel cafe for the buffet breakfast.
She was so excited to the idea of a breakfast buffet. She had decided that she would eat her fill. It has been a long time she had such a treat.
A buffet!
Callie happily piled up her favourites: bacon and scrambled eggs. She also took a small stack of pancakes topped with fresh berries and more whipped cream.
She was tucking happily when she felt a hand on her shoulder.
"Hey - Woah." Eric replied.
"Girl, you really can eat! " He said when he saw the amount of food on her table.
"May I join you?" He asked.
"Sure!" I said with my mouth still chewing on the pancakes.
"Okay, I'll be right back." He said as he went on to get hia breakfast.
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On the other hand, Patrick barely slept a wink. The were 2 distinctive reasons he could not sleep. One, that scary flirtacious Amanda has the key and second, he was deep in thoughts over what Callie said.
His mobile alarm rang. His hangover was long gone but a certain excitement kept him up and energetic, without any sign of tiredness.
Soon, he was down at the buffet area and he saw her with Eric, Don and Ett. They were having their breakfast and chatting happily.
"Patrick!" Ett called to him, gesturing him to go over.
Callie who was back facing him turned around and saw Patrick. She flashed him a smile. Instantly, he felt butterflies in his stomach.
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"Mor-morning!" I greeted, with butterflies still fluttering everywhere in my tummy.
"Good morning!" Callie greeted in a sweet voice.
Oh man... I missed that voice of her...
"Pat!" Ett called him again and mouth a 'go' and gestured the buffet line.
I nodded and went.
I took some scrambled eggs, fruits, salad, bacon, sausage and aimlessly piling them onto my plate, just teying to fill it up and head back.
Slowly, other members came by the buffet line and we exchanged our usual good mornings.
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With a glass of juice in one hand, and a plate in his other, he heads back to where the rest were seated. He saw Amanda sashaying towards him from afar and he quickly slide towards the gang.
Ett has combined a few tables together and made one long table. He gestured Pat to come and made him sit beside Callie and then Ett himself sat next to Patrick at the table's end. He then got Eric to sit opposite Pat so that Amanda has no place to slide in between.
Soon the whole team fills the length of the table.
"Pat! Did you see what Callie had eaten?" Eric asked. Pat shook his head.
"My my, she really could eat!" Eric commented. Callie playfully threw a grape at him. He dodged.
"Well, she always ate like a baby dinosaur!" Pat chuckled.
Callie jabbed him in the stomach.
"Ow, am I always going to be jabbed by you?" He asked her.
"Well, if you still criticize me this way, you will be." She said annoyingly. Parick smiled.
Ettoire saw that smile. He smiled too.
The breakfast was noisy and fun. Don, Matt and Eric were spilling everyone's embarassing moments and the table was filled with laughter that Ett himself had never seen.
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"Oh man! Don't say that!" Pat replied, using his hands to cover his face while Don spoke of his embarassing moment.
Suddenly, I felt a hand sliding behind my back, around my waist. I eyed at the hand on my waist and immediately I knew it was Patrick's. I turned towards him and I saw a sudden fear on his face and felt his hand retreating. I immediately flashed him a smile.
His eyes widen.
His hand jerked in response.
He was obviously stunned.
The whole team boarded the bus as per scheduled towards the city's hit radio station.
The team has an interview segment at 11am and they will be also co-hosting with the deejay for the one hour segment.
I've never been in a radio station. I always thought a radio station would be dimmed room with heavily padded walls and rows and rows of shelves for those music CDs. In the middle of the room, the deejay would be sitting there with panels of knobs and buttons, intricate equipment to record his voice for broadcast.
I was pretty blown away at what I saw.
It was a total opposite.
The modern radio station is a brightly lit office.
Sunlight streams in from the huge windows that filled one side of the room. A huge wall with the channel logo and tons of messages and signatures from celebrities and there were no shelves for CDs. All the music were digitally stored in the computer systems and the Deejay just operates everything on a laptop computer.
The guys were seated around a nice coffee table with comfy couches, and the mics where strategically placed to naturally capture their voices rather than what I had initially thought.
Unlike what I had initially thought, there are no closing of door inside the recording studios. I was surprise how open concept it was compared to what I had imagined. It was definitely an eye-opener.
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"Good morning Atlanta!!" Deejay Dennis announced excitedly over the microphone. It was pretty fun watching the radio broadcasting live in front of my eyes.
"Guess who's in our studios today???" Dennis said excitedly, as if chitchating with the invisible audience over the mike.
"Let us welcome, SLOAN and his musicians!!" He announced.
"Heya~~ Atlanta!" Patrick and the team greeted in unison.
And the interview begins. They chat about the music, the album and every question were positive and energetic, except one particular question.
"Sloan, many critics had said that your music was getting stereotype. What is your take on that question?" The Deejay asked.
What the heck of a question was that???
"While the music and lyrics is a distinctive Sloan signature," Patrick replied,
"We have added in a jazz feel to some of the songs, and that was a really interesting genre to work with. We love the pop and rock mix, which is our staples. Then we have the jazzy number, and my favourite the ballads." He added.
"We were still trying to explore every aspect in our music. I must admit, I am very comfortable where I am right now. But I must say, we are progressing." He continued.
"The Jazzy tunes were my favourite, It was definitely a pleasure to produce." Don voiced out.
I heaved a sign of relieve. I blinked in bemused.
I had to admit, although there is pain involved in the both of us, I still care for this grinning bastard sitting in there.
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"Callie?" I heard a voice called out. I turned towards the voice. A tall, really thin guy walking slowly towards me in the producer room.
I turned towards that voice.
The guy wore a navy coloured formal suit. On his neck hanged a lanyard with what seems like an employee pass.
His face look familiar and then I realised who he was.
"Daniel?" I replied in disbelief. He smiled, hands outstretch, gesturing for a hug.
"OMG! It's really you!" I exclaimed, and went forward to give him a hug.
"How are you? It's been so long since we last met! I happily chatted with him.
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In the producer room, Callie was happily chatting away with a guy. I stares at them fiercely.
Besides them, Ett sttod there silently, his eyes were trying to make eye contact with me.
I turned my attention to him.
He slowly shook his head, and mouth the word 'no'.
I quickly turned my attention back to Dennis instead and smiled intentively.
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Author's note:
Please help me to vote, comment and share to keep the story going!!!
Thanks!
Liesel.