︵‿︵‿୨ 1972 ୧‿︵‿︵
"TRY IT AGAIN," Rene had her thumb pressed down on the speaker button while she spoke at Penny in the booth, causing the guitarist to frown a little as she played with the tuning on her guitar. "But this time maybe go a little higher and drag that out just before the drums kick in. This'll be the last note I promise."
"Yeah that's what you said two takes ago," Penny rolled her eyes, causing Sadie to chuckle and Lela to shake her head in amusement as the curly-haired girl fixed her guitar one more time and then nodded at the sound tech to rewind the recording for what would — hopefully — be their last take of the day. Sadie really hoped that it was, since she wanted nothing more than to disappear back into her bed and write out all the thoughts that seemed to plague her since the night of the party nearly a week ago.
As the overhead 'recording' sign blinked red again and Penny's guitar plucked into life Sadie's mind began to drift, like it happened to do more and more often now, while she leant back into her seat and chewed absently on her thumb nail.
The blonde didn't really know what she expected to happen in the days following Jimmy's party, but life has seemingly returned back to ordinary after her awkward semi-walk-of-shame the morning after letting him take care of her drunken self. That had been five days ago, and since then she hadn't heard anything from the Led Zeppelin guitarist except when Catalina mentioned that he just so happened to ask how Sadie was when the two crossed paths. It was as if nothing had ever happened at all, and for some reason it irked her that he hadn't even tried to reach out. Not that she should've expected anything else from him. After all, nothing really did happen... right?
A knock on the door behind her snapped her out of her thoughts, making her get out of her chair quietly — so that she didn't distract Penny from her solo — and open up the door to their room slightly to see the outlined figure on the outside. "Oh hey Pam," she smiled a little at the woman who worked as the admin for the recording studio, receiving a small smile in response as the older woman pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. "Do you need something?"
"Actually I just took a note down from a phone call that was addressed to you," the woman replied in her thick Welsh accent, causing Sadie's eyebrows to raise slightly in surprise. Usually when people tried to contact her they did so through her manager, or called her directly, and this seemed to have 'reporters' written in bold all over it.
"Did they leave a name?" She wondered.
"Oh sure," Pam looked down at her notepad and squinted slightly to make out the cursive. "It was from a, um, Mister James."
"James?" Sadie frowned for a second, her mouth dropping open a second later when she realised who the receptionist had really meant. "Page?"
The Welsh woman nodded in confirmation and Sadie had to bite down on her bottom lip to keep from smiling a little bit. "Mhm," she checked her note pad once more and then tore the top page off and handed it over to the blonde singer. "He just said that you left some earrings at his house, or— or maybe a jacket. I couldn't quite make out. But the address is all written down there for you to pick it up."
"Thanks Pam," Sadie smiles gratefully at her one more time, getting a small nod in acknowledgement before she shut the door again and turned back around in time to watch Penny performing the end of her solo.
The paper in her hand crinkled a little as she pinched it between her fingers, looking at the scrawled writing with a smothered smile before she tucked it away into her jeans pocket. "What was that about?" Rene turned over her shoulder to ask the blonde as she made her way back to her seat.
Sadie has never been good at hiding things, especially not from her band mates. And even though she knew they could see right though her she shrugged a little bit and sat back down, feigning complete innocence. "Nothing."
【☆】
THREE KNOCKS WAS all it took before the door flew open in front of the lead singer, revealing a semi-disgruntled looking Jimmy Page with a severe looking case of bed-hair. The guitarist didn't look well put together on even his best days, but this seemed to be a whole new level as she looked him up and down and saw that the bottom half of his shirt was buttoned incorrectly. "Sadie," he seemed slightly surprised when he saw the blonde in front of him, reaching up to grab the pick he had clenched between his front teeth as he ran another hand through his black tangles in some attempt to tame them.
"Bad timing?" She asked, stepping through the doorway when he opened it up enough as a gesture for her to follow him in.
"No I just lost track of time," he closed the door behind her while she looked around, noticing how his house looked when it wasn't packed full of partying strangers. It was huge, with dark wooden furniture that must've looked nice it they hadn't happened to be covered in loose papers and half-empty cups and plates. He noticed her eyes moving over the mess and frowned a little bit. "Sorry about all that, I wasn't really expecting anyone over."
Sadie didn't mind it — her own apartment looked strikingly similar when she went though her bouts or writing non-stop. "It's fine," she shrugged, "I would've called ahead but you didn't leave a number when you called the studio."
Jimmy nodded, and Sadie didn't know what else to say, leaving both of them to fall into an elongated silence that neither were willing to break first. She couldn't remember the last time there'd ever been a silent moment between them, if there had ever even been one, and now it felt as if neither of them knew what to say. Eventually, though, she couldn't help it. "You said I left some earrings in your call."
"Right," Jimmy nodded as if he'd suddenly been snapped out of some sort of stupor, reaching into his pocket to pull out a set of sparkly silver earrings in his palm. "I found them in the bathroom after you left and figured they must be yours. I was going to give them back to Cat when I saw her but—"
"But you wanted to see my pretty face for yourself?" Sadie finished off for him with a small grin growing on her face as she took her earrings out of his hand and rolled them between her fingers. "It's okay Jimmy, you can admit it."
The black-haired guitarist rolled his eyes at her. "Now I remember why I find you so insufferable."
"Insufferable, that's a big word," Sadie mocked, putting on a faux look of surprise as she pushed her earrings into her pocket. "You want a gold star for that one?"
"I can just kick you out you know," he reminded her, although she could tell he wasn't serious just by the hidden amusement threatening to show in his eyes.
Sadie shook her head at him. "I don't think you will," she stated what they both already knew, and when he didn't correct her she saw her opportunity to go on. "I don't think you even cared whether or not I got these earrings back at all. You're stuck on something, aren't you?"
He shook his head again. "Has anyone ever told you that you're irritatingly prescriptive?"
"Among other things," she informed him, laughing as she snatched the guitar pick out of his fingers. "Now show me what's got you all worked up, sooky."
Jimmy chose not to comment on her choice of nickname as he led her back down the same hallways she'd been through the week before, this time letting her actually appreciate the pictures on the wall, most of them being of his band at various concerts and awards ceremonies. Finally, they got into the main room, where the bulk of the chaos seemed to be, with empty bottles of alcohol sitting on the empty bar beside overturned glasses and scrunched balls of paper. A collection of different guitars lay across the room, some with two necks and others in bright colours and odd shapes, but all of them laying at strange angles as if they'd been suddenly abandoned.
"Looks like you've been busy," she pointed out, setting down the pick in her hand on the counter of the bar and picking up one of the loose sheets to read the lyrics scribbled onto it. "Singing in the sunshine, laughing in the rain—"
"It's not done yet," Jimmy quickly took the page away form her before she could get too far, "Robert usually writes the lyrics and I'll write the music, but since he started writing with Catalina I've been at a loss."
"Jimmy I've written plenty of shitty songs before too, don't worry," Sadie took the page back from him gently, smoothing out the wrinkles he'd caused so she could make better sense of his chicken scratch scrawl. "Hitting on the moonshine, rocking in the grain... very classy."
"Just let me play it before you judge it, alright?" He insisted as he grabbed a sleek black guitar off the stool at the end of the bar. Sadie nodded at him to go on as he placed the strap over his shoulder and started to play the intro to his new song, and even the blonde couldn't help herself from tapping her platforms against the floor to the tune. It was undeniably catchy, and completely characteristic of the black-haired boy. Sometimes she couldn't help but be envious of how talented he was — but she wouldn't be caught dead telling that to his face.
"So?" He paused after a few lines, "Thoughts?"
"You know it pains me to compliment you, right?" Sadie told him, making the both of them laugh. "But that was... really good."
Jimmy put a hand over his heart as if she'd given him the greatest compliment in the world. "Well I appreciate your honesty, Scottie. It really warms my egotistical heart."
Sadie rolled her eyes and reached out to punch him in the arm. "You're a moron."
Jimmy laughed at her attempt at an insult. "It's all part of the charm, darling. And if it makes you feel any better I've been working on it for a couple of days now and so far I've got three lines and an intro. And my band is expecting me to have it finished by the time we meet tomorrow."
She didn't need a doctorate to know he was trying to suggest something to her, although he was far too proud to ask aloud for her help. "Sounds like you could really use a hand with that," she mentioned as a small smirk started to grow on her lips. "Let me know how it goes for you."
A hand was quick to grasp her arm as she moved to turn away, although he dropped it just as quickly when she fixed him with a questioning half-glare. "Wait," he asked, "just... I wanted to ask..."
"Ask what?" She prompted, not even pretending to cover up her amusement at how much he was struggling to ask her.
"Please just help me write the goddamn lyrics to this thing," he finally told her, going on more when it took her more than a second to answer his first request. "I know you're a good writer and I am useless on my own. I'll buy you a drink, an outfit, anything... just, please."
Sadie hummed as she pretended to consider his offer, but really she would've taken him up on it just to have the privilege of watching him struggle to give her control over his work. "I'll take you up on that drink first," she told him eventually, taking a pen off the table and writing her name in perfect fine print next to his at the top of the page. "Then let's finish this song."
｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆
word count : 2080
since this is largely a slow burn, some of the chapters might be a bit slow, but i'm gonna try my best to make them exciting lol