All Six Strings

To See You Again.

Aurora strummed along to Chris' tempo and Blake's bass-plucking, a blues standard that felt a little flat. It was in the key of A minor, not a key Aurora themselves would consider interesting. It was as a pleasing enough track, they thought but it needed something ... something to make it pop. Aurora, while hitting the power chords in the standard, thought about an overdub. Blake cast his red-rimmed eyes over at them through his hair as they frowned down at their own instrument.
"We need to do an overdub. Record a loop of the main standard and run some solos. Experiment a little. Add some magic" Chris piped up from behind the drums, causing Blake to silence his instrument with his palm and bring the jam session to an ringing thalt.
"Yeah! This chord structure and bassline is fine n' all, but we need to make it pop" said Aurora, glancing from Chris to Blake and silencing their own guitar, grateful that it had been Chris who'd brought it up rather than them.
"We have a looper, we can run it through. But I don't know how to run an acoustic guitar through it. You'll have to plug in the electric one over there" he suggested, rubbing his eyes with his left hand and stifling a yawn with his other.
Aurora took off the guitar, placed it carefully on the frame and plugged in the telecaster to a looper pedal, a small grey box on the floor beside the amplifier. They switched it on and twiddled the switch on the guitars thin body. They then glanced at Chris.
"One, two, three four!" she counted, banging her sticks together above her head.
Aurora played through one standard at Chris' tempo before stamping on the peddle and playing another. They had to focus. One single millisecond off and the whole loop would fall apart. At the very end of the last beat, they stamped on it again and it played the loop. The three of them listened to it, intently for a few cycles.
"Woah, give me a run for my money, you" Chris muttered as she grinned down at the pedals blinking green light. Aurora threw her a bemused glance before beginning to count in a solo.
"How about this?" they asked before beginning to play in a blues scale at fret twelve. The higher notes, they bent up and vibratoed, before bringing the whole scale legato-ing down three notes to a beat in a smooth cascade. At the end of the standard, they bent a middle C note up in a sweep before jumping down half an octave. On the last beat she stepped on the peddle again and repeated the solo fill to capture it. The three of them listened to it in silence. Aurora privately felt this was one for their bridge, but they could see Blakes crooked smile bleeding through his papery countenance.
"I think bridge? It's a little much for a full overdub don't you think?. I'll try some jazz chords for some embellishments, I think. Let me just get this on my phone so I can transcribe it latter" said Aurora, pulling out her phone to record the loop they'd just created. After they'd done this, they stepped on the pedal twice to clear the last layer of sound. They repeated the process, counting herself in and stamping to start recording. They captured a series of jazz chords in a c-major standard, choking the strums slightly with the ball of her right hand as they went. The effect was good, listening to the loop back, the three of them shared a look of pleased approval.
"That's really nice. I bet we could just loop that for the most part. Maybe change up some of the chords, minor a few here and there to create a bit of variation. It could really work" said Chris, nodding and tapping her drumsticks on her thigh as she listened. Aurora preened. This was why they stuck with guitar, they thought to themselves.
"Yeah, I reckon we can put the power chord standard into a backing track and just run those jazz chords through at the next gig, then you're free to vary it up on the fly. And during the bridge you can just layer on a solo over the bass standard and freestyle one similar to that" Blake suggested, plucking along on his silenced bass to the looper with a satisfied smile on his face, bobbing his head like one of those dashboard ornaments.
"We'll need to run it more. Maybe try to start coming up with some lyrics?" Chris added, now addressing Blake directly.
"I've got some, but I'll bring them to campus practice tomorrow" he told her before taking off his instrument and sighing. Aurora pulled out their phone again and recorded one of the loops they'd just made before shutting off the looper and opening their new notebook to begin drawing the chord charts that she knew she'd need for a reference.
"Reckon we can have a finished song in two weeks?" they asked him, standing up and stretching her arms behind her back.
"Ohh, I reckon we can have one in a few days at this rate" he chirped as he stretched his lanky arms up toward the rafters. Aurora heard several small cracks as he unfurled his spine from its customary slouch. 
"Wait!" Aurora interrupted, alarmed. She glared from him to Chris and back again. "I never said I was playing the Eight Bar again. Not after last time" they stared at Chris imploringly as they remembered, unbidden the other evening. They watched Chris scrutinise them, confused for a moment before comprehension dawned and her face relaxed into a bemused smile.
"Ohhh, I get it. You really are scared, aren't you?" she said, coming over to stand next to Aurora at the amp which still buzzed faintly.
"I can't show up there again after I made such an ass of us that other gig. Not a chance. You can take the loop and make a full backing track. Maybe get a stand in or something. I'm sure I'm not the only muso who can play this on campus" they suggested, pleading eyes boring into Chris.
"Is it that girl?" Chris asked, rather simply. Aurora shook their head immediately despite themselves.
"No! Well ... Yeah. I mean ... not just her. Even though she might not show up again. I mean everyone else saw too, you know. Everyone else in that bar that night. It was fuck-off embarrassing" they explained, avoiding Chris' eye as they placed the telecaster on its frame and switched off the amp with a slight pop.
"You're scared that the rest of the audience will remember your slip-up and not the rolicking sucsess our set was?" Chris asked, crooked smile pulling up one side of her lips upward. "Dude, you know how many people notice mistakes in songs they've never heard before?" she added, sounding somewhat rhetorical. Aurora scrutinised her eyes which seemed to be searching them, X-raying them, and recoiled.
"It was a big, obvious mistake!" they muttered, looking down at their feet and the carpeted floor.
"You think even seasoned drummers don't then compensate?" persisted Chris, putting her free hand on her hip and shifting her weight to her other foot. Aurora took a deep breath and tried to clear her head.
"I did compensate. If anyone noticed, it definitely wasn't the only thing, not least the most obvious thing". Chris paused. "But I don't think that's what you're really worried about" she told Aurora rather bluntly, her expression smug and knowing. The implication made something shift inside Auroras gut, the result was something recognisable as anger. A kind of anger that they hadn't felt for years. It was bubbling and dangerous, but it quickly fizzled out and was replaced almost instantly by fear. It showed on their face it seemed and Chris patted their on the shoulder.
"The girl stuck around, didn't she? Doubt she even noticed your mistake. And if you ask me ... the look on that chicks' face ... I think you will see her again. Eventually" she added, peering down into Auroras face like an all knowing benevolent god.
"Uhhhg!" Aurora groaned and sank to sit on the amp.
"I thought you wanted to see her again" Chris said, frowning.
"I do, if I'm honest. I really do. But ... I ... it doesn't make sense to want something that might not happen" Aurora confessed.
It was true, this was what they'd been telling themselves. It was easier to deal with than simply wanting to see the nameless bespectacled woman again, with all the questions about her still yet unanswered. Easier simply to accept that the worse of two eventualities as inevitable.
"Aro, like it or not, your guitar work is absolutely essential for this gig. And as such, so are you. Are you going to let a person you might never see again defeat you on stage?" Chris goaded, crossing her arms so her drumsticks stuck up between them like a pair of flagpoles. Aurora looked up at her and saw her face morph into a smug look that infuriated them. But they swallowed it and tried to see past it and look at question Chris was actually asking.
"We can't do the gig without you, Aro" Chris persisted, tone urgent. "And I saw the girls face when you began playing. Even when you dropped your overcoat and so much as picked up a guitar. Trust me, you'll see her again" she added, turning on her heels and walking back to her drums.
"What make you so sure?" Asked Aurora after her earnestly as she retrieved her own notebook from the floor behind the drums. Chris flipped her hair over her back as she re-emerged, notebook in hand. She fixed Aurora with a stare that said 'Ohh honey'  as she walked back over and stooped so that she and Aurora were at eye level. She placed her free hand on her shoulder and grasped it firmly. Aurora stared at her and saw she was barely stifling the giggles.
"I saw that womans eyes. Big as black holes darlin'" she whispered, glowing smile breaking through her smug mask. She left Aurora alone with her thoughts, leaving the kitchen door swinging to a standstill in the new silence.