All Six Strings

The Demo in the Details.

The sun hung low in the evening sky, bathing the horizon on campus orange and yellow. Teachers, students, researchers were all leaving the campus on dregs as the sky gradually darkened. In the basement studio rooms, the lights and amplifiers buzzed in the dusty, stale air of the soundproofed booth. Chris, Aurora and Blake remained as they're been since mid morning woodsheding the same song. None minded the late hour, having long since pushed past hunger. The room held an air of productive stress as the three scribbled on papers, toiled on instruments and paced the carpeted floor.
They were listening intently to the playback from the last theee minutes of instrumental.
"It's a little better, more texture. But it's missing the lead lines. We gonna overdub those?" Asked Blake from his place leaning his buttocks on the lip of the control panel.
Aurora nodded and threw him a glance, "yeah! Keep your hair on!" She spat, stomach rumbling painfully. "Sorry" she added. He held up a hand in acknowledgment.
"We could just do that tomorrow. How's that for a new idea?" Chris chirped snidely, squaring eyes at Blake. His nostrils flared and his brow crumpled. For a moment he looked truly venomous.
"Fuck off!" he snapped at her. Aurora sighed in mild exaspitation. Bickering wasn't news for her. Even as a new member of the band, she was familiar with their tendencies to let productive session devolve into pointless arguments when the hours dragged. She knew she had to intervene despite the growing bubble of anger in her own gut.
"Shut up. The pair of you! If we're gonna start bickering over nothing, let's do it on full stomachs please" pleaded Aurora, turning round to face the other two, guitar swinging from her front.
"Sorry Blake" Chris mumbled, sticking one of her drumsticks in her hair.
"Auroras right. Come on, let's wrap this up. Finish this backing. We can cover the leads tomorrow. And a one, two, three, four ..." he counted in, cuing Chris with his long thin arm. Chris quickly followed suit with a drum loop that by now had dredged itself into their heads. Aurora chimed in with the chord progression in its blues standard, and Blake syncopated his baseline. After one standard, Aurora stamped on the recording pedal to capture the whole twelve bars worth of writing.
It was interrupted by a loud shrill ring. The three of them brought their playing to a haphazard, messy halt as it filtered down through the noise to their ears. Aurora angrily stamped on the pedal again, halting the recording and storming up to the amplifier to peer through contorted brows at her phone.
It was an unknown number. And it flashed ominously on the screen in pulses with each ring.
"Aro, you gonna answer that?" Blake deadpanned from the panel.
Aurora threw him a sideways look before sliding the little phone icon across the screen. "It's Aurora" she said into the receiver.
There was a crackling pause before a familiar, blue voice said "Hey there Aro. It's Delia".
Aurora gave a small gasp, turning around for a second time to face Chris and putting a hand over her moth. Her eyes had widened so that they might swallow the room and Chris stood up and ambled around the drum kit to loiter near panel.
"Heya!" Aurora squeaked, hearing Delia breath in a little and pause for a second.
"Ohh dear, have I interrupted something important?" Delia asked, somewhat darkly. Aurora shook her head vigorously, before realising that Delia couldn't see her. "Nah. Nothin' like that. We're just running some demos on campus. We'll be done soon" she explained, catching the eyes of the other two as she spoke who both shrugged.
"Ohhh! Nice. But that sounds important. I can hang up if you want. Call you back?"
Aurora began to shift her weight from one foot to the other nervously. "Nonono no. You don't have to do that. It's fine" she said, looking back at the other two as though for searching for their approval.
"Do you remember last night, when I said 'let me take you out', at the bar?" Delia asked, conjuring the scene vividly in Auroras minds eye.
"She nodded, "Yeah. I do".
"I wonder if you would let me take you out, like on a 'dinner n' movie' date tomorrow. We can go for coffee on campus? Take a walk around the late. It's supposed to be sunny and mild tomorrow" Delia suggested, tone hesitant, dripping with doubt.
Aurora let out the small breath she didn't know she'd been holding. "Yeah" as she'd begin to pace, she heard Delia let out what sounded like a giggle. It sounded relieved, as though a knot of nervous tension had just been released. She found herself preening like an excited child as she looked at Chris whose eyes had misted over, sunken into a hungry, tired face. "Yeah, I would" she reiterated in an elated sort of chortle.
She positively hear Delias smile through her teeth as she spoke "Fantastic!"
"Yeah?" Aurora said through a painfully wide smile. "Where on campus?" she asked, turning around and beginning to walk back toward the guitar rack along the opposite wall at an ambling pace.
"How about Vivs Cafe, at the back of campus. It's right near the park. We can grab a cup of coffee, take a walk. Nice and Quiet" suggested Delia, conjuring an image in Auroras head that she could have sworn made her soul smile.
"That sounds amazing. How's one o'clock. I'll meet you there" Aurora suggested. She could hear what sounded like Delia scribbling something down on some paper with a pen that was running out.
"Yeah, sounds great. I'll see you then" Delia said, her voice gaining an edge of confidence as Aurora turned around and began to walk back toward the panel.
"Okay, goodnight Aro. I'm sorry for interrupting practice" Delia said.
Aurora averted her gaze from those of her bandmates and ran a spindly hand through her hair, pushing it out of her face. "Honey, it's okay. Have a good night. I'll see you tomorrow" she assured before there was a beep and the line went dead. She locked her phone and pocketed it, turning around to face her two bandmates whose expressions straddled the line between irritable and proud. Chris however gave them away first, clapping her hands in front her moth comically, her eyes misting over slightly.
"Naaaawwwhhh! Look at him! All growed up" she crooned sarcastically but with that playfulness undercutting it as usual. Blake began to chuckle, as though unable to stop himself. Aurora turned away, flicking on the amplifier and adjusting the dials on her guitar to reinstate the tone.
"Soon, he'll be flying the nest. We'll have to let his room, dear" Blake said, sarcasm dripping in ribbons from his every word as he poised his fingers over his strings and Chris hurried back to the drums.
Aurora scowled at them and muttered something that might have been "bite me" but might also been something more vulgar.
They finished the demo with a rewed vigour and agreed amicably to finish the overdubs tomorrow morning. As the sun disappeared giving way to a mild velvety night, Blake had packed up his peddle and bass and Chris had shouldered her backpack, ready to leave for the night.
"Congrats, Aro" Chris muttered to her as they made their way to their shared van. Aurora looked at her and smiled widely, unable to stop herself.