Love On Tour (A Johnny Depp Love story)

Venus In Furs (25)

45 minutes passed and the band was only on song 9 out of 19.

"Severin, Severin, speak so slightly
Severin, down on your bended knee
Taste the whip in love not given lightly
Taste the whip, now bleed for me"

"I am tired, I am weary
I could sleep for a thousand years
A thousand dreams that would awake me
Different colours made of tears"

As soon as the song finished Alice called for a 5 minute break. "Let's take a break, guys."

Johnny sounded beautifully as he sang the song. Shy felt slightly uncomfortable playing guitar for a song that should only be played by Jeff Beck. She only met him once or twice ever, but times like this really reminded her of him.

"That was really good, man." Chris told Johnny and patted him on the back.

"Thanks, man." Johnny replied. 

A couple of the others went to the toilet or went out for a walk to stretch their legs. Johnny stayed put in the studio even though he was dying for a smoke. Joe noticed this and whispered some stuff into his ear.

"Don't you need to smoke?"

"Nah. I should lay off it for a while..." As he spoke he looked across the room as Shania who was sitting with her electric guitar on her lap. It looked like she was using a tissue to wipe it.

"Don't stare, John. You'll only make her feel weird. Have you spoken to her yet because we did discuss you telling her today..."

"I know, I just need time." Johnny raised his voice just enough to make Alice, Tommy and Shy look up at him. Shy quickly went back to looking at her guitar.

"Got a problem there, man?" Tommy asked Johnny.

"Me, no. I was just telling Joe that we needed perhaps more time to rehears before the tour starts so he said we need to cram in as much rehearsal time as possible between now and then." He looked across as Shania and decided to actually speak to her, "Shania, what's wrong with your guitar?"

"Oh nothing. I just accidentally scratched it with my bracelet while we were playing 'White Rabbit'. I guess I must have rubbed my wrist on the body too much while I played and sang. It'll be fine though." Shania barely looked up at Johnny when she replied to him.

Joe elbowed Johnny in the side, "Ask her if you can help her..."

"Do you want me to help you rub the scratch out? Alternatively Joe will probably have some scratch remover in his car that I could fetch for you."

"Nah, I'll be ok. It's not too bad."

"Are you sure because I bet Johnny would be happy to help you?" Joe added.

"No, I'm ok. I might got for a walk outside anyway, what time do I need to be back?"

"About 9:55am, I'll let you have an extra 5 minutes just because I like ya." Alice teased.

"Thanks, Mr Cooper." Shania laid her guitar down carefully and walked outside into the car park for some fresh air and a walk. As she was outside she sat on the floor and checked her social media. She liked a couple posts then took a selfie and uploaded it. For the caption she added some song lyrics from 'How You Gonna See Me Now' by Alice Cooper, 

"How you gonna see me now
Please don't see me ugly babe
'Cause I know I let you down
In oh so many ways
How you gonna see me now
Since we've been on our own
Are you gonna love the man
When the man gets home"

She found the lyrics quite fitting for how she felt. She posted it then went inside to use the toilets before playing some more music with the vampires.

*

"No more pencils
No more books
No more teacher's dirty looks
Out for summer
Out 'til fall
We might not come back at all"

"School's out forever
School's out for summer
School's out with fever
School's out completely"

The song faded out and then everyone clapped. 

"Well done everyone!" Tommy said loudly. "Are we going through it again or brunch first?"

Shania was starving since she woke up late and didn't eat any breakfast.

"I guess we could grab some food first. What does everyone want? We can order it and one of use can pick it up. Do we want subway? McDonalds, TGI Fridays, KFC, Frankie and Benny's? Shania, you seem very down with the kids and since you are the youngest here, where would you recommend?"

"I've very basic, Mr Cooper. I just love McDonalds..."

"Perhaps if the lady likes McDonalds we should order McDonalds, does anyone disagree?" Nobody suggested anything better so McDonald's was settled on. "Alright, let's order it..."

*

Once the food was ordered everybody started to chat.

"How is the guitar now, Little Havoc?" Joe asked her.

"It's ok. I think it'll be ok if I ignore it. I'm afraid that if I keep fiddling with the guitar it might make it worse. How long have you boys had your instruments?"

A few of the men ummed and ahhed while they thought about it.

"Erm, a while." Joe added, "I've had some of my guitars for decades but a lot of them are too old to be used anymore. This Gibson is very old, but I don't always use it." Joe said while holding up his yellow and black Gibson.

"I've had these drums for ages too. A good drumkit can last a while if you take really good care of it." Glen added.

"Same for me." Chris added regarding his guitars. "As long as you look after it then it'll last a long time. If I were you'd I'd fill in the scratch just in case it gets worse and breaks the whole thing. How old is your guitar?"

"Less than a decade old. I got it when I was... probably in my early to mid teenage years. Like, 14 or 15."

"Pass it over to me." Chris asked. Shania carefully passed it to him and Chris laid it flat on his lap facing upwards. "I'll fill it in for you, so it can dry while we eat so it'll be ready for this afternoon."

"...Ooohhh, the foods ready to be picked up, who wants to go?"

Johnny actually felt like going alone with Shania, but he knew it wouldn't be easy to dodge paparazzi's if he and Shy went.

"I'll go, Alice." Tommy said.

"Alright, do you know where McDonalds is from here?" Alice asked.

"Yep, see you all in a while." Tommy left leaving Chris, Alice, Joe, Buck, Glen, Johnny and Shania.

"Mr Cooper? Will this set list stay the same for every show or will it change around?"

"We can change it if we feel like we want to, but mostly it will stay the same... Why do you ask?"

"No reason. I just wondered because you, Aerosmith, Jeff Beck, Johnny Depp, literally everyone has great songs and I wouldn't want you to only use the same 19 songs and miss out on other songs."

"I understand what you mean. I guess we can always change things up as we go through the tour. Don't worry though, Shania."

"Alright."