this is me trying

so it goes

"I said I been there too a few times"

Serenity tapped her foot against the hardwood of the quiet studio. She tapped the Apple Pencil in her hand against the edge of the table. Her producer winced every time she did it.

"You sure that thing's not going to split in half?"

Serenity looked up with a confused frown. She had been preoccupied with staring right through the glass window. She wasn't looking at anything in particular. She was just...thinking.

She had been doing a lot of that recently.

And no, she hadn't been thinking about Alex. At least not only Alex.

She'd been thinking about a lot of different things. Alex, Kelsey, Marcia's proposition.

It was starting to get in the way of her creativity. Which was odd. Stress normally had the opposite effect in that area of her life. Some of her best work had come in times of turmoil, but now...

...Now she was just stagnant.

She didn't like it.

"I'll just buy a new one if it breaks."

Max shared a look with the only other person in the room that wasn't Serenity.

Micah tapped lightly on her drum set. She gave Max a shrug. Serenity got like this so infrequently that she didn't know how to fix it. Max was on his own.

"Sure, but you don't have to. What's up with you, anyway? We're normally in and out of here." He said referring to the studio they were currently occupying.

Serenity shrugged, "I don't know. I think I'm on the verge of a burnout. A lot of things have been happening to me lately."

Micah hummed. She was normally apart of Serenity's backing band on tour and in studio. She wasn't used very often considering the arsenal of instruments Serenity could play herself, but she still hadn't mastered playing them at the same time.

"Maybe you need to stop thinking about your own music for a second. Get a new perspective. Remember when we posted covers in your early days?" Micah flipped her hair out of her face as she spoke. She looked like the stereotypical drummer and Serenity often made fun of her for it.

Serenity nodded along, "That's a good idea actually. My works are gummed up and I need to ...un-gum them? Yeah sure. What song then?"

Micah looked to Max, that was as far as she had thought. She didn't think that would even work.

"Press shuffle on your Spotify." Max suggested.

Serenity nodded, and proceeded to do as told, "Low by SZA? I can make that work."

"Cool. Do you want to post it? I've got a stand for your phone if you want. Marcia would probably want you too."

Serenity rolled her eyes at the mention of her manager and assistant, but she handed her phone to Max anyway, "Sure, I'll post like an uncut video to Instagram and Twitter. Probably can't do the whole song for copyright reasons."

"While you guys set that up, I'm going to take a listen, unless you're fine with me freestyling." Micah said, she was now letting her long blonde hair fall into her face for aesthetic purposes. Serenity snorted at the action.

"Freestyling is fine. Throw a solo in there for all I care. You know I like to add my own twist to things. With that being said, I'm going to grab the acoustasonic."

Max headed out of the recording booth and back into the controls room. He came back in after pressing a few buttons, "You guys are good to go. Phone's already recording and you're both in frame."