Uproar

Chapter 41

Chester

"Hello?" I called out, waving a hand out in front of Mike's face. He jumped and looked at me.

"Oh...you're here," he mumbled. I sighed. I felt bad. Being gone every other day because of feeling sick and just overall miserable was really affecting the band and I could see it was stressing Mike more than it should've. I arrived at the studio five minutes ago and tried to get his attention for three minutes.

"You okay," I asked, leaning down and looking at him directly. He nodded and pushed me away.

"I'm fine. Don't get in my face like that," he said, standing up and going towards the vocal booth. "Don wanted us to sing over the entire track and record it. Just to see how it would come out live."

"Oh, okay."

"Just need to wait for the others to get here," he murmured as he moved around the room, taking the microphones out of their boxes and setting them up, hooking them onto their stand.

Moments later, Joe and Rob arrived, then Brad, then Dave, who was beaming.

"Why so cheery?" I asked him as he set his bag down.

"I don't know," he giggled. "Maybe the whole wedding planning is getting to me." Dave leaned closer to me. "I heard Brad's gonna pop the question soon too. He's hoping he and Elisa can get married next year before touring and stuff.".

I looked over to Brad who was showing Rob something on his guitar. I chuckled. "All you love birds. Don't tell me Joe too?"

"I talked to him about it, but he said he wants to take things slow with Karen."

I nodded and then Mike tapped me on the shoulder. I followed him into the vocal booth and closed the door behind me.

"Just press play Brad," Mike said into the microphone as he put his headphones on. I was already in front of my mic, a few feet away from Mike.

Brad nodded from the other side of the glass and moved towards the mixing board, toggled a few settings and then moved back towards the computer, hitting the play button. The track began to play and Mike started rapping. I sang the chorus and we repeated Mike's rapping verse. Chorus again, then the bridge.

Once we finished, Brad gave a thumbs up and the other had grins plastered on their faces.

"Shit guys. I'm speechless," Brad said, pressing a button and speaking from behind the glass. 

"Well thank you Big B," I giggled.

"Should we record a few harmony lines? We can do just the chorus on this one," I suggested. Brad look over the clock and nodded.

"Yeah, we can do that," He said facing us again. I nodded and sang the chorus in a lower, flat-toned pitch, Mike doing the same. My chest felt tight hearing Mike sing. It was something he rarely did, but I really liked it.

"One more, but higher," Joe said as he looked over at us then back at the screen over Brad's shoulder. The red light in front of us flickered and I sang the higher part.

"Okay. We can edit that later. We have a break before Don gets here."

I took my head phones off and followed Mike back into the studio. "Don texted and said he'll be here in twenty minutes."

"Okay," Mike sighed as he sat on the couch next to Rob and Joe. I sat in one of the office chairs next to Brad and kicked my feet up onto the desk. I grabbed my iPod and put one earbud in, putting a playlist on. I took my phone out and decided to text Sean for a bit.