The room's white or at least it looked like that from all the lighting. Right in front of Gerard is a platform covered in a white sheet and two girls are on it and it looked like they're posing because a lot of other people are jumping around them and there are all these cameras flashing about. Oh right and the girls are naked. It looked like a photo shoot for a porn magazine.
Gerard saw things on that platform he wished he never saw. Well the good news is that it completely put the thought of Frank and his smile out of his mind. In fact now he feels like he's going to throw up from what he's seeing.
His spilled coffee stains the white sheet and the two girls keep looking at him confused seeming unaware or maybe unfazed by the fact that they were naked. Some tall skinny guy is yelling at him in a thick Italian accent but the air is so stuffed and hot in the studio, his ears are muffled and he can't understand a word he's saying, the only thing he hears is his pulse thumping in his head. Gerard scrambles out of the room as fast as possible, red as a tomato and breathing fast like he ran a marathon.
Right then Frank's words ring back to him "go to the 3rd floor and take a left" LEFT god damn it! He curses his memory for failing him once again. Gerard marches fast towards the other corridor fuming with anger at himself.
He isn't surprised that there's a studio for erotic photo shoots here, this is a very large company. It has almost everything, from radio stations, TV studios to record companies, movie editing studios, business companies. All of them are connected with each other one way or another. He's been here once before when he was a kid, he sat in the audience at some talk show. So really it isn't that shocking to find this kind of studio.
He reaches the end of the corridor and spots a door with the label 'Manager'. He rubs his temples and fights the urge to hit his head against the wall all the while thinking why the hell he didn't just search for the labeled door first instead of being an idiot and embarrassing himself and also trying very hard to get the previous images out of his head.
Gerard knocks this time and waits to get called in. the office is rather small and unimpressive, if Gerard didn't know this was the manager's office he would've guessed it was a regular employees with a low pay check work place. The poor desk is covered in so much paper, files and other crap it looks like it's going to fall apart any second. Actually the whole office is covered in trash and there's a strong sweat, cigarette smoke, and fast food smell in the air that makes Gerard wrinkle his nose and crave for a cigarette at the same time.
The man behind the desk is way over 40, almost completely bald and quite large. Gerard can see the buttons barely hold his white sweaty shirt together. There's an unfinished burger and fries on the table so that explains the cheap fast food scent. Gerard gives a reluctant handshake and takes a seat trying discretely to wipe off the grease, sweat or whatever was covering his manager's hand on the chair.
They talk very shortly (for what Gerard is very pleased) discuss business, payment, regular work stuff, Gerard's thrilled because he got his own office, then he gets a stack of papers with his assignments for the week and heads off to his office which is only a few doors away.
His office looks the same as the manager's except without the paper and trash. He drops his work on the table and goes to open the window. First things first, he lights up his cigarette and leans against the wall near the window and lets the poison overcome and relax his body. He loses his jacket and scarf and tosses them carelessly on the chair. Well things could have been worse today Gerard thought optimistically and a bit sarcastically at the same time but it doesn't matter, he doesn't plan on keeping this job, even for his new and only friend here Frank. He already embarrassed himself so much, he's sure the photographers from that studio will be talking about him for weeks and he's been here only half an hour.
Gerard pushes those thoughts away, and opens up his work papers. There are various projects he can take on. His manager said that it doesn't matter which one he starts first as long as he finishes most of them by the end of the week. He quickly flips through all of them there are designs for a new commercial, a couple of posters for bands, movies and ads most of them look pretty dull so he just takes the first from the top and gets to work immediately.
It's strange for him to be drawing in daylight, not drunk or stoned, or sleep deprived, but it's a nice change. He puts on some music to keep energized though he'll probably have to go look for another coffee machine soon since he spilled half of his previous one. It's not long before he's fully singing and dancing as much as the chair lets him and that's how pretty much half of his day goes by. When it's time for lunch he's almost finished his first project.
He goes towards the elevator in a better mood, feeling a bit more confident and his morning failures almost forgotten. He's really glad for the fact that he can work on his own without anyone interrupting him or trying to keep up a pathetic dull conversation to avoid an uncomfortable silence. Though when he presses the button with the number 5 written on it, he can't help but feel a little anxious.
When he reaches the 5th floor he's surprised to see that this one isn't like the others: simple plain corridors with the same gray doors at every few steps. This one is like a large room, from the equipment and various music instruments lying around it's not hard to guess it's some kind of record studio.
He barely takes two steps inside when someone is already tugging on his arm 'Hey, Gerard! You made it! How's your day so far? Did they give you a lot of work? They're not being assholes to you are they? Oh, which pizza do you want pepperoni or my vegetarian one?' Frank rambles on quickly while pulling him to a smaller room on the right where Gerard can hear other people's voices.
'Hey well um my day is fine so far, I've got plenty of work to keep me busy. No they're not and I'll be fine with the pepperoni one' Gerard answers counting on his fingers to see if he answered all of Frank's questions.
The new room is small and stuffy with a lot of wires, amps and other tech Gerard's seeing for the first time. He can see a large black window covering more than half of the left wall and guesses it's for recording or other music related stuff.
The other 2 people in the room seem to be arguing. One of them is a big tough looking guy that Gerard never wants to piss off with blond hair, thick beard and radiant blue eyes. He's sitting by a little table and stuffing a piece of pizza in his mouth. The other one with impressive large and curly hair and an AC/DC t-shirt is sitting opposite of the blonde guy and tapping his foot a long some beat.
'I'm telling you dude you can't compare those two movies together, it would be like comparing Pink-Floyd with Michael Jackson!' says the blond guy with a full mouth and an almost aggressive voice.
'Yeah if I add a pause here it would even out the main melody and get along with the drum-no wait then it won't match with the bridge' his friend says almost to himself while writing something down on a piece of paper. He looks just as intimidating as the other but his kind and soft voice suggest differently.
Gerard tries to process in his head what he just heard and no matter how he tries to look at it, it still doesn't make any sense. Frank steps in behind him putting a hand on his shoulder 'don't mind them, they do this a lot. Both of them always arguing over the strangest shit, half of the time it doesn't make any sense. You get used to it' Frank says quietly to Gerard then turns to the one with the large hair
'Ray, will you stop trying to fix that, it's pizza time! You'll finish it after our break it's not going anywhere. In the mean time I want both of you to say hello to Mikey's brother Gerard who started working here only today.' Frank looks positively hyper and Gerard thinks that maybe his job requires drinking large amounts of Redbull because that's what it seems like.
'So this is Bob' Frank continues pointing at the blond bearded guy who waves a hello and takes another slice of pizza 'this is our mastermind Ray Toro who's also a workaholic' Ray lets out a slightly offended 'hey!' and turns to Gerard and shakes his hand. 'And last but definitely not least this is pizza' Frank says giving him a slice and a can of coke. Gerard mumbles a thank you and sits at the table with them.
'So how do you like it here, Gerard? Or should I say hate it here' Bob asks.
'It's alright I guess, I have my own office so it's easier for me to work but I probably won't stay here long' Gerard says. He figures he'll at least be honest with them, he doesn't see any reason to hide this.
'What why?' Frank and Ray say at the same time. 'Oh wait, Mikey did warn me you'll try to chicken your way out of this but c'mon at least stay for this week it isn't that bad, don't listen to those guys' Ray says finally putting the piece of paper away and reaching for the pizza.
'I don't know, I mean I sort of have a job, I sell paintings and I've been fine with that for a long time' Gerard answers keeping his eyes on the table. This time he went for the lie. Gerard didn't want to say the he hasn't sold a single painting in almost a month and has been living off his mother.
'C'mon dude stay, we're having a gig on Friday and you can get in there free if you work here' Frank says scooting closer to him and not breaking eye contact looking like he honestly wanted for Gerard to stay.
He doesn't understand why though, they don't even know him or maybe Mikey told them about him in which case he'll have to have a very serious conversation with him about a thing called privacy.
Gerard stares back at Frank's big puppy dog eyes and until he reaches a point where his stomach does a flip and he has to look away and then hears himself say 'yeah, fine. I'll stay till your gig'
