I'm going to need anger management classes.

Soon.

"James!" I shouted.

The dirty blonde bastard was hunched over the microphone in the booth, singing and humming. Completely in his own fucking world. I had stopped recording the track almost a minute ago when he decided he was going to sing the same part over again.

Jesus fucking Christ.

"James!" I pressed the intercom again hoping that this useless asshole would pay enough attention to his surroundings to hear me because I really didn't feel like walking all of ten steps to the small booth he was in.

He now had both hands in his hair and his face was contorted and pinched together because apparently I guess he thought he was tapping into his inner Celine Dion or something. I took a deep breath, exasperated. I wouldn't really consider myself a hot head but this moron should have realized that the click track had stopped more than a minute ago.

"James!"

The blonde asshole finally, by some miracle of God, realized that I wasn't just screaming his name for the hell of it because his head snapped up to look at me and his face turned bright red. "Oh crap. Sorry dude." He took off his headphones and exited the small room giving me an apologetic smile.

"I had to stop the tracking because you were going off-key again and not even auto-tune can fix the majority of the damage, man." I ran a hand through my hair and pulled at the scalp. I left out a deep breath through my nostrils, irritated way more than usual.

He gave me an apologetic smile. "Sorry dude. I don't know what's going on with me, my mind just isn't in the game today." James took a seat across from the panel where I was sitting. "My girlfriend is PMSing and it's just..."

I grimaced and threw a hand up to stop him from continuing. "I do not need to hear the end of that. There's a reason why I don't have a girlfriend."

James barked out a laugh and shrugged. "Can we just quit for the day and start up again tomorrow? I feel like today is just going to be a vicious circle of shit."

"Whatever you want, J. Just remember that we're on a time crunch, so you need to get your mind out of the clouds and hopefully your girlfriend gets off her rag, so we can get this done. Alright?" I put my fist up towards him, and we bumped knuckles. He gave me another apologetic smirk and started getting his stuff into his backpack.

I suddenly found myself at home with nothing to do. I had never really had a lot of friends, which I was perfectly okay with, but every once in awhile it really got to me. I could count my friends on one hand and I didn't even have to use all of my fingers. A note was posted on the refrigerator door in Alice's crazy cursive, "My beloved Fuck Face, we're all at Eclipse tonight breaking Bella (my roommate, you goldfish) into the big city. Meet us or I'll give you the indian rug burn of a lifetime. Love, Your Favorite Sister."

It sometimes amazes me that despite the fact that Alice has a cell phone and could easily call me or text me these things, she resorts to leaving me notes on the fridge. I glanced around the empty apartment and decided that one drink couldn't really kill me. Changing into a dark blue button down to escape the bad luck that the day seemed to put on my other shirt, I headed downstairs to my car to Eclipse.

In a shorter time than it took me to walk home from work, I had already parked and waved at the bouncer on my way into the bar. I immediately spotted Emmett in the corner at a table but detour towards the bar to get a drink before I was sucked into the madness that is my handful of friends. The bar was crowded for a Thursday night but I squeezed into a spot and waved at the blonde bartender behind the counter. She threw me a sly smile and put a finger to acknowledge me.

I was immediately assaulted by big brown eyes staring at me from the seat next to me, accusingly. "You've got to be kidding me." She scoffed.

"Can I...help you?"

The brown orbs narrowed at me, the rest of a face hidden behind a mess of wavy brown hair. "I've been sitting here for at least five minutes trying to get her attention and you sidle up right next to me, and within five seconds get her to look over here." She rolled her eyes and sighed. "Maybe if I grow a dick and cut my hair, I can get some decent service."

I'm temporarily taken back by the bluntness of brown eyes but I can hear myself snort before I realize that I'm doing it. "That might work."

Brown eyes shrugs. "I can probably get it done by the time she decides she can come help me." The big irises turn back around to peer at the bartender and I'm stuck facing long brown hair again.

All I see for a moment are big brown eyes and long hair but I'm quickly facing a very well-endowed blonde on the opposite side of the bar.

"What can I get for you?" she tries to drawl but it just sounds like a chain smoker's tone of voice.

"Two Heineken and," I nudge Brown Eyes next to me who has such a dead stare locked on the rude blonde that she doesn't feel me elbowing her for a second. "What do you want?"

Her eyes turn to lock on mine and they crinkle in satisfaction. "Cranberry juice, please."

I snort for the second time in a night and the blonde's mouth drops open for a second and she turns around quickly. "Cranberry juice?" I start to absorb the features of Brown Eyes and see a heart shaped face framing smooth, pale skin. She's cute and her eyes are disarming. "You're at a bar drinking cranberry juice?"

She leans towards me. "I don't drink."

"I see. Are you in treatment?"

Brown eyes throws her head back and laughs, it reminds me of Alice's donkey laugh because it's uninhibited. It's also kind of deep. "God. No, man. I just don't drink."

"But you're at a bar..."

"I'm with new friends and they were so excited to take me to a bar I didn't have the heart to tell them I'd rather watch a movie." Brown eyes admits.

The blonde comes back with my two bottles and a small glass with the juice. Brown eyes starts sliding a bill towards the big-tit blonde but I wave her off. "I'm opening a tab, don't worry about it. I can respect cranberry juice."

Brown eyes smiles. "Well, thank you very much kind gentleman. Have a good night." She gets up and does a curtsy which only makes me laugh at the brunette again. After opening my tab, I make my way back over to where Emmett was sitting at.

The big beast grins and throws his hands up. "You were taking so long I thought you were doing more than just recording with James, cocksucker."

"Shut the fuck up." I laugh, clapping him on the back in greeting. The Heineken is slid across the table towards him and he chugs it down like a dehydrated man.

"Thanks. I've been waiting to get a drink because I'm on purse patrol," he points at the three wallets on the table. "But they're taking forever."

The music seems louder all of a sudden and I sip on my beer, looking towards the door for new people. A bird-like arm wraps around my neck in an attempted chokehold at the same time I get a kiss to the temple. "You came!" the voice I could recognize anywhere squeals in my ear and I get another wet kiss to the temple.

"I had nothing better to do."

She's in my face now, scowling. "Whatever. You don't have any friends, so duh."

I reach up to rub her crazy black hair but she dodges out of the way like a ninja. "C'mon Turtle..."

"I want you to meet, Bella." She turns around to reach in the direction of very familiar brown hair, and pulls the small brunette to face my direction. "Bella this is my brother, Edward."

Brown Eyes immediately stares at me, holding her cranberry juice near and dear to her chest. "Hey friend." She chokes out, turning red and I'm confused at the look that she gives Alice. Alice's eyes shift from her drink to my beer and back.

I know my sister well enough to recognize the dumb smile that spreads across her face before she quickly tries to contain it. She has the worst poker face in the entire world. I know she's too amused by something that she knows and I can only wonder what. "Hey Bella, what a coincidence."

The color on her face resembles a lobster's but she trudges through and thrusts out her hand. I shake her hand and the color is quickly draining from her face. "Nice to officially meet you. Thanks for the drink again." She tilts the glass and smiles. "I owe you one next time."

Alice's creep blue eyes are staring at us intently and it's weird. I reach out to grab my only sibling but her ninja-like skills help her evade me again and the next thing I know she's pulling a resistant Brown Eyes towards the tiny dance floor.

A hand grazed the back of my head before slapping it roughly. "Fuck Rose." I turned to give Rosalie, Emmett's fiancee, a dirty look. She bats her long eyelashes at me while smirking.

At almost six feet tall, Rosalie was the only woman I'd ever met that could handle the overgrown child that is Emmett. Her natural, light blonde hair and dark blue eyes reminded most people of an angel, but she's really the devil's disciple. She reminds me of Elizabeth Hurley in Bedazzled. "Nice to see you for once, asshole."

"It's nice to see your demonic face too, Rose." I laugh, elbowing her as she sat on my other side.

"How's the new album going?"

I avoid rolling my eyes and shrug. "I'm surprised I haven't blown my brains out."

"Give me the word and I'm sure we can work something out."

"I could just kill you instead?"

"No thanks."

"C'mon."

Rose grins, she's a bitch and we all know and love her for it. "I hope you go to jail in the future and drop the soap."

"Is that when you got lodged something up your ass and it got stuck?" Rose was arrested once about a year ago when she got into a fight with a waitress at a bar and she's proud of it.

"Fuck you, asshole." She laughs again and gets up to make her way towards Alice. The bar has quickly gotten a lot more packed with people and I suddenly realize that I'm at the table by myself. Emmett must have gotten up at some point and also made his way toward the dance floor.

Stuck on purse patrol as we call it. I sip my room temperature beer and watch Emmett, Rosalie, Alice and Bella dance in a circle. Well Bella isn't really dancing, she's laughing a lot and doing something that resembles the sprinkler and then the running man. Rose is doing her satan-inspired grind against Emmett and Alice has her hands in the air singing a long to whatever shit music the bar is playing.

Music is my life and the crap they play in the bar is something that I cannot pretend to like. So I zone it out. I slip my ear plugs in before the ringing starts because I'm responsible enough to know that because music is an essential part of who I am and what I do, I need to keep my ear excellent.

I hustle back towards the bar for another beer while trying to keep my eyes on the purses but come back to find Bella sitting in my seat. It's really dark inside the bar but I can see her giving me a bashful smile.

She leans towards me and I remember to take out my ear plug. "I hope you don't think I'm a liar or anything, I was planning on telling Alice the truth tomorrow but I just didn't want to be a party pooper." Her brown eyes look down at the ear plug that I'm holding. "Are those molded ear plugs?"

I nod and hold up the opaque wax up a little. "Don't worry about it."

"Cool." She gives me a tight grin and it's done.

I look at Bella and finish drinking my beer like I'll win an award for chugging it that quickly. Brown Eyes has her attention set on the bar and specifically on the bartender who's continuing her rampage by only helping men. My watch tells me it's almost midnight and I have a long day tomorrow. I pull on a strand of her hair and gesture towards the door with my head. "I'll see you later, Bella."

"It was nice meeting you," she replies. "Did you drive?"

I nod.

She holds up two fingers and I imitate her. She holds up five fingers but then quickly switches them to three fingers and I follow. "Okay, you're good enough to drive. Be safe."

I give Alice a kiss on the cheek and give Emmett and Rosalie a high-five on the way out.

It's time to start my cycle all over again.

The next few days go by in a haze. James somehow gets his shit together and we manage to finish tracking his guitar parts. I find myself at the studio working twelve-hour days trying to work on them to make sure they match up with the drum tracks perfectly before we cover bass and vocals.

Turtle leaves me dinner sometimes in the fridge because I see her even less than I'm used to with my work and her travel. One day, on my way to the studio I see Bella hustling out of the building in front of me but she looks like she's running late and I don't really feel like making small talk so I look at the back of her head disappear in the same direction I'm going.

My days bleed into each other so effortlessly I lose track of what day it is and what month I'm in. I've always been a workaholic but lately I feel myself slipping deep into the canyon that is my recordings and it's overwhelming. I wake up to James' guitar tracks and go to sleep to his vocals, thinking over and over how to get it all perfect. Music, music, music. It chants through my being and I'm swallowed whole.

I sleep, I work and occassionally eat.

This is the repetitive cycle that I've created for myself and that my family hates.

At some point, I find myself still in the studio with James and Peter. Peter is the session bassist we've hired to do the tracking for the album. Peter is plugged into the head and his fingers are making quick work of the five frets and strings on his bass. I'm staring at the board and my computer in front of me while I record the smooth sounds coming from the head.

The doorbell buzzes at the same time that Peter is done with the section and I sigh in relief. "Good job, man." I slap him on the back before I head to the door to see who is ringing the doorbell at... midnight? Fuck. I didn't realize it was so late already.

I face the back of someone short's hoodie while I unlock the door. Brown Eyes quickly turn towards me and crinkle up in a smile. "Hey."

"Hey."

Bella pulls the hoodie down and gives me a sheepish smile, thrusting a small tupperware towards me. "I was going to give these to you at home but I saw your lights on... so, here you go. Alice made these for you before she left and since I don't ever see you, I figured I'd bring them by." Brown eyes shuffles her feet. "Emmett showed me where you work on our last run." She tries to explain.

I pull the corner of the container up and if it would be appropriate, I would get hard in an instant. She brought me brownies. I let out a low whistle and can't help but smile. "Thank you so much, Bella." I look down the empty street and back at her. "What are you doing out so late by yourself?" I fucking hate it when Alice does dumb shit like this. Don't they watch the news?

"I had the closing shift. It takes me forever to clean up when I'm by myself."

I realize instantly I don't remember Alice recently mentioning anything about Bella to me. "Where do you work?"

She points at the gym that is at the corner of the street. "I'm a personal trainer." Brown Eyes averts her gaze down and adjusts the purse that's across her body. "Well I should get going, it's late and I'm meeting up with Emmett early tomorrow."

I again realize I don't remember hearing Emmett say anything about her to me recently but then I haven't heard from him in a couple of days except for a couple of text messages. Emmett goes to sleep before I get home and wakes up before I do because of his training schedule. "What are you guys doing?" I immediately feel stupid for asking.

"We do Insanity together at the apartment and then we do more cardio," she responds. "Uh, you're welcome to join us if you want. 7 a.m. everyday but Sunday."

My throat betrays me and makes a weird noise of disapproval but she laughs. "We'll see."

Her cheeks are pink even in the dimly lit street. "No worries." She adjusts her purse again and steps back. "I'll see you later. Enjoy the brownies." She holds her hand up for me to give her a high five and I do. Bella turns around to start walking towards our building but I call out after her.

"Do you always walk home this late?"

"Usually. Since I'm the new person I get stuck with the shit shift."

A run a hand through my hair, trying to beat down the image of Alice getting kidnapped or raped by a psycho on her way home if she was in the same position. "Call me when you get home?"

"Sure. Do you want me to look your number up in the phonebook?" She snorts at her own joke.

I roll my eyes as she hands me her phone and I put in my number on the bright touch screen display. "Be careful." I call out after her.

She nods and waves as she walks away. I head back into the studio and find James and Peter packing their stuff up for the night. I pull the tupperware open as quietly as I can but somehow they've both developed superhuman hearing in the time I was gone and surround me, peering into the small tupperware.

"What you got?"

"Nothing for you."

"Didn't your Mom ever teach you to share?"

I shove a piece of brownie in my mouth and moan at the nutty chunks of fudge. "Nope."

"Where did you get them from?"

"My sister's roommate brought them." I spit out.

"They look good."

I nod again, my mouth full. "They're fucking delicious." I swallow my mouthful.

I have to bat James' arm away from the container. He reminds me of a vulture, his arm is slowly making its way closer and closer to my tupperware hoping I don't see it. "She's a nice girl."

I'm locking up the front door a few minutes later when my phone beeps. It's an unknown number on the screen from an area code I don't recognize.

Home :)

It's Bella. I text her back quickly.

Good. Goodnight.

Alice would be so fucking proud of me right now. I have to remind myself to tell her of my chivalrous duty towards her roommate. She'll buy me chinese food for a week now.

I think of what James and I have to get done the next day the entire way home. We don't have a lot of time left to get it done but fortunately I think it's not as much as my mind is tricking me into believing. I'm unlocking the door to the apartment before I know it and surprisingly, I find Emmett laying on the couch still in the typical red shorts he uses when training. He gives me a lazy smile.

"Why are you still awake?"

"Hey Eddie, I'm doing good and you?" He waves me over to him. "I cheated and took a nap, now I can't sleep."

I ease my backpack to the floor and sprawl out on the loveseat next to his couch, kicking off my shoes. "That'll teach you."

"How's work?"

"Same old. I think we only have a day or two left of bass and then I mix. How's training?"

He changes the channel and leaves it on a rerun of The Fresh Prince. "Fine. Garrett says I need to lighten up a little and work on my speed."

"Is that why you're exercising with Bella?"

"Yeah, it's replacing my usual cardio. She's a beast." Emmett lowers his gaze to the tupperware container and I can see his eyes narrowing. "What's that?"

"Nothing."

Emmett sits up a little. "Are those Al's brownies?"

"I don't know what the hell you're talking about."

At two-hundred and thirty pounds, Emmett literally scoots over on the couch until he's leaning over the container. "Those are Turtle's fucking brownies." He confirms to himself.

I take one out of the container and hold it right in front of my eyes like a rare jewel. "You have to watch your calories, remember?"

He groans and gives me one of the most pathetic look I've ever seen. It rivals Alice's puppy dog eyes. "Dude, please. Just one. One won't hurt me."

I groan, my mouth still full of brownie and hand him one while simultaneously giving him the stink eye. "Just one, you fat lard."

Emmett has it out of his hands and down the back of his throat faster than the blink of an eye and he shivers. "So good."

"What are you watching?"

"Ancient Aliens."

Sometimes I forget how many layers there are to Emmett. Despite the fact that his biceps are larger than most children's heads and that he's an undefeated mixed martial arts fighter, he has a bachelor's degree in Kinesiology, enjoys watching the History and Discovery Channel, and donates money to the ASPCA because the commercials struck a chord. By striking a chord I mean they made him teary-eyed. He also refuses to eat pancakes that are not shaped like Mickey Mouse.

Don't ask.

He's my best friend, you either take him the way he is or not at all. Frankly, I wouldn't change the ogre for anything.

One day turns into five and I feel like the world is in balance again. I'm done recording James' album and now me and my headphones have a date with my board to finish mixing the album before I send it in to have it mastered. James is fluttering around the studio space like a new butterfly over the excitement of having his album done. He might also be on cocaine considering the way his limbs shake. I don't know.

He's gotten into the habit of standing behind my shoulder and watching the computer screen when I have ProTools open. It's really fucking annoying. I told him a couple days ago that I was going to punch him in the balls if he didn't quit. Where is he standing right now?

Behind me. Again.

I pull my headphones off. "Jay, do you want to kids?"

He's seriously pondering the question. "Not for a long time."

"Did you know that I have a black belt in Jiu-Jitsu?"

"No way. Is that how you met Em?"

I nod but continue. "I told you if you didn't quit looking over my shoulder, I was going to punch you in the balls. If I do that, you won't be having children. Ever. Just a though."

James winces and backs away toward the couch against the wall. "How long have you known Emmett?"

Everyone always wants to know about Emmett. "Twenty years. We met in karate class." I pull my headphones back on because I want to get this done as quickly as possible and talking about Em, always makes me feel weird. He's Emmett to me, not Emmett "The Grizzly" McCarthy. Out of the corner of my eye I see the light on the front of my phone flash on and I slide the keyboard down to unlock the screen and see a new message from Alice.

Game night tonight, FF.

I contemplate for a split second, whether I should wrap it up for the night and join in on game night and it seems like my conscious is going to convince to do just that but I decide otherwise a millisecond later.

This album needs to get done as soon as possible.

They'll understand.