19
Elizabeth
I paced back and forth across the guest room the boys had turned into a practice room. I scribbled away at my lyric book making edits as Daniel played chords, keeping up with my singing. I stopped him, "That's not how the key change should sound." I looked up, offering a half smile as he dropped his pick on the table.
"Well, Beth, You see." He chuckled lightly. "I wrote the song, I think I should know how the key change should sound." I took a deep breath.
"Not again." Matt sighed and put his drum stick down. Bryan took his bass off.
"Break time?" He asked. Matt nodded and they headed towards the kitchen. I looked as they left.
"Now boys this won't take too long." I heard them start down the stairs. "Daniel just has to make a minor chord adjustment." I heard him put his guitar down as I turned towards him.
"I'm not changing the song." He crossed his arms over his chest and sat back in his "playing couch" as he called it. I scoffed at him.
"I'm not asking you to change the song. I'm asking you to fix a damn chord Daniel." I felt myself getting frustrated. "It's like talking to a brick wall when it comes to fixing little things."
"There's nothing wrong with the fucking chord Elizabeth so I'm not gonna fix it!" Before I could retort I heard Ryan come stamping up the stairs. Daniel and I looked at each other helplessly as she walked into the room, a cat spray bottle in her hand.
"Why is it that every shit cocking time you guys have band practice the two of you end up screaming at each other?" She yelled. I looked at Daniel and he looked back towards me.
"Creative differences?" I offered. He accidently let slip a laugh which got us a look. I heard his ringtone go off in his pocket. "Daniel, seriously?" I yelled at him as he took the call and excused himself from the room. I looked towards Ryan and she just shrugged. Matt and Bryan returned to the room each holding a scribbler. Ryan rushed back downstairs to get one for herself, leaving the sprayer on one of our many shelves, cluttered with books of lyrics, CDs and some of Ryan's old vinyls.
I grabbed the bottle and hid it behind a pile of energy drinks Matt and Daniel thought it would be fun to stack to the ceiling. Matt looked at me and laughed, holding out his popsicle, offering me a lick. I licked it a little more sexually then needed as Matt watched me. "I will not be threatened with it anymore." Bryan laughed and sat in a beanbag chair on the floor.
Daniel came from the other room screaming for everyone's attention. Ryan made her way up the stairs and came to join us. "Yes?" She asked, last person to enter the room, clearly not concerned about where her spray bottle went. Matt nudged my hip and I leaned myself up against his side.
"We have a gig." Bryan began to cough on his popsicle, folding in half.
"Breathe much bro?" I asked poking his shoulder. He finally came back for air long enough to stutter out enough to ask for details.
"We're opening for Alesana." With that, Ryan began to cry. "I sent their manager our tape and he just called me back, which is why my phone was on." He stuck his tongue out at me. Matt tucked me under his arms and kissed my head. I didn't realize I had started crying too. "In January. We have 3 months to prep." The boys all began to fight over which songs to do and what guitars we would use. Matt complained about never having enough energy drinks. I looked towards Ryan and she hollered for their attention.
"Not to crush the party or anything…" She began.
"What the fuck are we gonna name ourselves?" I asked, leaving out all the sugar coating. Ryan pointed towards me. A chorus of curses echoed the room as all of us found a seat in the room. Ryan in Tom's lap on the "playing couch," Me in Matt's lap on the floor and Bryan in a beanbag chair.
"Awkward," Bryan said noticing the split up of our group when it came to meetings. I stuck my tongue out at him.
"It's not our fault your fiancée doesn't do music," Tom reminded him. With that the name of our band argument heated up.
Tom offered, "Penis mutilation."
Matt insisted, "Relentless." Both with a resounding no from the rest of us.
I offered, "We are broken." Getting a maybe. Bryan stayed quiet as he usually did, struggling to put his thoughts into words.
Skyler finally, after an hour stopped us. "Guys, before we fall over ourselves…"
"Wait!" I cut her off jumping from Matt's lap.
"Ow!" I kissed his head and apologized.
"Say that again."
"That again." All the boys said together.
"I hate you all." I looked at Ryan. "Say what you just said."
Daniel began, "What you just…"
"Shut your whore mouth." I put my palm to my forehead before looking up at my pixie-sized best friend. "Please."
"Guys… Before we fall…" It hit her like a ton of bricks and I smiled at her. "Before We Fall." I looked towards the boys who all smiled along with us. Ryan picked up a black sharpie from our writing tools pile and walked over to the wall. She wrote in a beautiful print "Before We Fall." I took the magenta sharpie and wrote out 'Elizabeth." A sloppy treble clef and heart adorning each side. Daniel was over next, dark blue sharpie to sketch his name to the left of the word 'Before.' Matt wrote his name close to mine and kissed my cheek as he threw the red sharpie back in the pile. Bryan wrote his name near the top in a green. Ryan wrote her name tiny and neat towards the right in a teal.
We looked at our wall and smiled. As just like that, Before We Fall, It was born.
