Disclaimer: The quote and various stuff in the story is taken from Second Tour of Finland, URL: Sher helped me muchos, too, love ya!

"We're just four guys who got this chance to get up on stage. We've never claimed to know anything, to know any answers. We're just asking questions, just like the audience. Basically, we don't know what the fuck is going on either."

-Liam Pace

Chapter Two: DriveSHAFT

"Ya know, we need a new name," Patrick slurred and leaned against Melissa, who giggled and kissed him.

The scene was after a gig at a club, the band, plus Melissa, who always seems to be wherever Patrick is, in this time, the Pace's basement. Much drinking is occuring.

This is about all any of them remember the next morning, except for two words written on Charlie's hands, with the ever familiar Sharpie.

It is probably not necessary to mention that the words were 'drive' and 'shaft'.

"I hadn't been with the band long before I felt like I'd been playing with them for my entire life. I knew them and their roles in the band before long, and it worked wonderfully. Liam, he's out of school, out of work, and guitarist. Charlie's still in school, he's the bassist and genius behind our songs. Patrick's percussionist, same age as Charlie- seventeen- and the one with the groupie girlfriend.

We started playing more in Manchester, and it was definitely an eye opener! The people in Manchester loved us! Local musicians, doing their own songs, but our first real gig, you know, where we were the ones with an opening act. We weren't at our best; we hadn't gotten a chance to practice in that club. Charlie's bass was turned up too high, my guitar was turned down, and Liam messed up the chord progression in at least three songs. We were a mess!"

"Julianne! I haven't seen you around." Charlie embraced his friend. She smiled and hugged him back. "You look so different, I like the short hair."

Julianne held Charlie arm's length away. "You look different too, did you dye your hair"

"Yeah, I'm not sure I like it though." Charlie ran a hand through his hair. "So, last year of school, how about that? We made it."

"I missed you. You were so busy this summer." Julianne reached up and ruffled Charlie's hair.

"Yes, well. Would you like to see us practice? Have you met Sinjin yet?"

"I'd love to, don't suppose I can change first?" Julianne gestured at her uniform and laughed.

"Sure, I'll get Liam to swing by your house first, he's picking me up, still no license."

Julianne had somewhat forgotten about the unfortunate side-effect that was Liam. Of course, missing her best friend, she could deal with him, at least, that's what she made herself do.

The two walked towards the parking lot, as soon as they rounded the corner, a car honk, that could only be Liam, alerted them as to where he was parked.

"That's Liam all right." Charlie smiled.

Fifteen minutes or so later, everyone, namely Julianne, sufficiently changed, Liam's car screeched into the drive at Patrick's house. Charlie put his arm around Julianne and the three let themselves in, Patrick's parents weren't home from work yet.

After a quick introduction, Patrick running up to get snacks, surprisingly Melissa-free.

Sinjin commented on this. "Ha, she's mad at him right now. Not sure why though." Charlie replied. "You got a girl yet?"

"Charlie inviting me to practice was one of the best things that happened to me. I met Sinjin, the new guitarist. He's really a sweetie, but Charlie doesn't seem to like him much. Of course, it could be me, guys have different ways of showing friendship. I started dating Sinjin soon after meeting him. It was nice, I felt like one of the group again. Charlie didn't like it. I told him I didn't like his current habits regarding sex, and that shut him up quick.

I'm not an outsider anymore. At least, not for long."

Charlie felt empty. Julianne, for the past, what, four years, had always been under his arm, she fit so nicely. Now he had to watch her, pressed up against Sinjin, the kisses, the laughing, they did everything together. They probably... no, he didn't want to think about that.

He didn't really have to. Sitting backstage after the gig, they were, well, all over each other. All leaned up against each other, drinks in hand, talking quietly, obviously only to each other.

Sinjin ruffled Julianne's hair. Charlie couldn't take it anymore, only he could do that! That was a best-friend reserved thing. At least it was. Julianne didn't seem to mind.

Charlie left his drink on the table and left. He opened the backstage entrance and stepped into the cool night air. It was chilly and he shivered. He hugged himself to keep warm.

He leaned back against the brick wall. He needed something to lean on, he didn't have his best friend for that anymore. Sliding down against the wall, he curled up in the foetal position and hugged himself. He thought he could cry, but that would be too cliche.

He sat there awhile before the door opened. Julianne stepped out and kneeled beside him, hugging her knees, too. "You okay?"

"Yeah, just needed some fresh air." Charlie lied.

"You're lying. I've known you since we were three, you can't lie to me anymore." Julianne sat down next to him and stretched her legs out. She leaned against Charlie's curled up form. "Don't be sad." She whispered.

After a few moments, she stood up and dragging Charlie up, too. "Come back inside. Too much longer out here, someone will notice, and you'll be mobbed by fangirls. And it's cold."

Julianne reached up to open the door and realized the lack of door handle. She swore.

"And that is how me and Julianne ended stumbling around drunk in Manchester alleys. I guess I got to spend some time with her, at least. Even though the people that found us were kind of scary and said something about vampires, but you know, we could've died or something.

But then, a few months later, Rythym offered us a record deal. I was shocked. I didn't really want to do it, you know, weeks away from finishing school, and the band was getting kind of crazy. Part of me wanted to call it off right then, we've got to do something with our lives. But I realized, this is what I'm doing with my life. It went downhill though. And fast."

"They want us to have the album ready for release in November. That gives us six months. Less, because we have to have it all recorded and ready for promotion... Can we do it? Can anyone?" Sinjin sighed. He, like Patrick and Charlie, were still kind of skeptical over this record thing.

"Really we've got enough already, we don't need any new material. We just have to record it." Liam tried to make it sound doable, and yes, even easy.

"It's not that easy." Patrick voiced what they were all thinking.

"Okay. Fine. Don't think we can do it." Liam folded his arms and locked gazes with Patrick.

"Liam! Okay, maybe we can do it, just stop acting so childish about it." Charlie put in. He was in his usual spot, leaned against an amp, bass across his lap, writing on his hands with the Sharpie. T-I-M-E, the letters spelt, one on each finger.

"Childish? I'm just being optimistic! What the fuck do you know about recording an album?"

Charlie looked up at Liam. "Well what the fuck do you know?"

"Okay! Okay, calm down." Sinjin stepped in. "Here's what we do. Tonight we kick back and celebrate. Then we try our fucking hardest to get the album done. If we don't, we don't. If we do, then we've got an album."

"I can deal with that." Patrick said, a grin on his face. Charlie and Liam both nodded.

"Great. We can pick up the girls, and head to my place. No parents to crash our party." Sinjin smiled.

"Do we need the girls? It's our celebration." Charlie knew if they picked up the girls, Sinjin and Julianne would be all over each other, as usually happened when they were together and drunk. He could most of the time blissfully deny the fact that they slept together, but it's a bit harder when they're practically doing it right there in front of you.

"Charlie's right," Patrick, surprisingly, agreed.

"That was a fun night. We could've gone out, Patrick'd had his eighteenth birthday only a few weeks before, and he was the last one to do so. It was the last shred of privacy any of us had for the next three years, so it was welcome. We got so drunk we passed out and followed through on the plan to try for the November release date.

We had a meeting the next day, which didn't go so well, due to all of us being quite hungover, but we booked studio time and all was well. Charlie and Patrick graduated, we worked on the album, which was turning out good and we were even ahead of schedule."

Sinjin and Julianne walked together, hand in hand, the sidewalk crowded even though the October air was chilly. A shop's window bore a poster announcing the November 8th release of the DriveSHAFT album. Julianne pointed it out with a smile.

"You did it."

The release was a hit. Ha, that's an understatement. We were, finally, doing something with the music and it felt amazing. Melissa loved it as much as we did, I'm sure. Of course, everyone's attitude that she was only with me because of our fame didn't help much.

The critics were harsh, and this I think was what we were the least prepared for. Luckily, no one seemed to care what they thought, which was a good thing, in any case. With the stress of the release off, we prepared for a European tour. We'd never been on tour before, hell, we've never played outside of Manchester."

TBC