Destroy Rebuild

The next morning I found myself standing in front of the oven, flipping over strips of bacon as Will sat in his walker and fumbled with his toys. Alex was still sleeping, and after the night he’d given me, I thought he deserved a good breakfast to start his day off right. He had to head to the studio to do some recording for the album later. He really wanted Will and I to go with him, and although I desperately wanted to witness some of the behind the scenes magic, I was a little worried about Will being there. We were still trying to adjust him to the time change. I didn’t want him being a disruption.

As I picked up Will’s rubber duck that he’d thrown halfway across the kitchen, I heard Alex’s feet padding against the hardwood floor. He slowly made his way over to me and I smiled when his lips fell against my cheek.

“Good morning, baby,” he mumbled against my skin.

“Morning,” I chirped. “You hungry?”

“Very,” he nodded as he poured himself a cup of coffee.

“Almost done,” I mumbled as I scraped some eggs onto the plate I was fixing for Alex.

Will started to get fussy and I heard Alex grunt as he lifted him out of the walker. “Is he hungry?” he asked.

I nodded, picking up the plates and setting one in front of Alex. “He needs to wait about an hour. We’ll just have to keep him happy until then,” I said with a frown.

“I got this,” Alex winked, and he slowly started bouncing Will in his arms. His crying only intensified, and normally that was Alex’s cue to pass him to me, since he was otherwise clueless on how to satisfy will. I reached for him, but Alex moved him out of my grasp.
“Please, let me keep trying,” he begged.

I nodded slowly, bringing my cup of coffee to my lips and taking a small sip. He continued to bounce Will, and he tried playing with his toys with him, but Will just wasn’t having it. He cried a loud cry and it got to be too much for me. I reached for him again when Alex opened his mouth quickly, the first verse of “Six Feet Under the Stars” tumbling out.

“Time to lay claim to the evidence, fingerprints sold me out but our footprints washed away from the docks downtown.”

As he kept going, Will’s cries slowly started subsiding. Before long, he was smiling up at Alex, flailing his arms a little and it almost looked like he was dancing. Alex glanced at me with the widest grin plastered over his mouth and he kept going.

“I should have known better than to call you out.”

Will listened contently as his father serenaded him, and I got more joy than I probably should have from witnessing it. By the end of the song, Will seemed to have forgotten all about his raging hunger as he stared at and jolted one of his rattles around.

“I can’t believe that worked,” Alex chuckled, but I could tell by the look in his eyes that he was relieved it did.

“Your voice is quite soothing, believe it or not,” I smiled as I popped a crumb of bacon into my mouth.

A little while later, I found myself sitting in the rental car outside of John Feldmann’s house where the guys were recording their album. Alex knew I could be a little star struck when it came to meeting people I’d looked up to growing up, so he was giving me a few minutes to make sure I wasn’t going to freak out.

“You good?” he asked as he eyed me cautiously.

“Yeah,” I nodded, trying desperately to hide my fan girl moment. Alex squinted at me, and under his glare I caved. “No. I’m at John Feldmann’s house. He’s produced some of my favorite albums. Not to mention Goldfinger! I’m about to meet a punk rock legend!”

“I know,” Alex chuckled. “I said the same thing when he agreed to produce this album for us. But he’s cool. He doesn’t have an ego or anything, and he’s really fucking awesome to work with. You’ll see. It’ll be just like when you met Rian and Zack and Cassadee.”

I blushed mildly. “I don’t exactly recall handling that situation all that well either.”

“What do you mean?” he asked. “You did great.”

“Alex, I was so nervous I couldn’t even speak to them!”

“Chill out. It’s going to be fine. Just introduce yourself, tell him he has a nice home, and then relax and listen to the music that’s being made.”

I nodded and took a deep breath as he got out of the car. He took my hand in his when we met in front of the car and he led me around the side of the house to the backyard. It was decorated with a huge pool and an outdoor kitchen under a canopy with tables and chairs set up around it. I stared at all the palm trees as he led me to the doors of the large pool house and when we walked in I noticed it looked more like a second home. We walked into the foyer and to the left of us was a small sitting area while off to the right was a small kitchen with brand new appliances. We walked past a full bathroom down a short hallway and Alex stopped outside the door, pointing up to a red glowing bulb.

“Zack must be recording,” he shrugged.

Will started gurgling and I panicked, crouching down in front of him where he sat in his car seat that hung from Alex’s hand. I quietly tried to shush him when Alex placed his hand on my shoulder.

“He’s ok,” he laughed.

I glanced up at him. “Don’t we have to be quiet when the light’s on?”

“Not really. I just don’t want to walk in and throw him off.”

I nodded and stood back up and he looked at me curiously as the red light turned off.

“You ready?” he asked, and again I nodded, which wasn’t exactly the truth, but there was no turning back as he opened the door into the studio.

The room was dimly lit by just a few lamps that were scattered around. Zack sat next to the sound board where he listened to the bass riff he’d just recorded. He was the first to notice we’d arrived and he nodded towards us. I waved sheepishly and my eyes drifted over to Rian and Jack, both lounging on an expensive looking loveseat.

“Sup guys,” Jack smiled.

“Hey buddy,” Alex replied.

Their exchange caused the blonde sitting next to Zack to turn around, and my breathing seemed uneven as I made eye contact with John. He stood from his chair and rushed over to me, his hand extended and a warm smile gracing his face.

“Hey! I’m John,” he said excitedly.

“Whitney,” I croaked back.

“Whitney,” he repeated. “Very nice to meet you, sweetie.” His attention averted down to Will and he gasped before looking back up at Alex and me. “You two sure do know how to make a cute kid.”

“Trust me, it was all her,” Alex laughed.

“Oh, I know,” John nodded. “I was just being nice.”

I giggled nervously.

“Make yourself comfortable, Whit,” John called over his shoulder as he hurried back to Zack. “Hey, Alex, do you wanna go ahead and get warmed up? I wanna record the vocals for ‘Satellite’ next.”

Alex nodded and I felt a flop in my stomach at the thought of watching him record. He led me to the sitting area and, noticing there were no available seats, he started to pull one up for me, but Rian soon rose to his feet.

“You can sit here,” he said as he pulled out his keys. “I have to go meet Cass for lunch.”

“Wait, you’re not staying?” Jack asked. He seemed a little annoyed.

“Dude,” Rian huffed. “You know,” he shrugged before walking out of the studio.

Alex shook his head as he sat Will down. “He is so whipped.”

Jack scoffed, nodding in agreement. I glanced between the two of them before saying, “Is Cassadee controlling or something?”

“Nah, not at all,” Jack shook his head. “She’s great. You’ll love her. It’s just that she recently told Rian she wants to start trying to have kids and he’s just not ready for that yet. So, he does everything he can to satisfy her otherwise.”

“Oh,” I nodded slowly, taking my seat next to him. Jack and I hadn’t really spent enough time together for me to count him as a “best friend”, but I was slowly becoming more comfortable with him.

“Are you going to be ok while I go in here and record?” Alex asked.

My lips pressed in a flat line as I nodded. Way to call me and my raging nerves out in front of everyone, right? I could feel Jack staring at me after Alex gave me a quick kiss, and when I finally acknowledged him, he asked, “You ok?”

“It’s just…” I whispered. “It’s John Fucking Feldmann.”

He nodded profusely and whispered back, “I know right?!”

Notes

Sorry this was one so short, you guys. Don't hate me? <3