Seize The Day

When I woke up the bed next to me was empty. I sat up stretching my arms over my head. “Oh you’re finally awake?” Matt said as he walked out of the bathroom wearing a pair of sweats.
“What time is it?” I asked scratching the back of my head. I had a slight hang over and a horrible after taste since I didn’t get a chance to brush my teeth last night.
“It’s only eleven.” Matt said sitting on the foot of the bed.
“I should probably go. I have stuff to do later.” I said pushing the blankets off my legs and crawling out of the bed. When I stood up I noticed Matt was staring at me. “I know, I don’t look that great first thing in the morning but could you not stare?” I asked walking over to the corner I left my clothes in.
“I was just thinking that I’ve never seen a girl look this good in one of my shirts before.” Matt said standing up and walking towards me.
“How cliché.” I said bending down digging for my phone in my jacket pocket. I had a missed call from Ash and a text asking to meet him later to finish the song we started yesterday.
“But it’s true.” Matt said putting his hands on my hips. I was so tempted to kiss him but I didn’t, I pushed him away instead.
“I need to go.” Matt made a face but turned and went back into the bathroom. I changed and headed down stairs I opened the front door and bumped into someone. “Zacky?” I said looking up at him.
“Kay? What are you doing here?” He asked looking down at me.
“Ah, I had too much to drink last night so I crashed here.” I said stepping away from him. “What are you doing here?” I asked.
“I left my smokes here.” Zacky said. It felt awkward being alone with him, though technically we weren’t alone because you could hear Jimmy snoring on the couch. “Do you want to go get breakfast?” He asked looking down at the ground. My heart fluttered seeing the cute shy Zacky I fell for.
“Sure.” I said smiling
Zacky looked up shocked. “Oh okay I’ll go grab my cigarettes and I’ll meet you at the diner by the pier.
“Zack what are you doing here?”I turned around to see Matt coming down the stairs.
“I left my cigarettes here last night.” Zacky said walking into the house past me, “I’ll see you in a bit.” He said looking back at me. I smiled and walked out closing the door behind me. I wasn’t particularly prepared to have our talk so soon after he came home. I reached into my jacket pocket for my keys but realized they weren’t there. Fuck, I turned back to the house and walked up to the door which opened to reveal Matt leaning against the door frame holding my keys.
“Shouldn’t have been in such a hurry to run away.” He said jingling my keys. When I went to take them from him he moved them out of my reach. I glared at him.
“I have things to do today Sanders give me my keys.”
“Shouldn’t have left them in my room.” He said smugly, when he said that Zacky was standing behind him and I wanted to slam my head into the wall. Matt looked behind him he cleared his throat awkwardly. “Here” He tossed me my keys before turning and walking into the back of the house.
“Let’s go get breakfast.” I said turning away from Zacky and speed walking to my car. I beat Zacky to the diner by five minutes. I was sitting in a booth by a window when he came in; he slid into the booth across from me.
“Hey,” He said smiling at me before picking up a menu.
“I already ordered you a coffee.” I picked up my menu but set it back down without looking at it. “Uhm about what just happened.”
Zacky cut me off, “I want you to do what makes you happy and if that’s Matt then I’ll just have to accept it.” Zacky said setting his menu down and meeting my eyes. I stared at him dumbfounded with what he just said. Zacky laughed, “As long as when you two fight you come to me and complain to make him feel jealous.”
I couldn’t find the words, “You…just are you sure?”
“If you ask me that I may just change my mind.” He tried to be serious but couldn’t help but smile. The waitress came by and got our order and set out drinks down.
“I’m happy you are okay with this.” I said playing with the straw in my orange juice.
“Just try not to rub it in my face for a little while.” Zacky said stirring a pack of sugar into his coffee.

“I wouldn’t do that to you.” The waitress came by with our food. While we ate Zacky made me tell him everything about my band from high school and what it was like being in the studio with them.
“You’ll have to invite me to one of your writing sessions.” Zacky said before shoving a piece of waffle into his mouth.
“There’s one today at my house just the singer Ash and the bassist Tommy. Do you want to come?”
“Sure, sounds interesting.” Zacky had already finished over half his waffle. “But I have some stuff to do first.”
“That’s fine; hopefully you’ll miss me and Ash fighting over lyrics.” I said laughing a little. We finished breakfast and Zacky insisted on paying for it. “I’ll see you later.” I said as I climbed into my Tahoe, Zacky waved to me before he got into his car and drove away.
~~~
I was sitting on my living room floor in front of the coffee table with a guitar in my lap, my best friend Ash was sitting across from me and Tommy was sitting behind me on the couch with his guitar.
“Why don’t you have a piano I hate writing songs on a guitar first.” Ash complained, laying his head down on the coffee table which was covered in notebook paper and sheet music.
“Oh stop complaining. You’re going to give Kaylin writers block.” Tommy said before he grabbed my head and started massaging it. “Now write a kick ass single.”
“Tommy that’s distracting and I’m going to fall asleep.” I said batting his hands away. We’d only been at it for an hour but Ash wouldn’t agree to any of my lyrics or any of the music for the song. There was a soft knock on the front door before it opened and Zacky came in. “Oh, you’re here.”
“Who’s he?” Ash asked sitting up and examining Zacky.
“He’s a friend who is also in a band.” I said waving Zacky to sit down.
“Obviously a band I’ve never heard of since he doesn’t look familiar.” Ash said putting his head back down on the table.
“Will you at least try to write a song?” I threw a balled up piece of paper at his head. Zacky was useless in the writing session since all he did was laugh at mine and Ash’s arguing and plucked at the strings on my guitar for an hour.
“I thought you were going to help but you’re useless. All of you are useless.” I said throwing my pen at Zacky who dodged it and grinned at me.
“Hey, it’s not my fault. You’re the one who isn’t in the zone.” Ash said throwing a crumpled piece of notebook paper at me hitting Tommy instead.
“Can’t you do this without me I’m already co-producing this album can’t you write one song without me?” I was tired usually it was never this hard to write a song. Ash and I always got into a groove and could write an entire album in a single night but today felt forced.
“We can’t do this without you. It’s the single and you always help write the single, its tradition.” Tommy said picking up the paper and throwing it on the table.
“I’m home and I brought muscles and Brian.” Cassy said as she swung the front door open. She was followed by Brian and Matt who were both carrying grocery bags.
“I told you I wasn’t cooking tonight.” I said crumpling a piece of paper and tossing it into the trash can.
“Ooh there’s the varsity basketball player, now write a love song.” Tommy said putting another piece of paper in front of me. I sighed and glared at him.
“I’m cooking and why does your writing process have to be so messy.” Cassy said walking over and picking up all the balled up paper that didn’t make it into the trash bin. “And why is he here?” Cassy asked pointing to Zacky.
“You would think for being in such a popular band he would be more useful.” I was starting to get a headache.
“Come on one ballad is all you need to write.” Tommy said massaging my temples. “It wouldn’t be pop punk if there wasn’t a love song man. Why don’t you just play it out, write the music first like you used to do.”
“I never wrote the music Cam was the one who would just play and I wrote the lyrics.”
“Yeah and you had to fuck that up.” Ash said leaning back on his hands.
“Oh shut up Ash.” I said swatting Tommy’s hands away again.
“Hey if you could have kept it in your pants we wouldn’t be having this problem. He would probably be able to stand being in the same room as you.”
I slammed my hands down on the table, “We’re done for today.” I said standing up.
“See I told you if you pissed her off she would get writers block.” Tommy said.
“Shut up Tommy.” Ash and I said it at the same time. Ash got up and left, Tommy put his guitar in the case and followed him.
He stopped at the door. “It’s not your fault Kay, well maybe a little if you weren’t so hot he wouldn’t still be hung up on you.” Tommy said smiling at me he closed the door before the pillow I threw could hit him.
“You slept with a band mate didn’t you?” Brian asked him and Matt were helping Cassy put away groceries.
“No I slept with his brother.” I said putting all the papers in neat pile on the coffee table.
“Ouch,” Brian said coming around the island and plopping himself in the lazy boy. I picked my guitar and sat down on the couch next to Zacky.
“You are truly useless.” I said looking over at Zack.
“Love songs aren’t my forte and pop punk is definitely not in my realm of possibility.” Zacky slapped me on the back. “You’ll get it done.” He said smiling at me. “Why don’t you play something? I’ve been here for an hour and haven’t even heard you play.”
“What if I don’t want to?” I hardly ever played in front of other people.
“Oh come on just do it.” Cassy said sitting on the couch next to me; Matt sat on the love seat. I started playing MCRs Welcome to The Black Parade. “Wait no stop you’re bringing out my inner emo.” Cassy said stopping my hand. When she moved her hands I started playing Hey There Delilah. “God damn it Kaylin!”
I smiled and stopped “What’s for dinner?”
“No you don’t get any.” Cassy said standing up and walking into the kitchen.
“Would you prefer if I played some mariachi? I’ll even sing for you.” I said smiling at her.
“No piss off.” She said pulling out a cutting board. Brian, Matt and I laughed at her.
“Do you know any of our stuff?” Matt asked leaning forward.
“Only on the drums.” I admitted propping my guitar down on the couch next to me.
“Me and Zacky play too fast for you?” Brian asked smugly.
“No I just never bothered” I said looking over at him though he was right I just didn’t want to give him the satisfaction.
“You are unbelievably rude.” Brian said standing up and joining Cassy in the kitchen.
“You can keep up with Jimmy’s drumming but you can’t play our guitar parts?” Zacky asked with a smug grin on his face.
“I’m about to make you leave too Baker.” I said playfully pushing him.
“Maybe I’ll just stay here forever and make fun of you for your subpar guitar skills.” Zacky said pushing me back. As we were laughing I became aware of the fact that Matt was watching us.
“Baker come here and cut the fat off the chicken.” Brian said from the kitchen where he and Cassy were staring at the chicken with disgusted looks on their faces.
“You’re such a girl Gates.” Zacky said as he got up and ruffled my hair.
“So how was breakfast?” Matt asked once Zacky was in the kitchen area.
“It’s was good we had waffles.” I didn’t want to talk about this right now not with everyone here.
“Did you guys talk?” Matt asked looking over at me.
“We did.” Matt’s eyes were begging for me to say more than just that, to tell him that me and Zacky were completely done that he didn’t have to hold back anymore. “He said to do what makes me happy.” I watched as Matt’s eyes went from confusion to complete realization.
“Seriously?” I nodded and a giant grin broke out on his face.
“But I want to wait a bit longer.” Matt’s face fell. I knew that would hurt him but for now I wanted to focus on the music and my career, and to be completely honest I wasn’t sure what made me happy anymore I felt stuck. Before Matt could say anything my phone started to ring, I was surprised when I looked at the caller ID, “Hey Professor Rock, what’s up?” I listened to him and my mouth fell open in shock, I glanced around at everyone staring at me, Cassy raised her eyebrows. “Uhm I’ll call you back later.” I said hanging up. “You’re cutting that all wrong.” I said walking up to Zacky and taking the knife out of his hand. I think I just got my opportunity to find what makes me happy.

Notes