The Way Your Heart Sounds

Lauren was woken up the next morning by the blaring sound of her alarm. She was under Jimmy’s arm, who insisted that she sleep with him for the night even though she had to be up early for work. He groaned and removed his arm from her torso.

“Have a good day at work babe, I love you,” he mumbled before kissing her.

“I love you too. I’ll meet you later at Matt’s place. Call me if you need me,” she said. Jimmy nodded and yawned, then rolled to his side to continue sleeping.

Lauren got herself ready for work and was out the door. The first day at work for the week was always a rough one. Even though it was considerably calm compared to the emergency room’s usual volume, Lauren was still busy the entire day. On her lunch break, she called Jimmy.

“I was just thinking about you,” he answered, “everything alright?”

“Yeah, everything’s good. Two things… One, I realized I don’t know Matt’s address,” she started.

“Oh. Yeah. It was too early to think this morning, sorry. I’ll text it to you.”

“Cool. And the other thing, you need to call Dr.Kramer and let him know when you’re available to meet him for appointments,” she finished.

“I can do that. So I’ll see you in a few hours?”

“You sure will. I love you,” Lauren was smiling like an idiot on the other line.

“Love you too, buttercup. Later!”

After work, Lauren plugged Matt’s address into her GPS and noticed he only lived a few blocks away from Zacky. They weren’t kidding when they said they all lived near each other. Once she pulled up to the house, she got out and knocked on the door. She was met with Matt’s smile when the door opened. A few seconds later, Jimmy sprinted to the door from another room.

“You’re here!” he yelled, wrapping her in a hug and lifting her off the floor.

“He’s been waiting for you all day. Like a sad dog when their owner goes to work,” Matt laughed. Jimmy got down on all fours and started barking at Matt, who just shook his head and told Lauren to come inside. Matt and Jimmy led her into the basement, where she saw Matt’s personal recording studio.

“This is so cool,” she said, taking in all the instruments and equipment.

“Why thank you. It’s not professional by any means, but it’s great for laying stuff down just to see how it sounds,” Matt responded. “You came just in time, Jimmy is going to record a demo drum track.”

Jimmy took a seat behind an electronic drum kit and started twirling a drumstick. He put a large pair of headphones on as well.

“Ready when you are,” he said.

Johnny and Zacky took a moment to get everything set up, and gave Jimmy a thumbs up when it was okay for him to record. She listened as he played his heart out on the small electric kit. The song had a very massive sounding drumbeat and undeniable rhythm. She imagined it would sound even better on an actual drum set. Once he had played through the song, he smiled and took the headphones off.

They listened to the demo so far and started talking, making notes about different parts of the song. There were very few vocals yet, mostly just Matt’s mumbling to indicate where certain lines were going to go. Despite that, she liked what she was hearing.

“Do you guys normally leave the vocals until last?” she asked Matt.

“Not always. Usually Jimmy or I will do some sloppy ass vocals just as a placeholder. Then we go back in and record something clear later on,” he answered.

“Not to be annoying with the questions, but how many songs have you guys written so far?”

“You’re not annoying,” Zacky said. “We have this one, maybe three or four other ones that are just starting to take shape. We’re all writing like mad men. I know Jimmy’s probably got some crazy stuff hoarded away at his house.”

“Do you?” she asked Jimmy.

“Top secret stuff. No one sees it until I’m done,” Jimmy said.

“Sometimes we won’t see him for a week or so and he comes back with a completely written song. He’s crazy,” Matt laughed.

Lauren watched them for another hour or two as they messed around in the studio, talked about ideas for new songs. She was surprised at how many things they had come up with, and how many things they were completely dismissing right off the bat. After a while, Zacky asked for a food break. Johnny made fun of him for a few minutes before Matt told them all to come up to his kitchen.

Val was standing in the corner of the kitchen, pouring food into a dog bowl. When she saw Lauren, she smiled and hugged her.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

“Jimmy came to record stuff with the guys so I figured I would tag along and bug them,” Lauren shrugged. The guys started raiding the refrigerator while Val shook her head.

“Do you want anything? I can probably squeeze my way in there,” Val said.

“I’m alright, maybe later,” Lauren laughed.

“How’s Jimmy doing? Matt was telling me about his treatment.”

“He’s doing well,” Lauren nodded, “It was a rough week but he made it through and he’s been fine so far.”

“I’m so happy you finally convinced him to get some help. Matt was excited too. He’s tried for years to no avail,” Val said, looking over at her fiancé, who was giving Jimmy a non-alcoholic beer.

After the guys ransacked Matt’s kitchen, they returned to the studio. Val came with them this time to keep Lauren company. A few hours later, the guys were all saying goodbye and heading home.

“It’s pretty interesting to see you guys in action,” Lauren said to Jimmy as she started the car.

“I sure hope so. I’d hate to know we bored you for the last couple hours,” he laughed.

“You guys and boring aren’t even in the same ballpark, Jimmy.”

Notes

Just a bit of filler for the mean time. :)