"How many ways do I have to say I'm sor-ry, before you un-der-stand... How many ways do I have to show my lo-ove, before you le-et me i-in?"
Nick sat at the soundboard, his feet up on the edge of the desk, leaning back in his chair and chewing on a pencil, watching AJ tape the new song. Bits of pencil were getting stuck to his tongue, it was kinda gross, but somehow he couldn't stop the habit. He'd had a terrible oral fixation all his life, and the lack of cigarettes was so not helping that. He sat forward and reached for a bowl of M&Ms, figuring even if they were apt to make his waist explode outwards until he looked like that old video game character, Kirby, he was fairly certain they were still better for him than the pencil bits were.
"Ahhh, ahh, Nicky-poo," sang out Brian, snatching the bowl out of Nick's reach just before he grasped it. "You said not to let you eat these, remember?"
"I was stupid," Nick answered. He snatched at them again.
"You said you'd say that," Brian laughed. "Lucky for you, I have a solution." He got up, taking the bowl of M&Ms with him, and disappeared out of the room.
Nick scowled and shoved the pencil back in his mouth. "I'll die of lead poisoning then, and it'll be your fault, and you'll feel bad and want to chew pencils so you can experience the agony I went through and die, too, but I'll tell Howie not to let you and Howie will take all the pencils in the world and not let you have any. Won't you, Howie?"
Howie, who was half asleep in a big leather easy chair in the corner by Nick's keyboards, snorted and blinked his eyes open. "Tuna fish, on rye!" he said.
"What?"
Howie paused, looking around, and realized nobody was taking lunch orders. "Uhh..."
"Won't you, Howie?" Nick asked again.
Howie hesitated, "Yes," he said finally, after thinking about it a moment. Then he leaned back and fell back to sleep.
"Damn, I should've said something cool. Taking all the pencils in the world away from Brian was such a waste of a free opportunity to take advantage of Howie."
Brian came back in the room, sans the M&M bowl, toting a paper cup, which he shoved into Nick's hand. Nick looked into it. It was full of blueberries. Fair enough. He took one and tossed it into his mouth, throwing it into the air and catching it like they did in the movies.
"How can I go o-on when the world is dark without you, how can you expect me to walk a-way? A-way?"
AJ was clutching the microphone and his face was crumpled up in an expression of absolute passion, his body contorted in a way that said he was feeling what he was singing. He'd been having some issues with Rochelle lately, not really bad ones - like they weren't really on the verge of breaking up like the song lyrics were suggesting, but just a test of the relationship. AJ had said himself that if they weren't married he probably would've run - not walked - away. But marriage changed everything for him. AJ was a totally different guy now.
The strange thing was that was exactly Rochelle's complaint.
Brian sat down in a wheely chair next to Nick and watched AJ, too. He held onto the seat and made it spin a little bit. "This is a really nice song actually," he said, picking up the lyrical sheet sitting on the desk and running his eyes across it.
Nick nodded, "That's why we picked it."
"I know," Brian said, "But hearing it makes it better."
"I'm a little worried it might come out whiney," Nick said, chewing on a blueberry.
Brian shrugged. "Maybe."
AJ, having completed the song, took the big headphones off and put them around his neck, and asked, "Is it lunch time yet? I'm really feeling like it could be in the old pouch here." He smacked his stomach with the palms of both hands.
Nick glanced at his watch, "Yeah we could do lunch."
"Howie," Brian said, starting to turn to him, "What do you want?"
"Tuna on rye," Nick answered.
Brian turned back to Nick, "What?"
"Trust me," Nick answered, "He wants tuna on rye."
AJ came out of the sound booth and ran a hand over his nearly bald head. "So," he said, "How'd that sound?"
"Excellent," Brian said.
Nick nodded, "Yeah, was great." He was focused on the blueberries. "Howie slept through it though."
"Howie sleeps through everything," AJ commented.
They all stared at Howie for a long moment, and apparently this was enough to break through Howie's sleep. He blinked awake once again and his head rose up from the back of the chair slowly. He hesitated, staring at them all staring at him. He paused. "I'll have tuna on rye," he tried.
"Told you," Nick answered the shocked expression Brian gave him.
"How did you..." Brian started.
Nick smiled. "I have ESPN," he said. He paused. He was fairly certain the N wasn't supposed to be there. "Oh and also, by the way, he's not letting you have pencils anymore."
