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Chapter Nine


It turns out, Nick's guitar strings are quite elusive. By the time I found what seemed like the only shop in the city that carried them it was early afternoon and the three multigrain bagels were getting hard in the bag Starbucks had packed them in, just from sitting out in the sun in the car. I swore as I drove back to the studio, stuck in lunch-hour traffic, and finally getting back to the studio about three hours after I'd left the second time, strings and bagels clutched in my hands.

When I walked in, Nick was in the soundbooth singing, and Z looked up from the soundboard where he had an In & Out cup balanced. He picked it up and sucked whatever it was he was drinking up the straw, then turned back to look at Nick in the studio. The bodyguard guy, whose name I had yet to catch, grinned at me, "Took ya long enough," he muttered, then he leaned back in the chair like Nick had been doing earlier, and closed his eyes.

I put the bagels down on the table where there was a plethora of take out wrappers and the empty remains of the Starbucks boxes from that morning. I pulled out the guitar strings and put them on the soundboard. "These are hard to find," I commented.

"You can only get them at that one store downtown," Z said without even looking up.

"Would've been great if one of you could've mentioned that earlier," I snapped.

Z looked up, the brim of his hat was now sideways. He lowered a pair of sunglasses he'd put on at some point while I was gone and stared up at me. "Ohh hohooo," laughed the bodyguard looking guy and he grinned, "We got a live one here."

"What's going on?" Nick's voice came over the microphone all staticy. He leaned to look out the window of the sound booth, "Oh hey Sam, you came back, I was starting to wonder..." he laughed and took of the headphones he was wearing. He came out a door to my right a moment later.

"This one's feisty," the bodyguard guy chortled.

Nick grinned, "What'd you do now?" he asked. He picked up the guitar strings from the soundboard, "Excellent, you found them."

"Yeah after going to like every music supply store in the fucking city," I said. "Why didn't you tell me they were only available at one store?"

Nick looked abashed. "Sorry," he said, "I forgot."

"You forgot?" I said, "How do you forget that they only are sold at one store in the entire city?"

Nick shrugged, "I just... forgot." He turned to the coffee table and picked up a cup and a bag, "When we ordered from In & Out, I got you a strawberry shake and a chicken sandwich. I didn't know when you'd be back, and we got hungry, but I figured you'd be hungry, too..." He looked so adorable holding out the fast food bag and cup and he'd actually thought of me that it was hard to stay angry with him.

I took the bag and cup, "Thanks," I said.

He smiled. "I'm almost done here with this take, then I'll take you back to my place and show you my vision for the party," he suggested, "Is that okay? Maybe ten more minutes?"

"Sure," I answered.

"You can eat while I get this wrapped up." He smiled then turned back to Z and the bodyguard looking guy, "You guys ready to put the capstone on the magic?" he asked, eyes sparkling.

"Bring it," Z hooted.

Nick winked at me, then ducked back into the soundbooth, pulling the door shut and slipping his headphones back on over his head.

I sighed and took a sip of the melty strawberry shake. It'd been there for a few, you could tell because of the consistency of it, but it was good nonetheless. Better was the in-house entertainment. Nick was recording background vocals for a solo track, so he had the foreground vocals blasting in his ears apparently and all we heard was him harmonizing and it was really nice. He really has a beautiful voice and I found myself munching slowly on my chicken, watching the faces he made as he melted into the melody of the song.

He was hypnotizing.

When he'd finished, he took of the headset and Z gave him a thumbs-up sign. The bodyguard guy had fallen asleep in the chair and I was finished with my chicken. When Nick came out of the booth he talked to Z for a couple minutes using fancy industry terms I didn't understand and then he turned to me. "You ready?"

"I'm ready," I replied as I balled up my sandwich wrapper and scooped up all their wrappers and bags and cups and threw them in the trash real quick. Nick shook hands with Z and told him to tell Lawrence - which was the first time either of them had said the bodyguard looking guys' name in front of me - that he said bye when he woke up. Then Nick swept me down the stairs and out to the parking lot.

He had a white Escalade in the corner of the lot, which we climbed into. "I'll bring you back later to get your car," he commented as he swung himself into the driver's seat.

I buckled up.

The moment Nick turned the key in the ignition, his stereo screamed to life. It was Nirvana. In Utero, to be exact. Kurt Cobain was screaming his lungs out at full volume. Nick spun the volume knob. "Sorry," he said.

"I have that CD at home," I said.

Nick grinned. "Cobain was a fucking genius."

I nodded, "Agreed."

"You need to tell Cora that sometime. She thinks he was the biggest joke the music industry ever produced," he said.

"Joke? Please. The mere fact that there's kids that were born a decade after he died that still listen to him proves he had talent. And lots of it," I said. I shook my head, "Cora's brilliant, but I don't know if there will be kids worshipping her decades after she's gone. Right?"

Nick shrugged, "She's got staying power. She's like a modern day... I dunno, like Aretha. She's a classic."

"Are you seriously comparing Cora to Aretha Franklin?"

Nick laughed, "In staying power only," he said.

"Nawh, she's great and she's hip and she's relevant, but I think her stuff is dated the same way Britney Spears' stuff was dated, you know? She was huge then, but she's not a standard, by any means."

"Only 'cos she went psychotic," Nick replied.

I could tell I was stepping on his head-over-heels-in-love toes so I let it go and we road along in silence aside from the groaning of the tires. Nick wasn't the best driver in the world and suddenly not being distracted by the conversation that became so painfully obvious that I felt like I needed to grip onto the arm rest for my life. He was a speedy driver with knee-jerk movements and a reckless sort of spirit. The engine hummed as he picked up speed, doing almost ninety on the highway once we'd broken free of thick traffic.

He glanced over at one point and saw my whitened knuckles as I held on tight. He laughed. "You okay?"

"I'm just fine," I replied.

"You look scared," he commented, grinning over at me, glancing between me and the road.

I really, really wanted him to face the road and stop glancing back and forth.

"I wasn't aware you were trying out to drive for NASCAR," I commented.

Nick chuckled. But he did slow down, however reluctantly.

When he pulled off the freeway finally we were in West Hollywood, almost into Malibu, and he drove away through glamorous neighborhoods, past tall palm trees that swayed in the breeze from the ocean. Every driveway had two or three fancy cars and huge fountains and swimming pools. My entire house and the lot it sat upon could've sat in the shadow of some of these places, I thought, as we drove by.

Nick turned into a gated community and paused in front of the gate. Apparently there was some kind of sensor linked to the car because the gate swung open and allowed him to drive on in. If it was possible, things were even fancier on the inside of the gate than they'd been driving through the area leading up to it. The houses had lush bushes lining the front of the property giving them a certain level of privacy. Nick drove along, up and up a gradually sloping hill, until he turned left and the road curved around, going downward until we reached a small stretch of houses that lined a beach, the ocean panning off into the horizon beyond them. Nick pulled into the curling driveway of the very last one and came to a stop directly in front of the towering white and brick house.

Turning off the Escalade, Nick swung his door open and got out. Following suit, I pushed my door open too and climbed out, staring up at the house, the sound of the tide roaring filling my ears. "Christ," I muttered.

Nick grinned as he came around the nose of the Escalade and waved his hand at the monster house we stood in front of, "Welcome to the House of Carter...."