(cut to friday at noon: kirby in the studio)

I spun myself around on the office chair for the thirtieth time in two hours and sighed exaggeratedly. I was a little lonely, and, well, jealous since both Reilly and Zac were out on dates. Thora had decided to bring a female friend along, so of course, Reilly just had to grace them with his presence. 

So at midday, it was just Jesse and I. But less of Jesse. He was immersed in his work, which is fair enough, even if it meant leaving me to spin around on an office chair for entertainment. 

"I'm gonna get a coffee, Jess," I said. He had no idea that I'd said anything so I walked out unnoticed.

I came out of the thick studio door that made sucking noise when you opened it and walked into the lobby, my flip flops slapping against the shiny cement floor.

To disturb me from my thoughts on exactly which coffee I was going to buy was a really hot guy standing in the lobby, which was a surprise. 

"Excuse me, um, do you know where I can find Jesse Bloom?" He asked politely.

"They didn't tell you at reception?"

"Sort of...they said to go through the black door, but I don't know where to go from here...." He laughed nervously and scratched the back of his neck. He stood about three inches taller than me with messy brown hair and crystal clear blue eyes. His hair gave away that he'd been surfing earlier in the day. 

"I'm Jesse's sister...I can show you where he is, if you like," I offered. 

"Oh really? Great! I'm their fill-in bass player, he was expecting me about an hour ago," He explained. 

"Ohhh, are you Joel?"

"Yeah, that's me!"

"Excellent, ok follow me," I turned back around, not really caring about the coffee anymore and escorted him through to the studio. 

"Jess," I called his name as he was mid-riff, "JESSE,"

The guitar stopped and he looked around, "What's the matter?"

"Joel's here," I replied. 

"Oh shit, hey man! Good to have ya," Jesse hopped up to shake his hand and introduced him to the rest of the band. 

"I'm so sorry I'm late," He said. 

"Ah we don't care, man, we have no idea what time it is anyway," Jesse laughed. 

Joel looked over at me, "Thanks again...what was your name?"

"Kirby,"

"Great, we should hang out some time," He smiled.

I nearly passed out.

"Sure, that'd be great," I grinned. 

I wasn't sure what to do with myself after that. I stood there for about five minutes looking like an idiot while they set up then finally moved myself into the sound booth that wasn't being used. It was only tiny but still had a comfy chair and a stereo. I nicked a CD from Jesse, put it on, pulled out my magazine and closed the door. The sound booth had a great view through the glass window and when I got bored of the magazine, I just watched Joel instead. I grew to really love how his hair fell in his eyes and how he couldn't tuck it behind his ear because he was too busy playing his bass. You could even see how blue his eyes were from where I was sitting. 

My cell phone interrupted my private viewing session and also scared the shit out of me.

"Hello?"

"Kirby,"

"Reilly,"

"What are you doing?"

"Um...nothing. What about you?"

"Uh we're about to have lunch. Listen I'm really sorry about ditching you like this, are you sure you're ok?"

"Yes Reilly, believe it or not, I can survive without you two clowns keeping me company,"

"Alright alright, no need to get snappy. Anyway, we'll come by the studio when we're done,"

"When you're 'done'? That sounds...too graphic,"

Reilly laughed, "See ya bubs. Oh, and Zac says hi and passes on a big sloppy kiss...Those are his exact words,"

"Ok ok, leave now," I laughed, Reilly said bye one last time and I hung up the phone. I looked back at Joel. Nope, I definitely wasn't sorry the guys had ditched me. 

-    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    - 

(cut to two hours later: still in the booth - immersed in the magazine again)

"Knock knock,"

I looked up from my magazine.

"Do you think you can pry yourself away from your trashy gossip magazine and join me for a late lunch?"

I smiled widely at Joel and practically threw the magazine down, snatched my wallet off the table and ran out of the booth. 

Joel and I decided to walk to where the nearest shops were since the sun was still very much shining. We started talking about our favourite bands and movies and what we thought about trivial things like school and being teenagers (He's 19, by the way). 

"Do you have any brothers and sisters?" I asked him. We were heading towards a health food cafe with hopes of buying a big salad roll each.

"Yeah, two sisters and a brother. They live in San Diego,"

"How old are they?"

"Cam's 16, Lucy's 13 and Carrie's 11,"

"Wow, that's a handful," I said, taking out my purse.

"You got that right, which is precisely why I moved the hell out of there," He laughed. 

We ordered our food and kept walking down the street, seeing no point in cooping ourselves up inside the cafe, or inside anywhere for that matter. And as usual, in vain, I thought we might spot someone famous. 

"So how did life in Australia treat you?" He asked, taking a big bite of his roll.

"Oh...you know...I suppose it was alright,"

"Do you miss it?"

"There are some days where I miss it like crazy...but I don't think I could leave America,"

"I've been to Australia before," He said as he ripped open the paper bag to free his roll.

"Really?" I asked, surprised.

"Really. I lived in Queensland for nearly two years,"

"Wow, that's awesome!"

"I guess you could say that," He grinned, "My parents were raised on the beach practically, so all they know is surfing...then as soon as they heard about the surf in Australia, everything was packed up and we were outta there. None of us really knew how long we'd be gone or if our parents knew what the hell they were doing, but we followed anyway. We had no choice in the matter. I was only eleven so the others were even younger,"

"Do you regret moving there?"

He thought for a moment, "No. I hated it when I was there, but now that I look back on it, I think that was only because I was forced to be there,"

"Now you can add into conversations and say 'I've lived in Australia',"

"That's true!"

We both giggled and headed to Starbucks for cold drinks. 

"So how did you end up in L.A playing the bass?" I asked, relentless in drilling Joel on his history. There was this element to him that was so mysterious and wouldn't rest until I questioned it. 

"As soon as I graduated from high school I was packed and on a plane to anywhere. Before I booked the flight I covered my eyes and bought a ticket on whichever flight my finger landed on,"

"That's so cool!"

"I ended up in New Orleans and I lived there for about a year. The whole time I was there I would hang out at this one Blues bar and made friends with some of the gods of local New Orleans jazz. They got me into playing instruments, they taught me, actually. So I tried the sax, the trumpet, the guitar, you name it, and I could play them all well. But the only one I really enjoyed was the bass, which is really unusual,"

"How so?"

"The bass is so simple, you just pluck at it a few times and that's it. It doesn't have any complex pitches and you can't exactly play lead on it. But there's something about filling in the blanks in a song that satisfies me. So I learned as much about playing bass as I possibly could and then decided my time was up in New Orleans. I hitchhiked rides to wherever the drivers were going and I ended up here,"

"That's so incredible. I think it's possible you're the most interesting person I've ever met, which tells you a lot about me!" We laughed, "So how did you get to working for my brother -or BMG-or, whichever?"

"I met him in a car park, actually,"

I looked at him strangely. 

"It's true! He took my park, I got out and started yelling at him, then he spotted the bass in my back seat. He said he was recording an album and was desperate for a bassist. He said he'd offer me a job to make up for it,"

"Trust Jesse to do something like that," I laughed, ordering a plain coffee frappucino. 

"Well I was totally fine with it! I mean, it seemed a bit over the top for the sake of a parking space, but who am I to argue!"

"I'll say! I should go around stealing people's parking spaces just to see where it gets me," I joked and Joel laughed. He had the greatest smile that I had ever laid my eyes on. 

We sat down at a table outside Starbucks and enjoyed the rest of the sunshine, feeling like celebrities that hung out in central L.A all the time. We must have talked about everything that day, nearly. It even got to the point where I told him about my little episodes with Taylor. And in return, I learned all about his most recent girlfriend in New Orleans who left him to 'follow her heart'. He said he later learned that her heart just so happened to follow her into a job at a strip club in Ohio. 

"Hey, how much longer are you in L.A for?" He asked. 

"Um...today's friday so...eight days after today,"

"Well we should hang out again before you go home," He said. My stomach did a somersault.

"Yeah! Uh I mean yeah, that'd be great,"

"Cool, awesome," He smiled almost as geekily as I was. We left our table outside Starbucks just as the sun was setting and walked back to the studio.

-    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    - 

(cut to that night: just home from the studio)

"Next time you're gonna kidnap my bass player, please let me know before hand," Jesse said as he dumped his satchel on the couch.

"I'm sorry Jess! We just got to talking and lost track of time, I'm really sorry,"

"It's ok Kirb, I was kidding," He said as he disappeared down the hall. 

"So who's this Joel guy?" Zac asked. 

"I met him at the studio. He's the new bass player," I said, attacking the strawberries in the fridge.

"And...?" Zac was staring at me blankly. 

"He's just a friend, Zac. When you guys left me all alone, I was bored, then he showed up and we went out for lunch and talked for hours,"

"Just a friend, huh?" He winked. I took yet another strawberry.

"Yeah."

"Are you sure?"

"...Well...." I put the bowl back in the fridge before I devoured the entire thing, "He's really gorgeous and really interesting and funny,"

"You definitely like him,"

"I don't know," I truly was confused, "What kind of 'like' are we talking about?"

"Uh oh, she's analyzing already," 

I laughed and shook my head, "I'm not analyzing. I'm just asking myself some very important questions. Oh I dunno, he wants to do something tomorrow so...I'll tell you how I feel after that,"

"Hmmm, so it's a date?"

"Um. He used the term 'hang out'"

"That means you're going on a date,"

"You think so?"

I stopped him from answering, "We'll resurrect this topic after the date/hang out tomorrow. Until then Zachary, I'll be in the bath,"

-    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    - 

(cut to saturday night: all dolled up)

If only Zac had been there to 'resurrect' the sensitive subject that he'd initiated the day before. Joel had called me that morning and announced that he was taking me on a date. Where to, I wasn't exactly sure, but he said to dress up or dress down, whichever suited me, and be ready by eight.

The doorbell rang at 7:57 and I found Joel on the doorstep in DC shoes, black pants and an army shirt with the sleeves carelessly rolled up. He couldn't have looked more perfect. 

"HEL-LO," He said. I'd chosen to wear pointy black boots, dirty denim hipsters and a black lace peasant style top, all in hopes of 'dressing up'.

"You're pretty HEL-LO yourself," I said. I yanked my handbag off the hall table and pulled the door shut. Everyone was out, either on their respective dates or recording their respective albums, so there was no one to say goodbye to when I left. 

"So what's on the agenda?" I asked.

"Nothing too exciting, just a night out on the town...We'll go wherever our hearts lead us." He answered, then visibly cringed, "I'm sorry, that was so corny,"

I laughed and linked arms with him, "Not at all. A night on the town sounds good,"

He looked at me and smiled as we walked to his car.

-    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -

(cut to sunday morning: waking up on the couch)

"Good morning," Zac greeted me when my eyes opened for the first time that day. 

"Morning,"

"What brings you to be sleeping on the couch in the same clothes you had on last night?" He asked.

"I got home at five...I was too tired to make it all the way to my room," I answered and rubbed my eyes. 

"So you had a pretty big night, huh?" He winked. 

"I guess you could say that. We ended up going to a few clubs, it was a blast,"

"So what's the verdict?"

"What verdict?"

"In what 'way' do you like Joel?" He asked.

"I've known him for two days,"

"So?"

"That's not enough time to decide....is it?"

"You're not going to get engaged or anything! You're allowed to like him after two dates," He said, tucking my hair behind my ear.

"I guess I'm just not very good at this dating stuff,"

"You like to go straight in for the kill. Dear Taylor had to find that out the hard way,"

"Shut up!" I laughed and tried to fight him off. 

"But seriously, Kirb. You have every right to like him,"

"Yeah...." I rubbed my eyes, "So how are things with Thora?"

"Eh. We broke up already,"

"Awww, I'm sorry Zaccy," I reached out and hugged him, he stayed that way.

"I'm not too upset, we only knew each other for a little while anyway," 

"Well that's a good attitude to have," I rubbed his back, kissed his cheek and got up from under Zac. 

I poured myself a glass of water from the kitchen and came back out into the living room where Zac was still face down on the couch.

"Come on you. I'm gonna get dressed and kidnap Jesse's credit card, then you and me are gonna spend ridiculous amounts of money on Rodeo Drive,"

Zac's eyes lit up and he was ready in 10 seconds flat.

-    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -

(cut to ten minutes later: rodeo drive)

We parked the Mercedes just off the street and hopped out. It was just past eleven so the tourists and rich locals were already beginning to circle the shops. 

"Gucci sunglasses?" Zac asked when I slipped them on.

"Yes...?" 

"Jesse bought them?"

"Of course!"

-    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -

(cut to an hour later: browsing through ralph lauren)

"Zac, do you think about Aimee?" I asked, pulling a baby pink cashmere sweater off the rack. A look of surprise flashed on his face.

"Sometimes." He answered, holding a black shirt up to his chest, "When it gets really quiet before I go to sleep," He picked up the same shirt in a different color, "I'm still angry at her, and at myself for thinking our relationship was for real. But then I wonder why I care so much...I can move on and put it behind me, I'm already half way there,"

The hope in Zac's response inspired me to reach out and kiss him on the cheek, "You're special Zac, and Aimee is nothing in the course of things." He smiled. "I like the black one,"

He looked baffled.

I picked up the black shirt and replaced the red one he had in his hand. He checked the price tag on the shirt. 

"Jesse's feeling generous today," He laughed and went into the change rooms.

-    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -

(cut to monday at midday: in the studio)

"Hey Joel," I greeted my...um...boyfriend(?) with a kiss and went to sit on the studio sofas with Reilly and Zac. 

"So are we in for two hours of watching them jabber on about things we don't understand?" Reilly asked. 

"Don't start complaining you. This is interesting,"

"Interesting is not the word, hearing them telling each other to take it up half and drop that one is hardly entertaining. And besides, you're only here for Joel," He said, cracking open a Pepsi. 

"I happen to find the recording process very fulfilling Reilly, and Joel is an added bonus,"

"Pfft," He rolled his eyes and took a big sip of his soda. 

"I happen to agree with you, Kirby. I like this whole recording idea. I'd love to be a musician,"

"So would I Zac. But the difference between you and me is you can actually sing," I said.

"What! Me! No way,"

"Hey, you calling me a liar? I mean it Zac, you can sing!"

He shook his head relentlessly and tried to hide his little smile. 

"Ok guys, um, I was working on this one last night," Jesse's voice broke into conversation as he pulled his guitar onto his lap and the band listened in. 

He started playing the guitar and began to sing, "Chasing your fears until my dreams just fade, pushed into the corner of the life that was lived. This circle is taking me where I don't need to go, back to the fear,"

"What do you guys think of that so far?" He asked them. 

"I really like it," said Joel, "It's heaps better than the demo. More defined."

Jesse nodded his agreement and began to play the rest. 

We listened to them playing the song over and fixing little faults here and there. They were yet to re-record it but they had it all set out in their heads. There was still a long way to go before the album was finished. They had two months to go until it was recorded and completed, they needed to design the booklet, think of a title, have the CD's actually made, begin to weave the intricate web of promoting and prepare Jesse for what was to come. There was just so much work to do. But all of us could tell that Jesse could make it.