I Am the Fire (Halestorm)

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Ben wanted to bang his head against the wall. He hated having to audition people for his band. He had found one member, Jason, as the lead guitarist and backup vocals. "Kill me," he told Jason with a huff as yet another drummer walked in the room. His head was already pounding and he was ready to call it a day, but Jason wouldn't let him.

"If you ever want to start recording we're going to have to find the rest of the band," he reminded him. Jason was the opposite of Ben in almost every way, but his clam, laidback attitude balanced Ben's intensity. He was a short, scrawny man, with blonde hair and a ridiculous tan. When Ben first saw him he was ready to tell him no without even talking to him or hearing him play, but he listened to his mother and was trying to give everyone a chance, regardless of his or her appearance.

"Whatever," Ben mumbled in response before signaling to the drummer to start playing. Ten seconds in Ben wasn't nearly impressed enough to continue listening. He pulled out his phone to look at the time, hoping that he could cut off the auditions. He wasn't sure which would be the worst of two evils: having to sit through more people audition or attempt to write with Rey. He sighed when he saw the time before cutting the audition short, "I'm sorry, I don't think you're what we're looking for." After the man walked out Ben groaned, "It's time for me to meet up with the wicked witch of the west."

"She can't possibly be that bad," Jason laughed. He'd never met her, but he'd heard good things about Rey from other people at the label.

"To everyone else I'm sure she's fine. It's just me, I seem to have that effect on people," he told him, stretching as he stood up. "I'll text you when I'm done, maybe we can go back through the ones that auditioned today and find someone decent," he told him, to which other man just nodded.

"Good luck," Jason teased as Ben walked out of the room. The dark haired man didn't reply, rather threw up a middle finger without looking back. Jason had grown used to Ben's attitude and just laughed at the gesture, knowing there was no real malice behind it.

---

When Ben walked into the room he found Rey waiting for him. She was sitting in his chair, writing something on the notepad she had brought with her. He didn't say anything for a moment; instead he just looked at her. She had her hair up in a ridiculous three-bun style and was dressed in short shorts and a tank top that showed off her toned body. He almost wondered if she were trying to get him to say something about her that would make it so she could walk away.

"It's not nice to stare," she smirked, throwing his own words back at him. Rey looked up at him, "You're ten minutes late."

"I see that," he said, not breaking eye contact. "I do have my own project I'm working on, kind of need to find a new band," he told her, annoyance clear in voice. He lay awkwardly on the couch in the room, which was far too small for his long body. "What kind of sound are you guys going for?" he asked, closing his eyes to will away the pounding headache. He refused to let her pull him into another argument when he promised his mother that he would try to be civil with the infuriating woman in front of him.

"You're not up for this," it was more of statement than a question. "Why try today if you're clearly not interested?" she was insulted that he seemed so disinterested in even trying to help her.

Ben sat up, "Trust me, I'm fine. Just tell me what kind of sound you're going for so we can get started." He wasn't in the mood to play nice, especially not with her and how she'd treated him a couple days before.

"I don't know how to describe it," she realized she didn't have much of a direction as to how they wanted their CD to sound. "I know that I don't want a CD full of love songs, and I don't want something angry," she thought out loud.

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