My Little Decoy

♪ Face Down in the Lies ♪ {18}

"Going under
Getting close to what we cannot recognize
Floating face down in the lies
Here we are without a trace
But the lies we used to blame." -Swim in Silence

"Let's run it one more time." Gabriel said raspily into the microphone.

Audible groans echoed through the soundproof room, but ceased immediately when Gabriel fixed a hard stare on all of us.

"Again." he ordered, and I sighed, counting off the song for the twelfth time before the rest of the band entered at once.

Although we were lacking the energy from the first rehearsal, our passion still shone. Or was that sweat?

Gabriel closed his eyes and tapping his foot, he began to sing our chosen song for auditions. I kept up my consistent rhythm, falling into the pattern that I've gotten used to. My eyes shut too, listening to the melodic voices interwining to create one gigantic sound.

When I opened them, I saw Drake bobbing his head with a stern look on his face, keeping his gaze on the frets of his guitar as he spun into the solo. Xander's rhythm guitar took over silently behind the wailing of the first guitar, keeping the original melody alive as Zac continued to promote a rumbling, deep repetition on his bass that helped me keep the tempo.

When the time came, I opened my mouth and added back-up vocals along with the others, my voice getting lost behind the set. After all, I wasn't miked, but Zac assured me that during the auditions, professional would set up the equipment for me.

I felt the music trap me in its clutches, and for a second I forgot that my arms were about to fall off. I just listened to the lyrics and melody, not paying attention to my drumming. It was second nature to me; I rarely messed up. A few times I winced inwardly though. We were far from perfect, but the few slip-ups we made often made my ears want to bleed.

"A riot!" Gabriel finished the song, drawing us to a close as Drake's guitar fizzled into the silence.

Panting, the guitar players stretched their fingers and I placed Rev on the snare drum in front of me, circling my shoulders to release the tension.

"Any better?" Zac asked, as Xander threw him a bottle of lemonade while the rest of us took a swig from our water bottles.

"Much." Gabriel nodded, clearing his throat to get rid of the gruffness. "I still think we keep rushing the last chorus though. And the bridge into it is a little rough."

I nodded and decided to add in my own findings, "By the way, Drake, watch your fingers in the second verse. They were slightly off and the chords weren't as clean. Xander, keep the rhythm steady during Drake's solo; listen to Zac. And Zac, you're fine, I just think the intro was a little rocky since your part's much more independent. And Gabriel," I ignored his arched eyebrow. "You accidentally switched keys during the second verse, your pitch wasn't right back then."

The other four gaped at me and I felt like shrinking back from the attention. "Perfect pitch, remember?" I added uneasily, rubbing the back of my head.

". . .Right," Drake mused, regaining his consciousness. "Still getting used to that."

Gabriel scoffed, pretending as if what I said wasn't correct. "Anyway. Let's run it from the second verse and finish it. Then we're done for the day since you're all a bunch of wimps and obviously don't care that the auditions are on tuesday. Which is only two days from now. It's sunday today, guys."

"Dude, we know that!" Xander exclaimed. "It's just that we've been practicing the same song for like three hours. Our time slot is almost up anyway."