Life, Love, & Lies

Fourteen

⚠️ TW// low ⚠️

"Alright guys, final rehearsals are this week, and we need to run through the show from start to finish, so Matt, you have to decide on your song. Are we doing it or not?" Dan yells at the band who are setting up on stage to run through the setlist. The first show is only three days away and the excitement around the band and the crew is more than palpable.

"I want to do it." Matt calls out from his place on the left of the stage.

"Then let's start the runthrough without skipping it." Dan nods, taking a seat on one of the chairs currently set up in the Pit area of the venue.

LoLo wanders the space between the barricade and stage, finding angles she likes for photos, and adjusting her settings to the lighting of the show as the band play through their hits and new songs, capturing behind the scenes footage for them as they rehearse. Her mind is more focused on the camera in her hand than the songs the band is singing through, but she hums along absentmindedly to the songs she has memorized. Pausing her camera as Matt steps up to his microphone, the mood in the large and empty room suddenly drops significantly, the change in the atmosphere having caught her attention.

"Alright," Matt looks extremely nervous as he fiddles with his guitar, "This next section of songs are going to slow things down, and this first song is one that has never been played outside the studio before this tour. This song I wrote alone, and it is special for a number of reasons. The first reason, it was the first song I ever wrote that truly made Milo and I feel like we could do this, like Pier 6 was more than a dream. It was the predecessor to Berenstein, and every other song we have ever written. When I finally showed it to Milo he was blown away by it, and I am forever grateful to this song for showing both of us we had the talent we needed so long as we put in the hard work." He pauses for a moment, seeming to take that time to collect himself a little bit, "The other reason this song is important is because I wrote it in the depths of my first serious bout of depression, and it speaks so strongly to those feelings, the way I was coping with a traumatic event in my life that at eighteen I wasn't fully capable of comprehending or digesting, and feelings that even now I struggle with still. That being said, there is no reason to panic about my mental state currently, but this song is me at my most vulnerable, my most raw, and my most personal. I promised Milo that someday I would share it with the world, and today is that day. I hope you guys love it, and even more I hope that it can help some of you too. This is, I Spend Too Much Time In My Room." He clears his throat softly as he starts to pick away at his guitar, a soft and melancholy string of cords filling the space with a unique and powerful energy instantaneously. Reese joins in with keys after only about ten seconds, building the suspension of the somehow beautiful and heart wrenching music, LoLo already fully captivated by the song. Zach's drums only add to the emotion of the songs as he begins to play with them, Chaz's bass doing likewise.

"I spend too much time in my room
I keep too many secrets from you
I like to be alone but it's bad for me
Because I spend too much time in my room" Matt's voice is raw, filled with emotion as the band gives him the spotlight, Milo's harmonies subtle enough to not take focus, yet still add so much to the song.

"I spend too much time on my phone
I know I've said I liked being alone
But I care way too much about what they think
So I spend too much time on my phone"

"My mama don't like my tattoos
So I had to act like I do
The only thing that I learned in school...
Is life treats you well if you're cool" LoLo's heart stops for a second as the visual on the screen behind the band shows the shadow of a ballerina dancing as it mentions how his mom doesn't like his tattoos, smiling softly as a photo of Matt and Milo she had taken in high school follows the dancer.