Hopeless Haze - Volume I: Hot Fuss (Remastered)

6: An Old Cliché

OCTOBER 30 - NOVEMBER 1, 2003

The first thing that Brandon is aware of is the speaking, then the light coming in through the window. It makes his skin uncomfortably warm and he should have remembered to shut the blinds last night, but had been impacted by the night of drinking the band partook in.

Dave is teasing him as he draws his blanket over his head. He'd love to get more sleep-he'd love to spend all day asleep. That sounds so nice.

Someone flicks the TV on and before Brandon can tune into what's happening, there's a bony mass crushing him. Fucking Dave who won't let him sleep in. He can hear Ronnie getting onto Dave about it, but the mirth in his voice tells Brandon that he thinks it's a little funny.

He wrenches his pillow out from under his head and whacks Dave with it. Ronnie barks out a laugh that's entirely too loud and Dave backs off, chuckling his way into the kitchen.

Brandon finally sits up, grumbling and wiping at his bleary eyes. He's graced with the image of the band's Californian condo, where he has been forced to stay on the couch all week because he's the youngest and the littlest. But it sucks because there is literally no privacy. It makes him miss that huge luxurious bed in New York. Jesus, it makes him miss his shitty bed at home.

They've been in California for three days now and they have a little routine they follow. Someone gets up and makes breakfast (or better yet, they go somewhere for it), they watch the news, then they head to the studio. They leave once they get too hungry to work, Brandon watches the news again, and they go to bed. The distinction that he's the only one watching the news in the evening is important because no one else cares about what's going on outside other than the fires, but Brandon likes to be in the know.

He watches alone, except he's not alone because Ronnie's stationed on a rollaway cot in the corner. Alone and alone with Ronnie are two different things.

Today is Mark's turn to come up with breakfast, and he's made everyone eggs and toast. Dave brings it to him along with his morning coffee, a silent apology for the roughhousing that had just occurred. The coffee isn't perfect, but it's all they have on hand so it'll have to do.

"So we don't need to evacuate... yet?" Ronnie is asking Mark, who has been keeping an eye on the weather warnings this whole time.

"Not yet," Mark confirms. "The wind changed directions last night."

"Thank God for the wind," Dave jokes. "Does the studio have backups? Just in case?"

They'll have to see about that when they leave later because it would be a real shame if the studio computer melted and all their work was for nothing. This is their last recording session, too, so it would be just awful if that happened.

"What time are we heading to the show?" Brandon asks, his gaze trained at the TV. A reporter is interviewing some poor woman who has lost her home and now he feels guilty for being so worried about the studio.

"Six if we want to talk to the guys," Dave says. "Which is the point."

"So we'll head out at 4:30 and grab something to eat, then head over?" Ronnie asks. "Cool by me, but we need to get going if that's the case." He spares a glance to Brandon, which reminds him he needs to get dressed. Brandon just sighs and drapes himself over the arm of the couch where his bag is sitting on the floor, half of the contents spilled out.

"We're only recording the choir today," Mark says. He's right, but saying it like it's going to be some easy thing to accomplish is misleading. "All we have left after that is Andy and Natalie." They've actually gotten quite a lot done-there had been groundwork in place for nearly every song so things went quickly. The only truly brand new one that had to be started from scratch was Change Your Mind, which Brandon had only written very recently. It was the last one he did for the album.