better friends - eddie roundtree x oc

Los Angeles, 1975

Our first day back in the studio started with Billy arguing with Teddy over how much he disliked the idea of bringing this new voice in. Honestly, I had long grown tired of his complaining. Suddenly, a girl with bright red hair and big blue doe eyes came walking into the booth, clad in only a long, button-down shirt and cowgirl boots. Billy shut up and the girl smiled at Teddy. "Daisy Jones, Billy Dunne." She turned to him and beamed. "I like your song." He sighed and left her compliment unanswered as Teddy rounded us up and threw us in the sound booth.

"Daisy, you are gonna go right here, and Tobias will set you up." Teddy instructed, gesturing to Tobias, our sound guy. "Great. Could I have a glass of milk and a whiskey?" she asked, everyone a bit shocked at her gall. "Or just a whiskey, if you don't have milk. Or just a milk, if you don't have whiskey." I don't know if I wasn't fully sober, or I was just in a bold mood, but for some reason I felt the need to add on to the order. "Yeah, and if we're getting drinks, could I have a Dr. Pepper and rum? Or just either. If it's not too much trouble." Teddy and Tobias nodded and left the room. Daisy turned to me and smiled. I stretched out my hand. "I'm Mallory. You can call me Mal. I'm really excited to work with you." She shook my hand with a loose grip, still beaming. Karen mimicked my actions. "So happy to see you, Daisy." She shook Karen's hand as well as she said, "Yeah. Thank you for having me." Graham piped up a quick, "You're welcome." As Billy followed Teddy into the production room.

"Okay. Let's do this." Billy said, grinding out a cigarette. We left the room to let Daisy and Billy record just the vocals. It was a little crowded in the production booth, being that there was seven people and a huge soundboard shoved into the small space. I felt as though this might seem a bit intimidating to Daisy, but I could have been wrong. Tobias entered the sound booth with Daisy's milk and whiskey in hand. She thanked him as he showed her and Billy their volume channels. She spoke into the mic for a few tests and adjusted her volume. "What, has she never recorded before?" Graham asked. We all stared at Daisy and Warren let out a drag. "She's about to." She couldn't stop moving, like she was nervous. I wouldn't blame her if she was, but Daisy didn't seem like the type to get nervous. Or at least not show it if she was.

"Could we turn these off, or lower them a little?" she asked, motioning toward the overhead lights. "Yeah, where are her pants?" Eddie mumbled. Warren shrugged. "Who cares?" Karen and I rolled our eyes and mouthed "men" to each other. "Shut up, you two." she directed, Graham chortling beside her. Tobias came back in the room and handed me my Dr. Pepper and rum. "Thank you, Tobias." I smiled, sipping out of my glass. I offered some to Graham and he took it, knowing it would be easier to watch Billy throw a tantrum with a little buzz. Teddy told Billy and Daisy to give him a level, then they started their first take of 'Honeycomb'. Before Billy could even get two lines in, Daisy took off her headphones and patted Billy on the arm. "Do we need the audience?" she whispered. Billy look at her, astonished, and asked, "You mean the band?" Their voices were so hushed we could barely hear, but Daisy pointing to us gave everyone an idea on what they were saying.

"Is she talking about us?" Eddie asked. Warren chuckled. "It's our song." Eddie laughed with him and replied, "Right?" I was still looking at Daisy, who now had both her arms stretched to us and was saying, "They're just kind of looking right at me." I took a deep breath in. "Let's just, um, give her some space, don't you think?" I suggested, Karen nodding and adding, "Do you wanna go and talk to Deb?" The boys caught on and turned to us. "Debbie's working today? Oh shit, I didn't even know." Warren replied in a voice two octaves higher than his usual one. Once they had made it to the exit, I shut the door and shooed them away when they realized we weren't joining them; then I walked back to Karen. We figured, if anyone, Daisy would want to see some fellow women supporting her, and not a group of men. I could only assume we figured right when she smiled at us, an excited look on her face as they started take two.