J.A.C.I.E.'s World (All Time Low Fanfiction | Jack Barakat)

Chapter 27

My refuge had become the guest bedroom in our apartment. If I wasn't in the studio working, I was often writing and trying things out on my own. This time, it wasn't because I was trying to avoid life. It was because inspiration kept striking. There were so many ideas pouring out of me, ready to be brought to life.

I was on the guest bed, lying down on my stomach, with a notebook and pen in front of me, going through the random scribbles I had written over a couple of days, trying to see if I could create a pattern. It was in there somewhere, but I had so many disjointed ideas.

"What are we working on?" Jack asked as he threw himself next to me.

"We?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, we. I can't let you have all the fun by yourself. Teamwork makes the dream work and all that shit."

"Okay, Mr. Teamwork," I entertained putting my pen down on the notebook, "why don't you tell me the plan?"

"I've been toying around with a few ideas myself."

I couldn't help but smirk a little. "Oh, really?"

"Yeah." He leaned into me as he shifted so he could grab his phone out of his front pocket.

He laid back down onto his stomach when he got it out. I watched as he navigated to the notes app and pulled up a note with a list of words and sentences. He scrolled through it slowly, making me steal the phone from him so I could have a better look. When I had been helping out with their last album, Jack had a go at cowriting some of the songs. But it had mainly been Alex, Justin, and me. And then there was also the one we did together. This was a whole new level, though.

"Wow, you've been busy," I commented as I scanned over the bits of pieces of text. Just like my stuff, it wasn't anything coherent, but there were ideas there.

"I've just been jotting down thoughts and phrases," Jack said with a shrug. "I figured, why not give it a shot? I know you're the pro, but who knows what will come out of it."

I picked up my pen again and jotted down some of the words he had written next to mine. "Your lyrics and ideas are a lot more sexual than mine."

"What can I say? You're my muse."

I wrote down one last word before returning the phone to its rightful owner. The pen went into my mouth as I looked over the page. It was still a crazy mess of thoughts, words, and sentences. The handwritten text was all over the place at different angles. It was why I always had to work on plain or dotted paper. Ruled paper was just too constricting.

"Do you see anything in this?" I asked, nudging the notebook over to Jack slightly.

He stared at the page for a few seconds. "Not really, no."

I got where he was coming from. It was a mix of love-y themes, some metaphors about falling from me, and the more sexual aspect from Jack. But the gears were turning in my head. I was starting to make connections. The pen went back in my hand and I started circling certain words and phrases, drawing lines between things that were somehow related.

I quickly scrambled off the bed and grabbed Jack's acoustic guitar from the closest corner in the room. Although the music wasn't happening in my head yet, I knew that once one of us had an idea, we'd want to get started as fast as possible. I put the guitar down on the bed and then got back on myself.

Next, I ripped the page out of the notebook and put it in front of us so I could still see it as I opened up a new page. Almost immediately, some poetic sounding lines came to me. I started quickly writing them down on the new piece of paper, hoping to get them all out before I forgot. It wasn't a whole song yet, but it was something. I tapped the pen against the paper once the initial rush of ideas ended.