Drumsticks and Guitar Picks - Complete

Chapter Five - Coffee and a Chat

Tommy, Andy, David and I all sat on the grass outside our tent, the breeze wafting the smell of fresh coffee from the truck in the centre of the circle of tents. The only thing is we are too lazy to stand up and go buy some.

"Why does walking have to take effort?" I groaned as I let my arms give away from under me.

"Why does anything take effort!" I could tell Andy was roasting in his tight pants, he was sprawled out on the soft grass, arms laced behind his head.

"True-" The sun was blocked out of my view by a figure standing over me. I took off my sunglasses and sat up to find Chase stood with a grin on his face, two cups of coffee in hand. "Oh Hey!"

"One of them cups of coffee better be for me..." David laughed, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand.

"You're all so lazy!" Chase laughed "It's actually for Angie-"

I turned and stuck my tongue out David, who wrinkled his nose at me. "Now theres a real gentleman!" I stood up and took a cup of coffee from him. "Thanks!"

"No problem! I was wondering if you wanted to go for a walk? I hear theres a gorgeous trail down the back!"

"I'd love to go but I'm not sure if I can leave these imbeciles in charge of breathing correctly, because I seem to be telling them how to do ALOT lately!"

"Go, It'll be nice for us to actually have some guy time!" Tommy smiled at me.

I took a drink of the coffee, looking at my brother with narrowed eyes.

"Okay. I worded that wrong. Let me start over-

"Don't bother..." Andy laughed "You will only get into more bother!"

"So are you comin' or not?" Chase asked, wiggling his eyebrows at me.

"Yeah, I will do!" I smiled at Chase as we began to walk off in the direction of the trail "So how long have you guys been a band?"

"About 5 years officially. We only started coming here about four years ago though! You will have to listen to our rehearsals later, see what you think!"

"Its not like I have a choice really, we are in the tent next to you. We have to listen whether we like it or not!"

Chase hip bumped me, laughing. "Hey, we were nice enough to listen to your noise!"

"I'd expect that from Ashley but not you! I'm offended!" I acted offended, then cracked. There was something about his Crystal Blue eyes and tousled black hair that just made me feel at ease, like we had known each other for years.

"She isn't as bad as you think-" He couldn't keep a straight face while he said this. "Ok. So maybe she isn't the best one to deal with competition!"

"And humans in general?" I laughed.

Chase sat on a bench as we were passing and pulled me down next to him as he chuckled at what I had said. He plucked a pale pink rose from the bush next to where he was sat and placed it in my hair. "Your hair matches the rose, how sweet!"

Was he coming onto me? Even if he was I wouldn't care but so early? We'd only met like two hours ago.

"Aww, thanks!"

He turned around on the bench to face me. "So- ask me a question"

I smiled and crossed my legs up on the bench. "Anything?"

"Well, within reason-"

"Most embarrassing moment?"

Chase creased his eyebrows at me. "I fell on stage last year and ripped all my pants..."

"That isn't so bad-"

"I didn't tell you where I split them.."

We both laughed, for ages. It's funny because it's happened to me before. "Ok, you ask me one!"

"Oh. Right..." He thought for a moment, his amazing blue eyes narrowing. "Would you ever get a tattoo and if yes, where?"

"It's one thing I'd never really thought about in all honesty but I'd get lyrics to the first ever song I wrote"

"Deep!" Chase laughed.

We sat on the bench, surrounded by rose petals and stalks for a good hour. Just asking each other questions and flicking petals of different colours at each other. I found out his favourite animal is a hawk, he likes horseback riding and he has cherokee indian roots (just like Tommy and I). I told him about how my dad started off our career, how I have a phobia of cows and how I don't burn in the sun.

We also sat discussing tattoos and how they only made sense if they meant something to you. Like he would carry on the tradition in his family by having an indian feather and I would have a tiger on my forearm to represent how the band is slowly clawing its way up to the top.

I think we'd both forgotten about our coffee...