Something in the Way You Move [O'J]

Fun at the Studios

Mark's POV

Okay, so it's 1:20 now and Danny was supposed to meet us here at 12:30. "Where the fuck is he?" I grumble for the thousandth time.

"I'm telling you, we need to get shirts that say 'Where's Danny?'," Glen says.

"And parade around until someone tells us where he is?" I ask, only half-joking.

"Well, why not?"

"I don't know. I'm going to call him."

"For the...fourth time, is it? He ignored all your earlier calls and texts."

I shrug. "Maybe fourth time's a charm." I dial his number and wait for him to answer. After about a dozen rings, it goes to voicemail. Again! "I'm gonna kill him!" I yell, coming so close to throwing my phone across the studios. Some days, I'm amazed I don't. We decide to wait for another ten minutes, and if he's not here by then, we're going after him. There's been a few occasions when we've had to drag him here by the scruff of his neck... We're both watching the clock intently, and at 1:29 I turn to Glen and say, "Well, let's get our coats on; he's clearly forgotten." As the clock strikes 1:30, he walks in, as if nothing's happened.

"Hey guys," he greets, taking his coat off as if he's not an hour late.

"And just where the fuck have you been?" I explode, giving him the best evils I can.

"Taking care of...business..." he says quietly.

"Oh, so you decided Jessie was more important than us?" I snap in irritation.

"Not Jessie," he says through clenched teeth.

"Is everything okay with Callie?" Glen asks, preventing me from going off on him again. I had completely forgotten about her...

"Fine, now," he says curtly.

"So that's why you're late? You had to fix Callie? Is she going to take over your life?" I growl. "Putting a girl before the band yet again." He walks over to me and ends up standing so close that I have to physically look up at him to make eye contact. I hate that he's so much taller than I am at some times. "Again? Name one time I've put a girl before the band!" he hisses.

"When you and Irma were together, every time we were supposed to be in the studios, you were always at least two hours late! I'm impressed we're not still working on our second album!" I snarl. "And now you've got yourself wrapped around Callie's pinky and a girlfriend! We'll be lucky if we finish our fourth album at all!"

Danny stays quiet, but the look in his eyes has turned murderous. In the next second, I feel something hard slam into my jaw and I stagger backwards, falling over a guitar case. I put a hand to my jaw and glare at Danny. He's staring at his fist as if he's just as surprised he punched me as I am. I get back up to my feet and I'm about to let Danny have it when Glen grabs me from behind and traps me in a headlock. I struggle to escape, but Glen probably has the strongest arms out of the three of us---he is the drummer, after all. "Getting Glen to fight your battles now, you chickenshit?!?" I yell at Danny. He moves as if he's going to start swinging, but Glen yells, "Ben, Rodney, grab him!"

I watch with the greatest pleasure as he is sacked and pinned to the floor by Ben and Rodney. I can't help but snicker at him as he struggles to throw the two of them off. He freezes as I do so and turns to glare at me. Let's just say that if looks could kill, I'd be dying an extremely slow, agonizing death. I squirm slightly under that glare (you would too), and Glen pins me against the wall, mistaking it as an attempt to escape. "Ben, Rodney, can one of you pin him by yourself?" Glen asks.