Mr. Misty-Eyed | Josh Dun

reality | thirty-six

"Let's take this a second at a time,
Let's take this one song, this one rhyme,
Together, let's breathe."

. . . . .

"Try it again, Josh," Tyler spoke after I had finished what felt like the hundredth take that day.

I let out a breath of air and readied myself, the ticking from the metronome in the playback filled the headphones I wore and I gripped my drumsticks tightly, counting down in my head. My sticks hit the tops of my drums at a rapid pace and a smile grew on my face as I nodded my head along with the beat, feeling as though this take was definitely the one.

The sound filtered out into nothing and I watched as Tyler bounced along to the playback before giving me the thumbs up.

"Sounds good, man!" Tyler looked over at me, his dark brown eyes wide with excitement.

"Should we go again?" I asked in an upbeat fashion, the simple compliment energizing me.

He nodded once, both of us getting ready for yet another go at recording my drums.

It had taken us almost a week to finally come to a general consensus on what songs we were going to record for our first ever full-length album. Bryce had been kind enough to buy us a whiteboard, and with my help, hung it up on the wall next to the computer console. Tyler then on one half wrote out what he thought the recording schedule should be like and on the other side wrote down the fourteen songs we would be recording.

My eyes glanced up toward the list on the board to see that there were only five songs with checks next to them, indicating that I had done my part and all the drums were recorded.

We still had a long road ahead of us, but we had started off strong with a clear end to strive toward. Doing this was the first time in a long time that I felt like I had finally found my purpose in the world. And it felt amazing.

"You ready for a break?" Tyler asked, but kept his eyes on the computer screen he sat in front of.

"Yeah, I'm starving! It's getting kind of late anyway." I stood from my stool and climbed out from behind my drum kit, walking over to stand behind Tyler's chair.

I watched for a moment as he pieced together a few takes before saving the track we had just recently titled as 'Isle of Flightless Birds'. It was still a work in progress, Tyler not even having all of the lyrics written. But it was a great song and we both believed it would add just a little bit more to the album.

Tyler let out a relieved breath before he stood and we both made our way across the garage and into the house. My stomach grumbled as the smells of something delicious filled my nostrils. Tyler glanced over at me with the same questioning look I had before we hurried into the kitchen to see what was going on.

To my delight, Jenna and Bryce stood in the kitchen preparing a meal. My heart leapt into my throat as Bryce smiled in my direction as soon as we walked into the room. The sick anxious feeling I have had all my life had dulled slightly and I prayed every morning for the medication to continue doing its job.

"So what's the occasion for such great smelling food?" Tyler's words brought me back to reality and I watched as he leaned toward Jenna and kissed her cheek in greeting.

I glanced at Bryce to see her already looking my way and I smiled at her timidly.

"Well actually, we're celebrating. Bryce accepted a new job offer today!" Jenna explained, beaming at her fiancé and then at me.

"Congrats!" Tyler scooped Bryce up in a tight, friendly squeeze.

My heart started beating just the slightest bit quicker and when I didn't react like the other two had, everyone's attention turned to me. Of course I was happy for her, but it felt like just yesterday I had been clutching onto her drenched and shaking body out on the lake.

My eyes were trained on Bryce and the soft smile that graced her features confused me. And then she shook her head, seeing the look on my face and quickly made her way over to me. I glanced at Tyler and Jenna as they turned their backs to us to start their own conversation in hopes of giving us a brief moment of privacy.

I chewed at my lower lip nervously as I spoke. "Don't you think it's a little soon? I don't want you to feel like you need to rush into anything like this just to have some kind of normalcy."

Bryce smiled at me in understanding from where she stood in front of me. "I don't want to hold onto that feeling of being terrified, because I know how hard it is for you. And I think getting back up on my feet and making my place here more permanent is a good idea, that's all."

My body tensed at her words. It wasn't meant to be a jab at me, I knew that, she just wanted to learn from what she had seen me go through and I understood that completely.

"I like the sound of permanent." I bit back a smile and stared down at her as happiness invaded all my senses.

I was proud of her for being able to push through something like that and I wished that I could have done the same when it had happened to me so many years ago. But everyone is different and everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. Though in my eyes it seemed as though Bryce could do no wrong. She was the strongest person I knew and that pushed me to be the same way.

Bryce ran a hand across my jaw before she stood up on her toes and kissed my cheek gently as close to my lips as possible. She then stepped away giving my hand a light squeeze before interrupting the hushed conversation still going on between Tyler and Jenna.

"Go have a seat boys!" Bryce walked over to Tyler and playfully swatted him to the opposite side of the counter where I stood watching the two with an amused expression.

"Food will be ready in just a minute." Bryce gestured toward the table before going back to chatting with my best friend's fiancé.

Tyler and I did as she instructed and took our seats across from each other at the table and waited. I leaned back against my chair in a comfortable manner, folding my arms over my chest as I watched Bryce smile and laugh at something Jenna said. They had easily fallen back into the conversation they were having before we entered the room.

"We've got some good ones, don't we?" Tyler's voice had my gaze turning toward him.

I felt my heartbeat quicken and my cheeks flush, but I nodded along with him nonetheless.

"Yeah, we do."

.