Army Of Noise

One

"Can't you see I'm easily bothered by persistence, one step from lashing out at you" I hummed along to Pantera's Walk which was currently playing through my computers speakers, whilst I sat clicking my pen lid out of boredom. Another typical boring Friday afternoon in the studio. This wasn't what I had spent 4 years in uni to be doing. I was currently working for a large recording and sound company, with the initial hopes of myself and my best friend, Spencer, would get a job on the road but alas we were studio bound and separated. She worked all the way up in a studio in Scotland, where she lived and I was at the company head office in London, currently working on some hip hop wanna be artists' EP.

"Hey Hayden, are you coming to Owen's leaving party next week?" Sadie, one of the publishing girls and also the main gossip girl, asked as she opened the door, half scaring me to death.

"Jeesh Sadie, at least knock next time." I sighed clicking mute on my music. "Who's Owen and why is he leaving?" In all honesty I didn't really care, I came to work, got my head down and got on with my work, then left. I was a bit ignorant to be honest about who was who.

"Come on, you have to have heard of Owen. He's the guy that's the manager of the road crew. Handed his notice in this morning. The main boss, Derek, is throwing him a leaving party as thanks for all his years service."

"Right. Well send me an email with the details and I'll get back to you on that one." Sadie shrugged and nodded before walking out of the room leaving the door open. "How hard is it to close a door" I huffed getting up from my chair and closing it. Friday afternoons dragged and made me not such a happy person.

I spent another good 2 hours working on editing the EP when my work phone rang.

"Hello, Hayden speaking"

"Ah, good I got the right line. Hayden, it's Derek, will you be able to come to my office please." My heart sank. This couldn't be good. As much as I disliked the job I needed it. Affording a flat in London was ridiculous, I was only just scraping by with what I was currently earning.

"Sure, I'll be right up." The line clicked and the call ended. I let out a huge sigh, pulling my dark grey hair up into a loose pony tail. I grabbed my phone and sent a quick text to Spencer

*Got a call from Derek for a meeting. Shitting it!* she messaged back almost instantly.

*You'll be fine. Let me know how it goes.*

I bit my lip and straightened out my clothing before knocking on the door.

"Come in" with that I opened the door. Derek's office was a large room full of various cds and albums on the walls. Derek was sat behind his desk typing away on his computer, he was a balding grey haired man, later 50s in age and slightly overweight. He looked up as I closed the door behind me. "Ah Hayden, good to see you. Thank you for coming here so promptly. Please take a seat." He gestured to the plush leather chairs he had on the opposite side of the desk to where he was. I took a seat. "Now I can tell by the look on your face you are wondering why I have called you here. Let me reassure you it is nothing for you to be worried about" It was at that point I realised that I must have been holding my breath as I let out a long breath of relief. Derek must have heard as he let out a chuckle. "I have a proposition for you that I think you'll love."

I threw my work bag onto my kitchen work top before bounding over to my laptop on my desk and switching it on. I told Spencer that I had to talk to her, but I needed to see her too so I told her we would Skype when we had both finished work. I was running late, thanks to the usual London traffic jams, so no doubt she would already be online waiting for me. While I waited for it to load I poured myself a jd and coke, and grabbed my Rammstein hoody to throw on as it was chilly in the flat. No sooner than my laptop had finished loading did the skype music begin to play, notifying me of an incoming video call. I sat down at my desk before answering.

"So, come on, spill the beans, what was so important that you couldn't call or just text me." She asked, or somewhat muttered as she was busy fixing one of the many dreadlocks in her beautiful amber hair.

"You need to start packing." She paused mid movement and looked up at me, her grey eyes focusing on the screen.

"I need to what?"

"Start packing."

"That's what I thought but I was just double checking. Why the heck do I need to start packing? What about my job?" Her Scottish accent was more pronounced when she spoke fast.

"You need to move your stuff down to mine." I smiled as the ever so confused face staring back at me

"Hay, if you don't tell me what you are on about I swear I'll slap you through this screen." I laughed.

"Alright calm down there Miss Lynch. So you a required to move down here and move in with me for a while. And don't worry, Derek is letting Mandy know that you are leaving, but you'll obviously have to let your Mum know you're away for a while."

"You are still talking in riddles to me. Please be more clear." She shuffled about on her bed making herself more comfortable with the laptop on her knees.

"Spencer, we're going on the road. I've been offered a job doing the sound for touring shows, and of course Derek said you'd be coming too." I think Spencers Jaw was hanging so low that it had become unhinged. I grinned like the Cheshire cat.

"What, How?"

"Owen, who I learnt today is head of the road crew for various teams, has handed his notice in. Derek wants new people in the team and knew how much we both wanted to be on the road and working together, has asked us to join the team. He wants us to start as soon as possible so that we can shadow and be mentored by Owen before he leaves in two weeks. He has given me some funds to help you move down here this weekend, obviously that is if you accept. He was going to call you after speaking to me but I wanted to be the one to tell you." There was silence, as Spencer somewhat seemed lost.

"Holy fuck, this is amazing. I'm packing now." She jumped off of her bed and placed her laptop on her desk before making herself busy about her room.