Hell To Pay

Gimme Stitches

Dave, Taylor, and Nate are already at the venue to show their video of the new single The Pretender, which will be documented by MTV The Making of. "Is he really not gonna show up?" Nate looks around, not able to spot Chris everywhere. "I don't know... We'll see if..." Dave isn't finished his words yet, when Chris enter the venue with his weird bleached hair cut. Wearing an all-black outfit. "Wha
....."
"Hi Dave." He walks confidently and just doesn't mind about Dave dropped-jaw. "Chris. Uhmm.. wow." Taylor can't really tell what to say and still can't process what just happened. "What? Something is wrong?"
"No..no, not at all." Nate cut them and assure Chris that he looks fine. "Anyway, where have you been?"
"Me? Trip. I'm...sorry didn't answer any of your call I was..."
"We knew. Helena told us. We get it, you needed times. But the important thing is, you did show up today."
"Of course. I have responsibility on that. I'm not gonna be a jerk. " He giggles a little bit which lights up the vibe slightly.

"Sam! There you go!" Shelly is just really loud in a room that has so much echoes. It's been easily heard by the band. Taylor in particular. "Oh, hey. Haha. You're so loud Shelly." Sam walks along her and passed Taylor. She's actually bat an eye for seconds on him but then quickly move forward to get into her spot.

As the shooting begins, she focus herself into the audio that they get from both director, the band, and crews. Makes it a shoot within a shoot. There are moments where she steal a glance at Taylor and vice versa. It really distract her. "Just do it properly!" Her supervisor noticed that and decided to tell her about it. "Yes. I'm sorry... Not happen again." As she says that, she can see Taylor looks at her because of their conversation. "What's wrong?" Taylor tries to interrupt a little bit and stands up for her. "No, it's just she's new on this and need to focus on the job."
"Oh, okay. Seems like everything's fine. No need to worry." He says, hints a clue for the supervisor not to be too hard on Sam. "Right." He smiles and walks away to another spot. Leaving just Sam and Taylor.

"Don't do that..."
"What?"
"The let's save Sam attitude. Stop doing that."
"What did I do wrong?"
"Nothing. But please don't do that. I don't want to owe you anything. Like literally."
"It's not like I meant to you to owe me anything. I really don't." He looks at her and she looks back but then she looks away. "He's right... let's just....do the job and go home." Hearing that, Taylor just sighs and just wait for his turn to enter the frame. Just right before the first drum hit of the track. "See you later." He says and then he walks to his drum set and hit his part really hard. He's still pissed about Sam told him not to do things to help her out. It feels like she's pushing him away, further.

The hangar is indeed got a hot air, but the tension between Sam and Taylor is even worse. She just want to do her job and go home. She hates this whole shoot. Taylor hates it as well. In the mid break, he doesn't even looks at her and walk away. Out from the building to get a fresh air, literally. But not Sam, she stays, sitting down on the floor and doesn't even care how hot inside the hangar and she's sweating all over her face.

While Dave and Nate going out as well, it's just a couple of crews, Chris and Sam inside. He notices the bad mood on Sam's face so he walks over to check her out. He brings two can of juice and gives her one while he drinks the other. "You're okay?"
"No. I'm not."
"Is it Taylor?"
"Yeah, absolutely." The way she answers very shortly, Chris knows she's somehow really pissed about something and he doesn't want to make it worse. "Heyyy. I'll cook some Thai food if you cheer up a little bit." She smirks, thinking of how cheesy Chris' offer is. "That would be good. I ain't got time to buy some food."
"That is Sam that I know! You're the one that told me these 3 mood changers. Food, Beach, and Music." Just as he says that, he see all of his band mates are back and getting ready again, so he quickly leaves Sam and gives her a wink.

As Taylor sit on his chair, he see Sam is drinking the juice that's kinda familiar. He usually see Chris taking this one particular juice while none of the other member like that. He always bring some of it everyday. So Taylor knows Sam got it from Chris. "I don't know you like that." He says, without even looking at her. "What?"
"The juice that only Chris who always drink it."
"Of course you don't know. Chris used to gave me one or two on tour.  You don't know much about me. Maybe you will, if you're not busy with someone else."
"Hey, can you not...." Taylor feels like it is a jab to his head. She's clearly still bitter about him and Patricia. Sam, rolling her eyes just go with a cold-tone word. "Fine." She finishes the juice and shout to Chris who is about to put his strap on. "Hey Chris! You got another bottle of this?"
"My bag!" He shout it back while pointed at his bag. Taylor quietly pay attention on how close they are and it makes him really jealous. Like, she even know where Chris put the juice inside the bag and how they looked like a really close pal. They did the specific high-five and all that.

"They looked really close, don't you think?" Dave goes to Taylor and it wakes him up from his own mind. "What?"
"Chris and Sam. They seems really close."
"Yeah. He became her new good friend. I guess. He's always the closest one to her in the band, right after me. I mean... At least I used to. But since we broke up, maybe he goes to the top spot on her friend list."
"Ah, I see. I don't know... I just feel kinda odd because I'm getting used to see her hanging out with you."
"I know...."

Soon they start to shoot the other half of the video and Sam is much calmer, cool-minded and has a lot of focus on her job. With everything went well, Sam shake all of the crews' hands, share the mutual happiness. Including Chris. She goes for a high five and then she slap his shoulder before say something quietly.

"Don't forget, you owe me a Thai food."