Crash and Burn

14. Hesitancy

"I'm gonna go change first." I turned around and shot Mel a look. "Pick out an outfit with me, Mel." I walked over to the doorway of her room and practically dragged her by the arm into my room. "Grab a bottle of water from the fridge for me, please?" I turned to Demi and forced a smile, hoping she wouldn't realize the uncomfortable situation I was in. She nodded and turned on her heels, bounding down the stairs with obvious excitement.

The moment my door closed, I turned to Mel with a look of disappointment and disbelief. "What the hell?" Mel hung her head and her shoulders sagged. "I'm sorry, I know it wasn't my place to tell her that you played." I paced the length of my room, pinching the bridge of my nose. "I've only ever let 2 people into that room and a handful of people know that I even play anything. You know how special it is to me and you're handing out invites now?" Mel let out a sigh and flopped onto my bed. "I'm really sorry, Al. I've been going through some stuff and I'm taking it out on you. I really was out of line and I'm sorry." I stopped pacing and looked over at her. She faced the ceiling and took deep breaths, looking lost. "You have to talk to someone about this, Mel. You can't keep bottling it up and expect it to be okay because you have an outlet for the anger." She sat up and nodded, a sad tired look washing over her face. "I know and I'll tell you soon, I promise." I sighed and turned my back to her, walking into my closet. "You should go pick out an outfit too."

I walked out of my room changed, leaving my hair and make up the way it was and blushed when Demi started openly gawking. Taking a deep breath and going against what I know better, I tilted my head back and practically strutted down the hallway, giving Mel's door a quick knock. "What do you think?" I gave Demi a smirk and then did a turn. "You look absolutely gorgeous." Her eyes were scanning my body up and down and repeat. It definitely didn't seem like she was stopping anytime soon. I chuckled lightly and threw a thanks over my shoulder as I turned to the door to unlock it. Hearing the lock click, I froze. I was about to open the door to my practically sacred room to someone I barely know. I took a deep breath and told myself not to back out. If anything, I was sure I could learn a ton from Demi. Counting to 3, I turned the doorknob and stepped in, Demi following close behind.

"Holy mother of..." she trailed off as she stepped further into the room. It was fairly big room. The house had 6 large bedrooms and two of those rooms, were converted into this huge music room. It consisted of every instrument I've learnt growing up and could play a fair bit of, and a corner of it was converted into a recording booth. Demi walked directly over to the recording booth and carefully looked over the mixing consoles and her jaw dropped. "This room is fully equipped." I stood at the doorway watching her fawn over the entire room, looking as if she's too nervous to touch anything. "You can touch anything you want to, just don't break them." She looked like she was a kid on Christmas morning. I smiled at how adorable she was being, running her fingers lightly over the collection of guitars I had on the walls and the bunch of other strings instruments I had propped up on stands. "How many different instruments are there?" I sighed and looked around, frowning. "I honestly have no clue." I chuckled and finally peeled myself away from the door, walking directly to one of my electric and acoustic guitars. "Help me tune this one will ya?" I extended the hand that was holding on to my acoustic guitar towards Demi and she took it immediately, running her hand by the side of it. "Tuners are in the first drawer behind you." I laughed at how she was frozen in place, not daring to move with the guitar in her hand. "Everything okay?" I looked over to the doorway and saw Mel standing there, looking at the both of us in surprise. "Yeah, I was just.. Mel can you get a tuner out of the drawer for me?" I started chuckling awkwardly and plugged my guitar in. Mel frowned but did was she was told, not before sending me a look of concern. I subtly gave her a nod and smiled reassuringly. "Mel, you can set up the mics and backing audio that we'll need."

After playing Cry Baby, riffs and all, Demi stepped out to call her manager to spread the word that rehearsals for the rest of the week was on, never dropping her look of shock. "So, you clearly impressed her, but one thing I don't get." I looked at Mel, rolling my eyes at the slight bit of sassiness that was bound to come out. "Why'd you let her hold it?" I froze for a split second before going on to complete the proper line up. Demi had wanted to do her vocal warm ups here so she wouldn't waste anymore time. "I don't know what you're talking about." Mel was about to reply when Demi burst through the door with a huge smile on her face. "Let's do this."

We were on our way to rehearsals an hour later and Demi couldn't stop grinning, which was also bringing a smile onto my face. "Thanks for doing this, Alex. We could've played the background music but I wanted the band to be in harmony." Demi laid her hand on my arm and looked at me sincerely. I smiled at how genuine she was being and looked at her for a second before turning my eyes back onto the road. "Don't mention it, Dems." She pulled her hand away and gave me a teasing look. "Speaking of harmony, I didn't know you could do vocal harmony so well. Mel, you did a great job too." I looked up in the rear-view mirror and saw Mel dip her head and blush spread across her face. "Uh... yeah. Alex taught me what I know." I lightly chuckled and shook my head. "Babe, you're talented. Accept it. If you can't sing, you won't get anywhere no matter how much I teach you." The shade of red covering Mel's face got deeper when Demi suddenly gasped. "We haven't rehearsed this back at home. This is the high note I have to warm up to!" She turned the radio up and Sorry Not Sorry was playing on the radio. I shrugged and started singing along, faintly hearing Mel's voice and not being able to fight the smile on my face at how happy she looked and sounded. Maybe this week wouldn't be so bad after all.