Crashed

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

                It had been a little over a week since the accident and Azalee had gotten no call from Chris Daughtry or his insurance company. The accident had been her fault, so she wasn’t too bent out of shape about the idea of not having to worry about paying to fix another person’s car. However, she was worried that he had, perhaps, not been okay after she had left the hospital. There hadn’t been anything in the news or tabloids about him other than the fact that he had been in a car accident with an unnamed woman, was treated for a concussion, and was at home resting at the moment. There were pictures of both vehicles in a few magazines, neither of which looked particularly good, but hadn’t shown any indication that anyone had gotten more than a knock on the head in the accident, least of all, Chris’ vehicle. Her SUV looked worse than his car. However, she couldn’t help but wonder why it was that he wasn’t holding it against her that his expensive car had been wrecked, his brain had been addled, and paparazzi were having a hay-day with the story of his concussion. But, rather than sit and wonder and worry that she had possibly killed a person by t-boning their car, she worked with her three best friends, Luna, Mackenzie, and Annie on songs that could crop on their next album.

                “So, I think we should all have a Pro-tools rig in our houses and we should work from there. Then we can have a weekly meeting where we can bring in what we’ve done with our particular rig and instruments.” Mackenzie looked around at the other girls who nodded in agreement.

                “Luke agreed to let us use his equipment whenever we needed. I think he has three Pro-tools rigs,” Luna told them.

                “I know that Kenneth already has stuff in our basement to use,” she said. They were speaking, of course, of Luke McDuffee and Kenneth Nixon of Framing Hanley. Luna and Luke had been married for a little over a year and Mackenzie and Kenneth, who had met through the two, had been dating for about the same amount of time. Annie, who had done work briefly with Paramore, was dating Jacoby Shaddix of Papa Roach. Azalee had had a brief fling with Mike Shinoda from Linkin Park while he and his wife were on a hiatus, but she was currently single.

                Azalee nodded.

                “You haven’t said much, Az,” Mackenzie pointed out. Azalee looked up.

                “I have nothing much to say. It all sounds great. Why don’t we, um, convene for now and we’ll take it back up next week. We can get our Pro-tools stuff around on Saturday.” Luna and Annie both nodded and then stood, packing their things. Mackenzie watched them leave through her side door. She looked at Azalee who was stacking all of her notes back into their folder. She sighed. Azalee looked up at her.

                “What’s up?” she asked. Mackenzie licked her lips.

                “You haven’t been yourself lately.” Azalee blinked at her.

                “What do you mean?”

                “You’ve…just been quiet, kind of irritable.” Azalee shrugged.

                “I’m tired.” Mackenzie scoffed.

                “I’ve never known you to be a person to get cranky when you don’t get your afternoon nap. Something’s up.” Azalee chuckled.

                “Always the tone of worry. There’s nothing wrong, Kenz. Concussions are supposed to make people a little irritable.” Mackenzie shook her head.