Wicked Game

Jaysen

With a flip of a switch, the studio lights flickered to life, illuminating the cramped space that they had all funneled money into.

Because he had bought all of their equipment with money he had "borrowed" from his father, Jaysen Warren smiled to himself as he was filled with pride. He finally had the ability to do something he loved to do, not something that was picked out for himself.

He sighed as a slight smile crept across his face as he walked into the booth, flipping on the amplifier that was attached to his deep blue guitar. He picked it up, throwing the strap over his shoulder, and made the strings hum as he placed his fingers on the frets. Closing his eyes as he leaned against the stool closest to him, he began to play some warmup chords before he played the opening riff to "Come As You Are" by Nirvana. Not his favorite, but it was an easy one to play by memory.

Commotion outside the studio alerted Jaysen of his bandmates' presence. He smirked as he set his guitar aside just before Chris stormed in, shortly followed by Mark and Jake.

Chris Graysen was... quirky to say the least. His abnormal height made him look scrawny; but that wasn't the case, as he easily outmatched Jaysen in strength. His hair changed color on a regular basis and Jaysen could never tell what color he'd show up with next. Today, it was a deep orange color that contrasted with his naturally dark eyebrows. He hadn't shaved this morning, given the five o'clock shadow that dusted his angular jaw.

"Let's do this!" Chris shouted into the way too small space, making Jaysen's ears ring.

He winced as he pushed off of the stool to greet his friends.

"Can you, for once in your goddamn life, lower the volume of your voice from ten down to a seven or a five?" Mark Valentine, the forever grouch, growled at Chris, obviously still hungover from the night before.

Jaysen swore that he lived in a perpetual state of self loathing, given the fact that his parents had been absent from his life in the three years that he had known him. Or maybe, it was the fact that Mark spent most nights in bars getting wasted with the high of cocaine.

"Five would be good," Jake added quietly. "Two would be even better."

Jake Elliott was the anomaly of the group. With Mark's crayon red hair and Chris's habit of changing his every other day, Jaysen was the closest to Jake in style, minus the blue and purple stripes that Jaysen put in his naturally blonde hair to make his father cringe. With Jake, he never touched the color of his naturally black hair, styled just like every movie star did. The only thing Jake did to try and conform to the rest of them was his clothing, and even then he couldn't quite pull off the "bad boy" attitude as he so desperately tried to suppress the boy next door vibe.

Chris stuck his tongue out at the pair, receiving a pair of middle fingers extended in response. As he slid behind his drum kit in the corner, Mark made his way towards his guitar.

Jaysen could tell that this band rehearsal was going to be an interesting one.

"How are you guys not as pumped as I am?" Chris twirled a drumstick between two fingers. "This is our first time in our own studio! We're making history, people. History!"

"I am excited." Jake picked up the white bass with black splotches all over its body. "I just don't feel the need to shout like you are." After he secured it over his shoulders, he flipped on his amplifier, playing a deep sensual riff.

Mark bounced off of Jake's lead, adding his own embellishments here and there.

"Alright, you show off," Chris grumbled, making the corner of Mark's mouth lift in amusement around the unlit cigarette hanging out of it.

"I could play some Van Halen for you and really rub your nose in it," Mark countered, earning a finger in response before Chris broke out into a mini solo, starting with the snares before he hit the toms on either side of the kit.

Talk about a show off, Jaysen thought as he gathered his thoughts.

"I have a question." Chris hit the last cymbal on his drum kit as his free hand shot up into the air. "I have some song ideas that I'd like to do. It's got a little more―I don't know, funk?" He thought about it for a second. "Yeah, more funk than what we normally do."

"Well let's hear it," Jaysen said apprehensively as he pulled the stool that he was leaning on earlier closer to Chris, making sure that his guitar didn't make a sound as he sat upon it.

Chris began to play a heavy and fast beat with a rhythm that sounded more like a pop song than a heavy metal song. As Jaysen opened his mouth to question it, he changed the tempo, focusing on the toms instead of his cymbals.

Jake nodded with the beat as he tapped his foot on the floor, coming up with a deep bass line to complement.

Maybe this practice wasn't going to be wasted after all.