Post by BLAKE EMMA PARKER on Mar 6, 2014 18:30:30 GMT -5
Blake held the basket over her arm as she walked down the hallway of the studio, concentrating entirely too much on her phone as she text Dylan back. “ Blake, can I talk to you for a minute?” she heard the british voice saying. “ Busy. Try again later.” Blake said as she continued walking. If her time wasn’t worth enough for Patrick earlier, she sure as hell didn’t need to give it to him now. “ We need to talk about that song before you release it” Blake stopped, looking up from her phone. “ If you don’t want bad things to be said about you…. Don’t do bad things. It’s like common sense 101.” she said, making a face at him before she head back in the direction of her studio. Blake pushed inside her studio, smiling at the fact that even with a handful of men inside of it, it still smelled like lavender and vanilla. “ I am SO sorry.” she said, offering the basket up as a peace offering. She was only a couple of minutes late, but she still hated taking advantage of peoples’ time. “ There is blueberry, banana nut, strawberry, pistachio and cinnamon.” she said with a slight head nod. “ And I asked for Starbucks to deliver, so that should be here soon. Guys I am .. so sorry,” she said, setting the basket down before she took her purse off of her shoulder and dropped it down. When Blake looked over her shoulder she watched as some of the guys reached for one. She watched as Thayer was sitting still, others going to get muffins while he stayed in his place. She couldn’t tell if he was focused on work, or being polite. “ Hang on,” Blake said, reaching in for one of the blueberry muffins with the French buttered crumbled topping before she headed over to him. “ Weird.” she said, pretending like she was looking at the muffin. “ This one says stud on it. Must be yours.” she said, holding it out to him, remembering before that when he went to take a muffin the other times, he always went for blueberry. “ Get it? Stud..muffin..” she said smiling a bit before she laughed and turned away. “Okay guys. Time to work. But first. I have a cat video to show you.” she said, pulling out her tablet as she sat into one of the studio chairs.
Blake pulled the video up, her legs dangling over the arm of the chair, half debating whether she should save Dylan some muffins, and half listening to their conversations. “ You’ve been here for a couple of hours already?” Blake said as she narrowed her eyebrows. ‘ What were you doing?’ she said, dropping the tablet. ‘Editing some stuff.. I Knew You Were Trouble, We Are Never Getting Back Together’. Blake frowned, making a slightly irritated face as she set her stuff to the side and moved over to the switchboard. “ What did you change?” she asked, using the mouse to pick out the track and play it. She kept her ear turned to the sound, not hearing anything different. Suddenly.. ‘ So he calls me up and he’s like ‘ I still love you’ and I’m like.. I’m just..I mean this is exhausting, ya know? Like we are never getting back together. Like ever.’ Blake looked up, looking at each of the producers with an expectant look. “ Oh uh, that was our intern. Thayer.” Blake looked over at him, thinking for a few moments. “ Hm,” she hummed along with a nod before going back to her chair. “ Okay, so.. did you guys come up with any other tracks for Everything Has Changed? Because Ed and I were skyping last night and I mean.. we think what he came up with is pretty fine, but if you had any other ideas for melodies..” she muttered along to herself, pulling out the lyrics she had for Everything Has Changed , looking at the chords she had written out and hadn’t changed yet. She placed it on the soundboard before she pulled out the lyrics for ‘ The Moment That I Knew’. “ We can finish the vocals on The Moment I Knew today” she said, pushing her hair behind her ear. “ Or do I need to clean up the piano track” she questioned. “ Can you pull it up?” she asked one of the producers before stretching her arms out over her head. ‘ Long day? he asked. Blake puffed out her cheeks and shrugged. “ I have “dance rehearsal” after this. Everyone knows I can’t dance. It’s just… staging. Blake.. go stand over there. Let this person twirl you around. Stand with your hands out like a princess” He made a face at her, obviously confused. Blake rolled her eyes, holding one hand up like it had a microphone in it before holding her hand up , elbow bent , her hand moving delicately as she spoke. “ Magical. Like a princess.. People want to believe in a fairytale right?” she asked before dropping her hands. “ Do you?” he asked. Instantly her mind flashed to the mask, hiding those beautiful eyes, the way his hands fit around her body as they danced. Blake smiled softly and turned to look at him. “ You really don’t listen to my music, do you” she said before laughing quietly. Taking in a deep breath, she cleared her throat and clapped her hands together. Okay, time to work. “ Here,” Blake said, resting the lyrics onto the soundboard before stepping into the soundbooth. She tried to push her hair out of the way so it wouldn’t look like a puffball underneath the headset.
“ Are you going to tell us who this one is about?” he asked. Blake rolled her eyes, “ I never tell you,” she said, pushing her sleeves up to her elbows. “ Patrick?” She gave a shake of her head. “ Connor?” another shake. “ Jake?” Blake brought her fingertip to her nose, tapping it before she pointed towards the glass that separated them. “ Then who is Girl At Home about?” he asked. Blake sighed. “ ….Joel Brooks..” she said, bringing her hand to her face, covering her eyes like she was sad. “ What, really?” he asked. Blake dropped her hand and stood up straight. “ No, can we move on?” she questioned as she brought her hair over to one shoulder. Blake dropped her hands to her side, popping her knuckles out of a nervous habit. It was strange how you could sell out tours, have your face on billboards, win awards. But the moment that you were set to perform –for anything – a rush of nerves came over you. At least , it always did for Blake. But at least she wasn’t wearing a dress. Everytime she got nervous about singing while she was wearing a dress in the studio, because she would play with it a lot, twirl, become distracted out of her own nerves. She didn’t like wearing shorts and things out in public, and it was pretty rare in the studio, but she did have dance rehearsal. And to be fair, a lot more of her wardrobe for this tour involved shorts, versus dresses.
However the next three hours were recording, playing back, adjusting things, ordering in Chinese food, ringing her hands through her hair in frustration at trying to find the perfect word to adjust a lyric. Everything about her album needed to be perfect; not so that the label could make money. However, she knew that her fans were waiting for something. If you were going to wait, it might as well be worth waiting for. And honestly – Blake had written her last album entirely by herself. This album, she was asking others for their input. Co-writers, producers, she wanted them to make a different ‘sound’. It was strange trying to embrace others into something that felt so personal to her. “ Okay..” she said tiredly, dropping the pencil as she quit her chicken scratching onto the notepad. “ Let’s just listen to 22’s playback and then call it a day so I can get this dance “rehearsal” out of the way and you guys can get back to your life and out of this boring studio,” she said, stretching her arms out again. “ You already signed off 22,” he said. Blake smiled “ Yeah I know but I have to go do the video after rehearsals. We shoot tonight on the beach, and a party scene tonight and then tomorrow as well,” she said, bouncing her shoulders excitedly, finally feeling herself wind down from the stress of trying to make something perfect. “ Party scene?” the producer asked with a skeptical face. “ Yeah I obviously party,” Blake said dryly. Before the music started, Blake clapped her hands together quickly. “ Guys, guys. I am SO sorry. I totally forgot. I need someone to fly to L.A. tonight” she said, covering her face slightly. “ I wrote this song, and it’s not for an album and.. I just.. I mean it’s for my cousin and his girlfriend, and I really need to put it together so I can send it to him. He’s on vacation. And I think it’s his real first love.. and I’m sorry, cause I know it’s not for an album, but it would really mean a lot to me. I know it’s last minute, but I’ll.. I mean whoever comes with me can fly on my flight, and I’ll get you a hotel room.. I mean it’s L.A..Come on..” she said hopefully while she looked around the room. “ It’s not for an album?” one of them asked. “ No,” she said quickly, shaking her head. “ This is Derek’s.” Blake continued biting the edge of her lip. “ It’ll be late probably because I have the video to shoot, and then getting into the studio, so…” she said before taking in a deep breath and putting her hands up. “ If you can’t send someone I can figure out a way to do it myself and it’s fine. I understand, but you guys can talk it out amongst yourself. I make really awesome thank you gifts.” she said with a slight nod before she went to turning the music back up. Rather than sticking around to hear the music play, she gathered her stuff up quickly, wrapping her hair up into a ponytail for dance rehearsal as she ran out the doors.
Blake was sitting on her plane, freshly showered and changed from her rehearsal, notebook in her lap as she continued to write when she heard someone boarding the plane. A soft smile came across her lips as she looked up at Thayer. “ It’s you,” she said, letting a slight moment of silence pass over before she went back to her notebook. It was strange, trying to let someone get to know you. In fact, the last time she had was the time at the masquerade. It was the one moment she could tell if someone liked her based on who she was rather than who she was. He’d been so kind, he’d laughed at her jokes, he didn’t judge her for loving moonpies with an unhealthy obsession. But he was also an illusion. The tricky part was, she could never know it was real, because if she ever sought out after who it was and he found out who she was.. it would ruin everything. She would constantly question whether or not everything about that night had been real or a lie. After about a half hour, Blake finally looked up from her notebook, turning her neck side to side to get the stress out. She looked over at Thayer, his earphones in. She smiled to herself before putting everything away. Blake sat up, making her way over to him, taking his earphones out. “ Are you thirsty? I would ask if you were hungry,…but we’re going to In-N-Out when we land. I have a lifetime supply of diet coke though…” she said with her eyebrows lifted. Blake straightened herself up as she stood, walking away to go get him something to drink. Blake took out her iphone, connecting it to the Bluetooth speakers before she found her 50 cent playlist and hit shuffle, throwing a diet coke in Thayer’s direction. The rest of the flight had been a series of convincing him to play ‘icebreaker’ type games, talking about highschool, writing, music, where he saw himself going. L.A. was the place this kid needed to be – not for tonight or this weekend, but for his career.
Blake had eaten her In-N-Out, was in her makeup chair, and had seen her friends come to set for the 22 video. All she could think of was getting in the studio to record ‘ Sweeter Than Fiction’. She had enough faith in Thayer’s ability to help her out. Or was it that she was excited for Derek? “ That guy’s really cute’ her friend echoed in the distance. “ Blake…Earth to Blake…. You brought a hottie with a body… Anyone have dibs on him?” her friend asked, snapping Blake out of her own thoughts. “ Huh?” she questioned as she looked over at Jessica. “ The guy you brought.. is he single?” she asked again. “ Oh” Blake said, finally catching up to the conversation. “ Yeah, I mean I think so. Go for it,” she said giving a shrug of her shoulder. Blake looked over her shoulder as a few of her friends approached him, but looked back down at her phone, typing out another text to Dylan. Derek hadn’t been answering his phone. Maybe he was busy. Blake pushed her hair out of her face, jumping up out of her seat as she headed over towards the shore of the beach so that she could continue filming. Sometimes she felt sort of alienated –like now, when her friends continued to have fun on the beach, doing their best to catch Thayer’s attention, while she was standing beside the director, talking about the best angle shots, whether she needed to redo something or not. Play for them, work for her. Blake brought her hands up to the back of her neck, not realizing how tense it had felt all day. “Thayer,” she called over to him, making a face at the disappointed faces of her friends who were flipping her off for making him come over to her when they had circling him. Like damn short short wearing piranhas. “ Hey I think we have one more shot for tonight and then we can head to the studio,”she said apologetically. Blake gave a quick smile, “ I mean if you want to head to the studio you can, I’ll try not to waste a lot of your time there,” she said, taking in a deep breath before she turned away. Blake changed quickly into her shirt and skirt, placing the cat ears on her head before she checked her phone again to see if Dylan had made it. He would most likely be hanging out with her after the studio, too. But she wanted the first person to hear the song outside of her and whoever was helping her, to be Derek. So he was not invited to the studio. Which she was sure he was fine with. He was a single..ish.. guy in L.A.
“ We have to be back at the video shoot at 7 am” she said tiredly, looking at the clock. “ Well I have to be. You can sleep in and head back whenever you like,” Blake said, popping open the bottle of wine. Blake wiggled her hips slightly, dancing along to the music in the studio as she looked down at her track list. She smiled slightly, “ People think that ‘ I Knew You Were Trouble’ is about Patrick,” Blake scrunched her nose, bringing her wine glass to her lips before she took a drink. “ I feel like you’re going to tell me it’s not” he said, causing Blake to laugh. She tapped her fingers on the counter, looking up. “ You know that guy that sings ‘Gives You Hell’?” she asked. “ Like All American Rejects?” . Blake placed her hand on her hip. “ Well I didn’t date the whole band. But, Tyson… yeah.. “ she said, nodding to herself. “ Long enough to get a song at least”. Blake took in a deep breath, clearing her throat, “ And the label wants the We Are Never Getting Back Together to look like it’s about Jake so that no one thinks it’s about Patrick since he’s at the same label.. “. There was a slight beat of silence before Thayer questioned, “ Wait. So I Knew You Were Trouble is about Tyson, but everyone thinks it’s about Patrick. And We Are Never Getting Back Together is about Patrick, but they want people to think it’s about Jake?”. Blake lift her finger from her wine glass, thinking over everything he just said before she gave a simple nod. “Exactly. And they’re already pressuring me about my next album.. which is scaring me most of all.” she explained, narrowing her eyebrows. “ It’s just that.. my fans are getting older, and having certain life experiences. That I haven’t had. When you’re young you can believe in love without…lust. But now I’m older. My fans are older. They’re relating sex to love and.. I don’t know how to write that” she said, shaking her head. “ I’m terrified that they’re going to realize I’m a fake” she said, hoping it didn’t make the situation too entirely awkward. “ It doesn’t make you a fake. Write what you know. When it happens, write about it. Until then, your fans will stick with you for your honesty,”. Blake looked away from the soundboard and over at him. The genuine innocent almost naïve tone in his voice softened her heart a bit. Though, wasn’t he right? She wished she could explain to him the pressure she felt from the label to grow and expand and be something different. But wasn’t he right, too? She had never seen fans like hers. They would stick by her, and the label needed that more than she needed the label. Blake looked away, licking her lips before setting the glass of wine down. “ Well I shouldn’t waste anymore of your time. Dylan’s waiting for us to get done,” she said, trying to crack her neck again before she went into the soundbooth.
Since the beginning of her career, she can’t remember recording a song that quickly. Sure, she had written other songs quicker when they were about herself. But she had never recorded one at that pace – and she believed part of it came from the comfort she felt in the studio. It was more secluded, one other person, and he was so eager and new in the business that it felt like he was actually hungry to make something special instead of just another day in the office. When they finally wrapped up, Blake grabbed her jacket. “ Ready to party like a Parker?” she asked with a bright smile. Dylan was one of the craziest guys she knew. When they got out of the studio she ran up to him on the sidewalk, throwing her arms around him tightly and gave him the most of a deathsqueeze that she could. “ Did you cut your hair? Oh my gosh you took a shower,” she said with an impressed tone as she ran her fingers through his hair before stepping back. “ I hope you’re hungry. I really want something greasy right now. And drinks.” she said, putting her hands in her pocket, looking to Thayer as she explained, “ Dylan partakes in extra party activities that I do not. However, I would kill for an Old Fashioned right now,” she said, bouncing on her feet. “ And something to eat.” she said, realizing she hadn’t introduced Thayer. “ Oh!” she said, idiotically. “ God, I’m an idiot. And rude. Dylan, this is Thayer..” she said, looking over in Thayer’s direction before giving a smile to Dylan. “ Yeah he’s an intern at the label and came to help out. Jessica took a fancy to him,” she said, moving to loop her arm around Dylan’s. Blake looked over both of her shoulders, thankful that it was late at night and dark by now. Time with her cousin was something she always counted the moments until it could happen again, and though she loved her fans, she also loved having Dylan to herself. Darkness brought a sense of relief. “ Dylan are you going to be my date to the mtv video awards?” she questioned, dropping her chin on his shoulder as she walked. She looked over her shoulder at Thayer who was on his phone, texting someone maybe. She smiled slowly, “ Hey…. You in?” she questioned, tilting her head for him to start walking if he wanted to before she slowly let go of Dylan’s arm.
Outfit
Cat Video
Blake pulled the video up, her legs dangling over the arm of the chair, half debating whether she should save Dylan some muffins, and half listening to their conversations. “ You’ve been here for a couple of hours already?” Blake said as she narrowed her eyebrows. ‘ What were you doing?’ she said, dropping the tablet. ‘Editing some stuff.. I Knew You Were Trouble, We Are Never Getting Back Together’. Blake frowned, making a slightly irritated face as she set her stuff to the side and moved over to the switchboard. “ What did you change?” she asked, using the mouse to pick out the track and play it. She kept her ear turned to the sound, not hearing anything different. Suddenly.. ‘ So he calls me up and he’s like ‘ I still love you’ and I’m like.. I’m just..I mean this is exhausting, ya know? Like we are never getting back together. Like ever.’ Blake looked up, looking at each of the producers with an expectant look. “ Oh uh, that was our intern. Thayer.” Blake looked over at him, thinking for a few moments. “ Hm,” she hummed along with a nod before going back to her chair. “ Okay, so.. did you guys come up with any other tracks for Everything Has Changed? Because Ed and I were skyping last night and I mean.. we think what he came up with is pretty fine, but if you had any other ideas for melodies..” she muttered along to herself, pulling out the lyrics she had for Everything Has Changed , looking at the chords she had written out and hadn’t changed yet. She placed it on the soundboard before she pulled out the lyrics for ‘ The Moment That I Knew’. “ We can finish the vocals on The Moment I Knew today” she said, pushing her hair behind her ear. “ Or do I need to clean up the piano track” she questioned. “ Can you pull it up?” she asked one of the producers before stretching her arms out over her head. ‘ Long day? he asked. Blake puffed out her cheeks and shrugged. “ I have “dance rehearsal” after this. Everyone knows I can’t dance. It’s just… staging. Blake.. go stand over there. Let this person twirl you around. Stand with your hands out like a princess” He made a face at her, obviously confused. Blake rolled her eyes, holding one hand up like it had a microphone in it before holding her hand up , elbow bent , her hand moving delicately as she spoke. “ Magical. Like a princess.. People want to believe in a fairytale right?” she asked before dropping her hands. “ Do you?” he asked. Instantly her mind flashed to the mask, hiding those beautiful eyes, the way his hands fit around her body as they danced. Blake smiled softly and turned to look at him. “ You really don’t listen to my music, do you” she said before laughing quietly. Taking in a deep breath, she cleared her throat and clapped her hands together. Okay, time to work. “ Here,” Blake said, resting the lyrics onto the soundboard before stepping into the soundbooth. She tried to push her hair out of the way so it wouldn’t look like a puffball underneath the headset.
“ Are you going to tell us who this one is about?” he asked. Blake rolled her eyes, “ I never tell you,” she said, pushing her sleeves up to her elbows. “ Patrick?” She gave a shake of her head. “ Connor?” another shake. “ Jake?” Blake brought her fingertip to her nose, tapping it before she pointed towards the glass that separated them. “ Then who is Girl At Home about?” he asked. Blake sighed. “ ….Joel Brooks..” she said, bringing her hand to her face, covering her eyes like she was sad. “ What, really?” he asked. Blake dropped her hand and stood up straight. “ No, can we move on?” she questioned as she brought her hair over to one shoulder. Blake dropped her hands to her side, popping her knuckles out of a nervous habit. It was strange how you could sell out tours, have your face on billboards, win awards. But the moment that you were set to perform –for anything – a rush of nerves came over you. At least , it always did for Blake. But at least she wasn’t wearing a dress. Everytime she got nervous about singing while she was wearing a dress in the studio, because she would play with it a lot, twirl, become distracted out of her own nerves. She didn’t like wearing shorts and things out in public, and it was pretty rare in the studio, but she did have dance rehearsal. And to be fair, a lot more of her wardrobe for this tour involved shorts, versus dresses.
However the next three hours were recording, playing back, adjusting things, ordering in Chinese food, ringing her hands through her hair in frustration at trying to find the perfect word to adjust a lyric. Everything about her album needed to be perfect; not so that the label could make money. However, she knew that her fans were waiting for something. If you were going to wait, it might as well be worth waiting for. And honestly – Blake had written her last album entirely by herself. This album, she was asking others for their input. Co-writers, producers, she wanted them to make a different ‘sound’. It was strange trying to embrace others into something that felt so personal to her. “ Okay..” she said tiredly, dropping the pencil as she quit her chicken scratching onto the notepad. “ Let’s just listen to 22’s playback and then call it a day so I can get this dance “rehearsal” out of the way and you guys can get back to your life and out of this boring studio,” she said, stretching her arms out again. “ You already signed off 22,” he said. Blake smiled “ Yeah I know but I have to go do the video after rehearsals. We shoot tonight on the beach, and a party scene tonight and then tomorrow as well,” she said, bouncing her shoulders excitedly, finally feeling herself wind down from the stress of trying to make something perfect. “ Party scene?” the producer asked with a skeptical face. “ Yeah I obviously party,” Blake said dryly. Before the music started, Blake clapped her hands together quickly. “ Guys, guys. I am SO sorry. I totally forgot. I need someone to fly to L.A. tonight” she said, covering her face slightly. “ I wrote this song, and it’s not for an album and.. I just.. I mean it’s for my cousin and his girlfriend, and I really need to put it together so I can send it to him. He’s on vacation. And I think it’s his real first love.. and I’m sorry, cause I know it’s not for an album, but it would really mean a lot to me. I know it’s last minute, but I’ll.. I mean whoever comes with me can fly on my flight, and I’ll get you a hotel room.. I mean it’s L.A..Come on..” she said hopefully while she looked around the room. “ It’s not for an album?” one of them asked. “ No,” she said quickly, shaking her head. “ This is Derek’s.” Blake continued biting the edge of her lip. “ It’ll be late probably because I have the video to shoot, and then getting into the studio, so…” she said before taking in a deep breath and putting her hands up. “ If you can’t send someone I can figure out a way to do it myself and it’s fine. I understand, but you guys can talk it out amongst yourself. I make really awesome thank you gifts.” she said with a slight nod before she went to turning the music back up. Rather than sticking around to hear the music play, she gathered her stuff up quickly, wrapping her hair up into a ponytail for dance rehearsal as she ran out the doors.
Blake was sitting on her plane, freshly showered and changed from her rehearsal, notebook in her lap as she continued to write when she heard someone boarding the plane. A soft smile came across her lips as she looked up at Thayer. “ It’s you,” she said, letting a slight moment of silence pass over before she went back to her notebook. It was strange, trying to let someone get to know you. In fact, the last time she had was the time at the masquerade. It was the one moment she could tell if someone liked her based on who she was rather than who she was. He’d been so kind, he’d laughed at her jokes, he didn’t judge her for loving moonpies with an unhealthy obsession. But he was also an illusion. The tricky part was, she could never know it was real, because if she ever sought out after who it was and he found out who she was.. it would ruin everything. She would constantly question whether or not everything about that night had been real or a lie. After about a half hour, Blake finally looked up from her notebook, turning her neck side to side to get the stress out. She looked over at Thayer, his earphones in. She smiled to herself before putting everything away. Blake sat up, making her way over to him, taking his earphones out. “ Are you thirsty? I would ask if you were hungry,…but we’re going to In-N-Out when we land. I have a lifetime supply of diet coke though…” she said with her eyebrows lifted. Blake straightened herself up as she stood, walking away to go get him something to drink. Blake took out her iphone, connecting it to the Bluetooth speakers before she found her 50 cent playlist and hit shuffle, throwing a diet coke in Thayer’s direction. The rest of the flight had been a series of convincing him to play ‘icebreaker’ type games, talking about highschool, writing, music, where he saw himself going. L.A. was the place this kid needed to be – not for tonight or this weekend, but for his career.
Blake had eaten her In-N-Out, was in her makeup chair, and had seen her friends come to set for the 22 video. All she could think of was getting in the studio to record ‘ Sweeter Than Fiction’. She had enough faith in Thayer’s ability to help her out. Or was it that she was excited for Derek? “ That guy’s really cute’ her friend echoed in the distance. “ Blake…Earth to Blake…. You brought a hottie with a body… Anyone have dibs on him?” her friend asked, snapping Blake out of her own thoughts. “ Huh?” she questioned as she looked over at Jessica. “ The guy you brought.. is he single?” she asked again. “ Oh” Blake said, finally catching up to the conversation. “ Yeah, I mean I think so. Go for it,” she said giving a shrug of her shoulder. Blake looked over her shoulder as a few of her friends approached him, but looked back down at her phone, typing out another text to Dylan. Derek hadn’t been answering his phone. Maybe he was busy. Blake pushed her hair out of her face, jumping up out of her seat as she headed over towards the shore of the beach so that she could continue filming. Sometimes she felt sort of alienated –like now, when her friends continued to have fun on the beach, doing their best to catch Thayer’s attention, while she was standing beside the director, talking about the best angle shots, whether she needed to redo something or not. Play for them, work for her. Blake brought her hands up to the back of her neck, not realizing how tense it had felt all day. “Thayer,” she called over to him, making a face at the disappointed faces of her friends who were flipping her off for making him come over to her when they had circling him. Like damn short short wearing piranhas. “ Hey I think we have one more shot for tonight and then we can head to the studio,”she said apologetically. Blake gave a quick smile, “ I mean if you want to head to the studio you can, I’ll try not to waste a lot of your time there,” she said, taking in a deep breath before she turned away. Blake changed quickly into her shirt and skirt, placing the cat ears on her head before she checked her phone again to see if Dylan had made it. He would most likely be hanging out with her after the studio, too. But she wanted the first person to hear the song outside of her and whoever was helping her, to be Derek. So he was not invited to the studio. Which she was sure he was fine with. He was a single..ish.. guy in L.A.
“ We have to be back at the video shoot at 7 am” she said tiredly, looking at the clock. “ Well I have to be. You can sleep in and head back whenever you like,” Blake said, popping open the bottle of wine. Blake wiggled her hips slightly, dancing along to the music in the studio as she looked down at her track list. She smiled slightly, “ People think that ‘ I Knew You Were Trouble’ is about Patrick,” Blake scrunched her nose, bringing her wine glass to her lips before she took a drink. “ I feel like you’re going to tell me it’s not” he said, causing Blake to laugh. She tapped her fingers on the counter, looking up. “ You know that guy that sings ‘Gives You Hell’?” she asked. “ Like All American Rejects?” . Blake placed her hand on her hip. “ Well I didn’t date the whole band. But, Tyson… yeah.. “ she said, nodding to herself. “ Long enough to get a song at least”. Blake took in a deep breath, clearing her throat, “ And the label wants the We Are Never Getting Back Together to look like it’s about Jake so that no one thinks it’s about Patrick since he’s at the same label.. “. There was a slight beat of silence before Thayer questioned, “ Wait. So I Knew You Were Trouble is about Tyson, but everyone thinks it’s about Patrick. And We Are Never Getting Back Together is about Patrick, but they want people to think it’s about Jake?”. Blake lift her finger from her wine glass, thinking over everything he just said before she gave a simple nod. “Exactly. And they’re already pressuring me about my next album.. which is scaring me most of all.” she explained, narrowing her eyebrows. “ It’s just that.. my fans are getting older, and having certain life experiences. That I haven’t had. When you’re young you can believe in love without…lust. But now I’m older. My fans are older. They’re relating sex to love and.. I don’t know how to write that” she said, shaking her head. “ I’m terrified that they’re going to realize I’m a fake” she said, hoping it didn’t make the situation too entirely awkward. “ It doesn’t make you a fake. Write what you know. When it happens, write about it. Until then, your fans will stick with you for your honesty,”. Blake looked away from the soundboard and over at him. The genuine innocent almost naïve tone in his voice softened her heart a bit. Though, wasn’t he right? She wished she could explain to him the pressure she felt from the label to grow and expand and be something different. But wasn’t he right, too? She had never seen fans like hers. They would stick by her, and the label needed that more than she needed the label. Blake looked away, licking her lips before setting the glass of wine down. “ Well I shouldn’t waste anymore of your time. Dylan’s waiting for us to get done,” she said, trying to crack her neck again before she went into the soundbooth.
Since the beginning of her career, she can’t remember recording a song that quickly. Sure, she had written other songs quicker when they were about herself. But she had never recorded one at that pace – and she believed part of it came from the comfort she felt in the studio. It was more secluded, one other person, and he was so eager and new in the business that it felt like he was actually hungry to make something special instead of just another day in the office. When they finally wrapped up, Blake grabbed her jacket. “ Ready to party like a Parker?” she asked with a bright smile. Dylan was one of the craziest guys she knew. When they got out of the studio she ran up to him on the sidewalk, throwing her arms around him tightly and gave him the most of a deathsqueeze that she could. “ Did you cut your hair? Oh my gosh you took a shower,” she said with an impressed tone as she ran her fingers through his hair before stepping back. “ I hope you’re hungry. I really want something greasy right now. And drinks.” she said, putting her hands in her pocket, looking to Thayer as she explained, “ Dylan partakes in extra party activities that I do not. However, I would kill for an Old Fashioned right now,” she said, bouncing on her feet. “ And something to eat.” she said, realizing she hadn’t introduced Thayer. “ Oh!” she said, idiotically. “ God, I’m an idiot. And rude. Dylan, this is Thayer..” she said, looking over in Thayer’s direction before giving a smile to Dylan. “ Yeah he’s an intern at the label and came to help out. Jessica took a fancy to him,” she said, moving to loop her arm around Dylan’s. Blake looked over both of her shoulders, thankful that it was late at night and dark by now. Time with her cousin was something she always counted the moments until it could happen again, and though she loved her fans, she also loved having Dylan to herself. Darkness brought a sense of relief. “ Dylan are you going to be my date to the mtv video awards?” she questioned, dropping her chin on his shoulder as she walked. She looked over her shoulder at Thayer who was on his phone, texting someone maybe. She smiled slowly, “ Hey…. You in?” she questioned, tilting her head for him to start walking if he wanted to before she slowly let go of Dylan’s arm.
Outfit
Cat Video
