Curtain Call - An AJR Fic (Everything Clicks - Book 3)

Adventure Is Out There (Ryan)

"Ok, how does this sound?"

Orchestral sounds of trumpets and violins swelled harmoniously through the laptop speakers. Jack listened with his eyes closed, analyzing every noise with acute precision. I could almost see the gears turning in his head. He gave me a nod as the music faded.

"It sounds good so far," He replied. "But...it's missing something. It needs more...I don't know..."

"Zest?" I suggested.

Jack paused, then chuckled. "Zest. That's it."

I smirked. "You know me," I joked. "I'm always down to add more zest," I pushed the laptop partially shut, then looked to Jack curiously. "Do you want to take a break for now?"

Jack raised his eyebrows and shrugged. "Fine with me."

I opened the bedroom door and strolled out into the living room, Jack following closely behind.

We'd only been living in the new apartment for a couple of weeks now. Empty moving boxes sat in nearly every empty space, desperately needing to be taken out to the trash. Late afternoon sun happily poked through the curtains and rested on Shay's fur as she napped on the carpet in front of the couch.

"I'm kinda hungry..." Jack announced, sitting down on the couch. "Do we have any pizzas left in the freezer?"

"Uh," I tried to remember, "I think so? We're still low on groceries, though."

"Oh, I forgot about that," Jack shuffled in his seat as he turned around to look at me. "What do you think we should do?"

"We could call something in," I mentioned, starting to clean up last night's dishes. "There's that place down the road you wanted to try."

"Oh, yeah!" Jack flew to his feet excitedly, waking Shay up from her nap. "I'll grab my phone."

I smiled over my shoulder as I continued loading dishes and silverware into the dishwasher. I heard dog claws on the wood floor behind me as Shay trotted over to watch what I was doing. I looked down at her.

"What's the trouble?"

She wagged her tail before running off to find Jack. I grinned just as a knock sounded at the front door. I loaded the last couple of dishes into the dishwasher before shuffling over and opening the door. Adam stood awkwardly in the hallway.

"Hey," He greeted with a small smile.

"Oh, hey. What's going on?" I asked.

"Not much, what about you?"

I shrugged. "Just album work. Production, writing, all that."

Adam nodded.

"So...what's up?"

Adam chuckled. "Can't a man just want to see his brothers and hear about the new album?"

I smirked and opened the door to let him in. Jack waved to him as he finished the call with the restaurant and set his phone down on the counter.

"Food'll be here soon," He said with a smile.

Adam glanced around at our mostly-furnished apartment and the empty boxes tossed in random places. "I see the house is coming together."

"Yeah! Mostly, anyway," Jack joked, fixing his hat. "Are you settling in okay at your new place?"

"Oh, yeah, yeah," Adam nodded. "I actually like it better than my old apartment. It's roomier, quieter, and best of all, it doesn't have all the memories of..." Adam's voice trailed off, and he looked off into the distance. "Well, you know..."