Coming Home

Chapter 20

The entire car ride to London was like the old days. Matt was driving and I was cramped in the backseat between Alex and Jamie who took turns complaining about the lack of leg room. Nick was snack distributor and DJ. We listened to P.Diddy and my rap-heart was happy with his choice of music.

I knew all the songs by heart, causing Alex to often making eyes at me, clearly impressed. I loved it.

-

4 hours later, Matt pulled up outside an expensive-looking hotel.

"That's where we're staying for the night?" I gaped.

"Yeah, we'll just leave our stuff here for now and go directly to Domino's"

"A-alright," I stammered and followed the rest of they guys to the most luxurious hotel I had ever stepped foot inside. The lads seemed totally unaffected by it, making me wonder if this was normal for them.

I got a keycard for my own room and we decided to meet up 15 minutes later.

I spent my 15 minutes alone, checking out the enormous room they had booked me into. It was bigger than my entire flat and it had a huge king-size bed, two sofas, and a private balcony overlooking London.

There was a knock on the door and Nick popped his head inside, "you ready, Is? We're all in the hallway downstairs."

"Yes! Sorry! I lost track of time" I said and put on my shoes in a hurry.

-

The lads introduced me to everyone at Domino Records and we soon went into a big studio. I was placed behind a big glass window and the lads took their positions behind their instruments in the next room. Alex and Jamie tuned their guitars and I waited patiently to hear them in action - something I hadn't done for almost 7 years.

They played a few songs from their new album due in September and I was taken aback by how much they had grown. I realised that Jamie was better at playing the guitar than I had anticipated, Alex had turned into a confident motherfucker, Nick had developed a nice backing voice, and Matt had evolved into one of the greatest drummers of his generation, drumming difficult rythms perfectly.

I had no idea what to say. All this time I had spent thinking that I would hate their music and then it actually turned out to be...cool!

"What about the 13th song?" Nick asked Alex as they had played through the album.

Alex stiffened and shot Nick a glance, making him shut his mouth like a clam.

"That's not for now," Alex said with huge eyes. A certain colour had suddenly risen to his cheeks.

Jamie shot me a cheeky grin and I understood absolutely nothing and brushed it off as some inside joke that I wasn't in on, even though I was intrigued.

The record label guy was very happy with the lads' performance, said he would make small alterations to a few of the songs, and thanked the lads for coming down to London. And with that, we were done for the day.

"Shit it's already 5 p.m.!" I exclaimed as I looked at my watch, "no wonder I'm hungry!"

Matt placed his arm around my shoulder and said, "time flies when you listen to good music!"

"It must," I laughed.

Alex pulled me aside as the others were busy disgussing where to go for dinner, "You liked it?" he asked me and I could tell that my opinion was important to him.

"I did! I feel bad for avoiding you for all these years. I definitely need to go home and listen to some of your old stuff."

"Let me make a track list for you. I want you to listen to the Sheffield-songs first. See if you can recognize the references I put in there," he winked at me.