Hello? Earth to Rand.” “Oh. Sorry. Sounds good.” I glanced up at Tim from my perch on a stool in the practice studio to indicate I was listening, then back down at my guitar. The band had been together all afternoon practicing. Maybe the meeting a couple weeks ago had helped because I thought we sounded pretty damn good. We weren’t making as many mistakes on songs we should have been able to play in our sleep, which left us time to work on newer material. I loved the creative process. I wrote most of the lyrics, but everyone in the band collaborated musically. It was invigorating to hear my friends’ interpretations to my words. Tim and Cory laid the backbeat while I worked on rhythm, and Terry…. Well, he tried. Tim set his sticks aside and crossed the room to straddle the stool Terry had just vacated. He and Cory left together to hang out with Holly and Leah. The girls had come by earlier to hang out. I never minded playing to an audience, even if it was tiny. What I did mind was the weird way Terry baited me when they’d walked into the studio.
