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5: Back 2 Good Brian sipped hot coffee on the back porch of the ranch house. Gazing into the sky, he saw the sun peek out from behind a dismal cloud, beaming at him. Squinting, Brian smiled back. His head had been killing him last night, with all the bickering. He had genuinely had a splitting headache. Today, however, his head throbbed with just a little less intensity. Brian sighed. He so hoped that today would be a better day; he couldn't take another yesterday. Brian's eyes lowered from the now luminescent sky to a pair of shadows approaching from the distance. He adjusted his glasses and swept golden strands of hair out of his face. The two walked with an arm around one another, one figure completely supporting the weight of the other. Their faces came into focus. "What the hell happened?" Brian exclaimed, bounding down the steps. He looked from Rob to Paul. "I broke my ass," Paul replied, his legs shaking beneath him. He broke into laughter. "Pookie," Rob struggled to keep Paul from falling flat on his face. "We need to get him inside." Brian put Paul's other arm over his shoulder and took some of Paul's weight from Rob. Brian and Rob helped Paul up the steps and led him into the studio. Once through the doors, Rob let go of Paul and quickly set up a mound of pillows on a cushy lavender chair for his injured friend. Brian helped Paul into the chair. Paul just sat there, glassy eyed, staring into space. "So what happened?" Brian turned to Rob, who shrugged. "Paulie came after me on a horse, riding f***ing bareback!" Rob pointed out the window. "Which would be bad enough if he weren't so f***ing smashed!" His eyes wandered to the battered blackboard. Beneath the heading 'mad season by matchbox twenty', thirteen songs were listed in crisp handwriting. "What's this?" he gestured toward it. Brian sighed. "Last night, after you took off and Paul was asleep, the rest of us came up with this list." Rob lit a cigarette. "Without me and Paul?" "Don't you think we got sick of hearing you two fight?" Brian yelled. Holding a hand to his head, he sighed. "I'm sorry, Rob," Paul voiced, and the two turned to him. "I shouldn't have mocked that nice song you wrote, even if I thought it was sh*tty." His eyes filled with tears. "Actually," Brian added softly, "the rest of us think it needs some work too and therefore shouldn't be on the next album." Rob nodded and took a drag off his cigarette. Sighing through the smoke, he said, "Ah'ight. I'll work on it some more." "We took some songs from your list, some songs from Paul's, and a couple that the three of us really wanted on there. You ready to consider them?" Rob nodded. "Yeah, what are they?" Brian read the list off the chalkboard. "'Bed of Lies', 'Black and White People', 'If You're Gone', 'Bent', 'Mad Season' of course, 'Crutch', 'You Won't Be Mine', 'Last Beautiful Girl', 'The Burn', 'Leave', 'Stop', 'Heavy', and 'Rest Stop'." Kyle and Adam wandered into the studio, as Rob puffed on his cigarette. "You kept 'Heavy' on there?" Rob raised his eyebrows and sighed. Kyle shook his head. "Rob, the rest of us love it. We've worked so hard on it..." "'Heavy' rocks," Paul added, stabbing an index finger into the air. He squinted at Rob. "And you haven't give us any real reason not to put it on the album," Kyle sat back in his seat. Rob flicked ash into an ashtray to his right. He stared at the ember that glowed on the end of his cigarette. "You wouldn't want to play a song called 'Heavy' anymore," he breathed, "if critics were calling YOU fat." The studio fell into silence. Brian, standing at the blackboard, drew the eraser across the word 'Heavy'. Drawing his cigarette to his lips, Rob inhaled. Paul stared at him, then at each other member of the band, before breaking into a fit of laughter. "What?" Adam glanced over at Paul, raising an eyebrow. "Don't mind him," Rob replied. "He broke his ass." "I think we should put 'Angry' on the album!" Paul exclaimed. "I know I thought it sucked before, but it's stuck in my head now." Paul turned to Rob and sang, "And it's good that I'm not angry..." "I need to get over," Rob crooned. Together, they sang, "And it's good that I'm not angry anymore." Brian looked from Kyle to Adam, holding a piece of chalk to the board. The two nodded, and joined Rob and Paul for the first verse of the song. Smiling, Brian added 'Angry' to the list 'mad season by matchbox twenty' as he sang along with his bandmates. May 23, 2000, matchbox twenty released their new album. THE END [NOTE: This is my first historically-based MB20 story, where I actually did research for some of the details. Please tell me what you think!] |