"You know you can stay and hang out with the band if you want. I'm gonna be a bit busy with recording and all that. You can give a listen too." He said once we turned a corner onto a busy street.

"Hm, Mr. Carlile, are you asking me to listen to your new album? The one that isn't released to the public until late January?" I asked as we turned onto another street, this one less busy.

"Ah, I see someone did their research. But yeah, pretty much." He laughed.

"Well, I don't see why not. I mean, as long as your band mates are fine with it."

"They won't care, it's just another person to give feedback. There's not gonna be anybody there besides us and the band." I nodded and said okay.

For the rest of the drive we talked about the album and how he can't wait for his fans to listen to it. "Some of them say we saved their life. They give us these fan letters and gifts and drawings and they're all great. We really love to hear back from them as much they hear us."

We stepped out of the car and suddenly I felt dizzy and it was hard to breathe. I just about fell over when I tried to shut my door. "Woah, are you okay?" When I shook my head no, he guided me to the sidewalk. "Here, sit down for a while. Do you need water?" I nodded and tried to get up. "Stay here, we have some inside." As soon as he left, I went to my car and grabbed the spare pill bottle I keep in there for occasions like this.

You see, I'm anemic (caused from iron deficiency) and don't have a normal amount of iron in my body so I need to take these pills to keep my healthy. It's not something to hide, but for some reason I'm still ashamed of it. It makes me different from everybody else and it makes me feel like a freak. I understand that I can't control it and I was born with this but I can't help but feel excluded from most things. Like if I get my heart rate going just a tiny bit, it'll feel like I'm running miles.

"What are those?" I heard a voice ask from behind me. I sighed inwardly and continued to grab two before exiting the car and walking back over to him.

"Iron pills. I'm anemic, no worries. Thanks for the water." I smiled and swallowed the pills in my hand before chasing it with water.

"Are you going to be okay? Can you still come in and meet the band?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine. I just forgot to take them this morning. Let's go."

--

"Austin, what the fuck, man?! I waited outside your house fo- Oh, who's this?" A guy with long dark brown hair, almost black looked me over. "I didn't know we were bringing guests. I'm Tino." He extended his hand towards me and I shook it and smiled.

"I'm Ashleigh. Nice to meet you."

"Likewise." He smiled back. "Now you," He looked towards Austin, "Where were you? I was supposed to pick you up almost an hour ago. I waited at your house for-fucking-ever."

"No, you didn't. I was standing outside the whole time. Where were you?"

"5471 Wildflower Road, like you said!"

Austin sighed. "No, you dunce! It's 5421 Sunflower Ridge." Tino sighed and apologized.

"Right, whatever. I'm Alan! I see you've met Austin and Tino." I turned to my right to be met with a (very attractive) ginger with sloppy hair and a nose ring.

"Oh, yeah. Me and Austin met last night actually." I forced a little laugh.

"So you don't know who we are?" He smirked.

"Uh, sort of. I just got into your music last night as well. You're Alan... Ashby? The rhythmic guitarist right?" I asked.

"Yep. And this is Aaron." He smiled and elbowed the guy sitting next to him. "Don't be rude, introduce yourself." I heard Alan mutter under his breath to who I'm guessing was Aaron.

"Right, I'm Aaron. Bassist and clean vocalist." He smiled and put his hand out for me to shake.

"Isn't there another one of you, too? Phil, right?" Phil's the one with really long hair and a to-die-for smile.

"Yeah, he had to bail. He's sick, sorry."

"Ah, well that's okay. I, at least, met most of the band." Sitting down, I realized Austin had disappeared and Tino had sat down on a spinning chair in front of a huge keyboard-like thing with all sorts of knobs and buttons of the sorts.

"So Austin's warming up in the booth. Aaron, you're in there too."

Aaron got up and went towards a black door that lead to the room Austin was standing in. It was a small room with red walls and a few records hanging on the walls.

I turned back towards Alan who I noticed was sitting only inches away from me. I got really uncomfortable really fast. "So-So, how long have you been in the band?" Fuck my stuttering.

"Let's not talk about the band. Let's talk about you. How did you meet Austin? Do you like him? Do you hate him? Are you secretly a huge fan and just putting up with front so you could meet us and fangirl about it later?" He bombarded me with questions as he scooted back a bit and crossed him legs on the couch. He turned and faced towards me with an elbow on each knee and his chin resting on his interlocked hands.

"Oh... uhm... well." I sputtered out before situating myself to mirror his stance. God, i feel like a teenage girl talking to her best friend about boys. "Okay, well me and Austin met when I got lost walking around the city and he walked me home. I just met him so I don't have a stable opinion on him, but yes I like him. He seems nice. And no, I'm a 22 year old woman. I do not fangirl. I just discovered your music last night, as I earlier said." I think that was all of the questions he had because was quiet for a second and stared at me, analyzing. He spoke up eventually though.

"So what kind of music do you like?"

"Uh, I can't... really... describe it. It's all over the place, really." That question really made me think.

"Well alright, start naming bands then."

"Here, I think it'd be easier if you just take a look for yourself." I stood up and took my phone out of my back pocket, put in the code, and gave it to him. He was quiet for a bit as he scrolled through my music.

"I see you downloaded both of our albums. Nice choice."

"Well, yeah. Of course, I heard a few songs from both albums and I just had to get to the whole thing." He laughed and I swear I heard a snort.

I have a feeling we'll be the best of friends.

Notes

Aye! Two chapters in one night. It's already pretty late but I'll try to fit another chapter in tonight.