Party 'til you pass out / When the party's over

Oliver

A few weeks went by, and I was getting restless again. Luckily for me there was a lot more to work on than just our new album, which was now in hands of our producer for a last overview, since Jordan and I were done mixing. Church was back in business, there was a new Drop Dead collection launching soon. Alison had been the one shooting the collection, and watching her become so happy from doing what she did best made me happy too. I hadn't been the only one who had missed working their job. Shooting Tom's proposal to Lizzy had been one of the first personal shoots Alison had done in a long time.

My parents had been over the moon when Tom and Lizzy announced their engagement at the first Sunday brunch after Malta. They showed them the photos; my mother cried, my father joked to me that this was what a proposal looked like. I waved him off, but later that day asked Alison if she had wanted a proposal like that.

'It doesn't matter to me how you did it, I'm just happy that you asked me,' was her answer to that, which calmed my sudden anxiety about not being good enough for her. She had kissed me deeply, and with that, I had my answer.

Her reaction to me telling her I wanted to quit therapy and stop all new medication except the ones for ADHD was something else, and I almost regretted it the moment I told her. We had been fighting about it back and forth for two days, with her being very against it, saying I had promised her, and me trying to convince her it was doing worse than good. Eventually she had gotten tired of fighting and gave in, telling me to do whatever I saw fit for my recovery. So I cancelled therapy, dropped the medication that didn't work for me anyway, and I had felt relieved ever since. After two weeks, Alison noticed I was doing stable without, and she calmed down over the issue.

I found my peace in my music, and now the album was almost done, I felt like I was in the right spot mentally.

'Holy fuck,' I let out under my breath. Both Parasite Eve and Kingslayer had come back from our producer, and I had finished listening to them for the first time. My phone went off and I picked up Jordan.

'Dude, have you –'

'I have. Fuck,' I interrupted him. Jordan laughed.

'This is mental.'

'Sure is. Alison was right – Babymetal really adds that edge we were looking for,' I said, starting the track again.

'You were also right at having recorded her voice for Parasite Eve.'

'Glad I could talk her into it,' I chuckled, remembering how she had agreed on recording something for this album. I had told her I didn't need her to sing but just say a few sentences, and that made her willing to lent her voice for the song. Nonetheless, she was still nervous doing so, and was almost more perfectionistic about it than me.

Jordan and I talked about some other tracks that were due any day now, since the release of the album was in about six weeks. We were cramping it. There were a few exciting collabs on this album that had blew me away with the results. The whole band had been working really hard in the past months to push out all these songs, and a few more that weren't finished, but we saved for maybe the next album. We had decided to make it a series of records, so I doubted that we would take a break from creating music after this. We found inspiration in everything, and the more I wrote, the more the story I wanted to tell came up in my head. Jordan was in on it, and the other three cared more about the music than the lyrics in general, so it felt like I had a free hand in writing.

'Ali?,' I hollered. Nothing. 'Al?!'

'What?' I heard her walk down the hallway and looked up when the door to the studio opened.