Chapter 57

Hours later he was happy to finally be in a hotel room. Traveling had gone smoothly but it always made him feel too cooped up. A hotel room offered him much more space. His small suitcase was left by the door as he made his way into his room. It was a decently sized room, bright, which was nice. The bed seemed comfortable enough for the few nights he was going to stay here and the tv on the dresser was already aimed at the bed. He sat down to see if it actually was as comfortable as it looked. As he leaned back against the pillows, he pulled his phone from his pocket, the battery was halfway gone but he'd wait to recharge it later. Opening text messages he found his conversation with Sarah and sent her a text saying he had arrived at the hotel and was going to take a quick shower. He sent out two more texts before getting up and heading to the bathroom.

His relaxing shower was disturbed by a banging sound that he just couldn't make out over the noise of the water raining down on him. The water hitting off the walls and floor numbing the sound but as it repeated the second time, he decided he needed to go check it out.

He turned the knob and turned off the water. As he stepped out he reached for one of the hotel's fluffy towels and quickly dried off.

This time it was more clear there was knocking on his door as the sound returned in the middle of him pulling on briefs. The annoying return had startled him in the process but he hurried to pull on his pants.

They had just arrived here, why couldn't he have a peaceful shower? There were no plans on the itinerary for tonight so he just wanted to relax.

He unlatched the door and pulled it open.

"Finally." Jon complained. "What were you doing?" He asked without cluing in from Richie's appearance.
"Showering." Richie said flatly.
"Well, get dressed. We have work to do."
"We do?" He asked, holding the door open for Jon to come in.

Once the door closed, he pulled his suitcase to the luggage stand and heaved it on so he could look for a tshirt.

"Yes, we do." Jon confirmed. "I was thinking of tomorrow's show and what songs to play."
"Okay..." Richie found a shirt he wanted to wear and pulled it on.

Jon sat down at the table as Richie sat down on the bed, checking his phone for replies.

"What song do you want to play?"
Richie shrugged. "I was thinking we should probably do the classics."
Jon frowned at him. "What classics?"
Richie looked up at him, confused. "Prayer, Wanted, Bad Medicine? What are you talking about?"
Jon laughed at him. "No, you idiot. Which of your songs did you want to play?"
"Oooh." Richie said realizing his mistake. "I don't know. You usually don't make set-lists this far in advance."
"I need to figure out how to include your song and how we are going to do this so we know what to do during sound check tomorrow."
"Alright. You're right." Richie put his phone away and became more interested in the topic they needed to discuss.


The next day they headed to the arena for soundcheck in the afternoon. The morning had been quite peaceful and Richie had the chance to phone Sarah again. It had been a full week since he had left but he was enjoying it so far. He'd still rather be at home but he was used to the travel and it was easy to fall back into that routine as well and just pick up the rock star life. He was glad to get an update on Noah and Daniel and happy to know they were both doing better which was quite a relief for him. Being far away and worrying about children wasn't very helpful to any kind of mental state.

Richie shared a car with Jon to the venue as they had done so often before.

Once there they were shown to their dressing rooms. As always, Jon had his own dressing room and Richie, David and Tico shared one. It was easier for everyone to just kick Jon out. That way no one else had to deal with Jon stressing over every small part of the show before it even happened.

They hung out in the dressing room for an hour before heading to the stage and starting soundcheck. For the first concert of the leg, they'd have to make sure everything was running as smoothly as before and that wasn't always the case.

Richie frowned as he watched David and Tico get up to leave the room with him. "You alright?" He asked Tico who did not look well at all.
"Yeah, I'm fine." He waved it off.
Richie didn't want to push so let the matter go.

They headed toward the stage and met Jon, who was waiting for them there.

"You guys ready to go?" Jon asked.

Each of them went to their respective instrument and prepared to start sound check.

Richie picked up one of his guitars, checking it over before picking up the next one. He would play several guitars during one concert and not always the same guitars each concerts. It depended on which songs they would play so he had to keep a decent collection by the stage.

"I want to start with Because We Can. I know we did those often at home too but I want to know how they sound here." Jon explained to everyone.

Richie took his guitar and waited for Jon's countdown to start the song.

After the first seconds, he watched Jon look back and give a look to Tico. Richie stopped, as he heard the mistake as well. Both of them frowned as they watched Tico.

"Are you okay Teek?"

Chapter 56

He speed dialed Sarah and put her on speakerphone as he started packing up his suitcase he had hardly used.

"Hey there handsome."
Her beautiful voice made him smile, his brain offered him a mental image of how often she had said those words to him. He smiled as he answered, "hey there beautiful. How are you doing?"
Sarah sighed. "I was enjoying some nice sleep but now I get to talk to you."
"I'm sorry for waking you up. I'm just packing up at the hotel, then we're heading to the airport and off to Mexico so I probably won't get the chance to talk to you until I get there tonight."
"It's alright," she said, "you can always wake me up to talk. Are you excited to get back on tour?"
"I kind of am. I miss you and the kids though. How's Daniel doing?"
Sarah sighed, making Richie worried. "He actually slept pretty well last night. I'm trying not to give him the pain relief too often."
"But he's in pain." He didn't want his little boy to be in any sort of pain. Hearing his sad cries always pulled at his heart.
"I know but it's not good to give it to him too often either so I'm letting him chew on teething toys and freeze them so they're cold to numb the pain. Don't worry, I give him the painkiller when he really needs it." She explained her technique of trying to manage Daniel's teething pain.

Soon most of his clothes were packed into his suitcase, he had traveled light as most of his tour gear had been sent off to join the rest of the band's, wherever it was right now.

"So we arrive in Mexico around 6, I guess that's 2 or 3 for you but I will text you when I get there and we'll see."
"Okay, sounds good." Sarah agreed. "Be safe." She reminded him. "I love you."
"I love you too. I'll text you later." He said before disconnecting the call.

He finished packing everything he had brought and felt ready to get going. He still had an hour before check out but there was nothing else to do here. Instead Richie had decided to head over to Jon's as they would share a ride to the airport since they were only minutes apart.

In the hotel lobby he walked over to the front desk where he dropped his bag.

"Checking out?" The front desk agent asked him with a bright smile.
"Yeah." He said.
"Room 416, right? Richie?" The agent asked again.
He smiled. "Yes."
"Are we charging the credit card we have on file or did you want to use a different method of payment?"
"No, that's fine."
"And I have an email address here, do you want the receipt emailed or printed?"
"Email's good." He said.
"Then you're all set to go. I hope you had a good stay and we hope to see you again." She smiled at him again.
"Thanks." He picked up his bag again and headed out the automatic front door.

He stuck to the promise he made to himself and decided to walk over to Jon's apartment. The only suitcase he brought wasn't that large and he didn't mind pulling it down the street.

Getting some air was always nice as well, even though when it wasn't exactly fresh. He remembered being in New York, the hustle and bustle of the city every single day. Not that Los Angeles is a quiet place to live but at least he was half an hour away from that city and has some peace and quiet. He much preferred his home to where Jon lived. Downtown of such a large city was not the place where he would want to raise his children.

His walk wasn't too long but he made quick pit stop at a coffee shop, not for coffee as he knew Jon always had a pot brewing in the morning but for some muffins. He ordered half a dozen of assorted muffins, making sure his favorite was in the batch before paying and heading out to the street again. Soon enough he stood in front of the door, pressing the bell again. Moments later he was buzzed in and headed up the elevator to meet his friend.

"Hey man," he said as he walked in, kicked his shoes off by his suitcase and headed over to the open kitchen, the cardboard box of muffins in hand, "how's it going?" He asked Jon who started pouring a second cup of coffee.
"I think I'm almost ready." Jon said as he passed Richie the cup of coffee, taking a sip of his own cup.
"What do you mean almost?" He put down the box of muffins and opened the lid, quickly grabbing his out and offering the rest to Jon then accepted the beverage and took a tentative sip to test the temperature of the coffee.
"I've got everything packed, don't worry." Jon assured him as he picked out a muffin from the box. "Just trying to make sure everything is organized. All our gear arrived in Mexico already so that's good."
"All of it?"
"Yeah, instruments are all there. They're setting up our stage and lighting so it'll be good to go tomorrow night. We'll do soundcheck of course to make sure it's all good."
"Then why are you worried?"
"I don't know." Jon sighed.
"Alright then," Richie said, "shut up and drink your coffee."

Chapter 55

It was mid-morning when Richie woke up, he may have spent too much time on the phone with Sarah after the movie had ended but it was good to hear his wife and be updated on what was going on at home.

Feeling motivated for another day, he got out of bed and dressed in last night's clothes. He'd change when he got to the hotel again tonight, for convenience sake, these clothes would do for another day.

In the kitchen he found himself alone but shrugged it off as he found eggs in the fridge and started making himself some breakfast. He wasn't going to wait around for Jon, he was hungry now. He knew the house well enough to find everything he needed and know that Jon wouldn't mind if he helped himself.

He was in the middle of cracking eggs into the frying pan when Jon walked into the kitchen.

"Are you sharing this time?"
"I fucking shared last night." Richie argued but didn't mind making more eggs, they were only here today anyway, no reason to waste food.
"Yeah, after I took the bag from you."
"Still shared." He pointed out. "When are Dave and Tico going to be here?"
Jon shrugged, "Probably around noon or so."
Richie scrambled up the eggs, making sure they were all getting evenly cooked. "We've got some time then."
"Yeah," Jon leaned against the counter on the other side of the stove, "Did you get to talk to Sarah last night?"
"Oh yeah," Richie said, knowing where the conversation was going, "She's not enjoying Daniel right now."
"That bad?"
"Yeah, I guess it's really bothering him. I kind of feel bad he's teething now, just as I left them, you know?"
"Yeah, I get it but he'll be alright in a couple days."
"I know but still." He trailed off, not really finishing his thought as he scooped the eggs onto plates. "So tomorrow we fly out to Mexico? Do we have a travel itinerary?"
"Yeah, didn't you get one? We fly at 5pm, go to the hotel afterwards and then full gear tour mode the day after that."
"Getting right back into it."

After they ate their eggs, Jon loaded the dishwasher for the few dishes that were there, he wasn't going to wash them by hand.

"Do you want to go for a run with me?" He suggested to Richie.
"Down the street?" He asked. "No."
Jon shrugged. "We could just use the treadmill if that makes you more comfortable." He suggested instead.
"I'm a terrible runner, I do prefer a treadmill where no one will see me but it's not like I have work out clothes here."
"You can borrow some. Running's good for you."
"Yeah, which gets negated by the pack of cigarettes you have throughout the day."
"It balances out."
"Sure it does." Of course he didn't believe him, not like he was much better but at least he'd kicked that habit.
"It does." Jon argued. "I've asked a doctor."
"Sure, sure." Richie said sarcasticly.

Not much later, he texted Sarah a selfie of himself in borrowed work out clothes, ready to hit the gym. He didn't mind working out, he just couldn't keep up with Jon's morning routine. An hour run was not something he enjoyed doing every morning. Sure he worked out but not to the same extent, a half hour of some sort of cardio once or twice a week followed by some weights was good enough. That and smart eating, a combination of those two worked just fine. He didn't wait for a response from Sarah as he hoped she was occupied with her sons or studies. Instead, he headed down the hallway to the gym.

"I'm ready." He announced as he walked in, seeing Jon already on a treadmill.
"About time." Jon replied. "I've been waiting."
"At least you started." Richie said, meaning Jon hadn't really waited for him at all. He stepped onto the treadmill next to Jon and turned it on.
"Figured you wouldn't last as long as me anyway."
"Are you calling me fat?"
Jon laughed. "No, I'm saying you don't have the stamina."
"So, you mean I'm fat." Richie set the the treadmill's pace to a walking speed, not wanting to go into a fast run straight away.
"Sure, whatever." Jon said sarcastically. "Be fat."
"Rude." He feighned shock as he increased his walking speed.

Soon enough Richie could feel sweat coating his skin all over his body, the shirt he was wearing was sticking to his back. At least Jon looked worse than he did. He tried to think back of when he used to keep up with Jon's work out routine, reminding himself that was easily 13 years ago and at least he had been in his forties, not his fifties. Why did he have to work out while other people his age were allowed to have potbellies and call it a dad body? He was determined to at least get to the thirthy minutes he knew he could do and he was only a few minutes away from that goal. He most definitely preferred just about any other exercise that was not running. Any sport he could watch or practise in bed was perfect for him.

Next to him, Jon kept his pace, impressing him more and more. His own mind was telling him to stop, it had been enough but watching Jon run with ease made him competitive, not wanting to give up. Although he knew Jon did this every day and he did not, he felt like he could show off as well.

Jon slowed down his pace and incline, then continued in a walk for a few more minutes.
Richie finally did the same and was relieved to just walk. "Thank fuck. Finally." He was out of breath from running double his usual time.
Jon looked over, letting out a short hearty laugh. "I didn't think you would last this long."
"I think I'm dying." His breath still uneven as he tried to catch it. His body ached, his lungs hurts.
"You'll be fine." Jon said, ending his cardio work out, stopping the treadmill entirely.
Richie finally felt relief and did the same, instead he pressed the stop button, making the treadmill stop immediately as he was still in the process of a step, he tripped over his own exhausted feet.
"What the fuck?" Jon exclaimed as he heard the crash to his right. Looking over as he spoke his words, he caught a glimpse of Richie catching himself. "Are you okay?" He asked concerned but Richie steadied himself again and moved off the treadmill.
He tried to laugh off his own mess up. "Told you I was dying.' He said, doing a mental check up of his body. All limbs were still attached, his foot hurt.
Jon walked around the treadmills and handed him a bottle of water. "You good?" He asked again.
Richie took the bottle of water and opened it. "Yeah, I'm fine." He took a drink, gladly accepting the refreshment his body needed.
"Are you sure?" Jon wanted to confirm again. "What did you even do?"
Richie shrugged. "I don't know. I turned it off, then died." He explained quickly. "How the fuck do you even do this every day?"
"By doing it every day." Jon pointed out. "Want to do some weight or stop before you actually die or something worse."

He knew weights was his moment to shine and show off. His competitive mindset immediately overruled his hurt foot. Weights were much easier than running for an hour so they headed over to the weight rack.

As they left the gym, they heard the doorbell. Richie groaned at the sound of it. "You need a better door bell sound jingle thing."
Jon laughed. "It's epic and no one even rings the doorbell."
"Yeah, because no one wants to listen and wait 5 minutes for your ego." He started heading down the hall for exactly that reason.
"It has your input with it. Not just me." Jon pointed out as he followed suit.

Once they opened the front door, the song finally stopped, to both of their relief and found David on the other side, his hands full, a drink tray in one, a muffin box in the other. "You guys look disgusting, I'm not going into a small studio all afternoon with you two being nasty."

Chapter 54

"I think I forget something at the studio." Jon said after a couple minutes of driving down the highway. "I'm pretty sure I had a jacket this morning."
"Do you want to stop and get it or just get it in the morning?" Richie asked, who was enjoying not having to drive.
"Actually," Jon paused, "would you mind if I don't drive back to the city?"
Richie frowned, thinking. "Yeah, I guess I was planning on taking a cab back anyway."
"I just don't want to drive all the way back and then drive back here in the morning again. May as well just stay here."
Richie nodded, he did make sense. "Yeah that's true. I can just take a cab back here tomorrow morning too then."
"You could also just stay in my guest room." Jon pointed out.
"Good point."

They made a quick stop at a nearby grocery store before heading back to Jon's house and studio.

Their conversation took many turns while Richie texted his daughter, getting an update on how her day had been going and he gladly informed her about his as well. He made sure she was in a better headspace than a few days ago before wishing her a good night. He knew she was 4 hours behind timewise but also knew she'd be texting other people for the rest of the evening.

When they arrived at Jon's house, Richie offered to help carry some of the groceries into the house. An improvised breakfast was on the menu for the morning and they needed snacks while rehearsing. Snacks were always good.

"So what do you want to do?" Richie asked after Jon had put everything away in the kitchen. "Or do you want to turn in early?"
Jon left out the snacks he wanted to take to the studio tomorrow. "We could watch a movie." He suggested.
"Sure, sounds good and not sit on your couch." He ignored Jon's scowl. "Which movie?" He knew the answer.
"Godfather." They said at the same time.
"Sounds like a good plan." Richie said, grabbing a bag of chips and heading to the formal living room. Big screen or nothing.

He flipped the switch to make the big screen rise up as he knew Jon could get the dvd started for them.

"You better be sharing those chips." Jon said as he walked into the room, carrying drinks.
"Never. I claimed these by grabbing them."
"I claimed them by paying for them." Jon countered.
"Okay fine." Richie said as he sat down on the couch. "You can have all the air."
"Fuck you."
"Be nice or I just may sit on your 130 year old couch."
"Stop bitching about my couch."
"It's just," Richie started, trying to sound serious again, "who buys a couch to never sit on?"
"It's a 130 year old couch."
"Then what's the point in it?"
"Shut up and watch the movie."

Richie did as told and opened up his bag of chips as he watched the opening scenes to the movie. He had seen it so many times, he was sure he didn't need to actually ever see the movie again to know every scene. It was most likely engrained into his mind forever. Most of the times he had watched it, it had been with Jon so he was sure it was the same for him.

"You're doing it again." He said.
Jon paused the movie as soon as he spoke. "What?"
"You're saying all the lines." Richie pointed out.
"So?" He asked as he rewinded the movie just a tad before Richie had spoken.
"I'm trying to watch a movie and you're talking over it."
"I'm not. I'm saying the same lines."
"Yeah, but I like to listen to the actors say their actual lines instead of you saying them. Otherwise I could just listen to you doing all the lines yourself without watching the movie."
"Whatever. Can we just watch the movie?"
"We could."

In all honesty, he missed bugging his friend. He hadn't realized how much he had until he could again. Two weeks ago he wouldn't have thought he'd ever tell Jon to not repeat movie lines again but here he was. Being here today made him feel and realize what he had missed. It was just nice to have a friend he had known for so long and had such a long past with. To have that friend again, right now, meant so much to him.

"Remember that one time we watched this movie? It was ages ago." Richie asked him as a scene in the movie reminded him of that night.
Jon paused the movie again, he wasn't going to miss a second of the movie even if he had seen it a hundred times. "What time? That time we were drunk off our asses?"
Richie laughed, remembering it as well. "No, I was thinking that time I was here to write and Dorothea was out so you were watching your kids for the night. We figured we'd put everyone to bed, watch a movie, relax. Then Jakey, he was still so little, cried for hours."
"Oh God." Jon groaned. "That was horrible. He would not fucking stop."
Richie laughed again. "And you were no damn help. Kid is all upset for who knows what, you're all frustrated 'cause you want to watch a movie and can't figure out what your kid wants so he could go to sleep."
"You were no help."
"The joys of parenting."
"I prefer the time we were drunk."
"Oh yeah?" Richie asked. "Shamelessly re-enacting the entire movie?"
"It was very good acting." Jon laughed, knowing full-well it had been horrendous.
Richie laughed as well, remembering how they both re-enacted scenes from the movie, critiquing each other on their lines. "If you want to call slurred words good acting."
"The best acting is done confidently."
"I'm confident we were way too drunk that night."

Richie sighed, glad to remember silly but fun times. He watched Jon rewind the movie again. He knew Jon knew this movie by heart but still would never miss a second of it. It had always been like that, just like he had no issue with having a conversation over it, as long as he wasn't too invested in what he was watching. They differed in many ways like that but in other ways they had so much in common, even when the differences seemed to overpower the similarities. Some friendships just worked that way. After so many years he could just be comfortable around Jon, he didn't have to worry about being judged about his thoughts or opinions because he often knew how Jon would react to them before he even expressed them. Which also meant he knew which thoughts and opinions he could or should not express.

He munched on his chips as his thoughts wandered from the movie.

"You know what?" He asked, waiting for Jon to pause his precious movie.
"What?" Jon asked, looking over and wondering where the conversation was going to take them next.
"We've seen this movie too many times."
Jon scoffed. "Impossible." He said.
"I've seen this more than any other movie."
"Never enough."
"I don't know." Richie said. "I think once you can say the lines to a movie, you may have seen it too often."
"Are you saying we've played our songs too often too then?"
Richie laughed out loud. "No, 'cause you still forget lines."
"One time that happened." Jon became defensive.
"One time per tour leg, sure."
"Oh fuck you, like you're perfect." Jon countered. "I remember our promo tour last year in London and you short circuited the place."
"How's that my fault?" Richie asked innocently.
"You were playing the guitar."
"Yeah but it isn't my fault their crappy electrical wiring couldn't handle my awesome guitar skills."
Jon laughed at that. "Yeah, sure." He reached over to Richie and grabbed the bag of chips from his hands. "I thought you were sharing."
Richie stammered for words, shocked by the theft of his chips, before coming up with an intelligent sentence. "I said you could have the air. There was plenty."
"And I told you to go fuck yourself." Jon said promptly as he started eating chips.

Richie waited for Jon to start the movie again, this time he didn't rewind the last minute and just resumed where they had left off. The end of the movie was approaching and so was midnight. It had become dark outside, partly he was still on California time, he would still have time to talk to his wife before going to bed but that would be after the movie.

In the moment he fully enjoyed watching a movie with his best friend, regardless of how often he had seen it and how annoying Jon could be, which made it easier to bug him. Having a friend was simply better than not having that person.

Past midnight the credits started rolling on to the big projection screen.

"Classic." Jon said, satisfied with his movie watching experience.
"It's a good movie." Richie agreed with him.
"Good? It's legendary, it's much better than good."
Richie shrugged. "It's also just a movie."
"Just a movie?"
"Alright, it's legendary. Best movie ever." He gave in.
"Thank you."
He checked his phone for the time. "I think I'm going to head upstairs and give Sarah a call."
"See how you kid is doing." Jon told him, as if he wasn't going to ask her.

They got up from the couch, tidied up the room and headed upstairs.

He had always thought Jon's mansion was interesting, it was full of useless furniture but it still had a home-y feel to it. The upstairs hallway with all the family pictures. He had known Jon's children their entire lives and had memories that matched the ages they had in the photos just as well.

He stopped at the room he would be staying in and wished Jon a good night before he would head further down the hall.

"Hey Jon?" He said, waiting for Jon to look at him. "I missed this."

Chapter 53

"Want to call it quits?" Jon asked his friends after they had been in the studio for the remainder of the afternoon.

All three of them were in agreement. David and Tico wanted to get home to their wives and Richie was eager to call his while he visited his mom.

They grabbed their belongings and headed out the door. Jon locked up the studio door as David and Tico said their goodbyes and got into their cars to leave.

"Do you need a ride back to the city?" Jon asked, knowing the answer regardless.

"Actually," Richie said, "I'm going to my mom's house for dinner."

"Sure." Jon said, heading to the car with Richie following him. "I can drop you off there."
"Are you sure?" Richie asked. "That's at least half an hour detour for you, one way."
Jon nodded, unlocking the car. "No point in you going into the city to then figure out a way back here again. Are you taking a cab back to the hotel then?"

Richie opened the door and got in, waiting for Jon to get in too so his answer wouldn't get lost. "Yeah, I guess so." He hadn't really thought about it.

"Point Pleasant to Manhatten is probably going to cost you close to two hundred bucks." Jon reminded him of taxi fairs.
"Well, I ain't taking the bus."

As Jon drove, Richie texted Sarah, asking how Daniel and Noah were before texting Ava and asking how her day went, making sure he could support her still.

The drive was fairly quiet as they listened to the radio and watched the familiar roads pass around them.

"How's the kid?" Jon broke the silence.
"Daniel? He's been alright Sarah said. She's giving him baby painkillers for the worst pain."
Jon nodded. "No point in letting him suffer through pain if there's painkillers. What about Noah?"
Richie sighed. He had only read Sarah's text about Noah and it worried him. "She wants me to call her so she can explain more easily but he's getting tests done so I guess she doesn't know much either."
"And Ava?"
Richie chuckled at that, "she's alright. She was quite upset on Saturday but she's alright now. With how social she is, she needs some friends around her and she'll be alright."
"She was upset?" Jon asked surprised. "Cause you were joining us?"
"Yeah, she didn't want me to leave but knew I like my guitars."

As they reached Point Pleasant Richie started giving Jon directions for which roads to take to get to his mom's house. He didn't live in the area but he would always remember how to get there from the highway.

"So you came anyway?" Jon asked.
Richie sighed. "She was torn, you know. Wants me home but also knows I love doing this." He explained. "So we talked and decided it was only a short while and go for it."
Jon shook his head. "I can't say I've ever asked my kids if I can go on tour."
"You should."

Once near the house, even Jon recognized the house. As he parked the car in the drive way they could see Joan get up from her seat on the front porch, walking across the lawn.

Jon parked the car so Richie was able to get out and meet Joan for a hug.

"Are you coming?" Joan asked Jon, who hadn't moved from the car or made any intentions to leave the vehicle.
"I was just dropping Richie off, heading back to the city."
"You don't want to drive back to the city now, you're going to hit traffic and it'll take you hours." Joan told him. "Might as well come in and have dinner, then hit the road after rush hour."
"You'd be home at the same time." Richie pointed out, knowing the New Jersey to New York traffic.
"I suppose you're right." Jon sighed as he turned the car off and got out.

Once inside the house, Joan got them both a snack and drink, then headed off to the kitchen to prepare dinner as Jon and Richie did the easiest thing and watched tv as they waited.

During dinner Richie caught his mom up on all his family affairs, telling her how Daniel had just taken his first steps but they weren't able to capture them on video just yet. He was excited for Daniel to take more steps and for Sarah to capture them so he could show them off, which reminded him to show off Noah's piano skills, even Jon was impressed.

After having caught up with everything and realizing the time, Jon and Richie headed out. An hour's drive ahead of them.

Chapter 52

Jon parked his car outside of his studio and Richie got out and headed to the door where he waited for Jon to open the door to let them in.

"I didn't bring any guitars." Richie admitted. "I had everything shipped to join the rest." He explained as they headed up the stairs.

"Guess you'll have to play some old ones."

"Wow man. That's agist."

Jon looked at him confused. "What?"

"Calling guitars old like that, as if their age values their worth."

Jon shook his head. "Oh my God." He sighed.

Upstairs they sat down around the table, David and Tico hadn't arrived yet, as Jon would always arrive before an agreed upon time. Richie knew that and was used to Jon always being early so he didn't mind waiting with him.

Their conversation from earlier was continued as Richie texted Sarah. It'd be about midmorning there so she should be back from driving Noah to school and he wanted to check in on Daniel as well.

"Daniel's teething." He said to Jon, making him groan in frustration.

"That sucks." He said, knowing the experience very well.

"Yeah, he was giving Sarah a hard time all night, makes me feel shitty for being away."

"True." Jon said. "Teething sucks but at least it's usually just a week or so, per tooth."

"Hopefully." Richie agreed with him. "At least she's able to stay with him, Noah's in school all day so that's more relaxed." He read another text from Sarah.

"He'll be fine." Jon reassured him.

Richie frowned as he texted with Sarah, devoting his attention to it instead of continuing the conversation with Jon.

After a few minutes Jon had to ask. "What's going on?" He asked.

"I'm not sure." He sighed. "Noah broke his arm two weeks ago but apparently it's been hurting the entire time so they're getting new x-rays."

"Fuck man. Do you guys ever catch a break?" Jon asked him, understanding the frustration.

Richie frowned. "Guess we'll see."

Not much later, they heard a knock, followed by David walking into the room

"David in da house." He announced.

"About damn time." Jon said.

"What are you talking about? I'm 10 minutes early." David told him.

"We've been here for 30." Richie pointed out and you live closerby. Gotta be here on time man."

"Oh quit your yaps." David said. "So are we just playing some today?"

"Yeah cause you need your practice." Jon said smartly.

"Tico isn't even here yet." David complained again.

"True, but he gets a free pass." Jon told him.

Richie enjoyed the bickering, it was nice to be with his friends again and it was almost nice to not have to worry about his children. It was nice to be away from it all and to enjoy himself.

Soon after Tico arrived and, after Jon had his warm-up cigarette, they got into the studio where Richie found one of his older guitars and picked it up. Knowing a song on this guitar or another one wouldn't really make a difference, in the end a guitar was still a guitar to him. He mainly had to remember how to play which songs and that would work on any guitar.

After an hour of messing around with the songs from their last album, they decided to take a little break.

It had felt good to play his guitar again. He hadn't played it much at all over the last few months, sometimes for Daniel but often he would search youtube or iTunes to find his songs to play for him since Daniel was so specific about what music he would listen to.

"Jonny?" He asked once David and Tico had left the studio.
"Yeah?"
"So what about what we talked about?" He was a little hesitant, he knew Jon wasn't an easy person to deal with or relent his authority. "Playing some of my songs?"
"I remember, we'll fit them into the shows."
"Should we practise them though? If Dave and Teek want to play them with me while you take a quick break during shows?"
Jon nodded. "Yeah, I guess we should."
"I've got the sheet music in my bag so I can show them."
"Oh." Jon said.
"Is that okay?" Richie asked quickly. "It's just a handful of songs. I don't really want to do the same one every night."
"Yeah alright."

Richie grabbed his bag and retrieved the papers from it.

"Guess I'll go sit down then." Jon said.

Richie recognized the tone of voice he used, Jon wasn't happy about it but it was what they had talked about and agreed upon.

"Wait." Richie said, making Jon stop from leaving the room, then noticing David making faces at them from the other side of the window. He shook his head and flipped him off while Jon gave him the same gesture. "I was thinking of something else," Richie started again, "what if we play songs together?"
"I'm not singing your songs." Jon pointed out a little too harshly.
Richie tried hard to ignore the snap and continued his suggestion. "That's not what I'm saying. We've done this before where we play one song and then you change to something else, then change back to the first song. We could do something like that." He explained, waiting for a response from Jon but he only looked intrigued. "We can figure out which of my songs could go well with one our original songs and mix it up that way."
Jon nodded. "Yeah, I kind of like that. We'll have to figure out which songs but it could work." He agreed.
"Yeah?" Richie asked, knowing he sounded much too excited but he couldn't deny Jon's agreement made him very happy.

Chapter 51

His phone alarm rang much too early. He snoozed it. His body still felt tired but it was 9 o'clock and breakfast would be over in an hour and he would never pass on a free meal. For now, he closed his eyes again.

Minutes later his phone made the same alarm sound. He groaned and silenced the alarm.

His phone screen showed him several notifications. A few texts, some apps and social media. As he moved to sit in bed, so he wouldn't fall asleep again, he swiped away his alerts and opened his texts. One from his mother acknowledging he wouldn't be there in the morning and inviting him for dinner instead. The second one from Ava, telling him good morning. She must have just gotten up for school he thought as he replied to her.

He dressed quickly and headed down to the breakfast area to grab some food. The hotel had an expansive selection of breakfast items and best of all, there was bacon.

After breakfast he got into gear, he showered quickly and got dressed. Then grabbed his leather shoulder bag. That's all he would need today, his guitars and equipment had already been shipped to join the rest of the band's instruments.

Once outside, he had the joy and pleasure of hailing a taxi. He didn't want to deal with private drivers while Jon lived 5 minutes away. Technically he could walk it but he'd rather not. It only took a few tries before he could get a taxi to pull over.

"153 Mercer Street." He said as he got into the cab.

He felt silly when the taxi pulled over just a few minutes later, he told himself to walk back to the hotel later. Pulling out his wallet from his pocket, he asked the driver for his total and paid him in cash.

At the door he rang the bell and waited for an intercom response or the door to be buzzed open.

"Hello?" Came a voice from the speaker in the wall.
"Hey, it's me." He said, knowing Jon would know who would be visiting.
"Rich? Come in." The buzzer sounded as he invited him in.
"Thanks man." He said as he pushed open the door, then headed for the elevator.

Once inside the elevator, as he pushed the button for Jon's floor, his mind offered him a random memory from 30 years ago. When they first started selling out shows and staying at the nice hotels, how Jon used to be scared to get inside an elevator, he would rather take the stairs. Which often meant Richie did the same but now he was chuckling at the idea of Jon taking an elevator every single day.

Luckily the elevator didn't stop at any other floor than the one he needed to be at. The doors opened into a small foyer and he was greeted by Jon, holding the door open.

"Did you just get here?" Jon asked as he let Richie in.
Richie shook his head. "No, I decided on an earlier flight so I got here around 12.30."
"Makes sense, those red-eye flights are exhausting."
"Too old for that shit." Richie said as he followed Jon to the living room.

He sat his bag down beside the couch then sat down himself while Jon sat on the other couch. They had enough time until heading out to meet the rest of the guys for rehearsals. Jon's house was quiet as the children were all out at school and Richie figured Dorothea must be out as well since he had not seen her yet. They talked about the plan for the next week, how rehearsals would go and then the next leg of the tour.

Richie was getting more and more excited to catch up with everyone and play some music again. Their classics were stuck in his brain forever, the day he had to think of how to play Prayer or Wanted would never come, he was sure of that but the songs they wrote last year? He would definitely need a refresher on those ones.

He discussed with Jon how they would let him play at least one song per show, as they used to before. That way Jon could take a break himself and Richie could play something he wanted to artistically. He was relieved when Jon agreed it could be a song of his choice, not the same song each time, which Richie was very happy with. There were so many songs he loved to play and so many he would love to share with his audience which would mean, both Tico and David would need to learn some of his new songs as well. Rehearsals would be interesting.

Soon enough lunch time came around and the two headed out to go grab some lunch before making the drive out of the city to Jon's New Jersey house where they were all meeting at the studio.