Rewind With A Superstar System-Chapter 108: Off The Studio

<🎧 Song Recommendation: HOPE by XXXTENTACION>

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The morning sun over Miami was bright, completely at odds with the silence inside the Escalade.

Von didn’t drive them to Neon Sound Studios. He kept his promise. Instead, he navigated the luxury SUV through the quiet, tree-lined streets toward a cemetery on the outskirts of the city.

The air was had this tense energy when they parked. Alex stepped out of the car with his bag behind.

He looked exhausted, but the ice-cold quiet that usually surrounded him didn’t look the same.

They walked through the manicured grass in silence.

The cemetery was vast and peaceful, a stark contrast to the grind of the music industry they were both trying to survive.

There were other people scattered across the grounds, an older woman laying fresh lilies by a headstone, a young family standing quietly in the shade of a large oak tree.

It was a quiet, brutal reminder of reality. Life was a temporary privilege, and everyone in this green field had lost someone who didn’t get to keep it.

Alex led the way to a less populated section near the back. He stopped in front of a modest, flat bronze marker embedded in the grass.

Because there was no money for a lavish funeral or individual plots when his parents and sister died, the state had handled the arrangements. They were all buried in the same small plot.

Alex stood there for a long time, his hands shoved deep into the pockets of his dark jeans. He didn’t say a word. He just stared at the engraved names.

Von stood a few feet back, giving him space. He watched Alex pull a small white rose from his pocket and place it gently on the bronze marker.

"I’m sorry I couldn’t fix it," Alex whispered to the grass.

Von stepped forward and put a hand on Alex’s shoulder. He didn’t offer any platitudes about them being in a better place. He just squeezed his shoulder, letting Alex know he wasn’t standing there alone.

After a while, Alex let out a slow, shaky breath and stepped back. He looked at Von, offering a small, grateful nod.

"Your turn," Alex said quietly.

Von nodded. He knew exactly where to go. Even combining the memories of his past life and his current one, it had been years since he had stood in front of his parents’ grave.

He led Alex to a different section of the cemetery, finally stopping in front of a polished granite headstone.

Von stared at the names carved into the stone. In his previous life, he had allowed their sudden deaths to completely break him.

It had been the catalyst that turned him into a helpless, three-hundred-pound recluse who gave up on everything, forcing his sister to carry the entire world on her shoulders.

But standing here now, in a different body with a different future, Von felt stronger than he ever had before.

A single tear escaped and rolled down his cheek. He quickly wiped it away. He thought of the man he used to be, the man who had with nothing to his name, and the impossible second chance he had been given by the System.

He couldn’t claim to understand the mechanics of the universe, and he didn’t know how any of this worked, but he only hoped for one thing.

"Mom, Dad... I hope you’re both doing fine, wherever you are..."

"They’d be proud of you," Alex decided to say softly, standing beside him.

Von let out a quiet exhale and a small smile touched his lips. "I hope so."

They walked back to the Escalade as the morning heat really began to set in. As Von started the engine and pulled out of the cemetery gates, the heavy, moody atmosphere lingered in the car.

Despite their breakthrough talk the night before and the closure of the morning, Von knew Alex wasn’t magically healed. Trauma didn’t disappear overnight.

Von merged onto the highway, tapping his fingers against the leather steering wheel. He needed to lift the weight out of the air.

"So," Von said casually, glancing over at the passenger seat. "I don’t know if you’re interested in video games. Or we could hit the batting cages downtown. Just hit some baseballs until our arms fall off."

Alex looked over with slight surprise. "You want to go to a batting cage?"

"Yeah," Von shrugged. "Or we can take the boat out. Just have fun. You’ve been acting like an eighty-year-old man for too long."

A faint, real smile broke across Alex’s face. It was the first time Von had seen him genuinely smile since they met.

"The batting cages sound fine," Alex said.

***

For the next two days, Von completely ignored Absolute Records. They hit baseballs until their hands ached.

They ordered terrible, greasy takeout and played video games in arcades. They just existed as normal guys in their early twenties.

By the end of the second day, as they were sitting by the pool, Alex looked over at Von.

"My flight was supposed to be tomorrow," Alex said, staring at the water. "But... I think I’m going to extend my hotel stay. Remain in Miami for a while before I head back to my apartment." 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Von felt a deep sense of fulfillment hearing that. It meant Alex was actually trying to live again, rather than just waiting to die.

"That’s really great news," Von replied with a grin. "I’ll let my manager know to clear the bill."

With Alex officially excluded from the album’s tracklist, Von had to shift his focus back to the business. The clock was ticking and he was already behind schedule. He still had his solo tracks to record.

The next morning, Von drove with Patch back into Studio A.

Patch quickly found his seat and spun to face Von.

"I guess break time is over. Is your buddy Alex still coming?"

Von walked over to the leather couch and dropped his notebook onto the coffee table.

"Nah. He won’t be coming."

Patch let out a long exhale of relief. "Finally, you decided to accept the record like that."

Von shook his head immediately. "Not really. I decided to redo it. But without him. I’m taking the feature off. I’ll adjust some stuff, obviously."

"Hmm," Patch nodded slowly. He wondered if the two singers had a massive falling out over the weekend, but knowing how intense Von could be about his music, Patch decided not to intrude on his privacy. "Alright. Whenever you’re ready."

"Give me some time before we start," Von said, picking up a pen.

Since the original version of Forget Me was specifically structured as a duet, with independent lines meant for two different vocal ranges to bounce off each other, Von had to completely rewrite the arrangement. He needed to turn it into something only he would sing.

He sat on the couch, crossing out Alex’s old verses and restructuring the narrative flow so it made sense from a single perspective.

It took him nearly ten minutes of scribbling, but he succeeded. By the time Von was done hacking away at the unnecessary filler and condensing the emotion, the song’s length had dropped drastically from 3:44 to 2:30.

He didn’t mind the shorter runtime. If anything, trimming the fat made the lyrics feel much more urgent and impactful.

"Alright," Von announced, standing up and grabbing his lyric sheet. He cracked his neck, ready to dive back into the intense, exhausting process of recording.

"Let’s get started."