Situations(MaNan FF)

Part 18

It was almost 4 in the afternoon when Manik's phone rang and an impatient frustrated voice commanded FAB 5's presence authoritatively.

He would've just ignored them if it were any other person, but not following the words of Sneha Chaudhary came with a price and he didn't know if he could afford that. So within the next 15 minutes, all five of them stood at the door of her office waiting as she held out her palm while signing something with the other hand. Once finished, she gestured them to come in and asked her subordinate to close the door on his way out.

Once the door was closed, the silence was immediately called off, as Sneha angrily threw a piece of paper on her desk for them to see.

FAB5 were shocked to see those papers and looked at each other worried.

"Can you tell me what this is??"

When she got no reply, she answered herself.

"It's okay, I'll tell you. Cancelled Contract papers. And you know why they are here, or why they even had to exist? Save your breath once again, let me do the honours. I just received a very interesting call this morning from the trustee of your college saying that I was on the verge of being sued by them. Can you guess what brought me to that situation? It was you and your b***dy careless attitude. You guys have almost 0 attendance and are basically failing in college. "

Taking a deep breath, she calmed herself but continued before any of them could get a word in.

"I'm not denying that you are talented. Of course, I know you are. It's why I offered you this record deal. It's why I fought for you at board meetings despite the pressure to hire a group with older members or at least agency backup.  I argued, debated and risked getting you guys here because I trusted you could do this. But that call changes everything. Our new artists need to be introduced in 4 months and auditions will be over soon, so I don't really think that I can take this chance. Your college rules clearly state that according to their Admission Terms and Conditions, any and all music you produce until your 3rd year is legally owned by them. By giving you this contract before you cleared the year, I violate the copyrights. When you assured me that you would be able to get started and get the songs ready in time without conflict with your college guidelines, I agreed to give you this independent contract. But this changes everything. If you're not passing this year, you can't work for me for another year and I simply can't wait that long. So, thank you for the warning and wasted time. And remember, that once your contract is cancelled you will never be able to work with us again due to the Label's policy. Now, take these papers and get out."

Cabir's face had gone almost as pale as snow and Alya was on the verge of tears while Mukti and Dhruv looked equally distressed and entitled heir of Malhotra Empire also stood scared gulping as he took in the words. 

"Please ma'am, at least hear us out. We assumed Musicana counted as Credit points and calculated based on that We didn't realise that because it was hosted by SPACE, it would only be counted as Co-curricular this year which is why the situation got out of hand. We were also finding ways to make it better. We were just about to fix it, but then it got complicated. Trust us, Ma'am, we weren't trying to deceive you or anything."

Hearing the jolly and chilled out Cabir pleading should've been a surprise to the friends. But after Musicana, even their situations had changed. After coming out to his friends, Cabir came out to his other almost a month later, only to be rushed she disowned him and threw him out of the house when he refused to get "treated". After living at Manik's house for a few weeks, while desperately trying to find a house and managing 2 jobs, Cabir finally realised that things don't always come easy. Knowing about his sexuality after asking about his reasons for moving out of his parent's place, people had rejected him way too many times for him to carry on with his attitude and ego like before. He had begged for the place he was living in presently and even begged to keep the job he needed to pay the rent. This album was his saving grace. It would have paid him enough to get his own place and survive on one part-time job. But now he was losing his chance.