Life Without You

Chapter 51 - Painful memories II

Word got out that the hottest girl in school was dating the average-looking, nerdy musician got Johan extremely vexed. He could not believe how or why Emily would choose that loser over him. All his friends and some other students felt the same way. Now that Leon and Emily were holding hands in school, all Johan could do was glare at the two whenever they walked past, and as usual, they ignored him and did not care what the others thought.

Mrs Waltz noticed the new girl in her youngest son's life, who came to the house frequently. She grew to like Emily for her politeness and good personality. Being a straight-A student, she thought she could be a good influence on Leon.

One Saturday afternoon, Mrs Waltz managed to secure a spot at the mall for Leon to perform during a festival. His whole family was there to support him, including Emily, whom his family had now accepted as his girlfriend.

After earning a roaring applause by the crowd for his performance, Leon returned to the backstage, where his family and girlfriend praised his efforts.

"You did well," Emily hugged him and kissed his cheek.

"Thank you, Emily," he smiled.

Just then, a man approached Leon. He had dark hair and olive skin, and he wore a neat, blue suit.

"Hello, Leon Waltz. I'm pretty impressed by your performance," he shook Leon's hand.

"Oh, thank you," Leon beamed.

"And who are you?" Mrs Waltz asked as she felt uneasy at the presence of this unknown, suspicious-looking figure.

"I'm Arnold Tesser, talent agent for Avon Music," he passed Leon his business card. "I've been watching some of your YouTube videos before and decided to see you in person."

"Avon Music!" Leon sucked in his breath when he saw that infamous logo on the card. Everyone gasped.

"Correct," Arnold smiled. "I'd like to offer this talented young lad an opportunity to be signed on as our singer under our label. Would you be interested?".

"Oh my gosh!!" Angel exclaimed. Everyone was in disbelief.

"Well," said Mrs Waltz, "thank you for your offer. Let us have a think through it."

"What's there to think through? My answer's a yes!" Leon got excited.

"That's too fast, Leon," his mother tried to reason. "I don't think you should-"

"But mum, I waited so long to get this opportunity!"

"Nina," Mr Waltz interrupted. "Let Leon make his decision. He worked hard for it."

Mrs Waltz glanced at her husband. As much as she was happy that her son got recognised by a huge label, deep down, she wasn't sure if this was the right step. She had hoped that Leon would finish college first before pursuing such a dream which had no guarantee of a stable success should his debut album fail to chart. But she wouldn't argue against her husband's decision. He had worked too hard to see this come to fruition.

"Count me in," Leon said to Arnold, remaining resolute in his decision.

"Alright, meet us next Saturday at our office at 10am," said Arnold. After he left, everyone jumped for joy and hugged each other at the big break, except for Mrs Waltz who remained skeptical. Leon was over the moon. His golden ticket had finally arrived!

The following Saturday, Leon's family accompanied him to Avon Music's main office, where it was situated at the top of an impressive modern steel and glass skyscraper with the huge logo of Avon Music spanned across the entire building. The interior of the office was stylish. Awards and music plaques of their famous artistes graced their walls.