CHAPTER 1. "Cause I'm Not Sure If I've Seen You Before"
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She was late. 5 minutes late, to be exact. It wasn't her fault; she's usually a very punctual girl, but today, even though she woke up 2 hours earlier, the water in her apartment had been shut off. It was turned on 15 minutes before her interview, and she surely wasn't going to go to an interview without taking a shower. The least she could do is be clean.
That really wasn't working out now since she was running all the way to the record label office, where her interview was.
God, they're really not going to want to hire me now.
She had gotten an email about two weeks earlier about an open position as a tour photographer for a small startup band.
She didn't really know how she felt about touring, but she was sure it would be fine.
Out of breath and with a small layer of sweat in all the wrong places, she had finally made it in front of the building. She took a breath (or several) and pulled on the metal handle of the glass door, walking in and thanking rich people for AC.
She had brought her portfolio and resume ready to show her talent, and she hoped it would make up for being now ten minutes late.
She walked up to the receptionist, who told her what level and room to go to, and Marlene was sure she had also given her the eye at her disheveled self.
She knocked on the tempered glass door and waited.
An older man in a suit opened it.
Shit, should she have dressed more formal?
She was wearing a Talking Heads t-shirt, bootcut jeans, a brown leather jacket, and her trusty white Chuck Taylors.
"Hello, are you Miss Walsh? You are 12 minutes late." The older man spoke sharply, and she gulped.
"Yes, sir. The MetroLink was packed. I ran here." He narrowed his eyes at her and nodded, then moved aside to let her in. When she did, she saw four boys in black rolling chairs.
They all looked bored and forced to be here.
One of the boys was facing his back at her, looking at the big window that had a view of the city.
Another was drawing on a notepad.
One was smiling at her, and she smiled back.
The last one was playing with a guitar pick on the glass table.
"Okay, lads, this is our last interview, so focus. This is Miss Marlene Walsh." The boy facing the window had spun his chair so fast that it had altered the mood in the room, and when she saw his face, she gasped so loudly that it had startled the boy drawing on the notepad.
"Oh my god."
Oh, my god
"You're-oh my god." She really was trying to keep it together, especially at an interview, but that was-
"Elijah. Elijah Hewson." She recognized him and heard one of the boys say, "Is she a fan? What's happening." (Ryan McMahon, ladies and gentlemen)
At this point, Elijah was out of his seat at the end of the table and slowly walking over to the extremely startled girl at the other end of it.
"No, she's Marlie! From Rathdown!"
"Oh yeah... You used to talk our ears off about her." Guitar pick guy said, and she blinked.
She was in a room with the boy who had dropped her ice cream, the boy who used to tie her shoes when she was still learning how to, the boy who held her hand on the way to the bus stop, the boy who took her to the dance when they were 12, and the boy who was in half of the photos in her portfolio.
He was in a band? How did she not know this?
Sadly, when you move to the States at 17, you don't really keep in contact with your Irish friends.
When he finally reached her, he wrapped his arms around her waist and spun her around, lifting her off the ground.
She let out a startled laugh and hugged him back.
The older man cleared his throat in warning.
"Oh right, sorry, continue with the interview." Elijah said as he put her down and walked all the way back to his seat.
Shaking off her surprise, she cleared her throat and sat next to the man in the suit.
"Well, here is my resume and my portfolio," she said while taking out a manila folder from her brown backpack, which had all different kinds of band pins-one of which was actually given to her by Elijah. "And I also brought letters of recommendation from my old job at Mill Studios."
She passed the documents to the older man, and he took both the resume and letters while passing down her portfolio to Guitar Pick Guy, who started looking through it.
She could feel Elijah's gaze on her, and she tried not to look back at him because if she did, she was sure she might die or combust.
"Wait, is this Eli? Like younger, right?" Guitar Pick Guy said, and she blushed furiously.
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"What? Gimme that," Elijah said as he tried to take the portfolio out of his hands, but the other boy tutted and spun his chair the other way.
"Um, yes, I took it when he was like... 17?" She replied while averting her eyes to the glass table, which suddenly seemed extremely interesting.
"This is really good." The smiling guy said, and she lifted her head to look back at him and smiled.
"You have a letter of recommendation from the President of Mill Studios? Woah, that's really something, kid." The older man had said and that caused her to blush once again.
"Well, tell us a bit about yourself." The drawing guy had said that, and she nodded.
"Okay, um, my name is Marlene, but most people call me Marls. I went to Rathford for schooling until I was 16, then my mother got a job with Penguin Random House in the States, and we moved, but I decided to move back to Dublin a year ago. I worked with Mill Studios until a few months ago, but I quit because I just kind of wanted to do more." The lads were all nodding and smiling, especially Elijah.
"That's great. Well, we will let you know about our decision soon. The tour starts in March, so you would have a month to get any documents in order for traveling. Oh, and my name is Conrad Murray." The older man said that, and she nodded.
Due to their manager's introduction, the rest of them had finally told her their names.
The smiling guy was Josh. Guitar Pick Guy was Bobby and the drawing guy was Ryan.
"Okay, well, that was great and all, but why don't we go take Marlie here for a beer?" Elijah said with the biggest smirk on his face.
Marlene hated pubs.
"Oh no, you don't have-" She started but was cut off by Bobby.
Oh, come on! Do you really think we're going to let the girl who Elijah used to pine over for years go without having at least a few drinks first?"
"Hey! I didn't pine-"
"You did, man," Josh said while smacking Elijah's back in a comforting way.
"Well, I guess I can go for one drink," Marlene said, and the boys cheered, earning a head shake from Conrad.
They all got up from their chairs and made their way towards the door, but Elijah stopped in front of her and crouched down to grab her backpack and then hang an arm around her shoulders.
Yeah, she was most definitely dying or combusting today.
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AUTHOR'S NOTE...!
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