Wonderless |Kellic|

3. The choke hold of your past

It's not a common occurrence in the world of fast cars, rushed conversations and frantic routines to have a couple minutes feel like an eternity, but to be fair, Vic had been waiting for over half an hour in that room. His hands would come into frequent contact with one another, fingers lacing and being pulled away along with the restless ticking of the clock across the room. The muscles on his body were aching for any kind of release from his utter boredom. He was compelled to grab one of the numerous guitars from the stand and start strumming away, or at least pick up his phone in true millennial fashion. But he didn't do either. Vic didn't want to be caught doing anything questionable when he would show up. His coach was running late that much he knew for sure, but he would show... Probably. Vic wouldn't bet on it at that point. He was beginning to hope their practice session had been forgotten, not that it would solve his problem in any shape or form. They would have to speak face to face at some point...

Vic had to struggle to keep himself from jumping out of his skin when the door burst open, revealing Kellin Quinn himself as he strolled into the room, appearing to be in no particular hurry. Yet his hair was messily hidden under a beanie and his clothes were mismatched, betraying that he hadn't had the most pleasant of mornings. Their eyes met, accidently in a brief moment before Vic averted his gaze and fixated it on his beat-up sneakers. Kellin threw his bag on the red armchair provided for him plopping onto it himself a few moments later.

"The view is over here, you know..." he commented, his voice a noticeably rougher than Vic had heard in the few video-interviews of him he may or may not have watched. As calmly as he could, he lifted his gaze as his coach was going through a batch of papers.

"So imma give you a run-through of how it's gonna go." he began, immediately detecting the shift of attention towards him. "I'm assuming you got your schedule sent via email, if not you'd better see to it. I want you here at the arranged time, sharp. The lesson starts and ends when I say it does and you always do as I say. You have four weeks to improve yourself, then I put you on a battle with someone on your level. Clear?" and what could Vic do, but nod in the affirmative. "Now, warm up your voice how you normally do it."

Unable to object, the man sat up straighter and struggled to relax his jaw, even though he could feel each one of his muscles building up tension. He started with the scale that felt most comfortable, going a few notes higher and a few notes lower each time around, until he reached the end of his vocal range. Then he heard the sound of a phone being shut off along with a long sigh. He held his breath, almost terrified to hear what the singer had to say even though he knew from the first couple of minutes that his performance had been displeasing.

"Oh boy, do we have work to do!" Kellin scoffed, "Amateurs I expected, but not this! Okay, repeat after me and take good note, you will show up with your voice properly warmed up at every session." The pair proceeded or several vocal exercises and no matter how much Vic hated to admit it but even with his rough morning voice, Kellin sounded admirably controlled. His voice smooth and effortlessly cohesive as the 27-year-old was straining himself just to keep up. Yet he followed along as best as he could, earning a few disapproving comments and muttering some disheartened apologies in the process. Only after there was a knock on the door did Kellin declare their seemingly endless lesson over and Vic would have been more than happy to pick up his stuff and let himself out. But he had no such luck.

"Oh! And one last thing... Loverboy." His coach called after him, stopping him right on his tracks. He watched as the rock star pushed himself off his chair and took his time walking over, he leaned over. Vic's breath had hitched in his mouth. "Whatever you think happened between us, it didn't. So take any relevant ideas and erase them from that head of yours." he whispered.

"I don't know what you mean." Vic replied flatly, instinctively taking a step back.

"Good!" was the last thing Kellin said, but Vic had already opened the door and fled the room, cursing himself. He'd made one mistake after the other and there was no escape from the rabbit hole he'd dug himself into. He shouldn't have fallen for the intimidation techniques of the other male, allow him to think he had some type of influence over him. And most importantly, he beat himself up for not realizing that he had held onto the slightest bit of hope that maybe it was just a horrible prank universe was playing on him. That maybe he was mistaken and maybe it had been a different guy who looked like Kellin, or better yet that it'd only been a bad dream. Those thought had unknowingly helped him make it through those guilt-ridden sleepless nights and now they had crushed him, as hope inevitably tends to do.

~

Kellin Quinn held his breath as the makeup artist was powdering his face and another one was fussing with the buckles on his leather jacket. One would think that after so many interviews he would've gotten used to it, but the man seemed to get even more irritated from it nowadays. The camera crew approached him just as the girls had finished toying with his nerves and a young interviewer with pastel purple hair and multiple face piercing smiled at him sweetly.

"We're currently here, outside the Alternative Press Studios with one of our four coaches, Kellin Quinn from Sleeping with Sirens! Kellin, you've got to work with all the members your team by now. Tell us, what can we expect?"

"Oh, straight to the chase!" he joked, "Damn... What can I say? We've been in the rehearsal rooms for less than a week and those kids keep blowing my expectations at every session! So, one thing you should expect for certain and that's a lot of talent!"

"You seem pretty confident about your team and also quite attached..."

"Can you blame me? All that passion and dedication, it brings me back to my starting days." The Rockstar lied through his pearly white teeth and the interviewer only bit further into it.

"Now that you mention it, do you think young Kellin would have opted for one of these shows had a similar concept been around?" she asked next.

"I've never considered it, my band's been lucky enough to grow organically. Not to mention that more often than not talent shows offer a quick spot in the limelight. Having said that, I'm sure the AP community will warmly embrace our contestants and allow them to make a lasting impression."

"Now the question everyone's probably dying for me to ask. What about Sleeping with Sirens?" the girl placed the microphone in front of his face, before he could find a way to mask how taken aback he was. Every single question up that point he had predicted. Not this one.

"Well, what about it?" was the first thing he blurted out. A mental slap from himself hit his face. He had to regain composure and he had to do it fast.

"We all wanna know what's in store for us, from you all next! After the recent lineup changes, especially..."

When the microphone was placed in front of him again, his charming smile had returned. "Now that would be a spoiler and nobody likes spoilers! All I can tell you is that you won't be able to see what we've got coming next!" he said and the interviewer seemed content with his answer, and why shouldn't she? Kellin could even convince himself sometimes. They exchanged pleasantries and the cameras went off, the crew along with following suit.

He was finally alone again. He quickly glanced at his phone, it was a little early for him to get a drink. Hadn't it been so, the 24-year-old still felt too exhausted to even go out. Pretending to be cheery and appreciative did that to him a lot. After all, his choice of career was a singer. Not an actor.   

A/N Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Feedback is always welcome.