Angels

Chapter 7: Beginnings

It had been 2 weeks since I'd joined the band, we'd been practicing almost every night at Colin's place and Adam had been posting videos of updates to his channel and the bands following had tripled since Miami. As I walked into Colin's apartment for practice Adam came rushing in saying we'd been offered a record deal from Star records.

"Are you fucking serious?!" Colin cried.

"Yeah, dude!" Adam replied, "They want to see our show this Friday to get a feel for our band, and if it works out they want to set up a meeting Saturday afternoon!"

"That's amazing, Adam," I smile.

He looks at me and grins. Colin frowns a little but hides it when he catches me looking.

"Let's go practice," he says, "the show is in 2 days."

The practice was rough for the first few days because I was unfamiliar with their music, but I eventually I picked it up, but I was still nervous about the idea of performing in front of their fans because they were their fans, not mine. I haven't done anything to earn this fandom.  I'm just some random person who's turned up in the middle of their success and decided to play. I feel very intrusive being here; like I don't belong. 

We practiced for a few hours before taking a beer break.

"We need to start making new songs for the record company if we wanna get this record deal, guys," Colin said, "Devin, you write songs, don't you?"

"Sometimes, yeah, but nothing album worthy," I mutter, drinking some beer.

"I'll be the judge of that," he replies, "show up early tomorrow before practice and I'll look at your work."

I tut and roll my eyes. We continue practicing and go home late that night. The next night I'm nervous. Colin is going to look at my songs, I'm gathering my songs into a bag.  I felt sick at the thought of him looking at my songs. I got changed after my lunchtime shift into black tights that hooked into a suspender belt, a regular strapless black bra and a  black sleeveless skater dress with a black and white pinstripe blazer over the top. I put my hair up in a messy bun and a few statement pieces of jewelry and flat boots, I felt cute and comfortable, plus the suspender belt adding some hidden sex appeal made me feel more confident.

I grabbed my satchel and made my way over to Colin's place around 5:30 pm. He told me to come over around 6, so I walked extremely slow to delay getting there as much as possible. It was only just occurring to me that this would be the first time I'd be alone with him, just the 2 of us in a room together. I arrived on time and Colin answered the door, apparently as nervous as I was. I gave him a shy smile and entered the room. I put the bag down on the coffee table and gestured to it. He cleared his throat and set to work reading the lyrics. I head towards his kitchen and grabbing a beer for both him and me.

He's studying the paper intensely and I sip my beer nervously. I went on my phone and played candy crush while I lounged his armchair. My skirt rose up a little exposing my suspender belt because of my position but I didn't care. I was tired and the chair was comfortable. I saw Colin glancing over at me in the corner of my eye but I ignored him. He puts certain songs in one pile and other in another. He finishes his beer and speaks.

"All of these are good material," he says, "some need more work than others and others won't work with the bands current aesthetic. This small pile here I think would be could be used on the album but I want to work on the melodies with you and some of the lyrics."

"What's wrong with my lyrics?!" I cried, defensive.

"They need some improvement in places to make it flow better," he smirked, then picking up one piece of paper, "also this one; 'one in the chamber', is really good it has a lot of potential. We could create a concept album around this one."