Mixtape For The End of the World

28. Gabe is on MTV.

28. Gabe is on MTV.

The next morning, I woke up to the phone ringing. I rolled out of bed and picked it up, and I immediately heard Gabe scream, "Pete! Have you seen what the next vision is?"

"I didn't bother to check," I said. "Why are you up so early anyways?"

"I needed to call you as soon as I remembered what the next vision was," Gabe said. "We have to stop this one. In fact, we should have thought of it when we were making that music video. I wouldn't have made it if I had looked ahead."

"You shouldn't have made it in the first place," I said, pressing the phone to my ear as I searched for the list of visions. When I found it, I saw why making the music video and sending it to MTV was a grave mistake. Gabe's twenty-eighth vision was him ending up on MTV. I cursed loudly and then asked Gabe, "What are we going to do?"

"I don't know," Gabe said. "That's why I called you."

"We've already sent the video!" I exclaimed. "We can't undo that!"

"Maybe we can," Gabe said. "We can send a letter to MTV explaining that we're not really the Flaming Zombie Heads and asking them not to air the video. That will probably keep them from broadcasting it."

"That might work," I said. "Then again, knowing our luck, they'll probably just air the video anyways."

"It's at least worth a try," Gabe said. "Meet me at Hot Mess Management this afternoon, and we'll work on the letter."

"Okay," I said. "See you then."

I hung up, and later that day, I drove to Hot Mess Management and met Gabe in his office. He was on the phone with someone when I walked in, sounding very unlike his normal self. "Yes, I will monetize our assets as soon as possible," he said. "Have a nice day, Mr. Nelson." He hung up, turned to me, and said, "I told you that I was good with adults." Gabe then pulled out a piece of paper with the Hot Mess Management logo on it, and the two of us began drafting our letter to MTV. It took a while, but we eventually came up with a letter that was both professional enough to send and would guarantee that MTV would not air our music video.

To whomever it may concern:

On behalf of Hot Mess Management, we would like to deeply apologize for the music video recently submitted to MTV attributed to The Flaming Zombie Heads. The Flaming Zombie Heads did not finish their single and music video in time, prompting us, along with Ryland Blackington, Alex Suarez, Nate Novarro, Victoria Asher, Brendon Urie, and Ryan Ross, to create our own song and video and submit it to MTV. The Flaming Zombie Heads were not involved with either the song or the video, which are both of very poor quality and unfit for broadcast on your fine network.

We would like to withdraw our submission to MTV, and we would also like to request that you not broadcast the Flaming Zombie Heads video on your channel. We believe that the low quality of our homemade video would be an insult to the Flaming Zombie Heads and MTV. In addition, we believe that the video poses a significant health risk, because it could cause MTV viewers' ears to bleed and their bodies to spontaneously combust.

You don't always have to make such expensive mistakes - in fact, we hope that our withdrawal will open up opportunities for more talented artists to have their videos broadcast on your channel. For example, Pete would really like to see more Sisters of Mercy videos on MTV.

We apologize once again for our deception, and we hope for the best for you and your network.

Sincerely,

Gabriel Saporta, intern at Hot Mess Management

Pete Wentz, Gabe's partner in crime