Idol (An Ed Sheeran Fanfic)

20

My heart is pounding. It's our last day in Melbourne and I got called into the Warner office to play for a room of their A&R people. When I got the call, they didn't tell me why I was doing this-or any other details beside when and where I have to go-but I'm hoping this is where I'll finally get my deal. Charlotte (the lady from my other gigs) wasn't the one to call me, and apparently she is the head of A&R, so this is a little weird.

"Hello, I'm um... Cassidy Collins, and I got called in here from the A&R team," I stuttered when I reached the front desk in the lobby of their office building.

There was a woman sitting there in a blue blouse and hair in a tight bun. She just glanced at me and typed something into her computer. "Go up to the forth floor, John will show you where to go from there," she instructed and pointed towards the elevators.

Taking a deep breath, I went towards the elevators, but my fingers tightened around my guitar case. This is going to be interesting.

When I got up to the forth floor, there was another desk, but this one had the Warner logo hanging on the wall behind it. This time there was a guy sitting at the desk, and he didn't look much older than me.

"You must be Cassidy, I'm John. We are really looking forward to hearing you play; there are some people in from New York, and Ms. Wilson wanted to know their opinion. They're over there in that conference room, I'll walk you over. I've never been in any of the conference rooms so I don't know what it's like, but you'll be fine, I promise," John explained, talking like he's had a lot of caffeine.

"Thank you," I smiled gratefully. Finally someone is nice here.

"Oh, gosh, you're American! Sorry, I didn't expect that," he blushed and rushed to the door. What's that supposed to mean? It must be impossible not to have a snarky attitude when you work here. "Here we are, good luck!" He smiled again and skipped back to the front desk; okay then.

I took a deep breath and swung open the door. When I got in, I was greeted by air-conditioned air and quiet chatter from a group of around ten people sitting around a big, wood conference table. They all quieted down when I walked in, and my breath hitched, but I relaxed when I saw Charlotte sitting at the head of the table.

"Cassidy, love, thank you for coming. There are some of my colleagues from around Australia and a few from Europe-sorry no Americans-and I wanted them to hear you play and give their opinions. You can start whenever you're ready, I'll give them a little introduction," she explained and smiled at me warmly.

Nodding, I turned away and set my guitar case on the floor, but instead of it going down practically silently like usual, I made a big "bang" sound. All the people sitting at the table noticed, and I turned around and apologized, blushing; what a great start. Finally, after quickly slinging my guitar around my neck and getting my capo ready, I turned around and saw them all looking at me.

"So, I asked you if you could do something that would get people's attention online; what did you do?" Charlotte asked.

"Well, Ed and I-Ed Sheeran and I did a LiveStream a few days ago," I stuttered.

"And how did that go? Are you friends with Ed? I know you're on tour with him but I didn't know you were close," a bald guy sitting to the right of Charlotte piped in. He didn't sound Australian like the rest of them.

"Yeah, Ed and I are really close! He's done a lot for me! The LiveStream went well, I think; I had a lot of fun," I blushed again. I need to stop blushing!

"That's great! My daughter loves Ed," he scratched his head and it took everything in me not to laugh.

"How about you play us a song. You can play anything you want: new, old; just make sure it's your song," Charlotte instructed me.