CHRISTIAN’S POV
“If you like me, then say you like me!” The girls all sang along with us for the big finish and we all started laughing.
“Well Ronan, you’re not wrong,” a voice came from the doorway and we all spun to face Ronan and another man. “They’ve definitely got talent.”
“Boys – and girls,” Ronan added. “I’d like you to meet Jason Semous, head of Muse recording company.”
“No way!” Luke and Tyrone both exclaimed. Jason Semous smiled and shook all our hands.
“What are you guys doing down here?” Georgia asked. “I would have thought Mum would love showing Jason off to her friends.”
“Which is exactly why we’re hiding from her,” Ronan laughed. “I’ve been telling Jason all about the boys and he was very interested to meet them.”
“Very interested,” Jason nodded. “I know this is very forward, but what would you boys think about talking to some of my people, see what we can do about maybe signing you up.”
“Yes!” We all shouted at once.
“Um yeah, it’d be great,” Brock covered up for our moment of childishness.
“Excellent,” Jason smiled as if he hadn’t even noticed it. “Well, you’ll have to come up to Sydney, and I don’t really see why we should wait. How does this weekend sound?”
“I’ll make sure it happens,” Ronan cut in.
“Great, I’ll get my receptionist to set up your flights,” he pulled out his phone and tapped away at it. “And your friends here of course. So that’ll be how many?”
“Eight,” I said automatically.
“Brilliant, brilliant,” he said absently. “Well Ronan, I actually have to head off. It was great seeing you again, we’ll have to do this again sometime soon. Fantastic to meet you boys, I’ll get Ronan to pass some details on, shall I? Marvelous.”
He left the room and we all jumped on each other in a group hug. I could tell Georgia’s cousins felt a little awkward at the show of bromance going on in front of them. I hugged Georgia, lifting her feet off the ground.
“Georgia May Keating,” a sharp voice called from down the hall. “Dinner is served. You and your friends can come and help me.”
“Oh, can we really?” Georgia said in mock excitement. I laughed and dragged her out of the room down to the kitchen, the others following behind us. We helped Georgia’s parents to walk around the guests with trays of different foods and glasses of fancy champagne.
It actually turned out to be kind of fun. Sure, most of the guests were really tossy and stuck up, but we made games out of it; first one to clear a tray won, first one to pass by Georgia’s aunt Mildred without being stopped won, that kind of thing.
“It doesn’t count if you hide Brock,” I hissed as I passed.
“Jealousy isn’t pretty Christian,” he shot back with a smirk.
“Quiches are all gone,” Maeve grinned, showing off her empty tray. “Point to moi!”
Finally, people started dwindling and going home and the house got emptier and emptier until it was just us, Ronan and Georgia’s parents. We were clearing up plates and empty glasses and having a laugh when Georgia stormed in, followed by her dad.
“What do you mean I can’t go?” Georgia yelled. “Since when have you given a shit what I do?”
“Don’t you dare speak to me like that young lady,” her father said angrily. “I will not allow you to go on some trip by yourself, unsupervised. You are sixteen years of age.”
“So what?” Georgia stamped her foot childishly. “Brock’s 19, Luke’s 18, Maeve’s almost 18. How is that unsupervised? It’ll be perfectly safe. I didn’t even ask for your permission anyway.”
“Georgia-”
“No Dad!” She shouted over him. “You don’t get to just push your way back in after months and start ordering me around. It doesn’t work like that. Either you care, or you don’t. You don’t get to change your mind.”
Her father seemed lost for words, standing there looking at his daughter like he’d never seen her before.
“Uncle Ronan,” Georgia called through the house. “I’m staying at Taylah’s. I’ll be home when they leave. Guys, go wait in the car, I’ll be out in a second.”
We did as she said, sitting in the car in silence. She came out, a bag over her shoulder and got in the middle seat beside me.
“We’re not discussing this, because I don’t care,” she said seriously. “Let’s just go home and sleep, please.”
“I can’t believe we might be getting signed,” Luke said happily from the back seat. Maeve was asleep with her head on his shoulder and Taylah was nodding off with her head against the window. “This could be it for us guys.”
“Thanks to you Luke,” I said over my shoulder to him. He looked at me like I was crazy. “You’re the one who told us not to give up. You’re the one who’s kept us going all this time.”
“To Luke!” Brock cheered.
“To Luke!” I repeated. The others all chanted it after us, even the girls who appeared to have half woken up. Luke just blushed and smiled sheepishly. We reached the house at about 11:30, pulling up the driveway.
I helped Georgia out of the car, pulling her onto my back. Mitch did the same for Taylah and Luke scooped Maeve up bridal style. We deposited the girls in Taylah’s room where they kicked off their shoes and crawled straight under the covers.
“Don’t wake us up until at least twelve,” Georgia mumbled, rolling over onto her stomach. We chuckled and left them to it, returning to our own rooms.
Mitchel and I shared one of the larger rooms in the house, so we both went in there to get ready to bed, which basically consisted of stripping down to boxers and falling into bed on opposite sides of the room, switching off the light as we went and not resurfacing until as late as possible the next day.
