The Girl Group

02

Kyle's POV

The journey to the conference room was, for lack of a better term, seriously fucking awkward. Nobody said a word. Bri and I kept our heads down, not even daring to look at Collin. It didn't take a genius to know that we had seriously upset him.

Collin was our other security guard.

You see, we had Matt, the annoying cocksucker, and Collin, the greatest man on earth. They were both assigned to us right after we had been signed and just about when shit got crazy.

The day Collin became our guard, I had immediately connected with him. He kind of reminded me of my own father. He was funny, smart. Collin and I had one trait in common that basically shaped our entire relationship: we didn't take shit from anybody.

After being on the road with Collin for a year, naturally we all got closer to one another and he began to figure us out like clock work. He knew just about every personal problem we had and was always there when we needed him most.

Remember earlier when I said that Simon was like our pseudo uncle? Well, Collin was like our pseudo dad.

He was one of the most important people in my life, so it had killed me that we upset him that much.

Once we stepped out of the elevator, we were greeted by two large doors. As I took a deep breath, preparing for the lecturing to come, Collin pushed them open and guided us inside.

Maddie and Tess were already seated at one side of the long boardroom table. The two seats across from them empty, obviously reserved for Brielle and I. Collin went and stood near the back of the room next to Matt.

Ew. Matt.

Sitting at the complete end of the table was none other than Simon Cowell himself and I almost shit my pants at the mere sight of him. Just because he was kind of like family did not mean that I found him any less scary when he was pissed.

He gestured to the two seats on the other side of him, once Bri and I made it to the table. We immediately scrambled to sit down. Once we were both in our seats, Simin stood from his.

"Firstly," he spoke in his posh accent, "Welcome, all of you, back to LA."

Everybody clapped, including the girls and I.

"So first order of business, the press conference that seemed to have never happened." Simon said in a condecending tone, giving each of us a pointed look. I moved my gaze to the arm of my chair, picking at the black leather that covered the arm. It was like we were back in school and being lectured about bad behavior in class.

"We're sorry Uncle Simon," The girls and I said in unison, all of us looking anywhere in the room besides Simon.

Simon let out a heavy sigh before speaking, "Girls, I understand that you are still very young and still just want to have fun but there are some things that we just can't joke around with." The girls and I nodded our heads to show that we understood what Simon was saying. "This tour is the biggest one that you have been on so far. It's a world stadium tour, and that type of stuff takes lots of planning and hard work to achieve."

Geez, when he put it like that, this thing sounded massive. I mean that it's a tour; what could happen? Right!?

"As you know the previously scheduled press conference was to officially announce the upcoming tour. Since you girls didn't show, we had to reschedule with the press. Luckily for you though, this provided us the opportunity to announce the tour with the other act that you will be joining."

"Um, Uncle Si?" Maddie asked, interrupting what Simon had been saying.

"Yes, Madeline?" He replied.