There was something new to this city lately. Everyone continued to do everything on their own, run their normal routines, catch the subway, have brunch, and still having to fit work in somehow. I had walked through these streets so many times before, looked into these windows, and even caught some of these employees on the train before, but it was all so different now. Especially when you're being escorted by a personal driver in tinted windows.
The three of us pulled up to Billboard studios, where a line of young teenaged girls were already waiting for our arrival.
"Just smile and wave, love," Vivienne suggested as she stepped out of the vehicle. I did exactly that and earned some smiles and waves back, even though they weren't exactly looking at us. Rocky walked in between the two of us and said some "hello's" and "goodbye's," clearly stealing the crowd's attention. We made it into the building and were checked through security. Ross was prompted on a stool on the main stage with a guitar in his hand, strumming. He was also wearing a button down and skinny jeans. He left the button down open enough to reveal his white tank underneath. The fall colors of his outfit made his dark brown hair stand out even more.
His face lit up immediately when he noticed us.
"Dude- finally!" He walked over to Rocky and embraced him in a brotherly hug. Ross walked over and kissed Vivienne on the cheek hello, before embracing me in an even bigger hug. My feet lifted off the ground for a few seconds and I pulled myself up with my arms around his neck.
"Hey, Marina!" He exclaimed, putting me down. "What are you doing here?"
Rocky was in the process of putting on his mics. A few employees were running fingers through his hair and rolling his sleeves up a tiny bit. "Giving her first shot as our publicist," Rocky announced. He reached into his pocket and threw his phone at me.
I caught it with my hands while fumbling around with it. "Uhh?" I stuttered.
"There's no password. Go on our instagram and show us what you've got," Rocky pressured, gesturing his head at my hands.
"Sweet. It's an easy task. Vivienne will help you out if you need any help!" Ross added, walking back over to the stool. Rocky took a seat next to him once the crew was done preparing him. The lights around us began to go down and the stage lit up instead.
"5, 4, 3, 2..." The camera man counted, and the beautiful dark-skinned host walked on stage.
"Just take a few shots of them and say something about what they're doing here. There's already a small crowd outside without our confirmation, but hopefully your post can generate a bigger audience," Vivienne whispered, nudging my arm.
"Hey everyone, I'm Ross," Ross projected, smiling nonchalantly at the camera.
"I'm rocky and were-" Rocky started.
"The Driver Era," they finished together.
I nervously opened his phone and placed my thumb on the camera app. I snapped a few pictures of them talking and opened the Instagram app. I logged into the driverera's instagram, scrolled through the recent pictures I just took and settled on using the whole live as a boomerang. I fixed the lighting and quality of the video and captioned it, "We're live on Billboard's Music channel on YouTube right now. Check it out and come hang with us!" I tagged Billboard and posted it. My heart was beating as a wave of likes came rushing in.
"This is insane," I whispered back, "There's thousands of likes already. I only average like 100 on each post."
Vivienne had her arms crossed over one another, listening along to the boys. She leaned over and whispered, "Follow yourself on their account. That'll change your instagram status quickly, trust me." She smirked and I did just that, already receiving tons of followers. I locked Rocky's phone and slid it into my back pocket, smiling.
