Swish

.34

Things started moving fast.  Faster than fast...more like the speed of light fast. 

Never in my wildest dreams did I believe that things could've progressed the way that they had, but since performing my sets every Saturday night for three weeks and the reporter coming out to listen to every single set, my world had, in a nutshell, blown up. 

Thousands upon thousands of new followers, a verified social media account, requests from a recording studio to use their equipment and post about the experience, it was like I'd become some kind of influencer overnight, and I wasn't sure what the catalyst was, because I knew it didn't come from the measly fifty person crowd that hung around every Saturday night. 

Whatever it was, however, I was grateful for it, because I had gone from inconsequential and invisible, to someone with an actual following, and it wasn't until that happened that the manager and agent applications began rolling in. 

Which brought me to the living room of my shared home with my grandparents, which, thanks to the hush money I had told my grandmother to take shamelessly from my spineless (in more ways than one) father, had been remodeled and decorated into a beautiful modern design, and allowed me my own apartment type attachment off to the side, complete with my own kitchen, small living room and everything I could need while working and going to school. 

"If I were you, I'd sign it."

My grandfather's wistful eyes met mine over the stapled packet of papers and the pride exuding from him was enough to warm my heart. 

This was the third managerial contract I'd received from an independent party who had reached out to me over social media, but this particular manager hadn't stopped there. 

She'd tracked down my email, personal phone number and even found my place of work, coming by in person to hand deliver her contract and to pitch herself to me, which, okay, pretty much blew me out of the water. 

I had done my research, and more than my due diligence on the woman, and her repertoire of artists was impressive to say the least. 

She'd worked with triple threats and icons in the music industry, but her artists were all getting older and moving on to different avenues like Broadway or acting instead of recording which was her niche, so Vanessa Laryan had gone out of her way, found a budding artist, and had stuck her neck in the race to represent me, and it seemed like she had won. 

"I don't know.  She's the third manager to reach out, but she is the only one to work this hard to land me.  What do you think, Yona?"

"I think that it does not matter what I think, only how you feel about her.  Will she get you to where you need to be to get a record label to sign you and start making music and albums like you want?  Is she the one to help you negotiate money, royalties, your creative vision?  Is the the one to believe in you?"

Considering how damn hard she worked to get me on her side and to hire her as my manager, the answer was a loud and resounding 'hell yes' in my mind.  

I put my pen to paper. 

***

"I am so damn happy for you.  Please, please, please don't forget the little ones when you hit number one for twenty weeks in a row."

I laughed at Sierra's dramatics, especially because it wasn't like I was quitting my job.  Quite the opposite, actually.  I wasn't making any money, yet.