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TRACK 27 - PART 3

"How is your hair already out of place?" Elijah fussed immediately once I stepped off the elevator and into the lobby.

He was quick to whip out his comb, fixing whatever hairs he deemed out of place. I thought I had made a safe recovery from what had happened in the room. But clearly, the artist himself had a keen eye towards his own creation, and I wasn't going to get by with a single hair not being exactly where he styled it. I should have been more aware of Elijah's ways. In my defence, I never had a goodbye quite like that one before.

Nadine was quick to smooth out my outfit, running a lint roller over the material and giving me one final look over. She gave the quick all-clear to Jeff before she and Elijah were escorted out first to the waiting car. It was crazy, really, the amount of preparation that went into a twenty-foot walk from the hotel lobby doors to the car.

When I caught sight of the outside mayhem, I was quickly reminded of why all these small details mattered. There were at least a hundred cameras out there. Ready to capture any failure or mishap I could take. Even in such a short distance, there were many things that could go wrong. Wardrobe malfunction. I could fall - I've done that one plenty of times which the internet never lets me forget. Regardless of how superficial it sounded, even having a photo taken at an unfortunate angle could lower my confidence for a few days.

"Carter, are you ready?"

I nodded to Jeff. Walking outside, I was immediately met with the sound of screaming voices. It seemed like there were a hundred people on either side, pressed up against the barricade. In reality, there were probably far fewer, but from this angle - and, from the volume of their voices - it felt like there were many, many more.

I did my best to greet as many people as I could - taking a photo or signing whatever they had brought, and thanking them for waiting outside this early in the morning. Jeff began to hurry me along, knowing that without his push, I would stay out here with them for as long as I could. Once the car door slammed shut and I was protected inside the vehicle, I had to admit, the break from the screaming was nice.

The first interview of the day went well. I always found it more relaxing to be on the radio; not having to worry about how my facial expressions were coming across on camera. If you forgot to smile once, that could be an entire news story for the next day with hundreds of think pieces written online about your unhappiness or diagnosing you with something. Apparently, everyone suddenly became medical professionals then.

The second and third were also radio. One filmed a segment for their online platform, while the other had me perform a live studio version of the single. Overall, the single had been doing moderately well, but due to the album being released at the end of the week, it had been picking up on the charts. Something Jeff was overly pleased about. I didn't really mind where it ended up as long as people enjoyed the sound.

By the time the afternoon rolled around, I waited in the dressing room to film an interview for a daytime talk show. The episode itself wouldn't air till its release day and I had to keep reminding myself to answer the upcoming questions accordingly. Elijah had begun changing my hairstyle, to truly give off the appearance that this was actually being filmed the day of - a minor detail which I didn't truly believe mattered but I played along anyway.

I looked towards the television, becoming instantly distracted by the image on the screen. There she was - well, there her cover was. Elijah let out a low whistle behind me. I chuckled at his reaction.

"The LA Devils have been making huge headlines the past few weeks with fans hoping for a full-length studio album," the host of Star News said, "In their latest interview with Rock Magazine, they assured that their album was coming and even released sneak peeks of two unheard songs. In one image from the shoot, lead singer TJ can be seen working on the lyrics,