𝐕𝐈𝐑𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐘 || 𝐁𝐀𝐃 𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐒

03 - Rehearsal

VALLIE

The next day after the show, at an 8 am meeting, Richard opened his mouth to speak but I beat him to it.

"I'll do it." I stated quickly.

"I knew it would be too intense for you-" Began Noah but quickly stopped himself, "What?" He asked in confusion.

"I'll do it." I repeated, looking back up at Richard who was still processing the response.

"Oh, wonderful!" The executive finally replied with a large victory smile plastered across his face. "We are so happy to hear that."

The disappointed looks across the band members' faces spoke the exact opposite. "Fucking great." The tattooed lead singer muttered, shoving away the pile of papers in front of him before shooting up from his seat and storming out of the room. I had dealt with pretty serious diva behavior in previous clients, but it wasn't something I was expecting from a band like them.

"Sorry about – him." Jolly sighed, "He's uh - he's not always like that. I promise." His downturned face and exhausted tone told me that he wasn't happy about my decision either but was more concerned with what had just happened. Noah was the head of the band and he had just stormed out of a business meeting.

"Right." I replied, contemplating whether I made the right choice.

-

Later that day, I was asked to oversee a rehearsal and maybe get some content from it. I sat at a small table off-center in a large vacant studio. While I was instructed to get content, I decided against it for two reasons. One – I wanted to get a full experience of what the band rehearsing would look like and two – I was contemplating backing out of the deal altogether. Maybe I was jumping the gun on giving up, but from a career standpoint, it just didn't seem like a good decision anymore. The band hated me, especially the frontman. Jolly was the only one who was even remotely kind to me so far, and I think it was only professionalism. The sustainability of working with not just one – but four – difficult clients just didn't seem plausible. So, I sat at the table with my MacBook open, going over some projects for my other client. Since I wasn't paying full attention, I didn't know exactly what was going on, but I heard the band stop and start the same song multiple times.

"I can't work while she's here." I heard the same problematic voice complain.

"I have ears you know," I said flatly, keeping my eyes on the posting schedule in front of me. "And a name."

"Oh well, I couldn't tell by the way you're so consumed in your computer. If you don't wanna be here, you could just leave." Noah retorted.

My eyes drew up just above the lid of my computer, watching him cross his arms in defiance. My eyes then drifted to the long-hared bassist, "Is he always his whiny?" I asked sarcastically. Nicholas brought his hand to cover the laugh threatening to escape. He stepped backwards as if it would help him disappear.

"Hm. That's what I thought." I stated. "I'm not sure why you have a problem playing in front of me. I figured you'd be used to playing for people who don't like you." I didn't really mean it, of course, it was quite clear that many people loved them. But I might as well get some amusement from this less-than-pleasant experience.

Nicholas pressed his lips together stifling another chuckle, it was refreshing to have someone not take me so seriously. Noah snapped over at him, "What? You think this is so fucking funny? This outsider belittling our band?"

The bassist shook his head, "C'mon dude are you for real? She's just messing with you, why're you getting so heated about this?"

Noah sucked his teeth, "Huh, you've gotten quite comfy with this situation already, haven't you?" He was insinuating something, but I wasn't sure what.