STORIES TOLD, STORIES LIVED

Chapter 3

RILEY'S P.O.V

"I'm not into this. Uh-ha. No. Definitely not."

"But there are hundreds of good bands to beat! Thousands of shows every year! How can we make a difference?"

"Clearly not by doing this."

"Okay then what? Give me an idea. See? Nothing."

James and Anthony's little debate as our morning starter. Welcome to the busiest days of tour. By busiest days I meant not during the tour, but before that. Yes, preparation can be that killing. Today was one of it.

"Ideas, boys? Please. Give me heads up." Anthony sighed.

"Actually..." Connor and I said in unison.

"You first." Connor continued.

"I'm not sure of this, but we could try." I murmured. "Look. I have done a little research. There are not many, or to my knowledge actually no one, has ever included this on their tour pack."

"Agree. I can't see why we can't do this." Toby added and nodded in agreement.

"That's what I'm talking about. This is not a headlining tour of ours, but we still can steal the crowd's attention by doing something other bands don't." Connor seconded me.

"But how... It certainly will take that person forever to do. While, let me remind you, we only have a month left." Anthony threw his pen and randomly walked around the meeting room. "Okay. If... Say, if I agree to this, where should we start?"

"Already pulled it off." James handed us some paper to pass over.

"Oh great. I saw it before." Toby exclaimed. "She's doing amazing."

"Yeah. I randomly found it too like two days ago." Connor read the printed email conversation before he handed it to me.

I read those samples. And literally got chills. I might not be the person who understood this whole thing yet, but first impression to me is everything; and this caught me up.

"Yes." I simply nodded.

"What? You look unsure, Ri." James noticed my reaction.

"On the contrary. I'm amazed by it. Believe I've never seen it before, and I should tell you it's very good." I explained. "Anthony, we can pull this off."

"I really do hope so." He gave in. "Hey note this. I'm not saying this isn't good. In fact, it is so good that I'm worrying our deadlines, whether or not she can prepare such a big deal in very little time."

"We call her in, then." James concluded today's tough meeting, followed by our nods.

And that's it. New plan was born. This tour wouldn't be just as normal as previous tours. Hope we could make a difference this time.

James came back from having a phone call with some people. So did Anthony. They entered the room with much brighter smile on their faces. Three of us were smiling back too. All these guys wanted was the best for our road trip. So it's glad to see those big smiles, knowing we're finally doing okay.

"Manila and Kuala Lumpur aren't too far, right?" Anthony decided to crack the happy silence.

"Meaning?" Connor asked.

"We're secretly heading there after The Vamps'." James added, and waited for our reaction.

"I don't mind having Thai tea in there again." Toby smirked.

"Man, google it. It's not even called Thai tea." Connor rolled his eyes to Toby.

"Yeah whatever the name is. Tha...tarik, yeah something, whatever." Toby sassed back.

I smiled to myself. Hey, we're heading back to Malaysia. It's been too long since our first and only visit to the country. Still wasn't sure of the details yet - about how we could avoid the crowd there because there wouldn't be any show, about how to better not posting anything related to Kuala Lumpur in order to stay under the shadow. But one thing; I was already excited to find the writer of our choice.

***

ALESSIA'S P.O.V

Hooooly guacamole it's faster than fast. I kept getting email notification, almost cracked my phone and thumbs for that. But all was fine. Let's stay calm for a little longer.

"Not that I'm complaining..." I turned my phone off after a long email conversation. "But what if, just consider this, you were asked to fly solo to somewhere like Europe?"

"Random." Arina replied me short.

"Dang it! I said hypothetically."

"Yeah? Still no answer. Like why would I? There has to be a legit reason for that, obviously. I'm not gonna casually fly solo to anywhere."

"What if it's for something important?"

She studied my reaction. I tried hard to stay plain. "Is it about you?"

"Too obvious, huh?" I chuckled. "Yeah, my mom asked me about that. Hypothetically, she said."

"From baking soda to flying Europe? Something is really happening back home." She smirked from behind that thick novel.

"I can't tell from this distance." I put my phone under my pillow, as my current preference, because not risking Arina to see whatever on it. "Aren't you sleepy?"

"Too much caffeine. You go to sleep. I'm gonna take couple more minutes."

"By minutes you mean hours."

"That's the sign that we've been roommates for too long." Arina took her precious journal. "Night, Less."

"Good night, Arina."

I yawned. Well, at least the yawn was real. This was almost midnight. Slowly closed my eyes, but no, I let myself peek a little bit to see how passionate this girl next to me was during her journal time.

I chose to stay away from my phone for today, because it's enough. Detail has been set. I knew what to do already. But first thing tomorrow morning, I should wake up earlier than her to take care of one more important stuff.

And after that, she's all set to fly solo.