FicWad

Chapter Twelve



I sat on the chair nervously, twisting my hands together. The band had gone to their first radio interview. The holidays were over now and I was glad that the interview was being held after school hours, I didn't want to miss it. Ireached over to the stereo and turned it up. The radio station was one of the main radio stations in the state and had a big following of listeners. The band knew a lot of people would be listening, but had been quite relaxed before leaving.

I noticed I was holding my breath and let it out when I heard the radio announcers, a female and a male, introduce the band in the studio, and thank them for coming in for an interview.

"Your first single went into the charts at number one. How are you finding the success?" the female asked.

"We are really taken aback by how well it's doing. We certainly didn't expect it to go to number one. We're just enjoying the whole experience," Quinn said.

"Your album has just been released. Do you think it will go in at number one too?"

"Well of course we're hoping it will," Aaron laughed.

Quinn laughed too, "There's really no way to tell. We don't mind where it gets in the charts, we just want to get our music out there and hope people enjoy listening to it."

I was surprised by Quinn's answers he was a much better speaker than I expected him to be. He seemed totally confident and relaxed with the questions. They spoke a bit longer about the album and when they were planning to do a tour. Quinn answered by saying they were sorting out tour details and hoped to do one soon. Then they moved on to how the band got signed and I was surprised to hear them mention me.

"Well we have to thank Quinn's girlfriend, Kate, for that. She's helped us so much, through everything. She actually found the Unfortunate Lives competition for us," Blake explained.

"Speaking of your girlfriend, Quinn, it was in the newspaper recently that you both got tattoos. You guys are still quite young, how did your parents react to that?"the female asked.

There was a short pause before Quinn spoke, "Uh, I don't talk about my family, sorry."

"Is it true you got kicked out of home?" the male said, ignoring Quinn's request.

"Look, I just said I don't talk about my family," Quinn snapped.

I groaned, this wasn't good, I knew Quinn wouldn't want to continue the rest of the interview with a smile.

"It seems we're being told to wrap up the interview now. Thanks for coming in guys, and good luck with your album," the female said, I heard the uncertainty in her voice.

The guys all said goodbye and their single came on the radio. I sighed and got out some homework to do until they got home. I was worried about how Quinn would be when he got home. I knew he'd be upset by the way it had turned out. He would be upset with the way he had reacted more than anything.



"Where's Quinn?" I asked the guys as soon as the walked in the door and I noticed he wasn't with them.

Blake glanced at Aaron and then turned to answer me, "I'm assuming you heard the interview?"

"Yes,"I said, now worrying where Quinn had gone.

"They weren't really told to wrap up we had to because Quinn left the building."

"Oh, your joking," I groaned, "so where is he now?"

"He went for a walk. I think he was meeting Sam for some smokes," Kyle said.

I nodded and changed the subject, "So, not such a good first interview?"

"It was okay, that guy was pushing it though," Aaron said.

"Yeah, I thought so too. Still, Quinn needs to learn to handle that sort of stuff, it's probably going to happen a lot," I said, piling my homework together.

"I have a feeling that's going to take a while for him to get used to," Blake said.

"Was he really angry?" I asked, wondering which way was best to deal with him when he got home.

"I think he was pretty mad, but he'll be okay after a couple of smokes," Kyle said, and I knew that was probably right.

They told me a bit more about the interview, before Quinn had walked out, and then Iheard the door open and Quinn walked into the room.

"I'm not talking about it," he said, going straight to the fridge and grabbing abottle of water.

I looked at Blake and he just shrugged, they all moved to the lounge to watch some TV and let Quinn and I talk alone. Quinn came and sat down beside me at the table, looking exhausted.

"You were doing really well until he asked that," I said, remembering how he had sounded really confident and relaxed.

Quinn stood up suddenly, "You're just as bad as them. I said I don't want to talk about it. I don't even care about it. I'm going to bed."

"Quinn, don't be like that," I said, but he had already left the room.

Maybe I had been pushing it too, trying to talk about it after he had said not to. But I thought he might have wanted to, with the other guys out of the room. Obviously I was wrong. I knew it wasn't true about him not caring. By the way he'd reacted to what I said it was clear he did care. The band had a big week ahead of them with a lot of interviews and photo shoots and I was going to have to do whatever I could to help Quinn through it. I was going to have to be very patient. He just wasn't used to the lifestyle yet, I knew such a big change would be hard but he was going to have to get used to it. A lot of good things would come out of it too, they already had, and after all it wouldn't be long before they would be on the road on their first tour. I knew he would be excited when they got that finalized.



"Hey, I just got a call from the magazine that we're doing a photo shoot for tomorrow," Quinn said the next morning, when he was in a much better mood. He'd apologized for snapping at me yesterday.

"Yeah?" I was going to watch them at the photo shoot.

"They want to know if you'd like to do a photo shoot with me, just a little one. They heard the radio interview and heard how much you have to do with the band," he sounded nervous asking me, like he didn't know what my answer would be.

"Really, I don't know," I said hesitantly.

It was something I'd love to do. But, really, people who loved the band wouldn't be interested in me would they? What would they want to see pictures of me for? I shared that concern with Quinn.

"Please do it? It'd be so much fun, and they're doing an interview too so they're probably going to ask questions about how the band started and got signed, so you'll be mentioned," he said.

He also reminded me about the emails they had gotten from fans talking about me. The guys didn't check their emails or comments alot because it was hard to keep up with them all. Replying to all of them would take forever, and they just didn't have the time. For a start they had sent quick replies, but it soon became too much. Every now and then an email would tell them to say hi to me or that they thought it was cool that I had found them the competition. I didn't know how fans knew so much about the band, and it was sort of a scary thought actually. Thinking about that I agreed to do the photo shoot with Quinn.

"Alright let's go," Quinn smiled at me the next morning.

This was their first photo shoot, well their second including a small one for the album cover. I was skipping yet another day of school, but I wasn't behind with my work, so I didn't feel so bad. Just because the guys had left school now they thought I could come and go as I pleased, which wasn't technically true and I often had to remind them of that. Quinn was in a much better mood since the night of the interview and he seemed to have forgotten all about it. Well, I knew he wouldn't have forgotten about it, but he was at least acting like it hadn't happened. If that was what got him through the day, then I wasn't going to complain. I wasn't going to risk bringing it up again there wouldn't have been any point in doing that.

"Where are we going?" I asked, excited to be a part of this.

"It's just a small studio, they're gonna do that green screen thing, so they can put a cool background in behind us," Aaron said leaning over the seat of the taxi.

"Oh that sounds cool," I said, not knowing what to expect.

"It's a five page spread in a magazine, we're doing the interview afterwards," Quinn told me.

"I'll be back at three to pick you up right?" the taxi driver asked, slowing down the car.

"Yeah, thanks. We'll call if there's any changes," Aaron smiled, giving him some money and getting out of the taxi.

We followed him inside the building and into the entrance.

"We're supposed to be doing a photo shoot at eleven thirty," Quinn informed the woman at the front desk.

"Just walk on through that door," she smiled, pointing to a door across the hall.

I followed Quinn closely and we walked through the door into a spacious room, it was completely white except for one green wall.

"Looks exciting," Quinn said. I could hear a hint of sarcasm in his voice. He hated people taking photos of him, he always had.

"Hi, I'm Alex, I'm going to be your photographer today," the photographer said with a big smile, pushing his glasses up.

We all shook his hand and introduced ourselves. We were then led over to the make-up and dressing station, I couldn't wait to get my make-up done and get clothes picked out for me.

Everyone looked really good half an hour later when they were ready to get photos taken. Kyle and Aaron were reluctant for the make-up at first, but eventually the other guys talked him into it, it wasn't anything too extreme anyway. Since my make-up would take a little longer they got their band photos taken first. It was a really cool feeling to have my make-up and hair done, they did such an amazing job I could hardly believe it was me when I looked in the mirror. I thanked them and went over to the photographing area where Alex was standing with a tripod and the camera. They had just taken their last frame.

"Okay, I think we have all the shots we need. Now we just need a couple of Quinn and Kate," Alex said, adjusting the camera.

I found the photo shoot a lot easier than I had been expecting, even though I was nervous. Alex was really good, and he didn't need to tell us how to pose very often.

"You two are so natural together," he said, after joking Quinn should leave the music business and become a model.

Quinn and I laughed, that certainly wasn't something Quinn would ever even consider doing. The only reason he was doing this in the first place was because he had to, to live the dream he wanted. Otherwise, he would never have done it.

After it was all done we were able to have a quick look at the unedited photos on the computer and then we got time to have some lunch before their interview. I was told I had to wait outside while they were doing their interview. The guys tried to complain about that, but I told them I was fine with it. The interview would only take half an hour at the most.

"How'd it go?" I asked when they came out of the room.

"It was pretty good, a lot better than the radio interview anyway," Aaron laughed, ringing the taxi company, because it was only two o'clock.

"Kate and I might stay out for a little bit," Quinn said, taking me by surprise. He hadn't mentioned anything about this to me. We said goodbye and Quinn and Iwalked down the road, he said we'd go to a caf