CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Rose didn't see Dylan that week at school. She wondered if his parents had found out about the party and grounded him even from school. But the following Saturday she got a call from him at around ten o clock. She picked up the phone.

"Hello?"

"Rose?"

"Ugh. It's you."

"Hi I missed you too?"

"Where the hell have you been all week?"
"Heavy duty grounding. I kind of fell asleep after you left and slept straight through until my parents came home and found the huge mess. I'm stuck in my room no school no friends no band no nothing until March."

"MARCH? But its still January!"

"You've never met my parents."

"Yeah they sound pretty crazy to me."

"Ha. They are. So what did your dad do when he found out?"

"He doesn't know. He wasn't home when Josh dragged me into the house. We figured I'd be dead meat if we told him."

"No you wouldn't be. I would."

"Well at least your only grounded until March. Demolition Lovers probably won't be able to start rehearsing until late February anyway."

"Yeah probably."

"So about what actually happened up there...I don't really remember, but Josh told me and..."

"You know what? It might be better if we just, forget it happened. Don't you think? We were both drunk, okay you a little more than me, and we made a mistake. No one got hurt, so it might be easier to put it all behind us. Is that okay?"

"...Yeah that probably would be best."

"So see you in March?"

"See you in March."

The phone clicked on the other end and Rose slumped down on her bed. Something about his voice and her last memory of him made Rose honestly hate Dylan. She didn't want to hate him, but the fact that he thought it was cool to have sex with her while she was drunk made her question who he was as a person.

March came all to quickly for Rose and now she had to see Dylan again at their first rehearsal since December. She was sitting in her room with Josh, who sprung right up the stairs when he heard the doorbell ring. Rose moved slower, dreading Dylan's face. Three months and she still couldn't shake this inexplicable hatred of him and his mind. She finally reached the garage where Dylan was tuning his guitar. She came in as quietly as possible but Stix saw her.

"Hey Rose." she said. Rose glared at her, causing Stix to shrink back behind the protection of her drum set. Dylan looked up, smiled when he saw her, and put his guitar on the floor. He stood up and took her in a big hug. Rose didn't pull away, but she didn't hug him back. She just kept her arms at her sides and let Dylan hold her. When he broke away, Rose walked over and opened the automatic garage door. It was comfortably cool outside, and Rose felt very trapped all of a sudden, so she figured some fresh air would do her some good. Josh and Alex came into the garage and rehearsal began. They were in then middle of playing the old The Veronicas track "4ever". Stix helped sing because it was a two part girl song. In the middle of the song a big black Escalade pulled up in front of the garage. Rose turned to Josh who looked just as confused as she did. A man in his mid thirties stepped out of the back seat of the SUV and walked into the garage. Rose stopped singing and the guys stopped playing. The man walked right into the garage and said

"No, no, keep playing. Please." Stix smacked her drumsticks together and they started the song over. Rose kept her eyes on the stranger in the black car and he kept his eyes on her. He stood there watching her and thinking carefully. When the song was over he clapped. He just stood there clapping for a minute and then said "Wow. You kids have real talent. You." he pointed to Rose. "What's your name sweetie?"

"Um...Rose." she said, still not sure of what was going on. "And you are?" she asked. The man gasped and fumbled in his jacket for his wallet. He pulled it out and retrieved a business card. Rose read it and her jaw dropped. The card read

RICHARD STEVENS

RECORD EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

REPRISE RECORDS

"Reprise?" asked Rose, completely dumbfounded. "THE Reprise records? You guys represented my dad's band!"

"Oh did we? What band was your dad in?" asked Richard.

"Oh, um my dad is Gerard Way. You know, My Chemical Romance?"

"Oh of course Gerard. Well its clear where you got your talent from. So, how would you like to maybe consider signing with Reprise?" Rose's mouth fell open even further and she heard Josh gasp behind her. Rose nodded and said

"Demolition Lovers would be honored to..."

"No, sweetie." Richard cut her off. "I don't want Demolition Lovers." he said, looking at Rose's friends behind her. "I mean, they're a fun garage band but come on. You've got a real-deal gift there with that voice of yours. I'd want you to sign alone." Rose's face fell.

"Leave DL?" She asked. She turned around and saw the glum expressions on her friend's faces. "I couldn't. No way." Alex shook his head. He put his guitar on the stand behind him and walked over to Rose.

"Are you seriously not gonna take this because of us? Rose this is your dream being handed to you right here." he said, taking her by the shoulders. "You gotta do this hun. Don't worry about us we'll be fine. Right guys?" he said, turning to each of the other band members.

"Yeah Rosie you have to do this." said Josh nodding solomly.

"What bass boy said." added Stix with a trying to hard half smile.

"Baby you gotta go for your dreams." added Dylan. Rose blinked tears out of her eyes to hear all this support from her friends. She turned back to Richard and said

"Should I get my dad?" Richard smiled.

"Yes let's get Gerard." he said. Rose motioned him inside. Stix got up and followed.

"Stix?" said Alex. "What are you doing?" Stix sighed.

"Rose is the only girl friend I have. You think I'm not gonna be there for her when she gets her big moment? Come on. All of you. She wants you there." Alex shrugged at Dylan and Josh and they followed Stix into the family room where Richard sat. Rose was upstairs telling Gerard what was going on. He came up the stairs behind Rose with a smile so wide you could swear it was going to get bigger than his face. Richard stood up and shook hands with Gerard.

"The answer is yes, I'd just like to hear some fine points." said Gerard as he sat down in an armchair.

"Yes yes of course." said Richard. "Well, I'd want to fly her to Paris."

"PARIS?" screamed Rose.

"Yes." said Richard. "There is an awesome professional band waiting for a singer to back up. But they're currently touring instrumentally in Paris, so I'd send you there for a while. You would get used to hanging with them and you would write some material for your CD, then come back here and work with a producer to record it." Rose smiled

"That's awesome." she said. She looked at Gerard. "Dad. Can I do this?" Gerard chewed the inside of his cheek as he thought, the said.

"You realize this is gonna be a huge commitment for you. You can't back out of this." Rose nodded.

"I know. But I wanna do this. And I'll only be gone a few months."

"You also realize that there's a chance that you're not gonna get very far." said Gerard. "Hundreds of artists try and fail all the time. You may be one of them. Just know that. I don't wanna hurt you, but you need to know."

"Now how far am I gonna get if I think like that?" said Rose, giving Gerard a hug.

"That's my girl. Okay. Let her do it. She's ready."