.:Chapter Fourteen:.
"How is it that they manage to be late for just about everything we need them to be on time for?" Jake asked as he looked at his watch. Once he saw that only a few minutes had passed since the last time he had checked the time, he pushed his glasses up his nose and started to pace back and forth.
"Uh, this is McFly we're talking about," Fletch pointed out to them, a bright smile on his face. He had become used to it much longer than Jake ever had the chance to. It had gotten to the point that he would be worried if the band ever arrived on time. "Busted and the DarkElements may be the most punctual bunch, but once McFly are involved you're going to be late no matter what."
Ronan sat quietly in his seat but smiled and nodded along with the two managers. He raised a hand and rubbed it along the side of his face, letting out a slight yawn. As soon as he finished the movement he sat up straight in his leather armchair and widened his eyes slightly, hoping he was able to hide his fatigue. He then went on to change the subject so that any attention that would potentially go his way was moved back over to Jake, "Are you sure you're not just projecting your worries onto the fact that Ashley and Katy are headed over here?"
The sheepish smile on the man's face proved that Ronan was indeed correct. "Man, you're twenty-nine years old, you have to have some more confidence in yourself than that," Fletch commented. "This girl is already going out with you and was even interested in you when you had that bad luck streak. I think if the sky is going to fall it would have by now."
"Not unless that luck they claimed they had really was transferred over to Katy thus rendering them completely useless with each other." Ronan barely managed to get the words out of his mouth before he and Fletch caught each other's eye and burs tout into hysterical laughter, the boisterous sound bouncing around the green room that was set up for the bands much like amplifiers had been strategically been placed around.
Jake rolled his blue eyes and crossed his arms over his chest. "I know it sounds really weird, but you guys were there to witness it."
"I wasn't," Fletch defended himself, still laughing as he raised his hand. "I was still dealing with their career over here and working on some affiliates with people in Glasgow while all of this was going on. Last I heard, they were seconds away from coming back here after that disastrous performance in the bowling alley."
"Bad lucky," Jake clarified.
"Coincidence," Ronan rebutted.
"Whatever." Jake looked at his watch once more, his attention shifted over towards the opening door to the green room. He grinned as Ashley Albright and his cousin Katy Applee came through the door. "Hey!" He reached out his arms towards Katy but she put up her hand, pushing him backwards as Ashley laughed her throaty laugh.
"Don't hug me first, dummy," Katy said with a light roll of her eyes. She motioned towards Ashley, who was still chuckling. "Hug her! She's your girlfriend, she's more important!" Crossing her arms over her chest, Katy oversaw the hug before taking her rightful place. "Jake!" She threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. "Hey Jake, how's it going?"
"How's it going with you?" He returned the hug before stepping back and taking her in. "I notice a lack of a MegaMan glued to your face? I guess the boys in school stopped picking on you."
"I wouldn't say that," Ashley said mysteriously, lightly shaking her head. "They don't pick on her much anymore but they still give her a lot of attention." She laughed at the concerned expression on Jake's face and reached an arm around his waist. "Relax; I talked to her on the flight over here."
"Yes, a long-winded talk that I'm sure Grandma could've summed up in only a few words," Katy said. "Don't have sex and don't get pregnant, I'm too young to bring her any great-grandchildren." She laughed at the increasing uncomfortable expression on Jake's face. "Hey, be glad that she didn't put that responsibility on you. You're my favorite cousin, Jake, but that's still weird."
"Thanks for that sentiment, Katy." Jake turned to Fletch and Ronan and held out an arm. "You remember Ronan McGuire, and that's Fletch, McFly's manager for everywhere else but the US."
"How come you weren't in New York all those years ago?" Katy asked.
"If you've ever spent more than twenty minutes with the guys, you'll know why." Fletch stood up and shook Katy's and Ashley's hands before moving aside so Ronan could do the same. "As you can see, the guys are running late today. But we're glad to have you here. Is it your first time in London?"
"I've been here once before," Ashley replied. "When Peggy and I were trying to establish some connections over here in the UK for her company."
"I haven't been anywhere cool," Katy said bluntly. "So lame."
Jake laughed once more. It was good to have a little piece of home with him in what was now his home away from home. When he told Ashley that for a while he would be going back and forth from New York to London to work with the band as they still really wanted him around, she had been supportive as he could ever want her to be. They had already had a bit of a long distance relationship as it was, considering the trips Ashley would take out of town working as Peggy's partner. Katy had been a bit harder to convince it would be a good move for him; he and their grandmother had basically raised her themselves since she was young and while their Grandmother had worked as many hours as he did, she was alone a lot. She begged to him to stay at first, but after he told her everything his job would entail, she was excited for him to go. (Though was understandably still bummed).
Knowing she was considered 'weird' as she was growing up and didn't have a lot of friends, Jake fulfilled a lot of different roles for her, but knowing she had managed to grow up into a beautiful and well-adjusted young woman made him proud.
"That's what happens when you're a student, Katy, you don't get many opportunities to travel places," Jake reminded her. He reached out his free arm and placed it around her shoulders, hugging her to his side. "So how does it feel to be a junior at NYU?"
"That I could've gone on a trip to Costa Rica instead of constantly gloomy and cold London." She lifted her hand towards Fletch in an apologetic manner. "No offense," she said quickly.
"I take offense to that," Fletch piped up.
"Don't worry Fletch, once Peggy and I manage to open up the office in London we'll be sure to hire you as our consultant to show people that there's more to London than rain and soggy fish and chips," Ashley reassured him.
"Then you certainly don't understand that the soggier the chips, the better," Fletch said. He tilted his head back and glanced at the ceiling as the door shot open so hard the door handle gouged a hole in the wall behind it, and Dougie lead the way into the room with McFly and the DarkElements coming behind them, talking and laughing loudly. "You're late!" Fletch's voice managed to overpower the voices of the band members.
"We know, Fletch, but we actually left on time this time," Sydney quickly defended himself. "There was a lot of traffic and then we had to go a different way and the—"
"And then we were stopped because there was a couple that were doing some things they shouldn't have been doing in a car and people had stopped to watch and then the police came and it took a while for the couple to be arrested," Danny explained.
"And he got pictures," Tom said.
"And I got pictures!" Danny repeated, brandishing his phone, eyebrows rapidly moving up and down.
"We're sorry we're late," Noah repeated the apology. He laughed quietly. "But even you would've found this to be really funny."
"I'm sure it'll be hysterical if you weren't twenty minutes late to the press conference we have set up for you." Ronan pushed himself out of the chair and walked over to Sydney, placing his hands on his shoulders and turned him around. "Now, let's get out there before people start to leave. If we're going to announce this great tour you're going on and the album you're going to drop, it might be better if you all were the ones that did it and not me."
"It's their tour, their album, if anything we're just here to look good," Patrick commented with his famous lopsided smile. His eyes then shifted to Jake and he spotted Ashley and Katy. His eyebrows rose in interest as he stood up straight.
"Don't even think about it," Jake interrupted. He reached out and placed his hand over Patrick's face before pushing him backwards and towards the door. With Fletch at his side he ushered the bands out of the room. "We don't have time for hellos or goodbyes. Let's go, let's go, let's go!"
Jake let out a long sigh as he followed the bands out to the front of the conference room. Ashley fell into step beside him and looped her arm through his. "Jake, you need to relax," she said to him.
"I haven't been able to relax in a long time, Ash," he said to her. "But I like being busy. It's better than being back in New York and constantly running around to find someone that's going to sign these guys. Now I'm constantly doing paperwork and setting things up for appearances. I have to admit, though that it was really disappointing they didn't do so well over here at the time they debuted, but Ronan and I have been talking about doing a couple of clubs to gather interest and see how well they'd do if they tried again."
"Oh! That sounds fun!" Ashley turned toward Ronan, who yawned again. "Was it hard for you, too? I know your band had a lot of success back in Australia."
"Oh yeah, that was a tough pill to swallow," Ronan agreed, sliding his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "And I think I was more disappointed than they were. Coming from their own home country that's so big, similar in the way the US is with their own territories, I thought they would have been received better. They found success in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South America, and Europe, some of the bigger places to break. But compared to the size of the United States, it's relatively easy. Especially with the record sales that goes along with certain certifications. So rather than the success we were used to them having, they only went Gold and that was hard as they essentially had to start all over again. Like McFly had to do.
"I think there are many reason for it happening as the timing was wrong being one of them; at the time they were doing heavy rock music and that wasn't popular or listened to a lot within that music space. Their image didn't work as it had back in Australia and that was a big part that hurt them more than helped them as we had originally thought." He shrugged. "Now that they're taking the reins more in their career they're doing well and that's all we can ask for."
"Are you going to be working with any other bands?" Katy asked, walking slightly behind the managers. "Or do you plan to continue focusing your attention on them?"
"I think if I worked with a lot of bands I'd spread myself too thin. When it got to the point that they feel they can do it on their own I might." Ronan lifted his head and gave a small smile.
Jake smiled and nodded back just as they reached the end of the hallway and opened the door to the conference room. Immediately flashes of light erupted enough to potentially induce seizures. Accompanied by the fluttering of shutters and voices immediately erupting with questions as the band members moved to take their seats at the table, Jake was suddenly hit with a wave of anxiety. This had to go well, the announcement, the tour, the surprise they had for the tour, the album that was to be made after it…it had to. After Radio:ACTIVE and Above the Noise had been their lowest selling albums, both times because of the way they had decided to release them that they thought was innovative—giving one away with the Daily Mail the other being available only for those that had a SuperCity account—ended up blowing up in their faces.
If there was going to be something to bring McFly back to the popularity they had been before, it was to be now.
With the tenth anniversary tour announcement, the accompanying greatest hits album…the sky was the limit after that.
But only if this was a success.
All of their careers depended on it.
He was an unlucky loser before, he couldn't do it again.
A/N: Again, sorry for the short chapter, I've been getting adjusted to going back to school but at least I've got something done. And as I always say, things will pick up. Now that they've announced the tour and the album I can get into rehearsals and them actually being on tour and stuff.
Cheers,
-Riles