Chapter 4
EPOV
I woke up the next morning by the bands assistant, Jennifer, who had just poured a glass of water on my face. I sat up with a start as the water began to trickle down the inside of my shirt. "Get up sunshine, you have an interview this morning, remember?"
I groaned as I remembered. I quickly got up and took a shower while Jennifer went to wake up Emmett. I put on some plain clothes and brushed my hair and teeth. I walked out into the corridor to see Alice banging on Emmett's door with a very angry Jennifer next to her. "What's going on?" I asked sleepily.
"Emmett locked the door and he's not up yet." Alice said, still banging on the door. Suddenly, the door opened and Emmett came out. But he came out with so much force he pushed Alice over onto the floor. "Oh my god, Alice, geez, I'm so sorry." He said helping her up.
"Great, now you're finally up Emmett, you can get ready for the interview this morning." Jennifer said her hands on her hips.
Emmett's eyes widened and he ran back into his hotel room. I heard the shower running. Alice threw up her hands in exasperation and stomped over to her and Jaspers room. I chuckled, and leant against the wall awaiting the arrival of Jasper, Emmett and Rose so we could get this interview over and done with. A sudden idea came to me as i stood there. Since Bella had inspired me to write some of the song, she could inspire me more if...
I pushed myself off the wall i was leaning against and ran towards the elevator doors.
"Shouldn't we wait for Emmett?" Jasper asked from behind me.
"I just have to do something first, I'll meet you in the lobby." I told him.
I went into the elevator and pressed the button. Soon the doors opened to reveal Bella's floor. I jogged over to room 132, I had remembered her room number on the key card she showed me and I knocked. There was a muffled "OOF." And a thump against the ground then a mumbling of curses before the door finally opened. Bella was in a singlet top and short shorts. She stared up at me in confusion. "Hi Bella." I greeted with a smile.
She had deep black circles under her eyes and she had obviously just woken up.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?" she croaked with anger.
"What do you mean?" I asked
"Its frikin 5am in the morning."
"Well, I have an interview in an hour, sorry, but I wanted to see you before I went."
"Why?"
"Because, I was wondering…"
"If we could do something?"
"Actually, that's not what I was going to say."
"Oh, okay, what were you going to say then?"
"I have half a song, but I can't finish it, I need your help. You would be paid the same amount as a normal lyricist. I really think you could help."
She stood there, stunned for a few seconds.
"What?"
"I want you to help me write a song."
"But, but, I'm not a lyricist."
"But something makes me think you could be very helpful."
"HOW! I MEAN YOU ONLY MET ME FOR ABOUT AN HOUR YESTERDAY AND SUDDENLY YOU WANT ME TO BE YOUR LYRICIST!" she exploded. She put her had to her forehead and sighed. "Woah, whoa, calm down. Please, just try and take up the offer. At least think about it." I cautioned.
"Uh, okay."
"Well, I should go and meet the guys down stairs for the interview; I'll come back afterwards, okay?"
"Well…"
"Unless you need to go somewhere."
"Oh never mind, I'll be here, trust me."
I smiled, "Done, okay, see you later Bella."
"Uh huh, what ever."
I ran for the elevator and went down. I came out into the lobby and spotted the rest of the gang by a corner, signing autographs.
I waved at them and they started to untangle themselves from the mass of people wanting to get an autograph from them. Once they finally got free, we headed for the door and then got into the limo waiting for us outside. We piled in and the driver started. "So what took you so long Eddie boy?" Rosalie asked, holding onto Emmett's hand. "I'm having trouble writing the new song, and I needed a little inspiration."
"You needed a little inspiration last night as well Edward." Jasper commented, a teased smile playing on his lips.
"I needed the same inspiration today as well."
"And? Are you getting anywhere?"
"Yes, half the song is ready."
"HALF! Edward, we need it soon, you know that. We need that song!"
"I know, and I'll finish it, don't worry."
Rosalie pouted and crossed her arms. I chuckled at her expression, it was so cute.
"Do we at least get to know the name of the song?" Jasper asked.
"Nope, sealed until it's finished."
"Awww, come on man, we're your band!" Emmett argued
"Well, I want it to be a surprise."
"Don't let it be some weirdo song!" Rosalie said grumpily.
I laughed, "Don't worry, I won't."
Another fifteen minutes went by and we were at the magazine production centre of Band's Business, the top music magazine.
We got out and were greeted by a twenty year old brunette. She was wearing a tight red skirt that came down to her knees and a plain blouse. She had her hair pulled back into a tight bun and she was holding a clip board. "Hello and welcome to the production centre of Band's business, New York's top music magazine. I'm Carolyn, would you please follow me." She pointed to the front door and we all filed in after one another.
The main foyer had many doors leading to different offices and production managers.
Carolyn led us to a set of elevator doors. Once in, the doors re-opened to level 16 where there was a counter in the middle and a lot of people rushing about. Carolyn walked up to the counter and said "Interview for The Black Keys." The receptionist eyed us excitedly and nodded for us to pass. "Room 302." She said, still eyeing us.
We walked off to the left where there were a lot of cubicles and desks with people talking on the phone and writing on the computers. We walked into a room with two sofa's and an elegant coffee table, on the sofa there was a middle-aged man with brown curls and thin lips that were pressed hard together as he stared down at his clipboard. "John, they're all yours." Carolyn greeted John as he looked up from his clipboard, a thin smile stretched across his small face.
"Hello Black Keys, please take a seat." He said, gesturing to the sofa across from him.
"Would you like something to drink, coffee, water, coke?" Carolyn asked nodding towards us.
"I'm fine." We all said in turns before seating ourselves on the stretch couch.
"So, I'm John Wright, I'll be your interviewer today for Band's Business, please make yourself at home."
I scoffed quietly at the stupid politeness of it all, it was all crap. Rosalie elbowed me in the stomach; she had obviously heard my scoff.
"Well, I'll start off with the first question, what's it like to be the top Band for three years running?"
I let Emmett get this one.
"It feels awesome to know that so many people out there are such great fans and really admire you. This had been our dream since were teenagers practicing in a broken down garage. It feels very surreal to have the honour of holding the name of best band of the year, and especially for three years."
Rosalie and Jasper backed him up by a few "yeah's" and "It's so cool." as I just nodded.
This time to interviewer turned to me and asked "So, being the only single one in the band, do you have the pressure of finding someone to love?"
Ouch, the truth is yes, but I'm not going to tell him that!
"No, not really, I mean we're young and we're touring the world, I have plenty of time to find someone I like."
"So, Rosalie, how is it to be the only female in the band?"
"What's that s'pose to mean?" she retorted angrily.
"No, no, nothing, just asking."
"Well, if you must know, it feels great! I mean, I have Alice as well, she's basically my best bud. I also get to boss these dudes around." She said playfully slapping us across our heads lightly.
The interviewer let out a soft laugh before continuing, "How do you feel when on stage?" he asked all of us.
I took it this time, "The adrenalin and the nerves are really very overwhelming, but I absolutely love it, I mean, you know, your on stage and you're totally in your zone and you feel you could rock so many melodies forever…"
Jasper took it from there, "When you're sitting there and just beating the hell out of your drums you're in just a whole new world, all you hear is the music and all you see is your instrument…"
Emmett took over from Jasper, "You have that sort of rush in your head and you feel like you could fly. The lights, the music, the action, it's such a fresh feeling, you feel so alive!"
Rosalie finally finished off for us, "We wouldn't trade it for the world basically. Music is the key to the soul, and I doubt we could live without it."
The next two hours consisted of more endless questions and some photo taking. They told us we would be on the front cover of Band's Business magazine, which we all approved, and then we finally got to go back to the hotel.
After filing into the Limo and ensuring the driver we were all here, he set out back to the hotel.
"So remember everyone, we meet in Jaspers room no later than five-thirty, and we have to be ready to go to the concert so instruments in hand, alright?" Rosalie tried reminding us, look at each of us meaningfully.
"Okay." We all muttered, unsuccessfully convincing her we would be there.
"Ugh, you guys are hopeless." She said sitting back and crossing her arms.
"Well I hope that's not true." Emmett said leaning over to Rosalie and pushing her into a lip lock.
I groaned and averted my eyes as Emmett smothered one of my best friends.
Jasper chuckled at my disgusted expression.
"Well, if you think that's bad, you're lucky you don't have a room right next to them," Jasper said jerking his thumb over to the locked couple. "You should have heard them last night."
I made a face and an involuntary shiver ran down my spine. Jasper chuckled, nodding with me.
"Shut up," Emmett punched Jaspers arms playfully. "It's not like you're any better!"
Jasper scoffed and shook his head,
"Guy, guys, seriously, I do not, and I repeat, I DO NOT WANT TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR SEXUAL HABITS!"
I said shielding my face from the paper cup that Rosalie threw at me.
We all laughed and chatted until we got to the hotel where we half ran into the hotel when a group of fans basically threw themselves at us.
We swerved, ducked and yanked our way through the crowd as the tried to pull us into hugs. As I finally got to the door I looked back to see Jasper gasping for breath as five girls were squeezing him to their faces and saying that they loved him. His face started to turn a series of colours, red, blue, green and then purple before Alice came racing out and pried the fingers off her boyfriend. Jasper hugged her gratefully, still gasping for breath and then gave her a huge kiss on the lips. The girls who had just been hugging him turned and ran away, glaring at Alice.
We all scrambled into the hotel, laughing our heads off and nearly falling to the floor.
"What's the matter Jazz, get beat up by girls?" we all laughed, holding onto our stomachs and replaying the image in our head of Jasper turning all colours of the rainbow and gasping for breath.
I straightened my back after my fit of laughing and we all grinned at eachother.
We had such a great time.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Bella reading her book in one of the couches in the lobby.
"Come on, card games at my place!" Rosalie said, grinning as they started to walk towards the elevators.
"Coming Edward?"
"No thanks, I'll see you guys at five thirty okay, I've got something to do." I replied.
They eyed me suspiciously but otherwise let the matter rest.
As the elevator doors closed and I was out of sight from them I casually strolled to where Bella was reading and sat down opposite her.
She didn't acknowledge my presence though I was certain she knew I was here.
I opened my mouth to speak but she interrupted me, "You have a lot of admirers." She said not looking up from her book.
The question took me off guard and I sat there stumped for a few moments, not knowing how to answer.
"Well, yes." I replied dumbly, not trying to sound smart.
"Do you enjoy your fame." She asked again, still looking down at her weathering heights book. Again, the question took me off guard and I had to sit there quietly thinking of an answer.
"Not always." Was my unintelligible answer.
She nodded once then laid her bookmark in her book and closed it, looking up at me.
"But when you do, what are the thrills you get from it?"
Geez, she sounded like an interviewer.
"Knowing so many people admire you for a thing you wrote on a notebook then expanded."
"So you think you don't deserve the fame?" she asked.
"In some ways."
She nodded once again.
"Please Bella, I feel like I'm on an interview, can we act a little more casually."
She let out a small laugh then her face went back to serious and she bit her bottom lip. I let out a soft sigh; she was obviously scared that I had asked her to be a lyricist.
I opened my mouth to start saying what a great opportunity it was to be a lyricist but she silenced me with her hand. "I understand this is a great opportunity, but, Jesus, you've known me for two days and suddenly I am supposed to become your lyricist. Is this some sick joke, because this kind of stuff never happens. Why don't you ask one of your fans?"
She seemed a little bit angry about the whole situation.
"Because, you elude me. You are the first person I have met who didn't have shock of seeing me or didn't say that you loved me, apart from the guys and rosalie."
She stayed silent for some time, which made me itch with curiosity as to what she was thinking. Finally she opened her mouth and spoke, "That is not entirely true?"
"Oh?" I asked, lifting my eyebrows and allowing a smirk to rest upon my face.
"I was in shock that I saw you." She said.
"Well, that's understandable, but the fact that you knew who I was but still didn't treat me any different than if you had met a normal stranger, well, I liked that."
"And why is that? You obviously bask in the glory of fame, which you agree you do not deserve." She said, her tone a too harsh for my liking.
"Well, I haven't felt normal in so long. Not since Rose, Emmett, Jasper and I started practicing in the band. And yes, I might like the fame now and then, but who wouldn't?"
She sat back with a reluctant sigh, "Well, it's a lost cause you're fighting for. Being a lyricist is my last speciality. You don't even know who I am and yet you want me to be your lyricist. God knows if I can rhyme or not!"
"Anyone can rhyme."
"But that's not the problem. The problem is can I rhyme better than the average person?" she retorted.
"Well, then come up to my room and we'll see." I said, raising my eyebrows.
She bit down on her lip and glanced downwards.
"Listen," I said leaning forward, "We can go up to my room for an hour or so and try this out. If you still aren't comfortable and think this is weird, then I'll stop pestering you. I promise. Please, can we just try this."
With another sigh she nodded her head, confirmation that she agreed to my terms.
She stood up, as did I and then looked me in the eye, again I wondered what she was thinking.
"Do you believe in love at first sight?" she asked me, taking me off guard. I was about to reassure her that this wasn't what this was when she began speaking again.
"Because you've started to believe in lyricist at first sight." She said, turning and walking off to the elevators. I let out a small chuckled and jogged after her.