So Surreal – So Real
Chapter Five
Four exhausted, yet extremely hyper 'young men' tumbled out of the rental car, stumbling up the stairs to the hotel lobby and falling on top of each other on the tiled floor just in front of the revolving door in a sprawling heap. An older couple, linked at the elbow stepped around them delicately and gazed down at them flatly.
"Do you think they're dead or just already asleep?" the wife asked, nudging the nearest with her foot. Her husband just shrugged.
"Dunno. We should probably get them upstairs to their room before they become too much of an obstruction and we find them trampled tomorrow morning."
His wife giggled softly and nodded, moving to try and lift one of the four halfway off the ground. When it became evident that neither of them would be able to move any of the four, they sighed dejectedly. Hotel workers stepped forward to assist them and they all dragged the boys to the elevator and up to their joint room.
"Can you believe that there was a time when we could lift Shippou over our heads easily?" the wife asked with a wistful sigh as they walked down the hall to their room.
Her husband chuckled softly. "Either he's gotten too big, or we're growing old way too fast."
The two laughed and entered their room. They all had a fairly long day tomorrow and as that day had proved to all members of their party, getting little or no sleep wasn't the wisest decision.
X
The next morning the boys woke up and ordered room service while they hopped around getting dressed. After breakfast, Shippou went to wake up his parents while Kouga and Miroku fought over the remote to the TV. Inuyasha was taking his time in the shower, oblivious to his friends' behavior.
"Miroku! We can't watch that!" Kouga exclaimed, jumping up to stand on the messy bed, snatching the remote in the process.
"Yeah? And why the hell not?" Miroku jumped up as well, trying to snatch the devise from its position above Miroku's head.
"One – it's on Pay-Per-View – the record company ain't paying for that. Two – it's Hotel Erotica! Who watches porn this early in the fuckin' morning?" Kouga hopped over to the other bed, Miroku hot on his heels.
"I do! Now gimme back the remote, asshole! It starts in two minutes!"
"We're leaving in two minutes! And I'm not watching that!"
"You don't have to! Just hand it over!"
Miroku thrust his hand out impatiently to accompany his stubborn demand. Kouga just stuck his nose in the air and shoved the devise behind his back; to which Miroku lunged at him with a livid roar. The scuffle continued for a few more minutes, remote changing owners back and forth until Inuyasha emerged from the bathroom. Observing the situation for a moment, he simply strode to where the two were wrestling and easily took the remote from Miroku's hand, plopping down in an overstuffed chair and flipping through channels. The other two froze in their positions, arms raised to punch or pull hair to stare at the silver-haired eighteen-year-old. Inuyasha pointedly ignored their stares and settled on a channel, shrugging further into his seat.
Shippou just happened to walk in on them like that. One glance in their direction and he quickly assessed the situation. He shrugged indifferently and threw himself onto the bed nearest the TV, sprawling upside down on the unmade bedspread. Only then, though, did he notice Inuyasha's state of dress (or undress).
"Uh, Yasha?"
"Hm?" Inuyasha didn't even tear his gaze away from the flashing screen.
"You do know you're wearing only a towel and your hair is still dripping, right?"
The amber-eyed teenager cursed loudly and leapt from the chair, charging into the bathroom and slamming the door shut. Shippou just rolled his eyes and returned to staring mindlessly at the TV. A moment passed before the bathroom door cracked open.
"Uh…"
Shippou grinned knowingly and tossed random articles of clothing at Inuyasha's bodiless face. There was a dull thump of clothes against face or door and a grunt before the door clicked shut again.
"You're welcome, Yash!" he called brightly.
"Yeah, thanks, man," was Inuyasha's muffled reply.
Shippou returned to the screen while Miroku and Kouga slumped onto a bed, argument forgotten. There was shuffling from inside the bathroom and a few crashes followed by muffled curses. After a few minutes, the bathroom door creaked open slowly. Shippou glanced back over the top of the chair at Inuyasha's silence, choking on laughter a second later. The other two glanced at their sputtering younger friend before slowly turning their heads and promptly falling against each other in uncontrollable laughter.
"Ha ha, very funny, guys," Inuyasha muttered, shuffling over to the pile of clothes encompassing his suitcase and digging through the mess, snatching various, appropriate articles of clothing.
The three boys continued to chortle as Inuyasha tore off the green spandex shorts, purple wife beater and brown track jacket to replace them with baggy blue jeans and a red and white baseball shirt. The laughter and teasing continued as they made their way down to breakfast and through the whole meal. Shippou's parents had to question the bright, happy mood so early in the morning and the 'Point and Laugh at Inuyasha's Expense' club gained two more members. By the time the group had gotten up and left the hotel cafeteria, still falling apart in their glee, Inuyasha was seriously ticked off and fighting the urge to strangle every last one of them slowly and painfully.
It'd been a few months since that fateful night in Miroku's garage. It turned out Kaede had contacted Shippou and explained the whole situation to his parents. They seemed very excited about the whole situation and were completely supportive of the whole thing. So they'd traveled down to LA and met with the big record executives. They were now working on their first record and planning their first tour. Since Shippou and Inuyasha still had to finish up high school, it wouldn't start until after they graduated.
The four band mates couldn't wait until then and had already started celebrating… three months early. That was why they'd been out all night the night before. Really, they couldn't remember anything past getting in the car to go back to their hotel, so waking up in their beds was like waking up in an alternate universe.
Today, it was back to the recording studio to get back to finishing their album. It was only partially finished and they had until the end of the next week to be completely done with recording. After that, they had the rest of the weekend to agree on the cover for the CD and their photo shoot for the album was scheduled for that Saturday, too. Then it was back home to wait for a while. The album would be launched in a month down in LA, so they would travel down for that for a weekend. Then the rest of the time before school let out would be filled with normal, ever day stuff, like school and band practice and what not.
X
"The acoustics on 'Midnight Tears' are a little off and something's off on 'Nothing Like Me.' But 'Super Zero' came out better than I thought it would. What do you guys think?"
"What about 'Forgetting November?' Or 'Good Luck Chuck?' What about those?"
"I think they're okay."
"Me too."
"Okay, I do too. Just making sure."
"C'mon. Let's get to work."
The four nodded resolutely and picked themselves up off the leather couches and into the joining room. They took up their instruments and pulled their headphones over their ears, waiting for the signal.
"Okay, guys. Let's run over that new song, 'Ms. America.' Start from the beginning." The producer's voice came over the PA system and the band nodded.
"One, two, three, four!" Shippou called, clapping his sticks together.
And with that, another day in the studio started. They ran through song after song, repeating parts and tweaking things here and there until the four songs they'd worked on consistently were exactly what they wanted them to be. At two, the stopped for a quick lunch break and to discuss exactly where they wanted the album to go.
"We're going global, baby!" Kouga shouted, pumping his fist in the air.
The six or seven people in the room chuckled at his antics. Inuyasha nodded his head and took a swig of his Mountain Dew. The four band members all felt the same, even if they didn't express their eagerness for fame so openly. After all, they wouldn't be here if they weren't. They'd had this conversation a few days ago in their hotel room the night after they'd met with the heads of Tama Records.
'Hey, Yash, pass me a Coke, will ya?" Miroku called from across the room.
The teen complied, tossing the cold can to his mellow best friend. Miroku caught it easily and cracked it open immediately, sending carbonated sugar water all over his face and shoulders. The room erupted in laughter as he solemnly wiped soda from his eyes and observed the room's occupants. It took a second and everyone thought he would explode and beat the crap out of all of them, but Miroku eventually cracked into a wide grin, sending them all into even more laughter, Miroku joining the fun even though he was the reason for so much hilarity.
After the soda incident, they all returned to work and didn't stop until it was time to leave. The four hopped in their rental car and drove through Burger King for dinner. They cruised through LA, munching on Whoppers with all the fixings and large cokes and fries. They got back to the hotel after eleven and crashed on their beds, not even bothering to change their clothes. The life of a soon-to-be rock star sure was tiring.
X
"Hey, guys, guess what," Buzz, their producer announced a week later, a wide grin spread over his tan, leathery face.
The four boys just groaned, not bothering to sit up or even look at him. This was probably the first time Buzz had a true smile on his face since they'd met him and they were missing it. They really were tired! Or maybe just lazy.
"C'mon, Buzz," Shippou mumbled, rolling over onto Inuyasha who didn't bother to shove him off. "We've heard you tell that joke a million times."
"Yeah," Miroku piped up with a jaw-popping yawn. "The fat lady eats the poodle, Robin is Batman's illegitimate love child and naughty little boy sex buddy, and you dreamed Veronica was a fat, flying cow two days ago after you fucked her brains out. We get it. Happy?"
"No, actually. 'Cause you guessed wrong." They opened their mouths to correct him but he cut them off. "Yes, yes, I know those were the right answers – for their respective questions. This one's different."
"Fine, what?" they all asked flatly in unison.
"We're done recording!" the large, burly producer shouted, flinging his arms out wide in a 'ta-dah!' fashion.
The room was dead silent and he glanced down at the four lumps on the leather couches expectantly. They hadn't moved. Sighing, he massaged the bridge of his nose in annoyance. These four were musical geniuses, but man, were they slow!
"We finished the album," he stated blandly.
"WHAT! ARE YOU FUCKIN' KIDDING ME?" Inuyasha yelled, leaping off the couch excitedly.
"NO SHIT?"
"HOLY FUCK!"
"OH MY FUCKIN' GOD! I'M DONE WITH THIS HELLHOLE!"
Those were the first words out of their mouths as they hopped around the room, whooping and hollering as they hugged and Shippou cried in joy. Buzz stood back and observed all this with a sick sort of amusement, his thick arms crossed over his barrel chest and a smug grin on his face. These four would go a long way that was for sure. But… before they could do that though, they had to endure a photo shoot and a huge career-launching tour. If they thought this was torture, they didn't know what they were getting themselves into.
X
"No, no! Sexy! Rough and tumble! You're too stiff and awkward looking! Move around; play with them! That's what they're there for!"
The photographer screamed at Inuyasha, stomping his feet angrily. The four boys stared at him in shocked fear, Inuyasha's intensified because he was the cause of the man's outburst. Hesitantly, Shippou leaned toward Miroku to whisper something to him out of the corner of his mouth, his green eyes never leaving the temperamental 'artist.'
"Is it just me, or does the gay man have a thing for Inuyasha?"
Miroku snorted and whispered back softly, "And puppies."
Shippou could barely smother his giggles at Inuyasha's mortified face surrounded by the adorable golden retriever puppies. It was a very hilarious image, if just a little sad. Inuyasha shot them a murderous glare, earning him even more grief from the photographer.
They were currently at the photo shoot for their album and things were not going so well. So far, Jakotsu, their photographer, had dressed them all up in ridiculous costumes and had them recreate a medieval Japanese fight scene, parade around aimlessly, pose in a field of flowers, play 'Patty-Cake,' and have a pillow fight. And that was all together. Separately, Miroku had to pretend he had a vacuum in his palm and he was sucking stuff into it's 'airless void,' Kouga had to pretend he was smashing boulders with his fists and 'run with the wolves,' which turned out to be him running from the wolves (that all turned out to be rabid and wild), and Shippou had 'played' with a giant top that was surrounded in green flames. Now, Inuyasha had to sexily 'frolic' with a pack of puppies. It had already been confirmed tenfold that Jakotsu was a sick, gay sadist, but when he brought out he puppies and threw a tantrum over Inuyasha's incompetence to be sexy while rolling around with little dogs, they were all starting to question his sanity and credentials as a famous photographer to many celebrities.
"Come on, Inuyasha! You're the leader! The sex appeal should be rolling off you in waves! They're puppies! What could be more sexy and appealing than puppies?" Jakotsu whined, sticking out his lower lip in a sad excuse of a pout.
That was the last straw for Inuyasha. With a cry of frustration and anger, he set down the four puppies that had been crawling on his lap and stalked off. Startled, Jakotsu stared after him for a second before coming to his senses and running after him. Miroku, Shippou and Kouga all watched them leave blankly, not caring that their friend was being chased down by a flaming gay.
"So, anyone up for a game of strip poker?" Miroku asked innocently.
Shippou and Kouga just groaned and pushed Miroku over and off the back of the stiff, white, furry couch they'd been sitting on. Miroku just cried out in pain and surprise, to which they rolled their eyes. Sometimes, Kouga wondered if he was the only sane and normal one in the group. Shippou was thinking the same thing, but in reality, how many normal fifteen-year-old drummers in soon-to-e-famous bands graduate from high school?
X
"Please, Inuyasha-baby! You gotta do it! Please!"
"Fuck. No," Inuyasha growled, not even looking back at the frantic photographer.
"What do you mean 'no?'"
"I mean, No. N-O. No!"
"But-"
"NO!" he roared, finally turning around to face the feminine man.
"Not even for me?" Jakotsu squeaked, shying away from the silver-haired man.
"Especially not for you!"
"Party pooper," he muttered, stalking off to go pout.
Inuyasha just sneered at his retreating back before turning around. He had to get out of this stuffy red… thing. It was driving him nuts. Before he could reach his dressing room, someone behind him started clapping, slow, exaggerated claps. He whirled around, not in the mood to deal with anyone else.
"Well done. You just scared off your photographer Mr.Taisho. Well done."
"What the hell do you know?" he snarled, wrenching his dressing room door open.
"Plenty, as a matter of fact. Welcome to the music industry, by the way."
"Yeah, well," he turned slightly, glaring at the shadowed figure over his shoulder. "Who said I wanted a welcoming committee headed by you?"
"You really should watch your mouth, you little twerp. I'm just doing my job," the woman snapped, stalking up to him and shoving a perfectly manicured finger in his face.
For a moment, he was taken aback at her perfect beauty. Then he realized that she was in the middle of screaming insults in his face. Yeah, like she was really all that pretty now.
"Yeah, well so am I! And that doesn't involve dressing up like an idiot for some homo and taking grief from some stuck up bitch!"
And with that, Inuyasha stomped inside the dressing room and slammed the door in her face. The woman was left standing outside the door, a shocked expression on her face. With a huff, she too stalked off, cursing the silver-haired youth under her breath. This was definitely going to be the beginning of a very interesting relationship.
X
"Okay, so tell me again. This lady insulted you and you yelled back at her before storming off like a little kid?"
"Well if you're going to put it that way; no. I was in the right. She just got in the way and made me mad," Inuyasha pouted, turning away to stare out the window.
Miroku sighed and shook his head. Inuyasha could really act like a spoiled little brat sometimes…
"I wasn't saying it was your fault. I'm just saying you probably shouldn't have yelled at her. We're new on this whole professional music scene and we need to get on the good side of as many people as we can."
"Yeah, okay. Sure, Miroku. But she was still a big bitch. I didn't even know who she was and she had a nasty attitude."
"I know, I know. You told me already. But in the future, can you please try to control your temper and watch what you say?"
"I guess," Inuyasha answered reluctantly, giving him a sideways glance, still pouting.
"Great, thanks," Miroku sighed and turned away. This was too much like pulling teeth for his taste.
"Hey, Miroku!" Shippou called from a few seats away.
The older boy glanced over at the fifteen-year-old red head and smiled. He preferred Shippou's company and conversation to Inuyasha's most of the time, even if the latter was his best friend since they were little. After all, he had a much pleasanter disposition.
"Yeah, Shippou, what is it?"
"Isn't First Class way better than Coach or Business Class? They gave me Dr. Pepper and Sour Punch Ropes! Those stewardesses are so nice! Don't you think so?" the hyper red head asked, bouncing up to him, a huge grin on his face. Miroku just laughed.
"Yep. Pretty nice to look at, too," his gaze drifted to one of the smiling women in the short, navy pencil skirts.
"Hey, aren't you glad Kaede and her niece decided to redo the photo shoot for the CD? We looked like total idiots!" he exclaimed suddenly.
"Yeah, and they brought in a completely different photographer, too. He wasn't as psychotic as Jakotsu."
"I know! And he totally understood what we were all about! He was cool."
Just then the 'buckle your seatbelts' sign flashed on and Shippou skipped back to his seat next to Kouga. Miroku smiled softly at Shippou's behavior while he fastened his seatbelt. He wouldn't tell anyone, but he was just as excited as Shippou was to launch their CD and go on tour. He couldn't wait to hit the road with his best friends and play his music for screaming fans. It also didn't hurt that he really needed to get away from his house and start out on his own. His home life wasn't exactly the best and this past year had been pretty bad. This record deal was really starting to look like his 'saving grace.'
'Looks like I'll find out in two months. Fame and Fortune here I come.'
E
Okay, there was so much I wanted to put in this chapter, but some of it will just have to wait. I'm not sure when the next chapter will be out. I leave tomorrow for camp for a week! I'm so excited! It's a completely new experience for me (going to camp by myself and not with a group of people I know, and also just going to choir camp). Then, a day after I get home, I'm off on a family vacation, and the week after that, I'm going on a houseboat trip with my youth group. So, there probably won't be any updates for three weeks… Sorry. But then I have a few more weeks until school starts up again and I become swamped with the heaps and heaps of school work that's bound to be dropped on me. I'm not sure whether the next chapter will be on Kagome or The Girls, but I'll see if I can work on brainstorming while I'm off at camp. Oh, and I apologize for excessive swearing and I'm going to change the rating. I'm debating whether I should change the title, too. I'm not really happy with it. If you have a suggestion or opinion on anything, just let me know. I'd really appreciate it! Have a great couple of weeks and until next time! – Hope Swings