Summary: Kurt Hummel, Blaine Anderson, Rachel Berry, Nick Duvall, Jeff Sterling, and Elliott Gilbert make up Pamela Lansbury, a rock/pop band that hit it big after their first single was featured on popular tv-show Sing. A little over two years later the band is still dealing with the pressures of fame, their differing dreams, their fans, "shippers", and finding love.
Author's note: Alright, finally got around to this chapter. Hope you all enjoy it.
Chapter Three
Nick dropped down into the stool next to Blaine, almost startling him. "Hey," he said, "what's up with you?"
Blaine shrugged his shoulders. "I miss having an excuse to stay in my apartment all the time."
Nick grinned at him and nudged his shoulder. "You're such a homebody."
Blaine laughed. He wouldn't deny it. He hadn't always been someone that preferred to stay home than go out but certain factors had made him enjoy his time at home more and more. It meant being able to just be and not worry that someone might recognize him. The other boys didn't seem to be as concerned about that as he was.
While Nick ordered a drink, Blaine busied himself with his phone. There were a few texts. His brother wanted to know about the LA tour date, Jeff wanted to know if he'd left his laptop at Blaine's apartment, Elliott sent him a picture of Wes fast asleep and with a mustache drawn on his face, and then there was one from Rachel and he hesitated before opening it.
"Rachel texted me," Blaine said.
Nick who had just gotten his beer, set it down on the bar quickly. "What?"
"Yeah. What should I do? Should I open it?"
Nick nodded quickly. "Duh."
He clicked it open and Nick read over his shoulder.
Rachel: I just wanted to say that I am so happy you guys are going to go on with the tour. I thought maybe you wouldn't be going through with it but I guess nothing can stop Wes from getting what he wants. I miss all of you guys and I wanted to say I'm sorry for how things ended but I needed to do this for myself. I hope that you can come see me in Jane Austen Sings when it opens in a few months and you'll know why I had to do this.
"Well that wasn't bad," Nick said
Blaine nodded. "Well I don't want to deal with her and you know why she texted me and not you or any of the others?"
"Because you're the nice one," Nick said, "the level headed one that won't blow things out of proportion and probably because Kurt isn't answering her."
"Exactly," Blaine said and took a sip of his drink.
They were at a hotel bar waiting for the last bit of press to do over the tour announcement. They were supposed to be up on the third floor in forty five minutes, and instead of trying to nap like some of the others were, he had headed for the bar to get a quick drink. He was only drinking a ginger ale and wasn't sure if he should let Nick drink more than just the one beer.
"So I was surprised about Kurt the other day," Nick said, "with um the one night stand. He doesn't usually do stuff like that."
Blaine shrugged his shoulders and suddenly wished that he had ordered something a bit stronger.
"He, um, he's not usually caught," Blaine said, "but it's rare for him. He's not like Elliott or you and Jeff. And I'm, you know—"
"In love with him," Nick finished.
Blaine felt his face get warm and he shook his head quickly. "No," he said, "that isn't it. No."
Nick laughed and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. "Blaine, it's me. We've been friends since you transferred to Dalton your sophomore year. When you met him you couldn't stop talking about him for weeks and you didn't even hang out that often. We all thought something would come of it but it never did."
Blaine sighed. He had been stupid then and never realized that he liked Kurt as more than a friend even with their very limited exposure to each other. Then again, Kurt had never made a move either not that going to different schools and living two hours away from each other could have made any of that easy. Maybe it would have ruined their friendship.
"We were hardly even friends," Blaine said, "I mean we texted and e-mailed and called each other sometimes but I can count the times I saw him in person with one hand. I mean, I came closer to getting with Sebastian than Kurt."
Nick laughed and took a gulp of his beer. "Okay, fine, but when we got here to New York and you ran into him."
"I was with Toby," Blaine said.
Nick snorted. "He broke up with you because he got sick of hearing about Kurt and because you spent three weeks breaking dates with him to hang out with Kurt."
"We were starting a band," Blaine said, "or at least trying to."
"Sure," Nick said, "that's all it was."
Blaine hated talking about it. He hated how his world had literally changed the moment he met Kurt for the second time and how nothing had ever come of it except for Pamela Lansbury and it had been an excuse to keep spending time with him.
Three Years Ago
"It's just a thought I keep having," Kurt said, "you know I actually tried to join the glee club at NYADA but it was a little weird and Rachel wouldn't join with me. You'd think glee club would be cool at a theater school but it wasn't. There's just so few opportunities to just sing and have fun, you know."
They were sitting in Kurt, Rachel, and Santana's apartment in Bushwick and it was the first time Blaine had been invited over and he found that he liked what Kurt and his friends had done with the place.
"I agree," he said, "it's different just singing in the shower to singing with other people with some sort of purpose. We could even do those weird open mic nights or whatever."
Kurt laughed and clapped his hands, jumping to his feet. "Yes, that's perfect. I know Rachel won't let us hear the end of it if we don't involve her and then the two of us. And we can find others and –"
Blaine watched him and couldn't help but find Kurt adorable as he ran around the room and went to fetch a notebook.
The idea had come from Kurt a few weeks earlier, but it had been just an idea and Blaine had thought that he was joking but they had just kept bringing it up and Blaine could just tell that it couldn't continue to be a joke anymore.
"Do you know anyone that might be interested?" Kurt asked, "if we're thinking band we'll need someone that plays some sort of instrument. I mean I can pull off the keyboard but I need lots of practice and do still play guitar? Times like these makes me wish Finn was in New York with us. He's amazing on the drums."
Blaine got up and grabbed Kurt by the arms. "Kurt," he said, "calm down. Yes I still play the guitar but not as well as I would like. But remember Nick and Jeff? They used to be in this band with this guy named Elliott. The band broke up a while ago but I'm sure they'll want in on this."
"Oh," Kurt said, "okay good. Will you ask them?"
"Of course," Blaine said and then took him back to the couch, "now weren't we supposed to have a movie marathon?"
Kurt nodded quickly. "Yes we were," he said.
Present Day
Chairs had been set out for all of them in the hotel suite and the cameras and lights had all been set up for the first of the interviews. They were all going to be short ranging from five minutes to ten and as Kurt had learnt the last time he did a press junket they would be answering the same questions again and again.
He was the first one there aside from the camera people, so he let hair and makeup get him ready and then watched as Elliott was put through the same.
"I'm so glad Wes didn't schedule too many interviewers," Elliott said, "we're only doing half a day in comparison to last time."
"Well, I'm already tired and it hasn't even begun."
Elliott laughed and they both turned when Santana walked in with David.
"Where's Wes?" Kurt asked.
"Sick," Santana said.
"We had to leave Brian from security with him so he would stay at home and not come with us," David said.
Santana was pulled away and they watched her go. The one good thing about having two managers was the split of responsibility. Santana and Wes made a good team when it came to dealing with the record company and just about everything else that might come up for the band.
"Anyway," David said, "where are the others? They should be here by now."
Blaine and Nick chose that moment to step inside, grinning with their arms around each other.
"Now we're waiting on one," David said, "we're always waiting on one of you."
Jeff arrived a few minutes later and Kurt watched them all get fixed up while he and Elliott were getting their microphones put on by Santana who was constantly checking her phone and muttering to herself.
"Alright," she said, "quick and easy guys. Just be charming and keep it loose and fun."
She made Elliott sit in the middle chair with Kurt next to him on his left and they were left there to wait. Their first interviewer was from a website Kurt didn't recognize. The girl was in her early twenties and pretty and clearly a fan and she stood by Santana for a while until David approached them and Kurt could tell that they were making sure she wouldn't bring up Rachel.
A part of him wanted to just address the whole thing already and get it out of the way but David seemed to be of the mind that ignoring it was better. Kurt thought that he only wanted to wait until Rachel said something first.
Nick joined them a few minutes later, his phone in his hand.
"Twitter is going a bit nuts," he said, "it looks like they're preparing for the pre-sale tomorrow and there's a few tweets about this."
"They'll be waiting for these to be posted, then," Kurt said, "when are they going out? Hey, Santana, when are these interviews coming out?"
"Tonight," Santana said, "we really should have done these the day we did the announcement video but this works well too. Hopefully they won't have much to edit out."
She left them with a quick glare. Kurt always thought it was a bit on the funny side that Santana was constantly telling them what they could and couldn't do and expecting them to actually follow through. Had it been her in their shoes, he was sure that she would never have listened to anything anyone told her.
"Come on, let's give them something to really get excited about then," Elliott said and he pulled out his phone.
The three of them pressed close together for the picture, making silly faces.
"That's good," Elliott said.
"Post it, post it," Nick said.
Jeff and Blaine joined them. Blaine sitting down next to Kurt and Jeff next to Nick.
"You guys ready?" David asked, "we can get started."
The interviewer sat down and the cameras began rolling and she smiled at the camera before looking at them.
"I'm here today with Pamela Lansbury who just announced their new tour a few days ago. So, guys, how excited are you for this tour?"
"We're pretty excited," Kurt said, "it's been over a year since our first tour so it's something we've wanted to do. I mean, aside from a few gigs here or there we didn't really do any touring for our second album. So, yeah, we're looking forward to it."
He smiled and looked towards the rest of the band.
"It's going to be a lot of fun," Nick said, "and it's all for the fans really. I'll have to brave being in a bus with these four for months at a time, and that just isn't as much fun as one might think."
"So, I have to ask," she said, "how have guys been really since you lost Rachel Berry to Broadway?"
Kurt clenched his hands and he waited for one of the others to answer. He didn't know what he would say if he had to answer.
"We've been doing alright," Blaine said quickly.
Elliott continued for her, "it's hard of course to lose a member of our band but we're moving forward."
She seemed to get that they didn't want to talk about it at least, and Kurt could tell that she was apologetic.
"Alright," the interviewer said, "moving on, then, so what we can expect for the tour? Any new music?"
"Yes!" Blaine said.
"He and Elliott have been working on a few new songs," Jeff said.
"We've all been contributing," Nick said, "what's been great about this upcoming album is that we're not just letting Blaine and Elliott tinker away at the music."
"So, it's going to be a few new songs and some from the second album and a few from the first. We haven't exactly settled on a setlist yet."
They were offered water bottles between interviews and so it went on. Most of the questions were the same.
Were they excited to do a tour?
Had they considered a collaboration with someone else? Perhaps Mercedes Jones?
What were the new songs like?
Without Rachel, will the tour feel different?
Then came the last interview which David called the fun one.
They were taking a quick break because Nick had to go to the bathroom and because they had all been getting a bit bored which meant that they were getting careless. It had started with Jeff pulling at Nick's hair until they were having a bit of a slap fight that they tried to keep from the camera.
Kurt had even felt the need to whisper to Blaine whenever he found something amusing.
The fun interview turned out to be a quiz about their own music. Someone had picked out random lyrics from their songs and they had to name the song. A few times the lyrics turned out to not even be their own.
"How do you not know this," Kurt whispered to Blaine, "you wrote most of these."
Blaine laughed. "Not all, and I've written a lot. Don't you sing most of these?"
Kurt shoved his shoulder and joined in his laughter. By the time that it came to an end, it didn't matter who won and they were all laughing.
"Okay," their interviewer who this time was a good looking guy with a pony tail said, "so tickets for the new tour go on sale on Wednesday morning and there are multiple pre-sales going on tomorrow. Thank you Pamela Lansbury for indulging me and good luck on tour."
They all smiled and waved at the camera and Jeff wrapped his arms around Elliott from behind right before the cameras were stopped.
Starchild: Getting ready to do some press with KurtEHummel and NickDuvall #PLtour [image link]
NickDuvall: Starchild and KurtEHummel and I are waiting on BlaineAndeson and JeffSterling.
A Week Later
Wes swallowed the medicine his doctor had prescribed, washing it down with half a water bottle. He was sitting behind his desk, cursing that Santana had decided it was the perfect week for her to take vacation time and go visit her parents. Wes was under the impression that she had also scheduled interviews on the same week on purpose.
His assistant knocked on the door and opened it a few seconds later. "First one is here," she said.
It was a short man with a full beard and he extended his clammy hand out to Wes who shook it quickly and motioned for him to sit down. It took Wes just a few minutes to know he wasn't good enough for the job. He needed someone that could both wrangle the band together and onto stage and also manage everything that he couldn't and more.
Their last tour manager had been a gruff woman named Sharon Beiste but she was already on another tour in Europe and so he was stuck with the interviews.
Five people in, he wanted to just send everyone home and reschedule for when Santana was around so she could keep him sane or at least be so tactless that people just got up and left on the own.
While waiting for the next one to walk in, he texted with David.
Wes: remind me to take my week off at a very inconvenient time for Santana.
David: interviews not going well, I take it?
Wes: yes. Just four more to go. No prospects so far.
The door opened again, and Wes almost laughed when he saw the person that walked in.
Wes: You'll never guess who just walked in – I think if he's up for it, I've found our new tour manager.
David: Who is it?
Author's Note: I'm on tumblr at inawickedlittletown if you'd like to follow me there. I usually post writing progress updates there.
Hope you all enjoyed this and thank you for reading.