The Lost Boys (46 page)

“Look, it’s like this,” he said. “The best thing that can happen is people will like us. The worst, people won’t. What’s so horrible about that? Who cares what they think? We are here to do something we love to do. So let’s just go up there and do it already!” He clapped his hand firmly on Seth’s back before heading outside. Well, he already had the rock star attitude nailed down, that was for sure!

Harry seemed to be thinking on the same lines because he grinned and shouted, “Hell, yeah!” before following Tristan. And then we heard him yelling outside, “Don’t need to shout any more, The Lost Boys are in da hooouse!”

We all laughed hard and followed in his footsteps, ready to face a loud, electrified crowd.

I don’t remember much of the show, apart from the noise and cheers. I do remember stepping up on stage and looking out at a whole lot more people than I’d been expecting, and seeing Tristan smiling reassuringly at me. As soon the boys picked up their guitars, the crowd began to cheer even louder. We heard Josh banging his drumsticks three times, our cue to start the first song. The rest was a blur.

I also remember stepping down off the stage, and walking inside the building again, to avoid the mass of people crushing us. Girls huddled around me, shouting and asking questions. I don’t remember what they asked and what I said. It was all totally insane and surreal and very, very chaotic. Then our parents came over to congratulate us – the Hunts, Ledgers and the Harts. My mom was also there, shouting something and hugging me with a big grin on her face. Professor Rubick did almost all the talking with our families. He was beaming with so much pride. It took almost an hour for the rumpus to subdue and the crowd to disperse a little. I left my mom talking with the other parents and went in search for my band.

I found Tiffany first. She hugged me tight, saying I had kicked ass up there, and we walked slowly out of the mess of people. We spotted Seth far away at the school front doors. He was talking to the same middle-aged man that Tristan had been talking to earlier – Lisa’s father, I remembered. We were walking in their direction when the man shook Seth’s hand vigorously, and scurried quickly away before we could reach them.

When we got to Seth, he turned to look at us with a blank, unfocused stare. He looked pale and in deep shock. Something had happened. I couldn’t get a good read of his eyes because he had a jumble of emotions crashing inside. I put my hand on his shoulder and shook him gently, trying to nudge him back to reality. He was staring behind me to a spot on the horizon, gazing at nowhere in the distance.

“Seth! Are you all right? What happened?” I asked. Tiffany was looking worriedly at him too. He finally shifted his gaze, focusing on me for the first time.

“Uh … hey, Joey. When did you get here?”

I glanced at Tiffany in concern. “Seth, is everything all right?”

“Uh, it’s …” he mumbled incoherently, and then he shook his head lightly. “You’re never gonna believe this …”

Chapter Thirty-Six

Recording

“What? Believe what, Seth?” I asked again, getting impatient now. He stared down at his hands. He held a small, silver-edged business card between his fingers, and he kept flipping it over, again and again.

“I’ll have to get my dad to look at this,” he said again in wonder.

“Seth, come on! Talk to me. Is this something to do with Lisa’s father? The guy you were talking to just now?” It had to be.

Seth glanced up, looking at me curiously. “You mean Mr. Silver?” he asked. “You know him?”

“No. I saw him speaking with Tristan earlier …” I said.

“That was Scott Silver,” Seth told me, with admiration in his voice.

“You mean,
the
Scott Silver?” Tiffany asked, looking stunned.

Seth turned to her, squinting his eyes suspiciously. “Did you have anything to do with this, Tiffany?” he suddenly accused.

“What? With what?” I asked cluelessly, getting frustrated.

Tiffany grabbed my arm excitedly. “Scott Silver is a big music producer! He owns several record companies!” she explained, her voice getting high-pitched. “What did he say to you, Seth?”

“He just offered The Lost Boys a record deal,” Seth told us plainly.

I gaped at him in total shock.

“Tiff, did you ask him to do this?” Seth repeated sharply. He hated asking Tiffany for any favors. It was a big issue between them.

“I swear to God I didn’t do anything!” Tiffany bellowed, offended. “I know his name, but I’ve never actually met the man! My father knows him, but you
forbade
me to try anything, so I never did!” she said, emphasizing the “forbade” part, because she was always a little miffed when anyone ordered her around. Worthingtons weren’t used to it!

Tristan appeared behind us then, looking at our little group with curious eyes. “Hey, there you are. I’ve been looking all over for you!” he said, wrapping an arm around my waist.

“So this means you guys have a record deal, then?” Tiff squealed loudly.

“Ah, you talked to Mr. Silver, then?” Tristan asked, grinning. Everybody stopped abruptly and gawked at Tristan. “He came and talked to me this morning. Joey was there, she saw us, right?” he said, looking at me and winking.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” I asked, shocked.

“I did tell you. Well, part of it, that is. Lisa is a big fan of our band, and she talks about us all the time. She’d even recorded a few of our classroom concerts on her cell, and showed them to her dad. He came today to see us perform live. I didn’t tell you because you were all freaking out enough already. I knew it was a done deal, though,” he said, smiling broadly. “Because I know we are amazingly good. We just needed to show it today.”

“GET THE F—!!” I started to shout, and Tristan clapped his hand over my mouth.

“Okay, no need to swear, now! So, a record deal, eh?” Tristan asked, uncovering my mouth and tapping Seth cheerfully on the back.

Then Tiffany began shrieking and jumping, hugging Seth, who just stood there limply and let himself be hugged and squealed at.

The rest of the band arrived at this moment and I fought with Seth to see who was going to tell them first. Seth and I kept talking over each other, while Tristan and Tiffany laughed at our overly-eager, excited faces.

When we’d finished our battle to share the big news, we looked at the boys to watch their reactions. Sam laughed so hard that he ended up on rolling on the floor, pulling Seth along with him. Josh went pale with shock, just like Seth had a few minutes ago, but then he snapped out of it and jumped on top of Seth and Sam on the floor, joining in their celebration. Harry just watched them in silence, a huge grin plastered on his face, before climbing on top of the pile of Lost Boys on the floor. I shouted “Pile-up!” and jumped on top of Harry, and Tristan and Tiffany followed my lead. It was the best pile-up of all time! We celebrated our asses off that night.

The next day would be our last at school, and it was the day we were supposed to say our goodbyes and head home before we decided what we were going to do with our lives. Josh had been accepted at Harvard, but it wasn’t really what he wanted to do, more what his parents wanted. He was incredibly relieved when the news of the record deal came up. Seth and Sam both had a place at a Performing Arts school, but were putting that on hold as well. Harry hadn’t considered anything for the future yet. Now he didn’t need to worry about it any more. This was everything he had dreamed of happening for his future life.

All our plans were going to change completely now, because of the record deal. We needed to sign contracts with Mr. Silver as soon as possible, and then begin the recording and producing process of our first album. I couldn’t believe it: we were going to make our own album! All our parents had been flabbergasted at the news, but they were very supportive and rearranged everything they could to make this happen for us.

Tiffany was supposed to travel to Europe to stay with her parents, but she postponed it to stay with us until her Christmas visit. Mr. Silver told us we had a year to produce this album, with six months to record the songs and soundtracks in a small studio he’d found for us in Esperanza, and the other six months to finalize producing, marketing the release, radio interviews and a few shows to help promote the album around the state. After all that, we had to sit and wait for the response of the public and go from there.

He also lent us a small house right next to the recording studio, as we were going to spend most of our time in there, working on our songs. We called it the Green House because it was all painted in vivid green outside. The house had all we needed to do our work; it even had three bedrooms and two sofa beds in the lounge if we wanted to crash there for the night. The recording booth was booked only for a few specific dates, and we would play there only when we had everything worked out perfectly to be recorded. Recording studio sessions were really expensive, so we couldn’t waste any time in there.

Since Seth was the only one who lived out of state, and was theoretically “homeless” in Esperanza, it was decided he would stay with Tiffany in one of the many houses the Worthingtons owned in the area. But Tiffany and Seth were constantly in my house anyway. They had adopted my mom already, and vice-versa. They had a lot of sleepovers, and I was happy to share my room with Tiff whenever she wanted to, and Tristan shared his with Seth. So, when we weren’t at the studio, or at the Green House next door, we hung out mostly at my home. Harry, Josh and Sam already crashed at mine too whenever they wanted. My mom was so happy with so many kids around the house all the time, she looked like she was going to explode with joy! It was like she had adopted a bunch of loud, hyper-active kids all of a sudden.

Now we were not only best friends, we were like family. We worked, ate, slept and played together. And Tristan and I didn’t have to hide anything from anybody any more. We agreed to keep it low-key when we were around my house, because we hadn’t told my mom about us yet, but otherwise we were free to be an official couple. He hugged and kissed me all the time at the studio, and made me sit on his lap even when there were plenty of places to sit elsewhere. I was on cloud nine with all his lovely attention.

The guys that worked at the studio teased and laughed at us constantly, saying we were the cutest couple they had ever seen, which always made Tristan grin from ear to ear. Tristan, of course, knew all the guys working there by the end of the first week – their names, the names of their families and their life stories, from the producer and sound-check guy to the janitor and security guards. And they all loved having him around, and tried to get his attention as much as they could, to talk to and even ask for advice. It was funny hearing them talk sometimes; a bunch of old guys asking advice from an eighteen-year-old kid, even if he had been around longer than any of them.

During those months working on the album, we also paid regular visits to Miss Violet. She was trying to find out more about a conjuring spell that could help us with Vigil. She kept saying she needed more time and that we couldn’t do anything but wait patiently. But time was becoming increasingly valuable for Tristan.

There was a shadow looming over my heart; a weight constantly on my shoulders. The excitement of what was happening with our record deal might keep it at bay, but I felt it more keenly every time we walked out of Miss Violet’s house without a plan.

I tried to cover up my anxiety the best I could, to help Tristan remain strong, but I could see that as the end of the year approached, Tristan began to falter. He didn’t laugh as much, his eyes didn’t shine so bright, even when we were playing. He was growing afraid we might have no way out of this.

We had all signed our contracts with Mr. Silver, except Tristan. He kept putting it off, making up excuses every time he was asked to sign the paperwork. He’d managed to stall Mr. Silver and his record company for a long time. And by the end of October, when we started to actually record our tracks, Tristan had convinced everybody to let his songs and his parts be recorded last. I started noticing he had drifted from being inside the booth playing, to staying outside, helping out with the producing part. Nobody else in the band noticed his strategic shift; everybody was busy and focused hard on playing the best they could. The boys thought he was having more fun working on the mixing desk, and they left him to it. But I understood well enough what he was up to. He was discreetly stepping back, little by little, taking care that no one noticed
what
he was doing. And
why
.

“You’re trying to stay off this album!” I accused him bluntly.

Tristan sighed, knowing I would catch up with his plan sooner or later. “Joe, please.”

“You are and you know it,” I insisted. “Why haven’t you signed your contract yet with Mr. Silver?”

“You haven’t signed yet?” Seth chipped in, surprised.

“No, he hasn’t!” I ratted him out.

“What’s going on, man?” Josh and Seth asked together.

Tristan pursed his lips and stared at the floor. “I’m just trying to be practical here, guys. We don’t know what will happen at the end of the year.”

“Tris, please, don’t say that!” I protested vehemently.

“No! It’s true, Joey. I know every time I bring this up you get really mad, but we have to face it! I may not be here next year! And then what are you all going to do? I’m going to screw this up for you! Everything you have worked so hard to achieve!” he said, standing up in aggravation. “How are you going to explain my disappearance then? What are you going to do with the songs I’m on? I don’t want that. It’s best I stay behind the glass at the recording booth.”

“Look, I get it,” Josh said, standing up. “But you are really going at it the wrong way. Even if you are right, and something happens at New Year, that’s no reason you shouldn’t do this with us right now! We are in this together!”

“You are going to be on this album no matter what happens,” Seth added.

“You can’t bail on us now,” Harry said.