The Sick Among the Pure

I was walking down the streets of LA, knowing I was already late. I ran over to my favorite cafe and ordered a medium coffee with lots of milk and sugar. I put up the volume on my big headphones and just thought about what's been happening over the past few months. I never imagined that my band would get signed, but the fact that we were discovered by Maynard James Keenan just made me feel so good. I had no idea we would go this far, after-all we did it only for fun and the music. As I was walking I saw a fancy convertible car park a few feet ahead. The car was noticeable right away, but the man that stepped out of it made my knees weak. He took his sunglasses off and our eyes met. It felt as if he was looking right through me, reading my mind and finding out all my deepest secrets. He smiled as we passed each other by but I just looked away. This wasn't the first time that I've seen him around here at around the same time. He looked familiar but I couldn't quite place where I've seen him before. I knew this though, we both had some kind of routine that we followed.

"Why must you always be late? Why why why?" Keenan whined as I entered the studio. I gave him a quick hug and offered him my coffee. The rest of my band was already there. Levii was the keyboard player, Luke the guitarist, Ava on the bass, Marius on drums, and me, Maxinne on vocals. I've been best friends with Ava since high school and we went to the same college, exactly where we met the rest of the guys.

As I got to know Maynard better I became less afraid of him. At first I had to do everything perfect and have my guard up, but he knew how to read me quickly. He was also the first one to notice that I had an addictive personality. "I've set up several shows for you guys here in California. One is tomorrow and three other ones next week. You think you can do that Maxinne?" He asked as I threw myself on the leather couch that sunk my body in. "Oh yeah, definitely." I responded. I was the princess of the band as they all say. Why? Well I could be a total bitch and I always have everything my way. But that is part of the reason why we met Maynard and got ourselves into this whole thing. "I also have an appointment for a photo-shoot for you guys tomorrow before the show. So be ready.Uhh, the rest we can go over later this week. You guys really need a fucking manager..." Maynard complained. A lot of the work was put on him since he was one of the few people that had hope in us. "Can I be the manager?" I asked sipping on my coffee. "Oh, Maxinne, what a great idea!" Levii rolled his eyes as he responded in his usual sarcastic tone. "You know you can't be your own manager. For god's sake you can't even control yourself anywhere." I rolled my eyes at Maynard. He was talking about our interview last week with some shitty British magazine where they asked way too many personal questions. I wasn't used to all of the questions to be honest. I might act like a bitch but I'm probably the most insecure out of all of my band members. "So do we have anything else planned for today?"Ava asked impatiently. "Yes yes, before I forget, you guys need to fucking check and reply to your e-mail, myspace, and fan mail. I can't fucking do that for you and there have been complaints already...so get to that right now." I sighed and got up, following the rest of the band towards the computers there were in the studio already when I heard Marynard call my name. "What's up?" I asked, having a gut feeling this conversation wouldn't be the best we've had. "What's been bothering you, tell me." he grabbed on to my shoulder and looked me straight in the eyes. I shrugged and shook my head not knowing what he was talking about. "I read the band's fourm and there's pictures of you piss drunk...then I read your blog and you seem really fucking unhappy and upset about things..." I stared at his chest, I knew this talk would be coming soon. "It's hard, Maynard. I don't know how to deal with things. I mean, what the fuck am I supposed to say when someone asks me if the only reason why you're doing this is because I've fucked you and became your sex slave? I mean come on!" I started to tear up a bit "I don't want people to think of me like that...I want them to know the actual me. It's just not fair!" Maynard hugged me and kissed my head. "Then let them know you. Get out there more often, come to your CD release party next week and do some signings. You just have to ignore all the negative things they say and come up with a clever response." I nodded my head and pulled away from his hug "Thanks" I smiled lightly. After that I walked over to one of the computers and started replying to fan mail. Most of it was to me, which sucked, but I decided to make the best out of it.