Love's Not A Competition

"Hello, Mr. Michaels' office. How may I help you?" It was a female voice that spoke to me, and even though she was just the secretary, she freaked me out.

"H-Hi...My name's Angela Lambert. I was told to call Mr. Michaels last night." I couldn't believe I used my real first name. It was gross.

"Do you have an appointment?" She asked in her little snotty tone.

"Why would I need an appointment? I'm in the band from last-"

"Please hold."

What the eff, bitch?!

My hand was shaking uncontrollably. Obviously I couldn't do this alone.

"AIDEN! KAYCEE!"

"What?" I heard it at two different times.

"Could you help me for a sec? Band stuff."

"Yeah, hold on." Aiden replied. Kaycee came into the room looking irritated. Justin followed her in.

"What's up? And what's up with this elevator music?" She asked, pointing at the phone.

"I'm on hold...with Allen Michaels!"

"Angie, you act like I know who this is..." I sighed at her stupidity as Aiden walked into the room.

"Kaycee, you do...Fueled By Ramen..." She looked at me for a second with a blank stare.

"OHHHH!" I rolled my eyes and gave another long sigh. Stupid.

My phone beeped over the elevator music. One new text message. I smiled.

'Sweet! What do you wanna do? -shifty eyes-' I giggled. Generally, I loved the idea of shifty eyes. Today, it was unbearable. I was getting shifty eyes from Jack Barakat...Awesome.

I hit reply. 'I dunno. I really don't mind. Whatever you wanna do. I'm very leinient. :]'

I sent the message as I heard a voice on the other end of the phone.

"Angela! Hello, this is Allen!"

"Hi Allen, this is actually all three of us, Angie, Kaycee, and Aiden." Kaycee and Aiden said hi after their names were said.

"Well hello, NYJ! Those are the initials, right? New York Jury?"

"Junkie." I corrected.

"Oh right, Junkie. New York Junkie, my new hit band."

We all exchanged smiles. Kaycee and I held in our screams.

"Does that sound good?" Allen asked. He could probably feel the anticipation on the other line.

"Yeah, awesome!" Aiden answered. "Totally awesome."

"Great! Alright, well I'll schedule you guys in for next Friday afternoon. I'm staying here until next Saturday, so I hope that's okay."

"Yeah, yeah. That's fine. You're usually located in New York, right?"

"Yeah, I'm in California for some quick touring business. I'm destined to get you guys on one right after you lay down some tracks for me."

"Already?! That's great! A tour with who? Do you know the band?"

"Not yet, but I'm looking. You guys need to be heard. The whole world will hear of NYJ before the end of this year!" Allen was almost as excited as we were. "I hope I've fired you guys up for the week. I have some phone calls to make, make sure you're here on Friday at two o'clock sharp. Bring a demo! I have some people who will like to hear you."

"O-Okay!" I was stuttering, I couldn't believe this was happening.

"Remember guys, two o'clock. Friday. I'll see ya then."

"Okay." I almost whispered; I was on the verge of tears.

"Talk to you later. Bye bye." He hung up.

"Bye..." I drifted off.

I looked around the room from my bed, it seemed like everything was spinning and that my body was jumping up and down. My body tightened up, and everything got intense. I let out a loud shriek and burst in to tears. My dream was finally coming true.

***

*Friday*

'I'm almost in front of the building D:'

'You'll be fine. Plus, you get to see me later on today, so that's something to look forward to afterwards :]'

'Haha. Of course. Okay, meet me at the Subway down here. I have to go, we're here. Wish me luck!'

'I didn't forget. I'll see you then. And I KNOW you guys will do well.'

I closed my phone and walked to the press conference room. Aiden got to the door first and stopped. He showed us how his fingers were crossed and winked at us to do the same. Kaycee and I did it and Aiden opened the door to our future.

***

I ran out of the lobby of the tall building and screamed from the top of my lungs. We had a three record contract. Three shots to make Fueled By Ramen proud. Three chances to keep a dream. I whipped out my phone and mass texted everyone in my phone the news. Jack texted back first.

'AWESOME! Are you ready? C'mon! Let's talk about it! I can't wait!'

I replied back. 'Hold your horses. Give me five minutes. I'm living the last moments of my shitty life!'

Aiden and Kaycee screamed with me as the traffic that drove past was unaware that their new favorite band was the random bunch of idiots. Rachel was crying, she was the one with the most emotions out of all of us.

We all ran to the car and packed in to it, driving to Subway so I could finally meet Jack. I walked forward and opened one of the two front doors and saw the black and blonde-highlighted hair with the cute smile that told me everything about this day was never going to be a regret.