London Calling

“And you'll call me from the venue every day?”

“Yes Mom.”

“But not when it's two in the morning for you or me.”

“Yes Mom.”

“And-”

Flight 368 to London is now boarding.

“Mom, I have to go, the plane is boarding.”

“I heard, but-”

“I cannot miss this flight, Mom.”

“Just wait-”

“Mom-”

“Please-”

“IloveyoukisskisscallyouwhenIgettherebye!”

I hit the end button before my mother could spout off any more of her special brand of insanity. Rowan gave me this You're-so-dead-for-hanging-up-on-your-mom sort of look. I just flipped him off as I got in line behind Levi, who was jittering like a jackhammer. I'm not sure if it was his excitement over being so close to meeting his idol or his new found fear of planes.

I told him not to watch Final Destination a week before we had to get on a flight to London.

But getting on the plane was the easy part.

Rowan made sure that we were all sitting together, which was probably a bad idea because Chris and Levi sat right next to each other.

“This plane is gonna blow up on take off.”

“Shut up, Chris.”

“Death has its plan, Levi.”

“Oh my God Rowan, make him stop!”

“Chris, stop or I will ask someone at the back of the fucking plane to switch seats with you.”

“Fine...I wasn't even doing anything.”

“Shut it.”

I had to switch seats with Rowan to keep Levi calm. He clung to my arm like a five year-old and I had to sing him lullabies until he fell asleep.

Which was, of course, half way through the flight, making it impossible for me to get any sleep for myself.

I was cranky all the way through customs. I almost ripped a woman's face off for cutting in line.

The only good part about the London airport was that Chris was chosen for a random body check.

His face?

Priceless.

After fighting our way through baggage claim and screaming at some jerk for trying to take my bag and refusing to get his boney claws off it we finally got outside.

“Okay, so, there should be someone to pick us up, Max said he'd be somewhere-Oh, there.”

Rowan pointed towards a very tough-looking man with a sign that read CASANOVA ON CALL. I just stared.

“Ro...are you sure that's right?”

“Do you see any other signs with our band's name?”

“But...he looks scary as all fuck,” Chris hissed.

“I survived a fucking plane, let's just go.”

Levi pushed ahead of us, confidence boosted from the plane not going down in flames while he was asleep. And all we could do was follow him. We couldn't just let him approach this hulk of a man by himself.

As we walked up to him he stared down at us, looking completely terrifying.

“Hi, I'm Levi, and this is the band.”

“Hullo, I'm Matt. I'm one of your lifters.”

“Awesome.”

“Come on, in wit'che. Gotta take yeh off teh Max.”

Turns out that Matt was a fan. And a nice guy despite his appearances. He and Levi hit it off immediately, discussing fears of flying and music tastes. He seemed completely fine with driving on the wrong side of the road. Then again, we were extremely American compared to how he had lived in England for his whole life.

The ride took maybe half an hour. Just about enough time for me to just fall asleep before we got there. It felt like I had finally closed my eyes after being awake for two days straight when Chris was jabbing me in the side to force me out of the car.

“I'm only getting out of this car if you carry me.”

“Seriously?”

“CARRY ME OR I WILL NOT GET OUT OF THIS FUCKED UP CAR THAT DRIVES ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD.”

“Oi! Don't knock the car!”

“Sorry Matt.”

Chris sighed and lifted me out of the car. I clung to his back like a baby orangutan, practically killing him with my choke hold around his neck. He carried me all the way up to the fourteenth floor when I finally got off his back and walked into Max's office by myself.

Or at least, I tried to.

“Where do you think you're going?”

I stared at the woman behind the reception desk who seemed to have put a call on hold just for me.

“We're here to see Max.”

“Do you have an appointment?”

I glanced back at the boys. Rowan shrugged.

“I didn't think we needed one.”

“No appointment, no Max.”

“What?”

Just as I was about to have a major fit, Max busts out of the double doors behind the reception desk.

“Ah! There they are! In! In!”

Max ushered us into his office and past the bitch receptionist. She glared at me as we went past.

Fuck her, it's my fucking band in our fucking new record label building. I'll do what I want.

“So, how was your flight?”

“God damn terrible.”

Max glanced up at me as he gestured for us to sit on the overly plush couch in front of his desk.

“I thought it was nice.”

“You got to sleep, Chris.”

Rowan coughed into the uncomfortable silence. “Excuse Alison, she gets a bit-”

“I dare you to finish that sentence, Rowan.”

“-like this when she's tired.”

I just curled up and sunk farther into the leather.

“Doesn't help that your receptionist is a bitch,” I mumbled.

“Well you won't have to deal with Midge again. You won't have to come back to this office unless you're switching labels or canceling your contract.”

“I doubt we'll be doing that.”

Max gave Rowan a warm smile. Fucking golden child of the band.

“Then don't worry about it. Now. Today is your last free day before tour starts. So go out, have fun, be tourists. The label is paying for your hotel for the night, so get some rest. We head out at six. Your van will be there to pick you up.”

“Awesome.”

“Here's 150 quid for each of you-”

“What?”

“To little?”

“No, Max, I mean-what?”

“It's part of your pay check. You each get 300 before your first show, a percentage of merch sales-”

“Since when did we have merch?” Levi hissed to Rowan. Rowan shrugged.

“We made shirts maybe once or twice-”

“What about those bracelets I made?”

“Ali, you haven't made those for a year.”

“Yeah, well-”

“Everyone, calm down.”

We all looked up to Max, who was laying a T-shirt and some bracelets down on his desk. The shirt was white with this big paint splatter across the band name. The bracelets were simple: purple, red, and black with the words “NINE-ONE-ONE” on them.

“Wait, is Nine-One-One our new single?”

“Well of course.”

“FUCK YES!” Levi shot up and did this crazy stupid dance. Of course the song he wrote about the day he almost died would single.

I'll admit it. I was kinda jealous. Then again I can rarely write anything that doesn't turn out like shit.

“Alright now, get out of my office.”

Levi skipped out of the room. The only thing we could do was follow. He was bouncing so much in the elevator that Rowan and Chris had to hold him down so the damn thing wouldn't break and kill us all.

“The picked Nine-One-One! NINE-ONE-ONE!! The last song we had single was...uh...it was-”

“Vanity,” I reminded him.

“Right! And that was your song! And this one's mine! ALISON WE'RE SINGLE BUDDIES!! We should celebrate!!”

Levi shot out of the elevator when we hit the ground floor and dragged me along with him. He shoved me into the car that Matt was waiting in then ushered the rest of the guys in.

“Okay, take us to somewhere awesome! Like London or Leads or something!”

“London is much closer, mate-”

“London then! We have to celebrate!”

We all shared a collective groan at Levi's perkiness as I leaned into Chris. Honestly, I just wanted to go to our hotel and sleep. The clock in the car said 12:45. At home it was probably fuck o'clock in the morning. Jet lag was hitting me hard, but of course Levi wasn't affected at all.

I must've passed out for a while because I didn't even realize the car had stopped until Levi was tugging on my arm.

“Ali-Bear, come ooooooooooooon. We've got so much to do before tomorrow!”

“Levs, I just wanna sleep-”

“NO! Get out of this car and go shopping with me!”

“I swear, if I didn't know you were straight you would sound so gay right now.”

I recognized sleepy chuckles behind me. Rowan and Chris must be as tired as I am. And they were luck enough to not be indoctrinated into the “single club” so they were probably going back to the hotel. Bastards.

“Go die.”

“Fine.” I rolled back towards Chris.”

“No! Come on! Let's shop. I'll buy you food! Please?”

“Fine. You owe me so much food though.”

I pulled myself out of the car and immediately hated everyone for making us leave from LAX. My shorts and T-shirt were not made for this weather of whatever the hell degrees Celsius it was.

“Be back here around five. I'll be waiting.”

“'Kay.” And then they were gone.

Levi started walking and I followed him, getting colder as every second passed by.

“Bitch, give me your jacket.”

“What? No!”

“Do it! You owe me for all the sleep I didn't get!”

“Fine.”

He threw his jacket at my face and I slipped it on as we continued down the street. It's hard to ignore Levi's infectious, hyperactive attitude when you're the only one with him. I have to admit that. Pretty soon I was bouncing down the street with him. We looked like tourist idiots diving from one store to another, but we didn't give a fuck. There was just too much awesome in this place.

“Record store!”

I looked up from my late lunch of fish and chips (reluctantly bought by Levi) and grinned like a fool. I'd been waiting for a record store for so long.

“Go.”

Levi and I calmly walked (or sprinted, your choice) into the shop lined with posters of album release dates and tour stops. We separated –him towards punk, me towards the more indie stuff. I sometimes wondered how he and I were in the same band. Then again, the band wouldn't be the band without him.

Cue girlish scream. And it wasn't from me, even though I had just found an album I had been looking for for over a year.

“Ali-Ali!”

“What?”

“Get over here!”

“I'm looking at something.”

“Alison Costello, get your ass over here!”

I wiped my greasy fingers on my jeans before picking up the album with intent to buy and walking over to Levi, who was getting a lot of curious looks from the staff and other customers.

“Levi La Follatte, calm your tits. What do you want?”

He just pointed towards a disk, and I almost dropped everything in my hands. I had to cover my mouth to keep myself from screaming louder than Levi did.

Our album. Our shitty-ass, home made album, now with live tracks and advertizing Nine-One-One and Vanity as the singles over our shitty-ass cover art. Our self-titled album was already on the shelves.

“This is a dream Ali. Punch me, I'm dreaming-Ow!”

“You're not dreaming, Levs. This is so beyond real life.”

I snatched the disc off the shelf and marched up to the closest employe.

“Your store is selling this album. You. This is my new favorite place.”

I hugged him. Levi joined me. The employe just sort of froze there while we hugged him and thanked him repeatedly and got grease from my fries all over his back.

Finally we paid for our shit and we left.

“Our album! OUR ALBUM!”

“I KNOW!!”

We practically danced all the way back to the meeting place where Matt was already waiting for us.

“Well don't you two look just chuffed.”

“WE FOUND THIS!!”

I pulled the album from one of the bags I was carrying.

“Oh, yeah'. Bought that yesterday, meself. Been out for a few weeks now, innit. Ever since yeh been signed. Just been flyin' off the shelves.”

“You're shitting me. You have to be.”

“Why would I be?”

“Are we big? Tell me Matt, are we big here?”

“Almost as big as yer opening act.”

Levi, instead of freaking out like we both expected him to and like I was, just feel silent. He was silent all the way back to the hotel. Silent on our way up to the room. I had no idea what was wrong with him. We got to the guys' room and scared the shit out of Chris and Rowan just from Levi's freakish silence.

“Okay, so, since Levs seems to be broken and can't even speak right now, I'll share the news.”

“News, huh?” Chris waved a hand in front of Levi's face, trying to get him to move.

“So Levi and I were at a record store and we found this.”

I revealed the album for the second time and got the response I had wanted the first time. Chris practically knocked me to the ground to get his hands on it. Rowan did his stupid girly jump thing that he does when he remembers that there's a new season of Dexter starting.

“What is this why is it so beautiful ALISON THIS IS OUR ALBUM!!!”

“I know! And apparently we're almost as big as Adam After Eve-”

We all freeze as Levi breaks out of his standing coma and lets out this girlish squeal and belly flops onto one of the beds. Rowan and Chris jump on the bed after him, cheering and hollering and generally making a shit ton of noise while all I want to do is fall asleep and stay asleep.

So as the guys artfully butcher my harmonies on Nine-One-One I flop onto one of the beds and close my eyes.