Let the Flames Begin

We’d mostly been sitting in meetings via phone, hearing the same old shit about how we had to act a certain way since we were representing the record label and that there were certain things an individual was liable for if they were destructive. It was boring and led my mind to wandering.

I was stretched out on Hayley’s couch, staring at her ceiling. A few quick glances around the room showed me that Hayley herself was perched on an armchair with her phone and Taylor and Ryder were acting all cutesy on the loveseat.

Jeremy’s fifty bucks sat happily in my wallet.

Taylor leaned into Ryder’s side and dropped his head on her shoulder, chuckling. He played with her fingers as she spoke, a grin on her face. A shudder of jealousy ran through me. Not that I was jealous because I liked Taylor. I was just jealous for a relationship like that.

Quickly deciding to be my obnoxious self, I got off the couch and walked over to the pair. They looked up as I dropped myself into their laps.

“You guys!” I whined, “What about me? Are you gonna laugh at my jokes?”

Ryder laughed and I reached up to cup her face in my hands. I squeezed her cheeks together so she made a fish face. Hayley chuckled from behind me and I looked at her, sticking my tongue out.

“Andy I will always laugh at your jokes,” Taylor said. I smiled and patted his cheek roughly. He winced and then Ryder pushed me off of them. I rolled onto the floor and everyone burst into laughter. I kept my face indignant before grinning.

“That was rude!” I screeched, rubbing my butt. I picked myself up and sauntered toward the kitchen overdramatically. I turned back with a mock stern look on my face. “I will never forget this betrayal!”

I found Jeremy in the kitchen, standing next to the coffee pot. It was the middle of the afternoon but time was dragging by. He looked up when I walked in and smiled tightly. I pulled myself up on the counter next to him.

“What’s up Jeremy?” I asked, pulling a mug out of the cabinet next to me and pouring some coffee into it for myself.

“Not much man, trying not to die through all these boring phone calls. Next one should be fun though,” he said, shrugging.

“Why?” I asked, curiosity peaked. I hadn’t had anything interesting happen all day.
“You’ll see soon enough,” he said, stepping in between my legs and wrapping his arms around my waist. My heartbeat quickened as he rested his head on my shoulder. I draped my arms over his shoulders.

We were quiet for a while, listening to each other’s breathing and the hum of chatter in the living room. Jeremy sighed and pulled away from me to take a sip of his coffee. I leaned my head back against the cabinet and shut my eyes.

“C’mon, the phone should be ringing any minute,” he said, patting my knee and turning to leave. I hopped off the counter and sighed, following him into the living room. We both sat on the couch and waited for Hayley’s Iphone to buzz.

Finally, it did and we all leapt forward in excitement. This was the last call of the day. Hayley answered the call and put it on speaker, her smile lighting up her whole face.

“Hello?”

“Well hi Paramore, how are y’all?”

I recognized the voice immediately. It belonged to one of my biggest inspirations. It also belonged to the owner of the record label.

“Pete fucking Wentz is on the phone,” I said, my face deadpanned. Jeremy laughed and wrapped an arm around my shoulder. I heard Pete chuckle and I blushed. Hayley felt the need to introduce us.

“Pete, that was Andy, she’s the drummer. Ryder, this is Pete,” she said, pointing to her phone. Ryder smiled and said hello.

“Isn’t it funny? Fall Out Boy has a drummer named Andy too, hm. Well, hi newbies, I can’t wait to actually meet you and hi oldies, I hope you’re all doing swimmingly.”

“I’ll be doing better when I’m done with all these phone calls,” Taylor said and Pete sighed over the phone as we all murmured in agreement. My heart was pounding now though. I was on the phone with Pete Wentz.

“Sorry guys, it’s the necessary bullshit. I’ll get on with it then, I have some exciting news.”

He paused and was quiet for a while. We all looked at each other and Hayley rolled her eyes.

“Pete?” she asked.

“Oh sorry, I forgot I was talking for a second. I like the new song, its great actually! We’re flying you out to record it and film the music video in a week and a half,” he said.

We all started talking at once. Ryder and I babbled excitedly to one another about recording studios while Jeremy and Hayley discussed filming the video. Taylor sat quietly, nodding his head and smiling. When we calmed down, Pete started talking again.

“If you’re excited about that then you’ll be excited to hear that in three weeks you’re leaving for The World Is Ours tour with We The Kings and The Cab. It’s a full US tour so about two and a half months.”

I nearly pissed myself in excitement. I wondered if tours were always this suddenly planned. Taylor and Hayley looked surprised. I got up and leaped over the table to hug Ryder. She laughed and held on tightly.

“Wait, three weeks? How is that even possible? There’s like, no time to sell tickets or anything,” Hayley said.

“Au contraire, my red-haired friend, once the bio’s came out for Andy and Ryder, people were asking for a tour by the hundreds. With the article about you guys out now, everyone wants Paramore and we’re giving them Paramore. Ticket sales started last night. We’ve already sold out two venues.”

“Holy shit,” Taylor said. Even Jeremy and Hayley looked impressed. I felt lucky and blessed to even be here right now. Ryder and I sat side by side, holding each other’s hands and talking a mile a minute.

“That’s insane,” Jeremy said, “I don’t think that’s happened for us ever.”

“Andy and Ryder, make Twitter accounts and use them religiously, people need to start getting to know and love you. Welcome to the business,” Pete said.

He gave the details to Hayley and said goodbye. I was rocking back and forth on the couch, a grin covering my face. This was probably the best news I’d ever gotten, aside from learning that I was in the band. Ryder seemed a little nervous, but also just as happy as I was.

“Okay, let’s make your butts Twitter accounts then,” Hayley said, running to get her laptop. I nearly fell on the floor in excitement.

“Tour! We’re going on fucking tour I can’t even right now,” I exclaimed, going back over to the couch as there wasn’t much room on the loveseat for me. Jeremy grinned as I fell into the cushions dramatically.

“It’s gonna be so much fun, I’m so excited,” Jeremy said. I bit my lip and wondered about all the possibilities and how great it would be to play my first show in a famous band.

We set up a Twitter for both Ryder and I. I linked mine to my phone and my three band mates tweeted to me. Within twenty minutes, I had over 300 followers. Life was changing for me, massively.

An hour later, I was standing up and saying goodbye to everyone. They all asked me to stay longer and get dinner with them but I had other things to do. I sat in my car and sighed. I had to go see my mom’s therapist.

I’d never been gone for longer than a week before and I usually went to see her every other day. I would be away for longer than two months and I didn’t know how that would affect her.

My life was changing and so was hers.