Hold Fast

The next few weeks were crazy. With the phone call from the record company on our minds and school coming to an end and graduation, we were spent. The five of us had put all of our spare time into music, Kellin becoming our unofficial manager while in Colorado. We played a few shows since coming home from LA.
The last day that we had been there, I had decided that I was moving to California after graduating. I had talked to Mike about it and he was willing to go with me and we wanted to take the guys with us. I was praying that Kellin would agree to come with us. I was even considering asking his friends to come and we could all rent a house together. Nine guys all living in one house, how could it possibly go wrong right?
Kellin, Mike and I were all sitting in my room working on some last minute homework that we neglected to do. We had had all month to work on it and like idiots we waited until the night before to even begin it. It was about 8 PM when my phone rang. I didn’t recognize the number but I answered it anyway.
“Hello?” Mike and Kellin looked at me from their work.
“Hello, is this Vic?” A male voice asked.
“Yes this is him, may I ask who’s calling?”
“Hey there, it’s Jason.” My eyes widened, earning confused looks from the other two.
“Hi Jason, how can I help you?” My heart was pounding, threatening to beat right out of my chest. Kellin and Mike both moved closer to me to listen in on the conversation.
“No I think it’s me who will be helping you.” He chuckled. “I wanted to call and say congratulations, Fearless has agreed to sign your band.” I dropped my phone. I couldn’t believe it, we were signed! All of the hard work had paid off. “Hello?” I heard Jason ask after a moment of silence.
“Yes, I’m here. Sorry.” I blushed as Mike and Kellin stared wide eyes at me. I was glad that they were too shocked to actually respond. I had a feeling it wouldn’t be quiet.
“As soon as you guys are graduated this year, we’ll begin the preperations for the contract. Hope you guys have a nice night and I’ll be in touch.”
“Thank you Jason. I’ll talk to you later.” I hung up the phone and did a little victory dance of excitement.
“WE DID IT!” I practically screamed.
“They signed us?” Mike looked like he might explode with anticipation. I nodded my head quickly.
“You have to call Jaime and Tony!” Kellin yelled, pulling his phone from his pocket and typing out what I assumed to be a message to the two of them.
“And our parents.” Mike added. He stood, pulling Kellin and I to our feet and dragging us downstairs. We found my parents in the living room watching some TV program. Mike walked over and stood in front of the TV. “Mom, Dad, we have good news.”
“What is it son?” My dad asked as he turned the TV off.
“We’ll tell you as soon as Tony and Jaime get here.” I explained as Kellin and I sat on the couch. Not even a minute later, there was a knock at the door and Tony and Jaime walked in.
“So what’s this urgent news that couldn’t wait for tomorrow Kellin?” Jaime asked as he and Tony stood behind my parents at the couch.
“The record label called.” He said with a smirk. Their eyes widened.
“What happened?” My mom asked, her interests peeked. I looked over at Mike, silently asking if he wanted the honors. He nodded eagerly and blurted out the news.
“They’re signing us!” Jaime and Tony both blinked at us before it registered. They both jumped and yelled in excitement.
“Mijo, we’re so proud of you. All of you.” My father stood and gave Mike and I a hug.
“Thanks dad.” I smiled. It was so nice knowing that my parents were happy for us. We had wanted this for so long and now it was finally a reality.
The next hour or so was spent talking about what we should ask from the record company in our contract. I really didn’t want to wind up being a puppet for the music world. If we were going to write music, we were going to do it by our terms. So with all of that figured out, next came the hard question.
“So, I had this idea.” I spoke up as the conversation was winding down. This got everyone’s attention. “What if we moved to San Diego?”
“Like, in California?” Tony questioned. I nodded my head. He turned to Mike who smiled at him and nodded as well, then he turned to Jaime and Kellin.
“I’m down if you are.” Jaime responded. “I won’t really miss a lot of people here.” He had a good point.
“Kellin?” I asked, looking directly at him. He bit his lip slightly, not really sure how to respond.
“I’d love to, but what about my mom?” this was also a good point. Kellin was all that his mom had left.
“Kellin, sweetie.” My mom offered. “All your mom wants is for you to be happy. I’m sure if you told her that this is what you want, she’ll support you.” Man I loved my mom. She always knew just what to say in these situations. Kellin gave her a grateful look and reached over for my hand.
“Then, I’ll go too.” I leaned over and kissed him gently. “Besides, what would you do without me?”
“Die a bitter and lonely boy.” I stated over dramatically. This caused everyone to laugh, but I truly meant what I had said. I didn’t know how I would live my life if Kellin had told me know. In the short amount of time we had been blessed with, I had grown completely accustomed to having him at my side. I was convinced that without him, I wouldn’t be here telling my family this good news. He would deny it, but Kellin was the reason why I was able to pursue my dreams.