𝘛𝘏𝘌 𝘌𝘔𝘗𝘛𝘠 𝘗𝘈𝘙𝘛𝘚 𝘖𝘍 𝘔𝘌 - HOZIER

IX

"No, actually."

"That's an issue, then. Get on that." Vivienne pushed a bit of hair behind her ear, and Andrew nodded, turning back around as Gwen took her place in front of the band. She gave a quick talk about their progress, how tour started in 4 weeks so they would begin rehearsals 3 times a week, and how the songs for that day would be Would That I and Sunlight, and how everyone needed to get their outfits ready for tour and send them to Gwen so she could coordinate every shows outfits. Vivienne giggled at her overbearing nature, dressing up everyone like dolls to get the perfect amount of publicity, but she would comply anyways.

The rehearsal went without much issue, consisting of 4 hours of work into perfecting the songs to everyone's liking. Vivienne felt much more confident in her performances after the many rehearsals, getting just about no notes from Andrew and Gwen. In fact, it seemed Andrew was getting the most frustrated. He was hypercritical of his singing, at times restarting the song entirely to fix his one mistake that only he noticed. By the end of the rehearsal, his eyebrows seemed permanently knitted together.

"You seen Vivi?" Isiah whispered as Andrew aided in tear down, wrapping up cords and picking up sheet music. He stopped in his tracks at the odd new nickname that seemed to carry in the group quickly. "That haircut..." Isiah trailed off, arms crossed over his chest.

"Yeah. Looks good." Andrew muttered, organizing the papers into a neat stack between his hands.

"She'd look better under me." Isiah remarked, earning a quick smack to the side of his head from Andrew. He winced, turning to complain, but quickly shutting his mouth again when he caught the piercing glare from Andrew's eyes. "My bad, mate."

It took no more than 10 minutes for the band to clear out of the house, leaving just Andrew and Vivienne.

"You ready?" Vivienne asked, walking back into the living room with her biking suit. Andrew sighed loudly as he turned around, rubbing the skin between his brows. "What's with the attitude?"

"It's not an attitude..." He grumbled, throwing sheet music onto Gwen's empty desk.

"That looks like a shit ton of attitude to me." Vivienne joked, and Andrew had to force back a smile.

"I'm just..." He exhaled through his hand over his mouth. "We're a few weeks out and I feel like i'm underperforming."

"Underperforming?" Vivienne scoffed. "You're the main talent."

"Exactly, and I'm not operating at the level that I need to be." One of Andrew's hands accentuated his words as he began to pace around, his other hand running through his hair.

"Andrew, you're doing just fine." Vivienne replied, not reading his anxious state.

"It's not, I need to be better. I need to impress the crowds-"

Vivienne quickly caught on to his spiraling. "Andrew."

He continued to pace in small circles. "And I need to impress the record-"

"Andrew." She emphasized, raising her voice a bit. Andrew just waved his hand and continued his erratic steps.

"And I need to impress Gwen with the sales. A-and I need to impress yo-"

Before he could finish the word that had his heart racing from the idea of saying; Vivienne had firm hands on the flaps of his jacket, yanking him into place in front of her. He stumbled to a tall standing position, craning his neck down to look at her. She peered up with an expression screaming of concern, but also confusion at his sudden breakdown.

"Dude." She spoke, monotonous yet her voice smooth and sweet to Andrew as always. "You need to calm down."

Her blunt statement, although seemingly unhelpful, was enough to make him finally take a breath. "I know..."