Servant of Lust

Chapter 26

The next weeks just fly by. We keep working on our Christmas album, I spend a lot of time with James, of course, and we even fly out to my parents. I tell them the whole story, too. They are not proud of what I did, but accept me and James as well. And that's really all I can ask for.

James is doing great, too. I had urged him to finish the book about us he had started and really want him to publish it some day. He's working hard on it and finishes the first manuscript by in late October. I read the whole thing within a day and a night and it's brilliant.

James and my relationship couldn't be better. We have done a therapy together to deal with the outcome of everything that happened in Chicago. It's good to have a professional to guide us through the process of reliving all the things that were done to us. And we need to do it. When Alex had mentioned a possible appointment with the therapist we weren't too fond of it but made a promise to go to the first session. At the end of it we felt both better and worse. Better because it helped, worse because there was still a long way coming up for us. But Alex had been right.

~

In the middle of November it is finally time to put out our new Christmas album. It's basically a deluxe edition of the one we published before we broke up but with a few new tracks.

For the first video, Joy to the World we decide to pull a Beyoncé, as Scott named it, just uploading the video out of the blue. Two days later we'd release the album. We're all exited, yet anxious about it, because this will show if the fans still want us.

On the day of the release we all gather in our house to just be together for the release and the immediate response of the fans.

"Are y'all ready?" Scott is sitting at the laptop, mouse hovering over the button that would make the video public.

"Do it already" I urge him on.

And so he does, it is out. We all cheer and hug each other before we tweet it out from every account possible.

I'm doing so, too. It is the first tweet I'm sending out since my 'break'.

"Hey everyone. Yeah I'm back. We're back. A lot has happened but there's still music! Check out our new video? Joy to the world!"

I cringe at my choice of word but send it out nevertheless because I really don't know what else to say.

"Now we can only hope and wait" Esther announces. It doesn't take long for the twitter notifications to come in. Especially mine don't stop. Of course everyone wants to know about my absence and there are questions like Will you do superfruit again?

I expected that and already talked about it with Scott. We will be recording a new Superfruit during the next days planning to explain a little bit about our break and my absence.

"There will be a new @/ superfruit on Tuesday with an explanation. But be sure that everything's alright, we're all still so in love with each other."

I put my phone away as I feel James' arms wrapping around my body from behind. "Are you happy" he asks softly.

"Mmhm..." I lean against him and let him kiss my cheek. "We worked on this so hard, I'm just so relieved that it's out now!"

"You earned it so much, Mitch" he says softly. "Now let's go to the other's, they're popping the champagne."

I giggle as he pushes me over to the rest of our friends. I look around the tray with the glasses unsure until Scott taps my shoulder.

"Here for you" he says, holding a bottle of non-alcoholic champagne. "Wouldn't want you to have nothing to drink."

He opens the bottle and pours a glass for himself and me. "To us, little Mitchy. To our comback" Our glasses clink and we share a hug and a soft kiss on each other's cheek, before taking a sip.

For the rest of the evening we just enjoy the feeling of having something new out. The comments are mainly positive, the fans are more than happy to have us back.

~

Our comeback is successful for the moment. Our album is in the top ten and we're busy with promo and stuff. It's so good to be back in this life and even better to finally be able to share it with someone.

James got good news, too. Alex has used all his contacts and found a publisher for the book. Him and Alex spend a lot of time polishing the manuscript, making it perfect. That way he doesn't even notice that I'm out that much.

That will change, however, because we're going on a short tour all over Northern America, playing a few shorter sets.

James has a lot of stuff to do with the book and the blog he's writing for. Plus he wants me to be with the band. Alex is staying home with him, so it will be Pentatonix only. Just like the old times.

Our first show is in Los Angeles and he'll be there with me.  It's a good feeling to have him around. Yet I'm so glad that he's getting along well with everyone else, because I don't really have time for him with rehearsal and stuff. We're only doing a short set, six songs plus Daft Punk as an encore, yet it's not easy to get back into the swing.

The last minutes before we go on stage I'm happy to have James with me. I'm nervous, no, anxious, even crying a little bit and literally clinging on to him.

He sits down with me, holding me tight, rocking me softly, while whispering in my ear how proud he is and how hard I've worked to be here. When he tells me to slay the hell out of it I have to actually laugh hard and forget about all my worries.

"I love you, you know" I say softly.

He kisses my lips softly and wipes the few tears away from my cheeks. "I love you, too. Now get your make up fixed and get out there. I can't wait to watch you!"

I get over to Genevieve who sighs deeply when she sees my ruined appearance but gets to work quickly, erasing all signs of my previous crying.

Only ten minutes later we're hitting the stage. Lots of people are there but I only have eyes for James, who's standing in a corner near the stage with everyone else from our team.

We start off with Cracked and continue with Joy to the World and Misbehavin'. That's the first time the song has a literal meaning to me, too, since I'll be leaving to New York the next day.

~~~~~~~

A/N: Hello, my name is 26 and I'm just a filler.
I know I promised you some drama and you're going to get it, I just needed to skip some time and so on.

Vote and Comment with your thoughts, if you liked reading this little weird something.

So... now I'm about to watch superfruit :)