They Don't Believe In Us

chapter xxvii

“I’ve kinda been up a while.” The conversation continued quite like this until everyone finished their meals and went their separate ways to get freshened up. It was another half an hour, that I wasted messing around on my phone, until we were all collectively gathered in the kitchen again.

“I’m going to call that guy, from Eyeball Records.” Gerard announced pulling the card he’d been given yesterday from his jean pocket. We all hushed as Gerard dialled the number, he put it on speaker, and the ringing tone didn’t last long before someone picked up.

“Hello?” The voice said, sounding like the man from yesterday.

“It’s me Gerard Way, from yesterday at the competition.” Gerard nervously ran a finger through his greasy hair.

“From My Chemical Romance!”

“Yes,”

“I was honestly so worried you wouldn’t call, I wasn’t expecting you to call this quickly. But the offer is still standing, would you like a record deal?” Gerard, trying to keep his excitement under control replied with yes.

“You’ll have to come in to Eyeball Records to look over the contract with the rest of your bandmates; I hope we can work something out.” They continued talking, the man saying to come to the recording studio as soon as possible.

“We’ve got a contract! A contract!” Mikey said in disbelief, “He only heard us play two songs – that aren’t even our own!”

Unable to control my excitement I hugged Bob, expressing how proud I was. He stroked my hair absentmindedly.

“Yesterday I never expected anything like this would be happening today.” He grinned.

All ten of us walked out of Jamia’s house, and towards where the studio was, we’d been given directions, it was in central Jersey.

The afternoon was light and breezy, although the sky was grey, typical NJ weather; the air was still pleasant, without sweltering and unpleasant heat.

We were all chatting indifferently, speaking over each other however it wasn’t annoying, it was nice, we were just a group of friends, excited and beaming friends nonetheless.

The studio was rather shabby, I recalled the label producer telling us that they were an independent label, however I knew that Gerard listened to some bands that had once been, or still were signed to this label, thus this was such a big opportunity, especially for five boys who were aged sixteen or fifteen.

They got speaking straight away, Gerard produced all the songs he’d written, only four so far.

“You have a few months to write a whole album worth of songs, before we start recording, if you agree, I’ll immediately start promoting the band around NJ and NYC.”

They went over the contract, pouring through each and every tiny detail, checking any loopholes and dangers that they’d all heard about with various record labels. It took around two hours, but finally, they all signed, swooping signatures in black ink down of paper. Official.

Over the course of those few months my life resumed quite as normal. Studying. School. Friends. I focused on school just as much as I focused on it before, before the bands rising fame. I was the rational one, reminding Gerard not to get too stressed out over his writing, as he often expressed how worried he was that he wouldn’t get good quality songs written by the deadline, but I had no doubts of his lyrical talent. I also reminded the whole band to not get too engrossed in their music. They were all basically only sixteen, Gerard, Lindsey and I were soon turning seventeen and the others were all either sixteen or fifteen still. We all still had school to think about, Frank, Mikey and Ray were finished their GSCE’s, Gerard and I were studying for A-levels, although he continuously spoke about dropping out, as did Mikey. I expressed my dislike for this idea, however I knew I couldn’t control them, they’d begun calling me Mama Hope, which wasn’t a nickname I wanted to be lugged with for the rest of my teenager years.