Just One Yesterday - Patrick Stump

Chapter 1

The annoying drone of my alarm pierces my ears. I open my eyes, stunned for a moment before I reach over and tell my phone to shut up. I stretch and throw my blankets off. I drag by legs off the bed, letting my feet find the carpet. I slowly stand, my knees cracking. I walk over to my window and open the blinds, letting the sunlight fill my room, showcasing the dust floating through the air.

I open my squeaky bedroom door and make my way down the short hall into the living room/kitchen. I walk to the Keurig and turn it on while checking my messages. I have a reminder about the meeting today from my manager, but that's all. The unsettling sound of the whirring suddenly stops, letting me know that it's ready to brew. I look up from my phone and stick a K-cup in the slot. I close the lid, letting the needle on the top pierce into the K-cup. The smell of coffee wafts in my nose as the machine starts to spurt out my bitter bean water.

I walk away from the machine and into the bathroom to pee, wash my face, brush my teeth, and fix my hair. By the time I'm done my coffee is ready. I take my to-go cup and put a lid on it, sitting it beside my keys so I don't forget.

I quickly throw together my signature outfit which consists of some skinny jeans and whatever shirt is clean. I grab my items and run out my door to my car. By this time it's 9:30 and my meeting is at 10. I quickly turn my car on and turn the heat on full blast since it's the middle of October and it's starting to get chilly. 

I get out and lock the door of my Nissan XTerra after my 10 minute drive to my manager's office. I slide my sunglasses on and quickly run through the door. The receptionist smiles at me as I rush past, down the long hall and into the 4th door on the left.

"Sorry I'm late," I say, taking my sunglasses off so I can get a better view. My manager, Melissa isn't even in the room yet, but 4 men are. 

"You're not late, but I think your manager is," The tan one with black hair says. I quietly giggle as I sit down in the seat across from them.

I get a better look at them once I'm sat and I catch my breath. The one on the end has a ginger military cut with a matching beard. His arms are covered in tattoos, and he has what looks to be a fresh one peaking up from under his shirt and covering the front of his neck. The tan one with black hair is beside him. He is equally covered in tattoos. Beside him is a man who looks to be taller than the rest of them. He has a very bushy afro which bounces around with every movement he makes. He also has tons of tattoos. But the one that draws my attention is the guy on the end. He's smaller and more reserved than the others. His face is slightly chubby and round. His green eyes are framed by black square glasses. His blond hair is covered with a black fedora, his bangs peeking through. He looks to have no visible tattoos which is strange since the rest of his band members are covered in them.

"So, the Fall Out Boys," I say, scooting my chair closer to the wooden table and setting my elbows down. Melissa rushes in, her blonde curls look to be quite messed up from the wind. She catches her breath as she evaluates the scene in front of her.

"Looks like you're not the late one for once," She makes fun of me as she tries to brush her hair out with her fingers.

"Shut up," I laugh at her as she takes a seat beside me.

Melissa has been my best friend since high school. After finding out I could sing, she instantly tried to get me signed to every label she knew of. I never really hired her to be my manager, it just naturally happened.

"So, hi! My name is Melissa and this is Sam," She introduces us.

"Well, I'm Pete," The tan one starts, "And this is Andy, Joe, and Patrick," The three of them wave. Patrick has his cardigan sleeves pulled over his hands, a habit which I also partake in. "We're here with a proposition,"

"Which I have no knowledge of," I say, giving Melissa a dirty look. She elbows me, trying to get me to listen to them.

"So as you may or may not know, were in a band called Fall Out Boy. We had a hiatus for a while but were ready to come back! So we're writing an album called Save Rock and Roll and we wanted you to be a part of it," Pete shares. I'm taken by surprise. I've never been offered to collaborate with someone on anything considering I'm pretty new to the whole music scene and I'm not that popular.

"Are you sure?" I ask.

"Sam!" Melissa exclaims.

"What! These are some big boys and I'm just a small girl!" I respond. I look over and see Patrick smiling at me and adjusting his glasses.

"Well, that's the thing. We love introducing new people who we love to the music scene and we think that you would be the perfect fit," Patrick chimes in. His voice is very small. 

"So this isn't like a thing that your record label put you up to?" I ask.

"Well, we are our own record label," Pete chuckles.

"So, wait, you guys discovered me? Then decided to collab with me?"

"That's not all," Melissa says excitedly. 

"We wanted to sign you to our label!" Pete exclaims. I'm taken aback by his words, looking from Melissa to Pete, then back to Melissa.

"Why did you not inform me that this was what the meeting was about!" I yell at Melissa. 

"I wanted to see your reaction!" She says, then starts laughing. I start laughing along, finally hugging her. Tears start streaming down my cheeks as I laugh with her.

"Holy shit!" I exclaim.

Since Melissa and I decided to take my talents to the next level, we never really struck out with any record labels. They didn't like my unique sound. I can admit that I have a strange voice and that I'm not committed to one genre of music, but that should be a good thing in record labels eyes I think. I mean, I can bring in fans of all music tastes since I pretty much cover every genre in my one album.

Once we graduated high school we decided to move to LA together to try and strengthen our chances. Still, nobody was interested in us, so we decided to record an album and release it ourselves. It got pretty popular with my one single making the top 100 charts of 2012. Even so, nobody showed any interest. 

Being INVITED to be signed by a label completely shocked me after begging others to sign me. Nonetheless the same label that has Travie McCoy, Panic! At The Disco, and Fall Out Boy under it.

I pull away from our hug and grab Melissa's hand. Both of our cheeks are tear stained and red. I turn back around to the band with a huge smile on my face.

"YES!" I finally answer them. They all mumble happily as I run over to Pete and hug him.

"I'm sorry this is just, it's so big for us!" I laugh after pulling away from the hug.

"Don't apologize! Just your reaction is the reason we do this," Patrick says, taking his turn to hug me. After hugging the rest of the band they invite us to go and eat somewhere. Of course I accept because I love food but Melissa has some paperwork to do so she decides to stay.

"So where do you like to eat?" Pete asks. I wipe away the tears on my cheeks as I decide.

"I could go for a burger,"

We all pile into Pete's Range Rover and take off. His car still has the new smell to it which is strangely comforting to me. I can feel the heat of the leather seats through my jeans since his car had been sitting in the sun. The A/C feels nice, and the vanilla air fresheners he put in them are an added bonus. 

"What do you listen to?" He asks me, handing me the aux. 

"No, you can play music," I try and hand it back to him but he wont take it.

"You agreed to be in the front seat so you're the DJ. Plus we want to get to know you!" He says. I grumble as I plug it into my phone. I scroll through my music until I finally decide to play a song called First Love/Late Spring by Mitski. As soon as the bass starts playing through the speakers, Pete perks up. "Mitski!"

"You know her?" I ask surprised.

"We listen to a lot of music," Joe explains. 

"The black hole/ Of the/ Window/ Where you sleep," I quietly sing along to the song, closing my eyes and relaxing back into the seat.

I think I'm going to enjoy the company of these boys.