It's Not Over Yet (the seventh book in the glee series)

Chapter 86: VMAs 2028

"Like what?" asked Dani, glancing back down at her phone, uninterested.

"Like an opening spot on someone's tour," Zoe suggested. "Kayli says she's going on Julie's tour. I need something like that to keep me on the road and busy and in people's minds no matter what happens with this hiatus."

Dani looked up at her again and pointed out, "But you don't have any solo music. Kayli has songs she can do. She has a song with Julie and they're friends and all that. You going on tour with someone..."

"I can do covers and solo versions of our songs," Zoe said. "Just a quick fifteen minute slot or something. Just find me something. Please."

Dani sighed, nodding, "Okay... I won't guarantee anything where you may fit but I'll ask around and... Try to find out if there's something available for you."

"Yay!" Zoe jumped up to hug Dani. "I promise you it'll be worth it. For me and the group!"

"Yeah, sure," Dani muttered as Zoe hurried back to the group, her perspective on the hiatus already looking much brighter.

***

"I already told them I didn't wanna do it," Damian rolled his eyes, sitting in a meeting with his team and Sebastian at Blackbird Records.

"Why would you decline?" Sebastian asked, frustrated. "Headlining the SuperBowl is a huge deal."

"Not for me," Damian disagreed. "Man, you know the NFL owners are garbage. I don't wanna be associated with them. I don't need them."

"They're still calling," Sebastian shrugged. "So clearly they're still interested even if you already shot them down once."

"And I'll keep shooting them down," said Damian, standing up. "Look, it's not good for my image. Let some other sucker take the gig. I'll even put in a good word for whoever you wanna push to the slot. But me? I'm not getting involved, Sebastian. It's a big, fat no."

He pushed his chair out of the way and exited the meeting, stomping off like an angry teenager. That's what it felt like for Sebastian, running both labels now. Like dealing with a bunch of angsty teens.

***

Luckily, the king of angst himself, Alex Zimmerman, wasn't a part of either label. In fact, he had received an offer to be bought back to Blackbird, but seeing all the drama the label was facing, he shut it down. Sebastian wasn't going to toy with him, not ever again.

But even as he told himself this, he was kind of missing the constant drama while on the Wildcat 2 set. With Julie, Skye and even Darlene all wrapped, there was nothing interesting happening during filming and he was utterly bored.

It didn't help that Mabel was also filming for a guest spot on a TV show, so she was off the grid for the week. He had no one to talk to.

"You have me," Kara said when Alex expressed his feelings to her over lunch one day after early morning reshoots. "And after this week you'll be completely done with this movie, right? So you'll have anyone you want. You can come home."

"I like Atlanta, being here isn't the problem," Alex shook his head. "And I have Rosie here and, yeah, you fly in every once in a while wherever we're filming but... I don't know. It's like... Nothing's particularly wrong in my life right now. I don't have any problems to solve or anything."

"Because you're accustomed to the drama," Kara laughed, shaking her head at him. "There would always be a fire to put out before but... You can relax now. You're doing so well and you've got the VMAs coming up and... You have Mabel. I really like her for you."