CAMILLA
When she first came to L.A she was thrown off by how fast-paced it all was. Well, in comparison to small town Vermont, anything was fast-paced. Briar laughed and told her that she should see New York, if she thought Los Angeles was a fast-moving city. Sometimes it still catches her off guard. Redding was a slow, sleepy town shrouded in woods and old buildings. The nearest McDonalds was forty-five minutes out and the most traffic they'd get would be on the main road stretching from end-to-end of their square-mile town. Contrarily, it feels Los Angeles has a fast food spot every couple of blocks, and the traffic is inarguably miserable.
She'd met Aaron not too long after she moved out to record her album. They'd really only met a handful of times before they were bound to Zoom calls for most communication. Still, he'd always been nice to her, reminding her that he wanted her to go far. Whereas it'd taken trial and error to find Briar — it'd been easy to put her faith in Aaron.
His office is in a high rise building with glass elevators and a fancy fountain in the lobby. She's better dressed today — taking a diffuser to her curls in the morning, putting on a nicer pair of jeans and a button-down shirt that actually fits the way it should.
She breezes inside and makes for that glass elevator, pressing the number for the right floor and then watching as the street below gets smaller and smaller with a childlike wonder to her staring. Her gifts for tonight were already wrapped. A stack of new games for Remi's Xbox, a portable easel for Julia, and a care package of crochet materials for Marco (along with some headache-helper candles for him, all things considered).
The plan was to go home, change into something comfier and maybe buy a bottle of wine for the occasion.
All she had to do was get through this meeting with the man she'd affectionately named Old Man #2 in her contacts.
Fist knocking on a heavy black wooden door to his office, all she gets is a gruff 's'open' on the other end, and she steps inside all the same.
Aaron sits behind his desk, earpiece on, in his typical suit-and-tie dress and salt and pepper hair neatly combed. The faint taps of him typing on his Mac desktop fills the space, and he would be intimidating were it not for the steaming 'We ♡ Dad' coffee mug right by his mouse.
His intimidation-factor is also ruined when he looks at her, and his stern brow breaks in favor of a smile — all crows feet and pearly-white teeth.
"There's my girl. Missed you over the holidays."
"Been getting that one a lot lately," Cam acknowledges with an easy smile. He gestures to the chair across from his own, raising a brow at her. "I missed you too." And then he's nodding, approving, really sticking true to his title as the second most important old man in her life.
"Well, a lot of people want you around," is what he offers as explanation, blue-gray eyes shifting to his monitor again to click and type at breakneck speeds. Quick enough to make her head spin, but also an acute reminder of all that he does — not just for her, but the other artists he manages, most of which she's never met beyond passing exchanges in this very room. "Speaking of which, I wanted to talk to you about that."
"About..." Aaron looks at her again, pushing his keyboard aside to lean forward on his desk.
"I'll keep it short and simple so you don't start picking your nails and Briar calls me up about stressing you out again," her cheeks flush at the memory — the early days where her producer had called her bloodied cuticles a tragedy. "You got asked to join a band on tour as their opener. And I told them I'd talk to you about it first."
For a moment, Cam's heart beats a little faster. Sweaty palms, heart in her throat, curiosity piqued. She dares to ask the question.
"Which one?" Curious, leaning forward. There's that suppressed, excited glint to Aaron's eye that Cam can't ignore.
"You ever heard of 5 Seconds of Summer?"
Were it not for the chair she was sitting in, she's fairly sure her legs would've given out.
To say she knew every one of their songs would be an overstatement, but to say she never heard of them would just be a lie. Nico liked them, and put their songs on in the car when she'd drive him to school. She had her favorites and an appreciation for any artist that came from a small town to be something. So yeah, she'd heard of them — she just never imagined that they heard of her.
Judging by the way Aaron's grinning, he's seeing right through her to that part of her that wants to scream or jump around the room. Probably both.
"Yeah I— I mean... who hasn't, I just— okay, no offense, but how did you—,"
"They came to me about it," he explains, "or rather, their manager. They saw that video of you in San Diego that ended up going viral," Aaron reaches for his coffee mug, takes a sip. "And something about a girlfriend being at that show too. I told them I'd talk to you about it and—"
"I'll do it." It's so quick that she hardly even realizes she's said it before it's slipped out of her own mouth. Aaron sets down the mug.
"Slow down, Cam," he chides. "It's the European leg. Overseas, for two months. And I know it's a good business move but you're the one who has another album to write, am I correct?" She nods at that, lets her gaze hone in on her own barely-there reflection in the glass portion of his desk. "Is that something you can do? Writing on the road? You've been talking about writer's block for a minute now."
That was the thing about managers, and Aaron had explained it to her as such. Sure, he was there to make sure she made smart business choices, didn't sign bad contracts or anything like that. But he's also there to pull her down to Earth.
And yet, the idea of remaining stagnant right now sounds nauseating. Suffocating, even — just staring at her notebook and sitting in a studio trying to force something that won't come out. Going home hadn't helped much, being here didn't help either.
Maybe she needed something new.
"I can do it," Cam says after a moment. "I... I want to do it. But I think I uh... need to renew my passport. I haven't left the country since I was sixteen." Aaron chuckles at that, but nods all the same.
"Then I'll let them know. Rehearsals start in a month. Once I have all the details I'll forward them to you."
And at that, Cam brightens, feeling as on top of the world as one can be.
—
FAMILIA♡
cam: guess who's going to europe in april? :)
mama: What!!!!! That's amazing!!! Why?
old man #1: Please don't get lost in the airport
cam: Aaron booked me as an opener
cam: opening for 5sos for their EU tour
nico: for WHO??!?
mama: Oh so NOW he decides to open the family groupchat!
mama: So so proud of you mija <3 Please send us so many pictures!
nico: as ur favorite brother u should totally fly me out... just saying...
cam: i'll think about it x
—
She gets out at four, after another hour with Aaron, who was already starting on getting her papers in order. That was how he worked — always wanting to be ahead of the curve whenever possible.
In the two hours between getting out and her anticipated arrival at Marco's, she buys that bottle of wine and does her best to text back her family — or rather, her brother, who's blowing up her phone like it's a full time job. Trying to give him answers is another thing entirely, and she has to continuously remind him she'd only just found out about everything a few hours before him.
Marco's apartment is considerably bigger than her own, which she figures comes from the fact that he'd been living with his boyfriend for a while now. A twenty-minute drive, and if she queues up the CALM album just to keep riding this career high then that's no one's business but hers. She'd changed into dark green sweatpants and a black crewneck for comfort beforehand, and packed the gifts into her backseat.
She pulls into the underground lot — Marco let her use his spot since he didn't drive anyway, grateful that the largest of her gifts could still be tucked comfortably under her arm.
Up the elevator, straight to his apartment, and she's only just knocked on the door when it swings open and she's greeted with bright blue hair and green eyes. Remi scrunches their nose in mock disappointment.
"Damn, is the pizza guy behind you?"
"I miss when you were nice to me."
Remi breaks into a grin, steps aside to let her in.
"They've already started, just so you know," and judging by the clamor down the hallway, she can assume they mean Julia and Marco.
"What, opening gifts?" Remi shakes their head.
"Arguing." Cam snorts as Remi trails behind her, walking down the hallway into the kitchen and living room. Whatever the two were arguing about fizzles out with a gasp and a squeal from Julia that she's fairly sure could break the sound barrier — jumping from the couch to throw her arms around Cam and squeeze.
"Cami!" A kiss to her cheek, a bright smile as she takes the wrapped boxes to set them with the others in the corner by Marco's still standing Christmas tree, which—
"Cam, can you tell Julia that it is perfectly acceptable to keep a Christmas tree up past January?" Marco declared. The redhead, who had resumed her spot hanging off Cam as Remi threw themself unceremoniously onto the couch, scoffs and rolls her eyes.
"Can you tell Marco that his tree is way too small for him to be so lazy about taking it down!" Julia declares with a huff. Cam snorts, reaches up to pat one of Julia's arms which had been thrown around her neck.
"Can I at least sit down before you put me on the clock?" She asks, before adding, "Also, I brought wine."
Another excited squeal leaves Julia's lips as she's letting Cam go to flutter into the kitchen to get the glasses, and Cam takes up the empty space by Marco's side. He looks over into the kitchen with a bewildered look as Julia searches through the cabinets.
"What I would give to operate on whatever plane of existence she's on every day," Marco laments, and Cam snorts, leaning into his side. His arm rests lazily around her shoulders to give her a squeeze.
"Mix a frappe and a Red Bull and I imagine the feeling's probably the same," Remi remarks airily, grabbing for the remote for the TV and staking claim.
"Stop talking like I can't hear you!" Julia declares, and the three of them exchange an amused look as they wait for her to realize the wine glasses are in the same spot they're always in — the dish drain, because Marco's boyfriend is some kind of connoisseur of the stuff. Cam tilts her head back until it's resting on the swell of Marco's arm.
"So how was the meeting with Aaron?" She lifts up her fingers and wiggles them to show that they're all still there.
"He still loves me," Cam starts out with, and Marco chuckles. "A lot actually. He uh— he booked me. For the next two months as an opener." At that, Marco's eyebrows raise and Remi perks up from where they'd been mindlessly scrolling through YouTube videos on the TV.
"No shit?" They ask, and Cam nods her assent.
"Which... reminds me — how do you guys feel about Europe? I mean— you're probably gonna get the call in a few days anyway but I just figured—"
"As long as I get to take a cute picture in one of those red telephone boxes you've got me." Julia declares as she makes her way back in with wine glasses, a wide smile on her face as she makes for the bottle. She gives Cam a pointed look though, as if to say she'd have her either way. Then, she starts pouring wine into glasses and there's another knock at the door that has Remi up and out of their seat. Pizza guy, presumably.
"Opener for who?" Marco asks, and just as Cam's about to answer Julia claps her hands together.
"Okay, the interrogation is thrilling but can we get to the fun bit before the work bit? It's present time." She asks, or rather demands, since it wasn't like either of them were going to oppose her anyway. "Great! Okay, Cam goes first for leaving me behind for the Northeastern wilderness or something."
Cam can't help but laugh, rolling her eyes as Remi comes back with pizza boxes and Julia is making for the tree. The redhead takes two smaller boxes and sits them directly in front of her, before making for a third, larger box. Then she sits on the floor, directly in front of her as Marco makes for a garbage bag he had folded up on the coffee table.
"Best for last." Julia declares. Who is Cam to question it?
The first is from Marco — a dark blue weighted blanket that has her smiling and his cheeks flushing when she thanks him. The second is Remi's, a smaller box with a mushroom patterned case for her Nintendo Switch.
"Everytime you toss that shit in your bag it stresses me out." They declare, and Cam just giggles as she thanks them.
The last is Julia's gift, which she has to get on the floor to open.
The box that Cam unwraps is more like a case, but still unassuming. Julia is rocking back and forth with barely-contained giddiness as she sips from her wine glass. Cam pops the gold latches, then opens it slowly — in part for dramatics and in part because the lid is heavy.
What waits for her inside might just be the prettiest guitar she's ever seen.
Caramel-colored with steel strings, the lamp light catches on the polish and makes the thing gleam. Cam's lips part on a silent gasp and she looks up at Julia, who's just smiling.
"Figured with y'know... a new album, probably more new visuals and stuff, you could use a new toy," Julia hums as Cam reaches to pry the instrument out of its case with her fingers. "It's already tuned if you wanna—"
Cam can't resist, she strums on a G-chord and her stomach does a flip at the sound.
The last guitar she had was a gift for her eleventh birthday. Cash liked to slap stickers on it that he found online or at stores, and on the case. It was the only one she'd ever owned and she didn't have the heart to pick the things off after they broke up.
This one's a blank canvas, and something about that makes her thrilled.
"I love it." Cam says immediately. She could kiss her if she didn't already want to play another chord, which she does. Over the sound of her strumming, she hears Marco's ringtone.
"Oh, that's Aaron, guess I'm getting the nod." He says simply before he answers. Cam trains her gaze on her fingers as they press into the steel strings. C, G, A minor, F — she's fairly sure that she hears the shudder of Julia's camera, but she doesn't mind. She's too preoccupied with making the guitar sing for her to worry about the angle Julia took the picture from.
"Cam!" She stops at the sound of Marco's half-scold, looks back to him and his eyes blown wide. She scrunches her nose, puzzled by the look on his face.
"What?"
"You didn't tell me you're opening for fucking 5 Seconds of Summer!"