Bad Management

“And you’re sure we can’t come with you?” Sophia asked as her and Gerard stood in my room whilst I fixed my wavy brown hair.
“I’m positive. It’s just lunch.” I laughed making sure I looked ok with the clothes I’d chosen. I wasn’t expecting to go for a meeting so didn’t pack accordingly. Instead I had a snowman Christmas jumper on and a pair of skinny jeans with my knee high boots and a scarf.
“What if they hurt you.” Gerard asked the ridiculous question as even Sophia rolled her eyes.
“I can take care of myself and besides only one of them is my age, the rest are at least a year younger than me, I think I got it.” I laughed as I walked over to them both. “How do I look?” I smiled twirling a little.
“Unprofessional. Maybe you should call off the meeting and reschedule for a later date. Just saying.” Gerard turned away smiling.
“That’s the name of one of their songs.” I laughed, “but nice try.” I grabbed my bag, phone and purse. “Hold the fort for me?” I looked at Sophia who nodded.
“Trust me I got it sorted. One negative word, one YouTube video or one Google and I will confiscate all technology.” She smiled as she hugged me. “Good luck.” She mumbled as Gerard told me to do my worst. I made my way down the stairs making sure I had everything, planning on just slipping out unnoticed so no one could make a scene.
“So you’re actually going through with it then?” I heard Frank’s voice ring out from the side of me.
“Yeah I am, it’s just a meeting.” I turned to look at him with a matter of fact look on my face.
“You know if you’re doing this to punish me for something then you are twisted, Mikey is terrified your leaving us” he spoke lowly so no one could here, moving closer to me to make sure I heard, the smell of alcohol strong.
“Don’t overestimate your impact on my life Iero. It’s a business meeting that’s all. My Chemical Romance will always remain my band.” I spoke harshly to him, as he closed the gap between me and the door, blocking me from exiting. “I suggest you remove yourself so I can open this door before I shout for Gerard.” I glared at him.
“Go ahead make a scene then you can explain why you’re really doing this.” He spoke again leaning closer.
“Ugh you really are full of yourself aren’t you? I’m doing this because I actually really like this band and I’d like to further my career, as well as help out a bunch of ambitious guys. Sound familiar Iero? Or is all that alcohol stopping proper working function up there?” I poked his forehead sending him off balance a bit, giving my chance to open the door.
“How’s telling yourself you don’t love me going? Cause I fucked Amber last night and I’m seriously reconsidering why I thought we would work at all. She was so fucking good.” I turned to face that son of a bitch smirk on his face, clenching my fists at the side of my body shaking my head and turning quickly on my heels storming over to my car.

I arrived at the hotel with plenty of time to spare before the guys showed up. I went over to our table and made sure I had everything I needed to make this go as smoothly as possible. I was faffing about with glasses when I noticed the front of house waiter gesture my way and behind him four tall punkish guys stood looking extremely nervous. They made their way over to my table as I stood up to greet them, taking a deep breath to steady my nerves. Why was I so nervous? I know why it’s because that asshole got me worked up before I left. I noticed them stand around the table looking at me with a hint of unsureness in their eyes.
“Hey, you must be Ashton, Calum, Luke and Michael.” I smiled, quickly doing the alphabet mentally to show my professionalism. “I’m Georgina Fitzpatrick, but, George is fine.” I bit my lip hyper aware not to ramble on. I pointed to the seats as the guys took a sit down whilst I looked at the middle aged woman who was with them. “I’m sorry I didn’t catch your name?” I smiled politely as she held her hand out to shake mine, something I was not used to at all.
“I’m Maria, the boy’s minder from the record label.” She spoke professionally and I instantly recognised her voice as the one I spoke to two days ago.
“Nice to finally meet you all.” I spoke out after settling down. “I must say I was rather surprised when you suggested meeting me so soon. Not that I’m not happy I just figured you’d want your time off. I understand it’s been a busy few months for you.” I carried on in between everyone giving their order to the waiter.
“Well we have heard so much about you that we wanted to see for ourselves.” The curly haired one spoke out who I recognised as Ashton.
“Wow really? I struggle for Kerrang to recognise my name on their security list.” I laughed as the boys let out a chuckle.
“Yeah, we haven’t been told much just that the band you work with now are successful and are similar to the kind of music we want to be doing. We heard your encouraging of them doing whatever they want to artistically. Something we don’t feel we’re getting at this moment in time.” This time it was the redhead who spoke out. Michael. I had a bit of a soft spot for him.
“Ok, you’ve been told who the band I work for is then?” I breathed out a little nervously. I never wanted to be the person that got jobs because she knew My Chemical Romance, I wanted to be the one who got the jobs because she helped My Chemical Romance.
“No, they just said they were pretty successful.” Michael carried on.
“Well success is a subjective term. I mean you guys are pretty successful, but, not entirely happy, therefore, are you successful?” I laughed taking a sip of my coke when there was a commotion near the door causing us all to look over.
“Is that?” It was Calum who spoke out as he strained his neck to look a little better. Being so short I couldn’t see a thing and assumed it would be a film star or somebody who was making a stayover on their way to the airport. “That’s Gerard Way.” Calum carried on when he finally got a glimpse of who people were fussing over, I inhaled sharply causing coke to go in the back of my throat as I started to cough.
“Oh my god are you ok?” Michael asked patting my back as I just nodded. “Are you a fan of his? I thought you might have met him being in this line of work.” He carried on rubbing my back as Frank and Mikey came into view. Great this was all I needed.
“I’m fine.” My scratchy voice from the coughing came out. “I’m just going to sort my face out.” I laughed as I went to stand up, stopping when I heard my name being called out.
“George!” Frank shouted as I looked up to see his smirk, plastering on my fake smile as they made their way over to our table. “We thought we would come talk about how great you are to these guys.” Frank motioned to the young band in front of me who were looking at the three members of my current group in awe. My look was more of a ‘I am going to kill you’ kind of stare.
“You’re bands My Chemical Romance?” Michael asked looking over at me quickly as the three gate crashers arranged for more seats to be brought to the table.
“Yeah they are.” I tried my hardest to smile, but, sadness creeping its way into my emotions.

It had been at least an hour since the guys decided to join the business meeting they wasn’t invited too. I must say they were pretty well behaved, only chirping in on certain bits.
“Mind if we break here? I need some fresh air.” Michael chirped as I nodded.
“Mind if I join you?” I asked as he stood up, he shook his head letting me know it was ok and waited for me to follow him out. We stood outside for a while before I decided I needed a cigarette, my emotions were slowly getting the better of me and this was the only way of realising them. In a calm, non-hulk kind of way. I stepped a few paces away from Michael as I lit up so the smoke and fumes didn’t go in his direction as he smiled at me.
“You don’t have to move it’s fine.” He laughed as he stood in the steps that I’d just took. “Can I ask you a question?” He fumbled with one of the bands on his wrist something I noticed he did a lot of, must be a nervous trait.
“Sure you can.” I smiled watching his hands before looking up at him.
“Why did you look kind of sad when Gerard, Mikey and Frank walked in and I asked if they were part of your band?” He asked carefully as though they would anger me.
“I’m not sad about them being my band. It’s just” I paused trying to gather my thoughts, “I don’t want people to give me a job because of who I know. I want a job for my ability to do the job properly. I know they are one of your inspirations so I just” I paused again shrugging, “didn’t want that to influence your decision.” I bit my lip hoping I wasn’t to honest, his smile suggesting I wasn’t.
“I like you. You’re honest and true. It makes a difference. It’s been so difficult this past year. I mean we toured with One Direction and it was great and all but it’s not who I am. I want to make a difference in the world. A real difference. I want our band to have a fan base made up of young, old, male, female and those in between. I want them to connect with our music and think that we get it. The schedule has been so gruelling that I honestly feel like I’m starting to fall out of love with my passion.” He opened up so honestly it was like he was doing it for the first time.
“I might not be the person you decide to change as a band with, but, just promise me one thing?” I looked over at him. “Do what is right for you and your friends. They might be your bandmates, your work colleagues but you started off as friends. Friends who had the same passion and reason behind the band. As long as it’s in there of you all you have the ability to do what you started out to do. When My Chemical Romance started the label wanted them so desperately to do pop punk and that just wasn’t who they were. They did song after song after song but it wasn’t right. I remember being sat in this tiny booth listening to the 7000th take of a song that had nothing behind it; no meaning, no passion and honestly I was ready for quitting. We had a band meeting and I told them to remember why they started the band and what they wanted the band to achieve. We created a poster like thing with their end goal, the next day we went to the record label and told them they either accepted the band for who they were or they released them from their contract and we’d find someone who wanted their My Chemical Romance.” I remembered the story smiling.
“What happened?” Michael asked smiling.
“We saw our asses and the next morning I was walking around New York posting their demo tapes.” I laughed a genuine laugh as he let out an almighty roar.
“They dropped them?” He shouted in between laughs.
“They dropped them. But, they still had their band morals and look where they are today.” I smiled.
“Thank you.” He smiled after a while of silence as we stood next to each other, backs against the wall.
“No thank you Michael I needed to remember that.” I smiled nudging him with my hip as I pushed off the wall making my way back inside with him.

Notes