I narrowed my eyes at him. “Why would you guys hide this from me?”
Be
n laughed. “Jax didn’t think you would want all this fuss and…Will kind of found an agent for us.”
“An agent?” I asked shocked. “Like, we’re not just taking photos, and laying down a few tracks tomorrow, but they expect us to get further than this?”
Ben chuckled. “Look at this.” He opened his phone and went to his Facebook page and opened our band page. He pointed at a number on the screen.
“5,346. Is that good?” I asked confused.
“Good? That’s freaking great! We don’t even know that many people. That’s people sharing our page and liking us. Imagine if we had someone promoting us full time, securing us real gigs.” Excitement shone from his eyes.
I sighed and rubbed my eyes. This had been all for fun and games. Hadn’t it?
To get to Remy’s actual living quarters you had two options: climb the stairs, that was once a fire escape, or you could enter the garage and he had a modern circular staircase going up into the living area and an old service elevator that he had completely rebuilt to keep the look of a service elevator but updated the safety features.
Ben and I decided to enter the garage where Remy had three of his four vehicles parked. He had rebuilt the ‘men’ and ‘women’s’ bathrooms so it was one large bathroom complete with a huge walk-in shower made of natural stone, a toilet, and a double sink. There was also a workout room that reassembled a professional gym and a bedroom located down here. We went to the service elevator and closed the metal gate and pushed the first-floor button. The elevator arrived in the kitchen and we were greeted by controlled chaos. The kitchen, dining room, and living room were arranged in an open-concept layout. The floors were a driftwood gray tile that imitated wood planks. The ceilings were vaulted, and the beams and middle support beams had been left exposed and refinished to look more modern to tie in with the rest of the house. Remy had kept the large square windows and replaced all the window panes.
Three of the ten bedrooms were located down here along with three bathrooms. One was for guests, while the other two were attached to two of the three bedrooms. A large spiral staircase entered the loft area where five more bedrooms and two bathrooms were located. I knew if you went up there, there were two other staircases to the left and right of the loft that led to two other bedrooms and bathrooms.
Remy had converted one of the upper-most level areas into his master bedroom. The area that he had converted into his bedroom was once a greenhouse of sorts; located on the roof of the building. He had insulated them, changed the windows, and added sturdier walls. A wall of French doors led out to an outside patio area on the roof with a hot tub.
His house was ultra-modern with the charms of a warehouse. I loved it! I knew he had called in some help with the designing, but his touch was everywhere.
“It’s about time,” Mike and Rick rushed over to us.
I looked down at my watch. “We still have five minutes to spare,” I argued with a roll of my eyes.
No one else noticed our entrance, so I took the time to take in the scene before me.
I was intrigued by the bustle of activity everywhere. It looked like Remy had called in some of his chefs, Adam and Court (Courtland), from We 7 because they were making food in the state-of-the-art chef’s kitchen. Of course, Drake was in the thick of it. I laughed to myself thinking he probably would like this help all of the time when he had to feed us.
A few appetizers already sat on the island ready for guests, making me salivate. I had grabbed a banana for breakfast, but I had been so busy today I hadn’t eaten anything else.
Will was talking to a well-dressed man off to the left of the room. I immediately pegged him as our ‘agent’. We had an agent?! My mind reeled. Was it too late to get off this crazy ride?!
In all high probability, he was gifted. I had learned the past few weeks that we had gifted everywhere. Especially, in ‘high’ places. We were a tight-knit community and many of the most affluential gifted ended up being donors to the school. Without the funding coming from these highly successful people we were unable to bring in the gifted that we found in troubled homes, foster care, or even on the streets.
People like me made up twenty-five percent of the school’s population. Of the twenty-five percent, over half of them had done better with their lives and became the bigger donors and contributors to our community.
I could see Jaxson and Troy outside on one of the fire escapes talking, laughing, and drinking. A few females I didn’t recognize were standing in front of them, chatting them up. I had to tamper down my jealousy.
I had to fight over that ugly emotion a lot lately. Although, I knew the guys had no clue. I didn’t want to act like a jealous, possessive, psycho, but it was becoming increasingly hard the more I got to know them and the more I started to truly care for them. I averted my eyes, telling myself it was normal for girls to be drawn to them. They were attractive men.
Remy and Jace were directing some men on the placement of a piano. A piano! Why they felt the need to rent or get a piano for a three-hour photoshoot was beyond me. I had learned to stop questioning them when money was being thrown out by them. They seemed to have plenty of it and didn’t seem to care when money was spent frivolously.
I didn’t see Noah, Jemmy, and Rachel, but I knew they were here. Noah’s car had been out front, and Stacey was sullenly hovering, like normal, and Jemmy and Rachel had sent me a Snapchat of them with Remy.
I had giggled. Remy hated the term ‘selfie’ and hated selfies in general. The girls knew that and took every opportunity to insist that he take a ‘selfie’ with them.
In true Will fashion, when Rachel returned to the mansion that second weekend, he had a phone for her with all our numbers already programmed in it. Even Troy’s, who she hadn’t met at that time. Rachel had literally cried, then immediately downloaded Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. She was just as bad as Jemmy, Jax, Troy, and Noah when it came to technology and social media.
Well, like Noah had been. I didn’t know what to do with him, or how to help him out of this destructive spiral he was in. I don’t even know why Stacey stuck around. She knew he had been randomly hooking up with other girls. He had become an alcoholic, and his grades were starting to suffer.
Will finally saw us standing by the elevator and made his way towards us. “Ben and Blake, you’re here!” he smiled warmly, shaking Ben’s hand and pulling me into a warm hug.
Our relationship had warmed up. I found myself calling him Pops more and more. I didn’t feel like I was betraying my father/ uncle anymore. The way he treated all the ‘children’ in his care was above and beyond what was required or expected of him.