·got your chin held high and you feel just fine·

[❀ Melíssa]

      “Christ, are you sure you have enough cups?” Gavin Ramsay commented as Natalia Urban unsheathed three sleeves of white Solo cups.
      “People are wasteful. One person can go through like five ‘cause they put ‘em down somewhere and forget about ‘em,” Natalia replied, stacking the majority of the cups near the bar.
      “Don’t put so many out then,” Tyler O’Malley entered the room in time to hear her bandmate’s explanation. “If they don’t think we have enough, they’ll be more likely to keep tabs on their own.”
      “Thank God someone in your band has some common sense,” Gavin cracked.
      “Yeah, it’s me,” Chelsea Urban smacked her road crew manager, mother’s godson, and sometime friend with benefits on the back of the head, and he groaned, his hand flying to his head.
      Tyler laughed at him as she reached for one of the cups Natalia was busy hiding. “Sooo…. Will some of the guys be joining us?”
      “If by ‘some of’ you mean Kalvin and Jared, yes, they did say they would be coming,” Gavin confirmed the attendance of two members of the road crew that Tyler had recently begun flirting with.
      The slamming of the front door caused the four people in the room to turn and see Oliver Urban stroll in through the foyer. He greeted Gavin, Tyler, and his sisters before dumping the bag of ice he was carrying into the bucket behind the bar. “So how many people are coming tonight?” he asked. “And will I have to pay off the neighbors again?”
      “It is still embezzlement if you’re using company money to keep a part of that company out of trouble?” Chelsea mused.
      “Marketing costs, little sister,” Oliver joked. As the head of accounting, he was in charge of overseeing where all company funds were allocated. “Luckily, your records sell like crazy, so sending that family on vacation barely made a dent. It was worth it to make sure you didn’t go to jail,” he helped himself to a beer and surveyed the room. “When’s the food coming?”
      “Rain and Stormy are bringing pizza when they get out of class. Should be any minute, actually. We’re also getting some more delivered later,” Chelsea informed him, a knock at the door punctuating her words. She momentarily left the room, returning with her cousin River Feldman, and another bag of ice.
      “What is it with guys and ice? Girls show up to parties with food and drinks, guys bring ice,” Natalia wanted to know.
      “Can never have enough ice,” Gavin, Oliver, and River all responded at the same time.
      Chelsea just shook her head, took the bag from her cousin and added it to the insulated bucket. “I think we’re about as prepared as we’re going to be until the food gets here.”
      “Good, then as long as it’s just us, let’s talk business for a moment,” Oliver said quickly.
      “Nooooo!” Natalia wailed.
      “Did Dad put you up to this?” groaned Chelsea. “He’s forever trying to corral us into meetings when we’re trying to do something else.”
      “Hey, this is important,” he held up his hands in defense. “We need to start a budget for the next tour. If you’re going to fill the opener slot for Mom & Dad, your budget can be a lot smaller because theirs will cover most of everything. But if you’re to headline, we need to find openers, and we’re going to have to cover some of their costs.”
      River spoke up, “I’ve got my contacts getting back to me on local acts. We can potentially have your main opener – and there are two bands we’ve just signed that can take that spot – and then have local acts in each town open for them with a small half hour set.”
      “I like that,” Tyler said, and Natalia and Chelsea agreed.
      “Okay, that’s settled,” Oliver said, “That wasn’t so hard, now was it?” he pulled out his BlackBerry and sent a quick message off to the account managers for both Angels of Hellfire and Hellfire & Damnation, letting them both know they’ll be planning budgets for headlining tours, then turned to Gavin. “There will be several meetings later for stage setup, so make sure you’re free.”
      “Shop talk over?” Natalia asked, and when Oliver nodded, said, “Shot talk time then!” proceeding to the bar with Tyler’s assistance.
      As if on cue, the front door slammed again, and Rain and Stormy Feldman entered the apartment they shared with their cousins, both carrying several boxes of pizza.
      “Hello everyone!” Rain called out as she bounded into the main room. “Guess what the cat dragged in?”
      Natalia knocked over the drink she was mixing when she looked up and saw who was standing in her living room. “H-hi,” she stammered.
      Rain and Stormy shared a look, giggled, then scampered off to the kitchen with the pizza, as Tyler dabbed at her shirt that was splashed, grumbling.
      “Hey there, Nati,” Tony Streun, Rain and Stormy’s step brother, stood in the doorway, flanked by four friends, whom he introduced as Bobby, Erik, John, and Dennis. Everyone greeted everyone else, except Natalia, whose eyes were still locked on Tony’s.
      “What the hell was that about?” Tyler hissed at Natalia, throwing down paper towels and taking her own non-spilled drink out of the way. She left Natalia to remake her drink, and went to go harass Gavin about what time the guys were going to show up.
      Tony crossed the room, touching Natalia lightly at her elbow. “Hey,” he reached out to steady the cup that she was refilling. “How’ve you been?”
      “I’m good,” she replied, way too quickly. “What’s new with you?”
      “Not much. Haven’t heard from you since last weekend. What happened?”
      “Oh you know, we’ve been busy. Recording, writing, you know,” she took a large swig of her drink.
      “That sucks. Was really looking forward to seeing you all week. We’ll have to make sure we get some alone time tonight, okay?” he ran his hand down the length of her arms, lingering at her wrist.
      “Of-of course,” she smiled nervously and attempted to join the blossoming party, when she was accosted by her sister.
      “And what was that, missy?” Chelsea questioned once she’d pushed Natalia into the stairwell. “What is going on with you two?”
      Natalia shook her head, remembering the previous weekend in California, images of herself and Tony in the hot tub, the pool, his completely unclothed body leading hers to her bedroom, the kissing, the touching… “I don’t know what you mean,” she said as the doorbell rang.
      Chelsea narrowed her eyes and warned, “You’re not getting off that easily, You are going to spill,” she bossily pointed a finger in Natalia’s face before responding to the door, letting in a small crowd of about fifteen people, and the party officially became under way.