Beachwood (h.s.)

Celebration

October 2019

"We wanted to see if you'd be interested in touring with us," Luke says, the four boys look at me expectantly from their seats around the table. They had invited me to lunch today to talk about more shoots. 

"Wait what?" I ask, dumbfounded. I'd never even thought of concert photography. I had always seen the cool photos that people took of artists rocking out on stage, but it hadn't even crossed my mind that I could try that out. 

"We're leaving in June and we wanted to see if you'd be interested," Michael says. The other boys nod and continue watching my face.

"I'd love to," I say, making my mind up instantly. Even though I was booking shoots with lots of artists now, I wanted to expand my portfolio and abilities. I think that a tour would be perfect for some really cool photos.  All the boys looked surprised that I answered so quickly and confidently, but they all smiled excitedly. 

"We'll have Jayne work out a contract with you," Luke says. 

*****

I push the door of the new two bedroom apartment open to find Claire on the couch in sweats and  big t-shirt. She was munching on some popcorn. "Hey," she says through a mouthful. I was so happy to be living with her, but I also just agreed to go on tour for several months. My heart gets heavy with guilt and my excitement fades slightly. I'd be leaving her and Harry too. I hadn't even thought about it before accepting the touring gig. I mentally face palm at my stupidity. 

"Hey Claire, How was work?" I ask, setting my stuff down at the table by the door and walking to sit with her on the couch. It was currently 7 pm. After my lunch with the boys, I went to go shoot with NIKI for the rest of the day. We had gotten some good photos for her new projects coming out. I was really excited for it. 

"It was alright. Leigh was being a bitch again," she says as she rolls her eyes and shoves another handful of popcorn in her mouth. "How was your shoot and lunch and everything?"

"It was good," I say, unsure of telling her the job that I had just taken. I don't want to lie about it, but if I say something she might get mad at me. I decide it would be better to tell her now to get it out of the way. "I got a new job offer from the boys actually." I say. We had stuck to calling 5SOS the boys because their name was too long to say in normal conversation. She sits up, looking excited. 

"Really?" she says, her eyes growing with interest.

"Yeah, they asked if I wanted to go on tour with them," I say quietly. Claire jumps up and comes to give me a hug. 

"Oh my god El, that's huge," she says, pulling away from the quick embrace. 

"You're not mad?" I ask. She shakes her head vigorously.

"No of course not," she says. "This is your dream, El. You deserve all of the success you've been getting recently." I give her another hug before going into my room to change, remembering that Harry had asked to go out to dinner today. I convinced myself that I needed to tell him what was going on and that I'm going on tour. I'm sure he'll be okay with it. He's a musician and he was planning on touring for the album soon. This was bound to happen, but now it's just happening a little bit faster. I'd listened to the full track list and everything was so good. Fine Line was still my favorite song, but there were others like Medicine that were just so good. I think Harry was pretty excited about it, but he'd decided to release it in December.