Another way (Young Royals)

The hit

After my weird interview and performance I went with the team back to a studio to work on new stuff. I was supposed to go back to Hillerska that Sunday, as I had some things to take care of. I missed Wille more and more for every hour. I wondered how I was supposed to fall asleep without him all weekend. I had barely fallen asleep the night before, maybe out of nervousness for the performance and interview. He would have calmed my nerves, just by being there. Just by holding me in his sleep. I tried to distract myself from longing for him too much by concentrating on learning the new song lyrics for a new song. It was really good. I was listening to the demo version that Peter had done, while learning the lyrics on the paper in front of me.

"Would you consider doing Melodifestivalen with that song?" Anton asked me. He was standing in the hallway.

"What?" I asked. Melodifestivalen was the Swedish election for Eurovision song contest. The biggest music contest in the world. One that a lot of big names had won. Celine Dion had once won for Switzerland and now she was famous all over the world. The Swedish band ABBA had won the competition too and they had taken the world by storm. Well, Melodifestivalen was maybe not as big as that, but it was a start. A chance to show my music to the rest of Europe.

"We sent that song some time ago and they want it," he said. "We had this song in mind for Omar, but he is touring South America during the competition. But we really want it to compete. It has winning potential and then it could take the artist out in Europe." The song had not been intended for me for a start. But I really liked it. It was a good base and the lyrics were really good. With some work I thought I could really make it work.

"And you want that to be me?" I asked.

"Yes, Simon. We want it to be you. We don't have any other male singers than you or Omar with the range or tone that could possibly make that song justice," Anton said. I giggled. I could not really take it in. "So you have to take it or it won't be released." It was too good to not be released. I had to do it.

"Then I will do it," I said. Anton smiled. He looked down at his wristwatch.

"It is late. Do you want to accompany me for dinner?" he asked. I nodded. When he said it, I felt how hungry I was.

"I would love to. I am starving," I said.

"Well I could hear your stomach rumble all the way to my office. I better feed my pop stars if I want to have a good reputation," Anton said jokingly. "And we could talk things through about the schedule for the spring semester. We will have to work a bit more to get a performance ready for television." We got out of the studio together and there was a hoard of girls waiting outside. I was not prepared for that. There had been some fans outside the media house that morning too. I had no idea how they knew where the studio was.

"How did these girls find the studio?" I asked Anton, before opening the front door that thankfully was locked.

"Well we have had this studio since forever. You should have seen the days when FO&O had their breakthrough. There were girls out here everyday waiting for them," Anton said casually. Like it was not a big deal. "And you might want to get used to it too, son." I wondered how you ever got used to that. Most of the fans were really nice. Maybe they just wanted a hug, autograph and a picture and then they would say goodbye. We opened the front door and went out, to the fans' delight.

**************

Anton and I had eaten dinner and I was now walking back to Peter's house. I was sleeping at his and his husband's place while I was in Stockholm. I really liked them, so staying with them felt safe. Hector, Peter's husband, was a musician. He had a great collection of musical instruments. And he was a decent singer too. He made the vocal recording on Peter's demo. And he was listed as one of the songwriters too. I looked down my phone for directions, as I had not learned how to navigate around Stockholm on my own yet. And I was definitely not helped by the fact that it was now dark outside. I thought about calling Wille, but he was most likely sound asleep in our dorm at Hillerska and I did not want to disrupt. He had been sleeping pretty bad during the week, so he really needed to catch up on it. It did not make me miss him any less. It was wild that I missed him so badly, after less than twenty four hours. He was constantly on my mind. As soon as the music I worked on was not on my mind, he was. I could not wait for him to hear my next song. I thought to myself that he would like it. I was supposed to record it that weekend, so hopefully I would be able to play it to him when I got back to Hillerska Sunday night. I went left down an alley. It was dimly lit by some old street lights. I heard some teenagers further away down the alley. I kept going and I went by two teenage boys who were smoking cigarettes. The smoke and the little light from the cigarette lit up the place that was in the middle of a gap between the street lights. I went by fast to avoid the smell of the smoke, which I never liked. It reminded me of my father. He had smoked since I was a little kid. I could almost see the front door that was Peter and Hector's by then. I heard the boys walk after me. I looked back at them. Then they ran in full speed against me and they spoke quickly to each other. Before I knew it, they had pushed me down on the cobblestones. I was laying on the cold ground, with only old wet autumn leaves to soften the fall. One of them kept punching me and I felt the other feel through my pockets. I tried to fight them off me.