Page 73 of The Librarian and the Rock Star

“Would you believe me if I said that the alley disease finally got to me?” I tried to fake a giggle, but he didn’t smile at all. The look of panic on his face was too far gone. “I’m fine, really. I fell down a couple of steps and landed on my wrist. The nice security guys took me to your rock doc and she gave me fancy blue pills. It’s just a sprain. I promise, I’ll be totally healed in a couple of days.”

“Why didn’t you tell me right away?”

“It just happened. I was sitting down with Kelly as she was texting you all.”

He looked upset, but everyone was crowding around. “I’m so sorry, Keira. Listen, Kelly had that website take the article and photo down. But we’ll talk more about that later?”

I nodded, trying to reassure him with my eyes, but likely failing.

As the band all sat down and focussed on Kelly and I, my nervous energy was making my good hand twitch a little. This was not my place. I barely knew these people. Who did I think I was, stepping in and suggesting a band take a chance at angering their label?

“Thanks for getting here so quickly, guys,” Kelly started. “We’ll keep this as short as possible, and want you all to be in the loop here.” The guys all looked at each other as if they were about to get busted for bad behavior. A tiny giggle almost escaped my lips but I bit it back. These painkillers were definitely kicking in.

“Neon’s Orange Records signed you because Jason Murray thinks you’re amazing. But then he let his older brother Paul Fleet be your promoter.”

“What the fuck?” Tate exclaimed, stunned.

“Precisely,” Jack jumped in. “He tried to dazzle us at the beginning, but he’s been a shitty promoter, and the reason he sent us to Vancouver wasn’t to try to improve our vibe and songwriting, it was to break us up so that he could work on a different band that he liked.”

“He’s into metal bands, and he used to be in one,” I added. “But they went belly up, so he wants to work with bands so that at least he can feel involved.”

Noodle was positively glaring at the ceiling. “I’ll fuckin’ kill him.”

I cleared my throat before trying to explain. “There is a sibling rivalry situation here, and you guys are caught smack in the middle of it. Jason is younger, more successful, and got engaged about ten months ago. That’s right around when Paul really started trying to tank you. We don’t know if it’s just jealousy, or he’s trying to drain the company’s money to mess Jason up, or what. But with the great press you’ve gotten lately, now would be the time to make changes, if you wanted to.”

“You could call Jason and tell him you’re firing Paul as your promoter,” Kelly said. “We have no idea what this would do to your record deal though. If they are really fussy on this point, they could end your contact. But I doubt that. If they want to keep you, they’ll get you a new promoter.”

“Didn’t they just sign two new bands?” Marky asked, his voice full of worry.

“Yes,” Jack said. “So we have no idea how they’re doing or how important we are to them. But we can’t have Paul kicking us down again. He blocked all promotion of tonight’s show.”

A chorus of “What the fuck?” “Huh?” and “I will kill him.” rose up.

“Wait,” said Noodle. “On the way in the venue staff were saying congratulations for the sudden rush of ticket sales.”

“That was all Keira and Jack,” Kelly said proudly. “He’s been crushing every interview I’ve set him up with for the past week and a half, then your two Toronto shows got great press hits. Then last night, Keira did some sneaky ass research and found out where the rocker folks were hanging out in Montreal, and they went right to the people.”

Tate started laughing. “Somebody mentioned photos all over the place this morning. What did you do?” He looked at Jack as if expecting a crazy booze-fueled party story.

Jack grinned. “Keira is brilliant. She used some secret online trend tracking thing to find out where the rock crowds were, and we went straight there. Patios, restaurants, busy street corners.”

Marky howled with laughter. “Good for you man! And you too, Keira.”

“Damn,” said Noodle. “And that was enough people?”

“No,” Kelly said. “They helped me spread the word that there was a computer glitch and no marketing for this show. Bloggers and indie stations and everyone with an email list just got on board immediately. People were happy to help just because it was the right thing to do.”

“Everyone wants to help the little guy stick it to the man,” I added. “It’s a fundamental principle of rock and roll. So asking for a tiny favor was all the fuel they needed.”

“Crazy, right?” Jack said excitedly. “They’ve been waiting for us, they’re ready for us, and all we have to do is rock their faces off.”

“So what about Paul?” Marky asked. “Do we all agree that we should fire him, and take our chances with Neon’s Orange?”

“Damn straight,” Jack said.

“For sure,” said Noodle.

“Absolutely,” said Tate.

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