Things were rather tense in the Jacobs family home.
The Jacobs were one of the richest families in East Highland, and on the surface they had everything.
A successful business.
A happy, stable marriage complemented by two sons to inherit and expand it all.
It was picturesque if one were not to look under the floorboards, for the family was full of secrets, and one of them was threatening to tear them apart.
Nate came back home in frustration, while his mother drank wine on the sofa.
“Dad’s still MIA?” he questioned, and she shrugged happily.
“Aren’t you the least bit concerned about where he might be?” She was half drunk already.
“Why should I be?” Nate’s grip on his bag’s strap tightened.
“Fuck this,” and he rushed up the stairs.
He shook his head, and a few things were going right in his life at the moment.
Nate and Maddie had always had their troubles, but she would always come back to him.
In a way, they both understood that they were meant to be together, but over the last few days things had changed.
It was subtle at first, but Nate had seen how Maddie’s attentions had shifted away from him, towards a newer face.
He pretended that he was not interested in her, but Nate felt it in his gaze when they looked into each other’s eyes at the party.
He could feel him gloating in victory, in triumph.
But he would take care of him later.
First he had to find his father.
The man had vanished out of the blue, and had not contacted them in more than a month now.
It was strange now, yet no one else apart from him cared at all.
Nate jumped up the stairs, ignoring her mother’s voice, yet as he was about to walk into his room, he stopped, while his glance lingered towards his father’s room.
He was the only one who knew of the darkness that lingered in that place, and he hesitated for a second, but his patience had long run out as he walked into that room and slowly walked up to his desk.
His chest heaved as he opened that damned drawer, yet his eyes widened at the sight in front of him.
It was gone.
All of it was gone.
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0000
REMUS BENNET
In the end, Remus had decided to stay the night at Elliot’s.
After celebrating his rise into the Hot 100, they had both locked down and jammed for nearly six hours.
They had not gone to sleep until something like three, and by then they had both reached a consensus that they were skipping school the next day.
He woke up a bit earlier than his friend who was still slumbering away in the back, while he sat in front of his computer.
The folder in front of him contained the audio files for his newest works.
Elliot had clearly gotten better as well, and in those six hours they had recorded three songs.
The first one was ‘Maybe’, a more light-hearted song with strong vocals.
The second one was ‘Grace’, and the last one was one of his favorite songs, ‘Hold Me While You Wait.’
He sat there on that stool, opened up the charts once more, and his eyes widened as he found that all his songs were in the top 100 now.
“Before You Go’ had now crossed the 50s, and was at 43 now.
‘Bruises’ was at 51, and the biggest surprise of them all was ‘Another Love’.
He knew that Odell’s song was a phenomenon in his time, and had broken a few records, but now the song sat at 23, and with the way it was climbing, he would not be surprised if it managed to break into the top 20, or even the top 10 in the next few days.
Few songs ever reached such heights, and fewer still when they were sung by a new singer, yet the song showed no sign of stopping.
His follower count had jumped up again, and he was not touching a million on Instagram.
His song had become a favorite, and he was scrolling through the feed when he spotted an article on him from Billboard.
~REMUS BENNET—A PERFECT BLEND OF JUSTIN BIEBER’S YOUTHFUL CHARM AND ED SHEERAN’S WARMTH!~
The article went on to note the meteoric rise of his songs, and claimed him to be a mix of a young JB and Ed Sheeran, two of perhaps the greatest singers ever born.
The writer had managed to dig up a bit about him, about how he was still a high school student at East Highland High, though thankfully there was little about his family in the piece.
This was it.
He knew now that he had millions of eyes on him.
He took a deep breath as he let the news soak in.
He would be lying if he said that it did not feel good, and he felt a tear slide down his eyes.
He had finally done it.
He had finally achieved his dreams.
He was now a singer.
He quickly wiped away the tear, opened his Instagram, and clicked a crooked photo of Elliot’s laptop.
He went into edit and added text on the portion of the picture where the files had their names.
“THANK YOU FOR ONE MILLION! WORKING ON SOMETHING INTERESTING!”
And with that, he posted the picture.
He scrolled through his inbox, and now there were a few more emails from recruiters and managers all hoping to talk to him, and that reminded him of his other headache.
He knew that he had to sign with a label, and that he needed a good lawyer to work with him so that he was not ripped off.
Just a few months ago, when he had just woken up, he had been given a card by Bill, the father of the kid he had saved.
Bill was an accountant, a retired accountant who had previously worked at a law firm in New York.
The law firm in question was none other than Spector and Litt.
He had not yet given it a search, but if this indeed was the very Spector he was thinking of, he knew just the lawyer to call on.
Taking advantage of the time on his hands, he opened up Google and typed up the name from Bill’s card, and he was right.
It was indeed Specter & Litt.
The firm was based in New York and had gone through a series of name changes over the years, but had been Spector & Litt for a few years now, when the famous named Partner Harvey Spector had decided to return to New York after a short sabbatical in Seattle.
He read a bit more before he finally closed the window and picked up his phone once again.
By now his post had blown up already, and had some twenty thousand likes and reposts or something.
People were gushing over his new songs, and many were trying to argue if they were the files for the old songs or new songs, or if they were just snippets.
He was scrolling through them when suddenly he saw a repost of his earlier post, from another very familiar face.
“Billie Eilish,” and Billie’s career was just starting to take off.
She had her album set to come out soon, and he knew that it would be a smashing success.
But even without that, she was an icon in the music world already, and she was without a doubt one of the most unique singers ever, and now she was posting about him.
“Someone needs to heal his aching Heart!” and under that there was a small message of congratulations.
“Elliot!” he called out.
“Elliot!” and he shook his friend excitedly, who shifted and spoke up groggily.
“Yo, what time even is it?” Elliot asked as he looked around in a daze, and Remus glanced at the clock.
“It’s half past one, but get up man! Get up!” and he shook him, before he shoved the phone in his face.
“What!” Elliot uttered as he rubbed his eyes.
“It’s Billie Eilish! It’s Billie Eilish!” and that woke him up, as Elliot narrowed his eyes.
“She posted about me! She just about me,” and now he sprang up and grabbed the phone out of his hands.
“Shut it!” Elliot uttered, and he was not.
He looked over the screen for a few seconds before he turned towards him with a strange expression.
“Hit me,” he said suddenly, making him frown.
“What!” Remus questioned, but his friend was insistent.
“Dude, punch me. I need to know this isn’t a dream,” and well, he did not need to ask him twice, as Remus raised his hand and slapped him hard.
THWACK!
“Ahhh,” Elliot screamed, as he grabbed his face.
“What the hell, man!”Elliot shouted, while Remus just shrugged.
“You asked for it,” and he threw a pillow at him, and the room devolved into chaos as the two began attacking each other, and they only stopped when both of them were too tired to continue.
“Man, I’m starving,” Elliot uttered as they lay on the bed, resting.
“Your mother said that there are leftovers in the fridge,” and that was good enough for him.
“Have you had anything?” and Remus shook his head at Elliot’s question.
“Then I’m gonna go and get something for both of us,” Elliot added, but it was time for him to go.
“You should eat. I am going home now,” and he had already spent the night here, and he had to go home and work on his computer and go through the thousand DMs and messages he had received to make it so that he had not missed anything important.
“Already?” Elliot asked, and he shrugged.
“I have a lot to get through,” and with that they shook hands, as he began gathering up his stuff, and just as he was about to head out of the room, Elliot called him out.
“Hey,” he called out.
“Bro, just text Lexie already,” Elliot suggested, and he looked back.
“I miss having her around, so you two need to sort this out pronto,” and that was his plan as well.
“I know,” he answered and headed back home.
Once he was outside, he lamented the lack of a car and wondered if he could use the money he was set to receive from YouTube and streaming websites to get himself a new car.
While there was no fixed rate, a song on average made three thousand to five thousand dollars per million streams, and right now his songs had accumulated over twenty million streams.
Then there was also the revenue from YouTube, which would not be insignificant.
Of course, the money would not arrive for a few more weeks, but having a car would be a great help.
But all that would come later, as he picked up his bicycle and began to ride back home.
By the time he reached the place, he saw a few people standing outside it, while a black Mercedes was parked along the road.
He saw a camera flash as he rode into the driveway.
But as he was done, he walked out of the place, he saw a woman heading towards him.
“Hi,” she greeted him, and he did the same as he unstrapped his helmet.
“Hi, can I help you?” he asked strangely, and she was dressed in a rather formal suit, which was rather strange for the neighborhood.
“You are Remus Bennet, right?” and he nodded nervously as a smile came on her face.
“I am Leslie Jones. I am here on behalf of Atlantic Records,” and she offered him her card, and he could not believe his ears.
Atlantic was one of the major record labels under the wing of the Universal Media Group.
He had received a mail from them like a dozen other record labels, but he had never thought that they would track him down.
“I was hoping that we could talk,” and he did not know how to react, and she must have noticed his nervousness.
“Right now?” he asked, and she chuckled and shook her head.
“Not really, though I would like it to be sooner rather than later. We can talk when you are comfortable, but we are very excited about the music you have put out, and believe that we can help you do even better,” and he nodded and shook her hand.
“Thank you, I will get back to you,” and she offered him a nod, and then she walked back, and he realized that he would need to deal with this sooner rather than later.
“With that, he walked back to their home,” and with Lexie already out, he opened up the fridge and saw that there were no leftovers for him to eat. Read this novel at novelping . com for the best experience.
He had not yet had breakfast, so he was quite hungry.
There was chicken in the fridge so he decided to make something for himself.
Rue and Gia would be coming back soon enough, so he decided to make something for everyone.
An hour later, just as he was finished making the sandwiches, Rue walked through the door with slumped shoulders.
“Hi,” he greeted her, and her eyes immediately narrowed at him.
“You are here,” she spoke with some indignation.
“What happened?” he asked.
“Do you even know how much crap I had to endure because of you?” He did not.
He had just taken a day off.
What could have gone wrong?
“No,” he answered, thinking it all to be a joke.
“They were standing outside the school gates,” she began, as she threw off her bag to the sofas, and plopped down with a heavy sigh.
“Some of them had cameras, and wanted to take a picture of you. Others wore suits and pants like lawyers and shit,” and he finally realized what had happened.
“They were all asking about you, and when they could not find you, they began talking to me,” and now Rue gave him the bird.
“Don’t you want to be famous?” he teased, only enraging her further.
“So, screw you!” she cursed him, and he just chuckled, and he should have anticipated this.
He had not replied to their messages or emails, so now the labels were sending people to his school and Home to make a deal, which was inconveniencing his family.
“Is this going to happen every day, because I can’t take this? The next time they do something like this, I am just going to kick them in the balls,” Rue complained as she looked towards him, and he shook his head.
“Relax, I got this. They won’t bother you again,” and just then Gia walked in as well.
Rue ranted to her as well, as they ate their sandwiches, and they were both in their rooms when their mother finally came back.
He was washing the dishes then, and she frowned.
“Hi, I made sandwiches,” he offered, and she smiled.
“It has been some time since I have had your cooking,” and he shrugged.
“I had nothing else to do,” and she came and plated up her part.
“Your principal called me today,” she began, just as he was about to finish up.
“He told me that the school had a few paparazzi and lawyers come today just to meet you,” and that was expected.
“One of them even came to our House,” he pointed out, much to her alarm, and then he told her about the woman who had come to greet him.
“I can’t believe that my little boy has become a star,” and as she tried to hug him, he jumped away.
“Will you stop calling me that?” he made a face at her antics, making her chuckle.
“Still, can you handle this?” she asked, and he nodded.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine. I got this,” and they talked a bit more until he went up to his room.
There was a small pile of packages in the corner, and after Rue had destroyed his computer, he had ordered parts to replace it.
But he was in no mood to listen to it.
He picked up his phone and scrolled through his inbox.
Lexie had not texted him since yesterday, so he gathered up his courage and typed up a small text.
‘Sorry for what I said.
Can we talk?
Pls.’
He texted her the message, and then he quickly scrolled through a series of posts before he opened his drawer and took out the card Bill had given him months ago.
He looked at the number on the card and dialed it up.
The bell rang twice before it was picked up.
“Hello,” Bill’s voice came from the other side.
“Hi, is this Bill Henderson?” he questioned.
“Yes.”
“Well, I am Remus. Remus Bennet. We met at this Hospital,” and the recognition came in an instant.
“Hi! How have you been?” Bill asked politely.
“Good. What about you?”
“Better now that I am back in New York,” he answered.
“Nice,” and he took a second before he began finally.
“So, I think I need a little help from you about something,” and the man was quick to reply.
“Of course. Of course. Ask away,” he began.
“Well, I noticed on your card that you were an accountant for Spector & Litt, a law firm?” he questioned, and the man took a second to answer.
“Yes,” and he gulped down.
“Well, you see, I am in need of a lawyer?”
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0000
Have a fantastic day!