Mile High

“You have to hear them Adam, they're amazing!”

Kadie, Adam, and I sat in a tiny restaurant that over looked a pond in Central Park. Adam was on his lunch break and Kadie and I decided to meet him up to discuss business. Okay, so it was mainly Kadie, but I tried to pretended like I was just as involved. (Note: I was actually there for the food)

The night before, Kadie and I stopped by Daniel's last show in the City. We were left completely speechless. Kadie was so amazed by them she had been singing their praises since.

Jebrone had suggested for Adam and Kadie to sign The Kicks, Daniel's band, as a client for their new PR firm. And Kadie was doing just about anything to convince Adam to jump on the bandwagon.“They sound like ColdPlay, but obviously younger. They have a very emotional sound while still being up beat and synth pop. I don't know, how would you explain it Lynn?” Kadie and Adam looked over at me.

I looked up from my food, caught off guard. “Oh, uh, I think you nailed it right on the head. Very ColdPlay-ish.”

“Lynn” Kadie rolled her eyes.

“What?” I whispered back in defense.

“Jebrone mentioned something about them.” Adam said while stabbing at the remaining bits of his salad. “I never got a chance to look into it.” He stopped talking as he stuffed a bite in his mouth.

“Apparently they're number one in a few European countries and BBC Music is referring to them as the most anticipated act of the year. Adam, they don't even have a debut album out yet. This rarely ever happens in music!” Kadie's eyes filled with excitement as her hands fell in her lap.

“Okay, okay!” Adam picked up his napkin to wipe the corners of his mouth. “Slow your roll, K. I need to see numbers.” He stood up and dusted off his lap. “I can't just sign a client because you're infatuated by the lead singer.”

“What! I am not!” She squinted her eyes and threw up her hands.

Adam looked over at me. I avoided eye contact and instead stirred my straw around in my glass of ice water. The silence became awkward when they both continued to stare. “Okay fine.” I gave up “You did spend a good hour talking about Daniel.”

Kadie's mouth dropped open. “I can't help it if he's a cool British guy!” Adam and I managed to let out a slight laugh at her rebuttal. “Who's side are you on anyway?” She folded her arms and looked back at me.

Before I could answer Adam cut me off, “She's on the side of the guy who has to listen to his girlfriend crush on 'cool British guys'” He said with air quotations, rolling his eyes, obviously joking. He stood behind Kadie as he leaned down to give her a kiss. “I'll talk to Jebrone and see what's going on. I love you.”

Kadie finally managed to crack a smile. “Love you, too.” We waved goodbye as Adam scurried back to work.

A huge smile was still planted on Kadie's face when she turned back around to see me sticking my fork half way in my mouth pretending to gag.

_-_-_-_-__________-_-_-_-_-___________-_-_-_-_

It was late in the afternoon on Thursday when we boarded our flight for LA. Adam was going to join us after work on Friday. For now it was just me, Kadie, Jebrone, Daniel and his band mates, Chris, Eli, and Will.

“Oh” I stopped abruptly in the narrow airplane aisle as I ran into Daniel. He was putting his bags into the over head compartment while I mindlessly stared down at my ticket. “I guess we're sitting together.” I didn't actually decide to go to LA until the last minute. Kadie had already bought her ticket, so there was no way of finding seats together.

“Wicked” Daniel stepped back so I could shimmy into our row. “I thought I was gonna be alone over here.” I looked around and noticed that everyone had managed to end up together. Jebrone, Chris, and Will were towards the front and Eli and Kadie found themselves in the middle.

We buckled into our seats and waited for the airplane to take off. We exchanged a few words here and there, but it was mainly forced conversation.

I leaned my head towards the window and closed my eyes. I hadn't gotten any sleep the night before since I stayed up most of the night packing. I slowly drifted into a nap.

An hour or so later, when I'd finally woken up, I saw Daniel on his laptop. It looked like he was putting beats together. He wore a pair of RayBan eyeglasses, staring intently at the screen, and his headphones covered his ears making it even harder to have any type of conversation.

I grabbed my iPad out of my bag and decided to watch a movie.

I was plugging my headphones in when I saw Daniel do a double take from the corner of my eye. “Is that Mulberry Street Killer?”

I smiled, surprised that he knew the movie. It was an old cult classic that not many people had heard about. “Yeah, have you seen it?”

“Have I seen it?” He reiterated my question. “We have a song called Lacy's Lullaby.”

“No way!” I said while laughing, completely thrown off. Lacy was a neglected young girl in the movie who lived on Mulberry Street. Although it was a nice neighborhood the street was filled with unexplainable activity. Anytime she was scared, she'd start singing a made up lullaby to herself. Which eventually drove herself crazy. “I've never met anyone who's actually seen this movie.”

He slowly shut his laptop screen half way and turned towards me, smiling as he spoke. “It's one of my favorites. My dad took me to go see it when I was a little boy. It fucked me up mentally in the best possible way.”

My eyes widened and my mouth slightly dropped. “You went, as a kid, to see this movie?!”

Daniel laughed, “Yeah, I don't think my dad properly knew what it was about.”

“No kidding.”

He stared off for a brief second remembering the memory. “But, it's what started my fascination with James Fitzgerald. I immediately went home and looked up all of his previous work and watched every last bit of it.”

“Wow, I wouldn't have taken you for a movie buff.” I folded my arms and turned towards him, interested in what he had to say.

“Before I got into music, I was going into film writing and producing.”

I gently shook my head as I laughed. “This is honestly the most interesting conversation I've had in a long time.” Daniel's face grew pink. “So, what turned you onto music then?”

“My mum was a folk singer, not famous of anything, but she sang her way through college.”

“So she inspired you to do the same then?”

“Well, no. She had no idea I had any interest in music. I learned to play piano by myself. Not that she didn't want to teach me. Just because I was, and still am, such an awkwardly shy guy. I never wanted anyone to know I was into music. I would often write songs from a movie character's perspective or an event in history. One day in college my friend heard me playing and insisted that I perform at a local pub. It was the hardest thing I had ever done. Being on stage by myself was dreadful, but playing my music was exhilarating. So, I recruited my mates one by one until we became a band. It's still nerve wrecking, but at least all eyes aren't on me anymore. And I guess they aren't half as bad at what they do.” He smiled a crooked smile waiting for my reaction.

As he was speaking I examined his shy qualities. He could barely look me in the eyes and he seemed unsure of how entertaining his story might be. It was refreshing to meet someone who wasn't 100 percent into themselves.

“You avoided the attention and now you're about to be one of the biggest bands in the world.”

He laughed, rolling his head slightly back. “Funny how that worked out, right?”

I was slowly becoming intrigued by his story “Do you feel like things have changed? Like your life back home?”

“I don't know” His gaze went down and over to the seats in front of us. “I mean, of course it's changed, being away from home, traveling, doing all these things we normally wouldn't. But then I go home, and it feels like everything's the same. I guess it helps that people in London could care less if you're famous.” He laughed again, looking back over at me. I noticed he laughed a lot. Maybe it was a shy guy thing.

“But, I'm sure it helps that your friends make you feel at home.”

“They do.” He paused for a second, almost hesitating to speak. “Lauren is an old friend of mine. Probably the oldest friend I have. She always makes sure I feel at home anytime I come to London. She really goes out of her way. You would like her. She's actually flying in for the festivals.”

“Oh, that's nice of her to come all the way from London.”

“She's coming with a group of our friends actually. And I hardly think it's because of us” he laughed. “I'm sure it's because of all the other amazing bands that will be there.”

“Hey, you shouldn't be so pessimistic. Your band is just as amazing!” I unconsciously grabbed his arm in a comforting way

Daniel's eyes slowly made their way up from where I held on to him to my eyes. Realizing what I was doing, and probably giving him the wrong impression, I quickly let go.

A dinging noise rang throughout the plane. Our flight attendant came on the overhead speaker to announce the plane's landing.

I leaned into my chair and buckled my belt. The awkward silence that initially filled our conversation consumed us once again.