The Kaleidoscope Album Box Set

by Bryce Oakley

  “Yeah, well, mission accomplished,” Meg said. She took a deep breath. “Holy shit,” Meg seemed to be simultaneously glaring at her but also avoiding eye contact at all costs. Was she thinking of that night last week at the club, too?

  “Do you want help?” Collins asked.

  “Not if the help is coming from you,” Meg snapped.

  Collins shifted on her feet. She was pretty sure if Meg continued to glare at her like that, she might catch on fire.

  “Okay, then. Have a good night,” Collins said quickly, sliding her key across her own door and opening it up.

  Meg made a groaning noise as she collected mints off the ground.

  Collins shrugged and went into her own room. She stood at the peep hole and watched as Meg collected her things, put them back into her bag and entered her room, glancing over her shoulder as she walked in and closed the door behind her.

  Fuck.

  That was going to complicate things, wasn’t it?

  Monday

  The next morning, Collins was up and dressed early. She chose a white button down shirt with dark blue stripes which was slimming and looked nice under her favorite blue blazer.

  She liked to look professional.

  She loved to look commanding.

  She grabbed her laptop bag and set out for the first of many meetings with the band. They had rented out the majority of a building on the edge of town for the week. There was a large production office with plenty of space, extra desks, and an oversized conference table. There was also a full studio, which was perfect so the band could practice, work on their sets, and ideally, they could get some good shots of “practicing for the big show” for the Netflix special.

  Collins was the first to arrive, which was how she liked it.

  It helped her to set the tone for the meeting and it helped to showcase that she was in charge. Sure, she wasn’t technically in charge there, since her job was to produce the live album, not the Netflix special, but she was working on that teeny tiny detail.

  It would be another feather in her cap and show how versatile she could be if she was able to run it all. She had talked at length with Micah about it and she thought she had a pretty strong understanding of what needed to be done.

  There was just one hurdle to accomplishing her goal, and it was a very big hurdle.

  Sanders.

  He had loads of experience and a hell of a reputation.

  Collins wasn’t exactly known for being a sweetheart but Sanders was openly referred to as “the biggest douchebag in LA,” a title that he apparently encouraged. He was also pretty well known for disregarding ideas and opinions of women. How did men like that still get hired? Who thought he would be a good choice for directing a special featuring an all-female band?

  Collins was positive everyone would be better off if she could pull this off and overthrow Sanders. And he was already making it so easy for her.

  She had been in close contact with Micah for updates about what was going on with the stressed director. He had been expected in Denver two days prior but the only thing they seemed to know for sure was that he had never gotten on the flight.

  It seemed like Micah had definitely been onto something when she signalled that Collins may have her chance, after all.

  Collins knew that this was her shot. There was no way she was backing down now.

  When no one had heard from Sanders the day before, Micah had told her that she called in a welfare check on him, but he hadn’t been home.

  The latest rumor floating around that he had checked himself into a facility to rest, but there were also rumors that he was on a bender in Atlantic City.

  If Collins were a betting woman, she would have put money on him being at a craps table at that very moment.

  When the band arrived about thirty minutes later, looking grumpy and tired from the early start time, Collins nodded at them, unsmiling. She knew she had worked them pretty hard when they worked on Kaleidoscope, so there was likely to be some trepidation in their first meeting.

  “Where’s Micah?” Collins asked when it became obvious that the band was alone.

  “Yeah, tell me again, where the hell is Micah?” Zoey asked as she sipped her coffee and looked around the room.

  “She’s got a stomach flu. She’s hoping she’ll be able to make it out soon,” Billie answered, but even Collins thought she looked sketchy about it.

  Micah wasn’t there? How would that affect her plan?

  Was she the only person in a leadership position at the moment?

  Once the band was all seated around the conference table in the production office, Collins got right to it.

  “I’ll cut right to the chase, we want to make sure that we’re putting our best foot forward here. The point of the special is the music. The cameras will be around a lot and it’ll be tempting to interact with them, but unless it’s you and your instrument making music, steer clear. So there will be nothing like... confessionals,” Collins said the last word with air quotes and made eye contact with each member in turn. She had looked to Meg last, having correctly predicted what would happen next.

  “No,” Meg said simply.

  All of the bandmates paused, turning toward Meg.

  Meg was leaning back in her chair, her legs casually crossed with her ankle on other her knee. She could be chatting about the weather for how unbothered she seemed.

  “Meghan, you disagree that the concert is about music?” Collins said slowly, as if Meg could have misunderstood.

  “I disagree that you should block us from the cameras,” Meg said, looking at the other women around the table. “We’re not that bad looking. Not one of us here has what you would call a face-made-for-radio.”

  Domino laughed but Billie looked tense, as though her eye might start twitching.

  Zoey looked intrigued.

  “We’re also perfectly capable of speaking intelligently, so why wouldn’t we give interviews and show our processes?” Meg said. She didn’t come off as aggressive or angry, but more serious than Collins had seen before.

  “Whether you believe me or not, I have the band’s best interest at heart. If you stick to the music and only the music, there won’t be anything to be picked apart later. You can’t come off as unlikeable if you’re just performing as the popular band that’s built such a following,” Collins said. She was trying hard to hide her annoyance that they didn’t grasp that she was just trying to make them look good.

  “Who nominated you to determine what’s likable?” Domino asked. “You’re not exactly Miss Congeniality.”

  “I thought this special was a way for us to connect with our fans in a new way, so they could see how much we pour into our music and the shows we put on,” Billie chimed in.

  Collins was unsurprised that she would use reason to try to defuse a potentially emotional situation. She liked that about working with Billie.

  “It really seems like there’s a disconnect here — what is the special actually going to be about? And where the hell is Sanders?” Zoey asked.

  Her questions hit right to the heart of the matter.

  “What does it matter where Sanders is, if he’s not here?” Collins said. She tried to appear nonchalant about the fact that nobody actually knew where Sanders was.

  “I’m calling Micah,” Domino said, pulling out her phone.

  “Who is also not here,” Zoey said, rubbing her eyes.

  Collins considered calling Micah to be Domino’s go-to move at this point — she had called Micah about Collins keeping them too late at the studio when they worked on Kaleidoscope.

  “Feel free to call Micah. In the meantime, I intend to continue moving forward,” Collins said, folding her hands on the table. She felt confident that Micah would tell Domino about Sanders being a no-show and that most likely, Collins would be named director.

  Realistically, Micah didn’t have the authority to make that decision, but she had a pretty big voice, being their manager. One thing Co
llins knew for sure about Micah was — their weird connection aside — she would never go against the band’s wishes for anyone, not even Collins.

  Domino was right, Collins would never be considered “nice” by someone she’d worked with and that was fine.

  She thought The Shrikes were serious enough musicians to know that she didn’t have to be nice to be the right person for the job.

  She’d eyed up Meg, who was watching Domino with rapt attention and avoiding all eye contact with Collins.

  Maybe she had been wrong.

  By the time they broke for lunch, they had made little progress.

  Once the band heard from Micah that Sanders was out and Collins was being considered, Domino and Meg in particular turned into sulking teenagers, disrupting the class of a substitute teacher.

  She was pretty sure that Meg had been subtly throwing balled up pieces of napkin at her when she wasn’t looking.

  This was going to be challenging.

  She would have to win them over. But how could she win them over when she wasn’t willing to pretend to be nice?

  Ass-kissing just wasn’t something that Collins had the ability or desire to do. Sure, she could appreciate talent, but that didn’t mean she needed to bow to the talented. She wasn’t exactly lacking in the talent department herself.

  Collins squinted down at her phone, standing outside of the warehouse in the blazing midday sun. The band had gone out to lunch and she had not been invited.

  She dialed Micah, who picked up after the first ring.

  “Tell me how to make them hate me less,” Collins demanded, leaning against a flower planter.

  Micah sounded slightly slurred over the phone. “I warned you about this. You can’t just bulldoze these women and think they’ll sit back and let you. They’re passionate about their music, they’re all very close, and quite frankly, you were a dick to Meg when working on Kaleidoscope.”

  “I wasn’t—”

  Micah interrupted, “You can’t fuck with Meg, she may not be the backbone of the group, but she’s the glue. She’s the most loyal person you’ll ever meet, and they all respect her for that.” Micah didn’t sugarcoat anything, which was something Collins respected about her.

  “How do I fix it?” Collins asked, sighing. She hated asking for advice. It made her feel like she was admitting she was wrong.

  “If you don’t get Meg’s buy in, you’ll never get the band. Period,” Micah said with complete confidence. “Listen to her, she’ll need to know that the band isn’t being railroaded."

  “Shit,” Collins said simply.

  She hung up with Micah after saying goodbye, but waited a moment to go back inside.

  Had she been a bit too harsh with Meg before, about the interviews? She didn’t think they were a bad idea, but she had a vision. Couldn’t they see that she had a clear, good, reliable vision for how they were going to pull this all off?

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  Meg

  The band went to their favorite local Mexican restaurant for lunch. Well, it was Billie’s favorite. She had been spending a lot of time in Colorado since she started dating Vero De Luca, the gorgeous and talented singer and former member of Ultraviolet.

  Vero had a place in Telluride where she and Billie spent as much time as their schedules would allow.

  Meg liked Vero. Vero was good to Billie so what wasn’t to like, even if they were a little too occupied with their wedding plans.

  Meg couldn’t understand why neither of them had liked her idea to charter a party bus to take them all to Vegas so they could be married by Elvis. Clearly there was no accounting for taste.

  She was still hoping to change their minds — she recently found a place online to order jumpsuits à la Elvis and if seeing those in person didn’t convince them, they were a lost cause.

  Inevitably, the conversation went quickly to the change in plans for their Netflix special. They had all been mentally preparing themselves to work with Sanders, who was widely regarded as an asshole.

  Meg had been doing a lot of psyching herself up to work with two major assholes on the show. At least now she only had to deal with one?

  To be fair, it did actually make sense to her that Collins should take over, but she couldn’t bring herself to say that out loud.

  “Micah seems to think Collins would be the best fit, and with the limited time she may be the only person that’s available on such short notice,” Domino recapped the conversation with Micah. “She sounded super sick, like she’s been taking too much cold medicine or something.”

  Billie pushed her hair behind her ears — a nervous tick Meg noticed she always did when she was lying — and stared intensely at her plate of tacos.

  “Micah always backs Collins,” Meg pointed out, ripping tiny bits of the tortilla of her quesadilla apart. She might have been reading too far into everything, but definitely not because she was still a bit stung that Collins had bested her in a who-was-more-desirable contest.

  “Why would Micah support Collins if she didn’t think she was the best for the job? Micah has never steered us wrong before,” Billie said, squeezing lime onto her taco before taking a bite.

  “Sabrina’s flying in tonight. She couldn’t stand the idea of things changing so much and risking — gasp — disorganization. Isn’t Vero getting in tonight, too?” Domino asked Billie.

  As a professional organizer, Sabrina was completely devoted to her craft and was also a ruthless businesswoman, but as Domino’s girlfriend, she was one of the nicest people Meg knew. She loved making Sabrina say dorky things, like “fiddlesticks” or “oh, crackers” whenever she was flustered. Meg always laughed so fucking hard at Sabrina’s absolute refusal to swear.

  “She actually got here earlier this morning. She’s at the hotel. With Pia,” Billie beamed at Zoey, who was dating the Pia Marino of daytime talk show fame.

  “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Meg sulked.

  She didn’t love that she was the only single member of the band. Meg rolled her eyes at the idea of hanging out with three lovey-dovey couples all week.

  It looked like she was now going to be a lone wolf.

  When they returned from lunch, Meg noticed that Collins had ordered in and must have eaten by herself. For some reason, the thought made Meg feel lonely and guilty.

  “Did you have a chance to discuss the change in leadership of the special?” Collins asked almost as soon as they sat down.

  Zoey shrugged and Meg saw Billie and Dom exchanging a look that she took to be acquiescence, but she simply couldn’t allow it.

  She didn’t care if Collins was qualified.

  She didn’t even care if Collins would do a good job.

  She simply couldn’t allow some asshole to take over the entire special without any care for their input.

  “I don’t think there’s been any sort of agreement, Collins,” Meg put on her best serious face and held eye contact with the woman.

  She felt a little tingly getting the full weight of Collins’ attention, but she tried not to show it. It was like nerves mixed with... something else? She wasn’t sure. Anticipation? Excitement?

  “Can I ask why?” Collins said, holding eye contact with Meg and it reminded her of the intense eye contact she had made while seducing Sienna right in front of her.

  And that thought wasn’t going to help her keep her cool.

  “Are you really the right person to make these decisions? I completely disagree with you about what should and shouldn’t be included in the special, like interviews and showing the band dynamic. You’re going to take over and make whatever show you want to make without any of our suggestions,” Meg said, feeling flushed from irritation.

  Collins blinked, but didn’t answer.

  Ah, so she agreed.

  “And if we do have a problem, you’re not exactly approachable,” Meg added. She could feel the flush spreading, the red warmth expanding from her chest and collarbones up her neck and into her
face. “If we can’t have a conversation with you about including our own thoughts and vision for the project, then why should we trust you to direct?”

  “Meg,” Zoey whispered next to her. Her voice held an edge of warning in it.

  Meg could feel the eyes of all three of her bandmates and could vaguely make out their slack jawed expressions of surprise, but she remained focused on Collins.

  “If I were to agree to consider the opinions of the band, would that make a difference?” Collins asked, her hands folded on the table in front of her.

  “Dude, agreeing to consider our opinions isn’t really saying much,” Meg argued, and she could see Collins’ cheeks getting red as well, which made her feel a little better. Or worse. She really couldn’t tell.

  “The problem here is that you can’t exactly give us a guarantee that you’re going to respect what we have to say about anything and we’ve all already seen how pushy you can be,” Meg continued, sounding much more confident than she felt.

  Why was she doing this? She really did think Collins was the best person for the job. And yet she couldn’t just let Collins win.

  “We can take the afternoon and evening to think about what we want to do and come back tomorrow morning after we’ve been able to process everything,” Meg said. She gathered her things.

  Collins watched her, completely expressionless.

  Meg turned and walked towards the door.

  “Uh,” she could hear Billie say uncertainly behind her, but when she glanced back over her shoulder, all three of them followed her lead and left in a show of unity.

  “Okay, what happened to you?” Domino said as soon as they were out of earshot.

  “Yeah, that was so…” Billie started.

  “Terrifying,” Zoey said. “And also amazing.”

  “I just don’t let people bully my friends,” Meg said. She tried to keep her brave face on, but really, her hands were shaking and her heart was pounding.

  Sitting in her hotel room sipping a beer alone, Meg tried to figure out what had gotten into her. She wasn’t sure why she was being... well, such a jerk to Collins. That woman frustrated her, but she couldn’t deny that she was extremely good at her job and that would probably translate into being a good director.