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Emma’s lifelong dream has always been to capture history as it happened. She’s always wanted to be able to take pictures that would become so popular amongst the people that she’d see them everywhere—that they’d take one look at the picture and be able to know who took it, and it’d be her. That dream first started to come true when she received her first concert photography gig for Spiritbox. Emma accepted the offer immediately. This was her chance to shine. And she did, for the most part. Looking back at her pictures now, she could have done better on the editing and the angles, but she’s still proud of herself for being able to have the opportunity and achieve this milestone in life. She could only imagine how many other people’s dreams it is to do what she does.
But after Spirtibox’s tour ended, Emma was left with nothing to do. Tour only ended a week ago, but as she looked over her funds, Emma realized she couldn’t go much longer without another gig. So here she was: sitting on her couch in her lousy flat, scrolling through bands to see who does or doesn’t need a photographer. Then a logo caught her eye: Sleep Token.
Emma cocks a brow, wondering how on earth someone could have come up with a name like that, but proceeds to look up their website anyway. She scrolled through their merch, looked at the tour dates for their upcoming tour “Even In Arcadia,” and even clicked through their Instagram profile before deciding she wouldn’t be able to capture anything even nearly as good as their last photographer did.
Emma sighs as her phone begins to ring next to her laptop, and she turns the screen towards herself to read the name. Her best friend Maxine was calling, but did she really want to answer? She answered anyway.
“Emma!” Came Maxine’s sing-song voice. “ Do you want to go out to dinner with me tonight? We haven’t hung out in forever!”
Emma sighed, looking longing at her laptop screen that still displayed Sleep Token’s website’s homepage. She needs a break from work. She’d been touring with Spiritbox for a while, and while she’s already had a week-long break, exhaustion was still evident in her mannerisms. She nodded. “Sure, where at?”
“ I knew you’d come through!” Maxine chirped. Emma couldn’t help the smile that tugged at the corner of her lips. “Does Fallow sound good to you?”
“Yeah, of course.” Emma nods. “How about I meet you there at—“ she looks at the time in the corner of her laptop. It reads 4:57 pm— “6:00? I need time to get ready.”
“That’s fine. You better not flake on me, Lionheart,” Maxine teased playfully. Emma rolled her eyes, but assured her best friend that she wouldn’t. She hung up after a few moments and quickly subjected herself to getting ready for dinner.
Emma decided a dress would be fitting for tonight, so she dressed herself in a black dress and kitten heels, quickly running the straightener through her hair before putting on some cosmetics and hurrying out the door at 5:40pm.
She made it to Fallow just in time, finding Maxine sitting near a window. She sat down across from her.
“You actually made it in time,” Max teases. “That is so unlike you.”
“Oh, shut up.” Emma rolls her eyes. “It’s because I have nothing to do now. I finished touring with Spiritbox so now I’m in between jobs.”
“I thought bands usually kept the same photographer for all of their tours?” Maxine asks more than stated as she takes a sip of her wine. Emma sighs.
“Yeah,” she says, “usually. Their last photographer was out for personal reasons so I was more of a substitute. I’ll find a gig soon though.”
“Hopefully,” Maxine adds. “Can’t have you living on the streets. That would be embarrassing for me.”
Emma laughed. “I’ll take you down with me.”
“Next time you go on tour, you should get me free tickets to their concert,” Maxine said after a few heartbeats of silence. “I would have loved to see Spiritbox.”
“I’ll have to see. Spiritbox was a dream to see live.”
Their table’s waitress approached with menus, handing them off to the girls and giving them a moment to look over their food options. She returned after a few minutes, took their orders, and promptly left with the menus, promising them their food would be out soon.
“Logan is moving out,” Maxine says suddenly. Emma’s eyes widened. “Yeah, we’re taking a break. He’s just… grown super distant lately, you know? And I want someone committed. So I’m giving him space and a chance to get his shit together.”
“And… if he doesn’t fix himself?” Emma asked tentatively.
“Then I’m going to end it,” Maxine sighed.
“Max… I’m so sorry.” She reached across the table and clasped her hand around her friend’s, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze. “If you need anything, you can always call me. And you have a key to my flat.”
“Thanks Emmie.” Max gave her a tight smile. She opened her mouth to say more but the waitress arrived with their food and handed out the dishes accordingly. They ate quietly, making a few comments here and there. Emma and Maxine have known each other since middle school, so they’ve long passed the part in their relationship where they can sit in comfortable silence. Their hangouts usually consisted of this, neither of them talking and just relishing in each other’s company.
When they finished, they split the check and made their way outside. “I don’t want to go home yet,” Max admitted. “Logan is still there—all of his stuff is there. Em, is it okay with you if I go home with you?”
Emma clicked her tongue. “Of course. We still wear the same size, right?”
“Well, I hope I’ve not gained any weight,” Max laughs. They flagged down a cab and they were back at Emma’s flat in no time. She fumbled with the keys but managed to unlock the door and stepped inside. She noticed she had left her laptop open on the coffee table and quickly made way to close it, but noticed she had a few new emails. She hesitated, deciding whether she wanted to look through them now or save that for the morning.
Tomorrow, she decided after a heartbeat.
“I have drinks in the fridge,” Emma began to say but Maxine already beat her to it, opening a cold Dr. Pepper while she kicked off her shoes. Emma giggled. “Okay, well then I’m gonna go shower. Mi casa es su casa.”
“Awh, you’re showering without me?” Max called as Emma disappeared into her room to grab a clean change of pajamas. Her shower was quick, just a quick shampoo and rinse of her hair and a quick wash of her body. When she stepped out of the bathroom, in pajamas and a towel wrapped around her hair, she found a desperate looking Maxine waiting just outside the door.
“Oh, thank God! You took forever!” she yelped before running into the bathroom. Emma just sighed softly and gave an affectionate roll of her eyes. She sat down at her vanity, plugged her hairdryer in, and got to work drying her hair. Once she was finished, Maxine was out of the bathroom and waiting for her in the living room to join her for a movie.
“So, what are the options?” Emma asked when she sat down. Maxine smiled sheepishly.
“The Twilight Saga,” she answered.
“All of them?” Emma asked incredulously. “Max, don’t you have work in the morning?”
Max waved a dismissive hand. “Have you lost track of time? Tomorrow is Saturday, and I have the weekends off.”
“Oh shit,” Emma gasped. “I guess I have lost track of time.”
“Happens when you’re busy being a bum,” Maxine quipped. She turned on Twilight while Emma turned off the lights and grabbed blankets for the both of them. They managed to make it through the first two movies before they both fell asleep—which Emma was secretly grateful for, because she’s not sure if she would have been able to function like a normal human in the morning if she’d somehow managed to stay up all night.
Max was already up before her, if the strong smell of coffee wafting from the kitchen was anything to go by. Emma sat up groggily, blinking the sleep from her eyes. Her back was killing her after sleeping on the couch. How can she only be 26 and already feeling like a 99 year old grandma?
She tiredly stumbled into the kitchen to find Max leaning against the counter, a fresh cup of coffee on the counter next to her. “Wow, I thought you’d never wake,” Max commented.
“What?” Emma yawned. She opened the fridge, looking for something to eat but found nothing appealing. She really needed to go grocery shopping soon. “What time is it?”
“Almost 11am,” Max said absentmindedly, scrolling on her phone. “This is my third cup of coffee.”
“Fuck,” Emma groaned. She hurried into the living room and opened her laptop, thankful it still had enough battery in it to get through these emails. She scrolled through them, dismissing the spam and the emails that just weren’t really that important to her at the moment. But then a particular name caught her attention.
Her heart plummeted into her stomach and her eyes grew comically wide. “Holy shit!” she gasped aloud with meaning to. She couldn’t help but just stare at the email displayed on her screen.
RCA management had emailed her, saying they had taken a look at her portfolio and wanted her to be Sleep fucking Token’s photographer for their upcoming shows.
“What? What’s up?” Max asked worriedly. She came to sit by Emma on the couch and peered over her shoulder at her screen. “Is this good? Who’s RCA? What’s Sleep Token?”
“My new gig,” Emma breathed. “Oh my God, this is incredible. Max, do you know what this means?”
“No… I don’t, actually.”
Emma scoffed. “They’re, like, making history as we speak. I’ve only heard a few of their songs but they’re all so good. Their last tour sold out in minutes and apparently their new tour did so too—“
“So, they’re a good band? That’s cool. What kind of music do they make?”
“Uh…” Emma trailed off. Sleep Token didn’t really stick to genres—they created art, arne art doesn’t need to be named to be beautiful, really. “They don’t really have any genres. They really just make whatever, and it all sounds amazing still.”
“So they want you to go on tour with them?” Max cocked a brow. Emma shrugged, scanning over the email once more.
“I… guess so…” she said finally. “God, I can’t believe this! I mean— I was looking at them yesterday but I never thought they would reach out to me, you know? This is insane.”
“I’m so happy for you!” Maxine chirped. “This is huge, you deserve this. What do they look like?”
Emma flushed. “Well, they’re a little interesting.” She opened her browser and quickly typed the band name in the search bar and watched as the various pictures of the lead singer, Vessel, flooded her screen. He wore a simple cloak, red and white mask, and black pants. No shirt, which made watching concert videos very interesting. Max hummed.
“Okay, so he’s hot as fuck,” she chuckled. “I’m so jealous you get to see this everyday.”
“If I accept their offer,” Emma reminded her.
“Which you will,” Max said pointedly. “Because look at how excited you are just reading the damn email. Imagine what it would be like seeing them in real life!”
Emma turned back to her screen, zoning out as she stared at the images. Her lifelong dream has always been to capture history as it happened. She wants people to look at her pictures and recognize her as the photographer. She wants to see her pictures everywhere she goes—Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, etc., etc. This opportunity—shooting for Sleep Token, of all bands!—could be huge. She would be one step closer to achieving her dreams.
“I’ll sleep on it,” she said finally. She closed her laptop.
“What?” Max asked incredulously. “Did you hesitate like this when Spiritbox reached out to you?”
Emma shook her head slowly.
“So why should you now?”
“I don’t know,” Emma admitted.
“Okay,” Max huffed. “I’m not going to pressure you into anything you don’t want to do, but please consider this. You said they’re huge. If you take this offer, you could be huge too. Haven’t you always wanted that?”
Emma nods. “I’ll think about it.”
Max stayed for the majority of the day, until the sun began to set and she realized she couldn’t just stay at Emma’s flat until Logan moved out completely, so she got dressed and called herself a cab, leaving Emma all by lonesome. She took the time to pick up her flat and make herself some spag bol (because she can make some ripping spag bol, in her opinion). Emma sat down in her living room to finish watching the Twilight Saga and eat her dinner, but her mind was far away from present time. All day, since she read the email, she couldn’t stop thinking about how RCA had reached out to her, because they wanted her to shoot for Sleep Token’s Even In Arcadia tour. She had considered the offer before it was even possible last night, so why was she hesitating so much now? Max certsinly seemed to have a point this morning, too. This could 100 percent boost her career. She could become huge.
This is just one step closer to achieving her dreams, Emma reminded herself. After a few minutes of building up the courage to email RCA back, she paused her movie and set her bowl aside, bringing her laptop into her lap and opening it up. She found RCA’s email from this morning and began typing up a reply.
After she finished typing, she sat back on the couch and just stared at her screen. After she sends this, there’s no going back.
Emma read her response a few times over before inhaling sharply and pressing send. She hadn’t even realized she’d been holding her breath until the email had been sent, and she let out a sharp exhale.
Well, there’s certainly no going back now.
She’ll be looking forward to seeing Sleep Token on tour.