Page 28 of Goodbye Note

“Yes, thoughts, lyrics, anecdotes. Anything you come up with, and look here.” He grabbed the MacBook and linked it to my other socials “You can add it so your PocketJournal feed links right to everything else and it will post into our Discord.”

“If I am connecting them, why the fuck do I need to do both?”

“Because they will draw different audiences. Trust me, will you?” Kiernan smiled, and I was sure as a well-seasoned manager he was used to dealing with musicians.“Download the app and you can do it right from your phone.”

“Okay. So you just want me to make posts?” I held out a hand, not daring to grab the MacBook out of his hands.

“We have a live Q&A for you to join to explain it. No one else is doing it. It’s a great way to give the fans direct access to you.” He gave me the laptop already logged into whatever live app he was using to go live across all our socials.

“How much is your kickback for this?” I looked at myself in the screen. Huge dark circles stared back at me.

“Nothing. But I do know it’s got some big investors behind it.”

“If you say so.” I was willing to try anything to get this thing off the road.

How the fuck did other bands keep up the momentum doing this? Every day we weren’t out there promoting our music felt like another day we faded into oblivion.

“Make a first entry before the live.”

I nodded, dropping my attention to the screen. My fingers hovered over the keyboard while I tried to come up with something to type.

I thought quicksand was going to be a lot bigger deal as an adult, but what if quicksand is in the mind.

We’re frozen in time, waiting to thaw, waiting on the next best thing while waiting to be noticed.

We’re waiting on a time and place

Forgotten space.

We forget to live.

A moment

A memory

A time spent waiting on you.

End with a life of regret.

I hit post before I could regret it or erase it.

“What’s that about?” Kiernan asked, reading over my shoulder.

“Just what came to my mind.”

“Are you trying to say you’re lonely?”Kiernan asked. “This is why I’m not an artist."

I wrote down the phrase in my notebook before I forgot it. Maybe I could turn it into a lyric. “It’s isolating being at school and doing interviews and promo from behind a screen. I want to be playing. I don’t just want to be in here all day.”

“You’re not alone. You’re with the other guys.” Kiernan seemed distracted typing something into the computer.

“Not as much as I’m alone.” I lifted my shoulders. “I’m glad we are playing tomorrow night.”

“Are you keeping your grades up? Your parents happy? We don’t want them to try to pull the plug on this when we’ve just got the momentum going.”

“They’re fine. Everything is fine.”

“Can you keep up with this at school? You should be posting daily. Actually, all of you should be posting daily until you leave for Warped. We have to keep up fan engagement until the tour. This is a big time for you guys. We need those sales to keep hitting.” Kiernan clapped his hands together. “Got it?”

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