Page 77 of Your Rhythm
“You fucker,” Ace breathes. “You lied to us.”
“Speaking of lies.”
We all turn to Shayla, who’s been so silent I almost forgot she was here. She straightens up, twisting slightly away from me on the couch as she does.
“When were you all going to tell me you planned on letting me go?”
“We never planned on letting you go, Shayla,” I urge.
She nods to the papers on the table. “Sure sounds like it.”
“That’s a lie! It’s all twisted. It’s—”
“So you admit it,” Ace cuts me off. “The snake fucked you over.”
“No. She didn’t. She wouldn’t do this.” I grab at my hair. “None of this makes any sense!”
Nadine clears her throat and raises her voice higher. “As I said, we’re not here to talk about Kay Fischer. We’re here to discuss your contract. Part of your record deal was handing off all PR responsibilities to the Atlas team within six months of signing it. You’ve broken that part of the contract.”
“We booked Kay’s interviews before that.” The justification sounds feeble even to my own ears.
“Trust me, Pat, if we decided to sue—which we could—we’d destroy you.”
“But we aren’t taking that path,” Nadine interrupts David, “for now. We believe this is all tied to a management issue.”
Shayla tenses beside me on the couch.
“This has nothing to do with Shayla,” I argue. “This was all me. If you want to fire someone, fire me.”
“Good fucking riddance,” Ace mutters.
I try to ignore how much that stings. This is Ace, my best friend, the guy I started writing songs with when Sherbrooke Station was just a shadow in the back of our minds, flat-out telling me he wants me to leave the band.
Nadine turns to Shayla. “Do you mind leaving the room?”
She stands up beside me, adjusting her bag on her shoulder before crossing over to the door. I stare at the back of her head, willing her to turn around and see all the words I’m struggling to say written across my face, but all she does is pause with one hand on the doorknob. Her shoulders stiffen and for a moment I think she’s going to turn towards me, but then her posture slumps and she leaves us without looking back.
“Shayla can’t handle a band like you, not anymore.” Nadine almost sounds gentle now. “I know you have a close relationship, but Atlas thinks it’s best if you move on to someone with more experience.”
JP asks the question that I’m sure is on all our minds. “Can you make us fire her?”
It hits me how helpless we are, how vulnerable we’ve let ourselves become. I should know what my own record deal says about the band’s management, but the truth is that I have no idea what the full extent of Atlas’ power over us is.
“We’re strongly suggesting you let her go.”
“And I think you’ll find,” David adds, with the hint of a chuckle, “that it’s best to do the things Atlas Records strongly suggests.”
“We’ve set up a few interviews with some managers we think will suit you. Someone will be in touch with the schedule.”
Nadine tucks her folder away, gathering up her things like everything’s settled and the meeting is done.
“Oh, and if any of you contact another journalist without going through us, wewilltake this further. Much further.” David smiles like a shark.
* * *
The silencebetween us as we leave the building breaks as soon as we see Shayla standing out on the curb, staring down at her cell phone. JP starts calling her name.
“What do we do?” he demands, as we all flock around her. “Shayla, how do we fix this?”
