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“Are you ready for this?” Erica enters the green room again from where she’d gone to the bathroom. Isaac is fluffing his hair in the mirror next to Derek, and Derek is getting his face powdered by their hair and makeup person. Boyd is ready to go, having no hair to take care of, and Erica is always the first to get done.
“Four minutes,” a runner comes to tell them right then, and Derek takes a deep breath as Valerie puts down the brush and runs her hands through his hair a couple of times before nodding her approval.
“You’re done. Try not to play with your hair too much while you’re out there, it makes you look nervous,” she tells him, and Derek looks at her darkly.
“I am nervous.”
“No reason to be,” Isaac tells him, coming up to clap him on the shoulder, “Just like any other interview.”
“Except that it’s our first interview since the release of The Appearance of Doing Something, which somehow debuted at one hundred and has now risen to hit eighty-five, and we’re more famous that we’ve ever been,” Erica supplies helpfully, just as the runner comes back with “Two minutes, let’s get you out there to get you mic-ed up.”
Derek takes another steadying breath and follows the other three out of the room. It’s not that different from any other interview, but he’s never been good even at those, and now with their third album doing so well, it just makes him more nervous about all of this. He wasn’t made for fame, wasn’t prepared for their album beating out some of the artists they had. Some of the albums they’d debuted above were household names, and Inverted Morality wasn’t.
Everything flies by very quickly, getting mic-ed and then getting introduced and then they’re out in front of the live studio audience in chairs across from the two interviewers, and god, here they are, Inverted Morality on a morning show, getting interviewed for all of America to see, and it’s a little bit insane.
They ask all the normal questions – the “how did you get together” and asking about Boyd and Erica’s relationship, and then they start talking about the new album, and then the female interviewer – Caroline, Derek thinks? – is turning to him.
“So, Derek, you’re cited as the primary writer on most of the songs on this album, and we’re curious about this because you weren’t quite as present on the other two albums.”
Derek laughs, rubs at his chin for a moment.
“Ah, I dunno. Just had a lot of inspiration while we were writing for this album, and most of them made the cut.”
“We write and record a lot more songs than make the album, and he just happened to have a lot of great ones this time around,” Isaac adds in.
“There certainly are some good ones,” Caroline agrees, “I really liked the one – what was it called – ‘Sunrise Courtship’?” she pauses as they nod – it was one of the songs that had taken Derek very literally a day to write in its entirety – and then continues with, “There doesn’t happen to be any person behind this inspiration, does there?”
Derek smiles again, nods his head.
“Um, yeah. I met someone, um, a while ago, they were the inspiration behind a lot of these songs.”
He can feel Erica smirking at him, like she’s done since he told his bandmates about Stiles and their short interaction, because after you write four songs in one weekend, people expect answers.
“Very interesting,” the other interviewer – Derek thinks his name is Rick or Dick or something like that – speaks up, “So this album – your third – is a bit softer than your last two, doesn’t seem to have as many rock influences. Can you tell us about that?”
“Definitely,” Boyd leans forward as he talks, “We decided to see how we did with a more folk and indie inspired sound…”
*****
“Do you know how tempted I was to ask you about this inspiration of yours,” Erica tells them as they head backstage a few minutes later, and Boyd and Isaac snort as Derek glares at her.
“Thank god you didn’t, I would’ve hated to rip your throat out on national television,” he comments, and the other three laugh.
“But it would’ve been funny,” Isaac tells him as they hit the green room, “‘Oh, yes, Stiles, yes, I fell in love with him during our five minute conversation on a bus – ’”
“Ten minutes,” Derek corrects, shoving Isaac on the arm, “And I’m not in love with him, god – ”
“Did you say Stiles?” Allison, their sometimes-wardrobe person, asks from where she’s sitting by Valerie. All of Inverted Morality look to her, and Erica nods quickly.
“Yes, Stiles, that’s the dude Derek’s been writing all the songs about.”
Allison pauses for a moment, then her eyes go wide.
“Oh my god. I think I know Stiles. Well, I’ve met him like once – ”
“Ooooh, where, how,” Erica’s asking, going over to sit by Allison.
“I just started seeing this guy, his name’s Scott – ”
“That was the name of guy with Stiles that day on the bus,” Derek interrupts, his heart thudding at the possibility.
“Then this is definitely the Stiles you’re thinking off. He’s Scott’s best friend.”
Erica’s eyes light up as she looks at Derek, but Derek’s still a little stunned, because LA is huge, he honestly never expected to see or hear of Stiles again, and he can’t go out on buses much anymore.
“I could…set you guys up, maybe,” Allison suggests, and Erica turns back to her, looking somehow even happier than when their agent told them about debuting at one hundred.
“Definitely,” she says, and Derek’s just.
“Yeah,” he agrees.