Chapter 15

       Agatha was going on and on about something right now at Major Vocal's meeting but honestly, I wasn't listening. Then again, when did I ever listen to her? Certainly not when she told me constantly not to date Aviva because that was only going to cause problems.

       The only problem being caused was how much I hated my manager.

       "Malachi, are you even listening?" Agatha asked. Out of all the things she was saying, that just so happened to be the thing that snapped me out of my daze and back into focus.

       But I was completely honest. "No. I don't like you."

       "Be mature about this," Agatha said. "I know you're not happy I'm your manager, but you can at least let bygones be bygones. I don't know anything I've done to make you feel this way."

       Okay, so stupidity was something else I could add onto the list of Agatha's negative qualities. And it was already a very long list.

       "Are you serious?" I asked. "Or is this one of your jokes that aren't even funny?"

       "I'm being serious," Agatha said.

       "Okay, where should I begin?" I asked. "You called my dog stupid more than once. You're the reason the band broke up in the first place with your ridiculous rules. You have ridiculous rules. You wouldn't let me date Aviva. You forced me to date Chelsea for publicity. You..."

       "And all of those were in favour of the band's publicity," Agatha said.

       "Even calling Duke stupid?" I asked.

       "I'm not a dog person," Agatha said.

       "And I'm not an Agatha person."

       "Okay, if you can't take this meeting seriously, I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

       "You can ask, but that won't mean I'll leave."

       "Then actually listen and participate in the meeting."

       My reply?

       I flipped her off.

       Aviva sighed and placed her hand on mine, lowering it so I wouldn't flipping Agatha off.

       So I flipped her off with my other hand.

       "Would you calm down?" Aviva asked, lowering that hand as well. "I don't like her either, but you don't see me flipping her off."

       "Alright, you two. You can at least try being more respectful towards our manager," Otis said, obviously just to stay on Agatha's somewhat good side since I knew if he had the confidence I had, he would be flipping her off too.

       We all would but I, unfortunately, had to be the only one who wasn't afraid to tell Agatha to talk a long walk off a short pier.

       "Thank you, Otis," Agatha said before continuing with the meeting.

       All I was hearing was, "Blah, blah, blah."

       I wanted to bang my head on the table.

       At least the meeting was being held in our penthouse, so my and Aviva's dog Duke was here. He suddenly woke up from his nap on the couch and hopped onto the ground before going over to me. Duke stood up on his hind legs, pawing at my leg. I smiled softly and picked him up, sitting him on my lap.

       He just wanted my attention, so he didn't bark or anything. He just sat there.

       Although it kind of looked like he was glaring at Agatha. I didn't blame him.

       It felt like years before the meeting finally ended and Agatha left the penthouse after telling us to make sure we wake up bright and early tomorrow for some studio time.

       Once the door closed, Otis looked at me. "Okay, I get that you're not happy with Agatha and you want her to not be our manager, but you shouldn't be flipping her off."

       "Oh, come on," I said. "It's not like I flipped her off in public with people watching so it could end up online. And she annoyed me. When people annoy me, I flip them off. Like how I flip Ricky off all the time."

       "Now, Malachi, be nice to me," Ricky said. "I'm nothing but nice to you."

       "I can be mean to you all I want," I said.

       "Jerk."

       "Okay, but honestly, when are we going to be done with Agatha?" Junior asked. "I can't take her anymore and it takes a lot to get me mad. So there's still no way out of the contract?"

       "There's nothing except for her quitting," Otis said. "And honestly, I don't know if it's going to happen any time soon if she has been able to put up with Malachi for so long. No offense."

       "None taken," I said. "Hey, but don't worry. I can get a lot worse for Agatha if you want me to. Just give me a sign and I will."

       "Here's a sign," Ricky said. "Do it. I want her gone. Turn your annoying scale up to however high it goes."

       "Then consider it done," I said. "Oh, and I have an idea. Someone, not me though, is going to call the recording studio and reschedule our appointment."

       "Why can't you do it?" Ricky asked.

       "Because then it will be clear to Agatha that we're trying to mess with her if I do it," I said. "It has to be someone else."

       Aviva pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and called someone, holding her cell phone up to her ear. "Hello, this is Agatha, Major Vocal's manager. They're scheduled to come in tomorrow morning at nine, but I was wondering if I can reschedule it a bit earlier. One of them has a very important appointment at eleven and I'm afraid they won't finish on time... Yes, eight o'clock will work perfectly. Thank you so much." She hung up the call. "Now she's going to show up late and look unprofessional."

       "You are a genius," I said, leaning over and kissing her cheek.

       "Hey, it was your idea in the first place," Aviva said. "I just thought it would work if I call pretending to be Agatha so she can't trace it back to any of us. Well, she can to me but I don't care. If we keep this up, we'll have a new manager in no time."

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i should be their manager. jk jk i'm too busy in spruceworth right now trying to shovel someone ahahaha.

i'm sorry for taking so long to update. i promise the next chapter won't take three months again lol.