North Star Records NYE Party (OPEN)

[Nicholas North]

Date and Time: December 31st, 10:21pm
Location: North Star Records Main Office

Nick surveyed the party, drink in hand. It was the first time North Star Records had hosted an event like this, even though it had been twenty-four years since he had founded the label, and it appeared to be going well so far. Artists mingled with each other and the label staff, and everyone appeared to be getting along great. Almost every artist signed to the label was in attendance tonight, he noticed. Nick was no expert in parties however, he was more focused on business. This whole thing had been Lillian’s idea, and what Lillian wanted, Lillian usually got.

He turned back to the railing, taking a sip of his drink and looking out at the city. It was a beautiful night, a little bit chilly, since it was almost January, but warm enough to hold a party outdoors on the rooftop, like they were doing that night. The lights of the city twinkled below, and Nick knew that here was not the only place New Year’s Eve was being celebrated.

He took another sip of his drink, and turned back to the party, a slight breeze ruffling his hair a little bit. Everyone in attendance looked very festive. A lot of the women wore sparkly sequined dresses, and a few of the men were decked out in sparkly clothes as well. Nick himself stuck to the classics, and was wearing a professional blue suit. A waiter passed by, carrying a tray of drinks to be passed out to the party-goers. The sound of conversation carried over to him on the breeze. Yes, everything was going very well.

[Kay Andrews]

Kay snagged a drink off a passing waiter’s tray, and downed it in one gulp. Where had her personal assistant gone off to? She had Kay’s bag, which meant she had Kay’s phone and wallet. If she had left already, she was going to be fired. She was supposed to be assisting Kay, not leaving the party two and a half hours before midnight.

Kay set the empty glass down on a nearby table, and returned her attention to the guy she had been flirting with. She wasn’t sure who he was, probably someone from the label, and it didn’t really matter. He knew who she was, of course, and he was paying attention to her, which was the important thing. She smiled at him, not really listening to what he was saying, and shrugged off her sparkly jacket, revealing the tight fitting black dress she was wearing beneath it. That would ensure she kept his attention. She placed the jacket over the back of a nearby chair. Her assistant would grab it for her later if she ended up leaving without it.

She had been wrong, because he wandered off a few minutes later, leaving Kay by herself in the middle of the crowd, and that wasn’t right. People were supposed to be paying attention to her. She paid people to pay attention to her, why weren’t they doing their jobs? Annoyed, she grabbed her own jacket off the back of the chair, since it was clear that her assistant was nowhere nearby, and draped it over her arm. She liked that jacket, she had been very proud of herself for getting it for three dollars while thrift shopping. She could afford to shop at more expensive places, of course, but she had friends who couldn’t, and it was only right to go somewhere everyone could afford if you were going to go shopping together.

She tucked a strand of her blonde hair, which she had spent hours curling, back behind her ear, and looked around for someone to talk to. She spotted Nick on the other side of the roof, near the railing, and made her way over, stopping to grab another drink. Nick would talk to her. Nick always made time to chat with artists, she knew.

“Hi Nick,” she said, taking a large sip of her drink. “Nice party.”

[Nicholas North]

Nick smiled slightly at Kay as she approached. Kay was a little bit too much fun at parties for Nick’s taste, judging by the pictures of her dancing on tables that regularly surfaced in gossip magazines and on the internet, and he hoped she wouldn’t pull any of that here. Suddenly reminded of just who many of his artists were, he wondered how he had let Lillian talk him into this. Fortunately, things still looked fairly calm. Of course, it wasn’t even eleven o’clock yet. There was plenty of time for things to get wilder.

“It is, isn’t it?” He said politely to Kay. “You’ll have to tell my wife that. This was all her idea, and she put it all together.” He looked around the room, wondering just where Lillian was. She ought to be around somewhere. She was probably off mingling, a party like this was absolutely her scene. She loved to be surrounded by money and fame. Maybe that was the reason she had suggested this, so that she had an excuse to socialize with celebrities.

He turned back to Kay, taking a sip of her drink. “Written anything good lately, Kay? I told you that we’re aiming for a September release for a third album, right?”

[Kay Andrews]

Oh, right, he was married. She couldn’t hit on him. Not that she would want to. He was kind of her boss, that would be weird. “If I see her I’ll tell her that I’m having a good time, then.” Not that she even knew what Nick’s wife looked like. She didn’t think she had ever met her. She was just saying it to be polite. The party was really a bit boring for her, and nobody seemed to want to pay attention to her.

She lit up as he turned the topic to her music. She was always happy to talk about it, with anyone who would listen. Attention for her music was one of her favorite kinds of attention. But of course, she couldn’t say that outright. “Nick, bringing work up at a party? You really are getting boring in your old age.” She downed the rest of her drink, but continued holding the empty glass, since she didn’t see anywhere nearby to set it.

Of course, she couldn’t just leave it at that, she really did want to talk about her music. She rearranged her jacket on her arm, and continued. “I have, actually. I’m thinking of taking it in a new direction for this album. A little more rock, a little less pop. What do you think?” She continued without waiting to hear Nick’s opinion. “I wanna do a cover. Joan Jett maybe? And I wrote this awesome song a couple of days ago that I really want to go on the album. I’ll have to play it for you some other time, it’s about a night out.”

[Lillian North]

Lillian took a sip from her glass, savoring the taste of the best champagne she could get on Nick’s far too limited budget for this party. She was aware that the funds for the party had come from the label, but surely Nick could spare more than that for this. It was clearly an important event, and needed more consideration than he had given it.

She smoothed out her skirt, which had a soft silver shimmer to it, as was fitting for the occasion. It was sparkly without being over the top, garish, and tacky. Some of the others she saw at the party couldn’t seem to keep their clothes from being tacky, however.

She scowled at the sight of Kay Andrews, hideously ugly sequined jacket draped over one arm, talking to her husband. Kay was everything she had been. Young, pretty, successful, and blonde without having to visit a hairdresser every few weeks to eliminate any signs that she might be going grey. Surely Nick prefered someone like her over Lillian, who was forty now, greying, and starting to have wrinkles of all things.

She turned away from them, trying to hide her jealousy, and tried to go back to mingling with the party-goers. But she couldn’t get the thought out of her head that Nick preferred Kay. She had to do something about it, something to make sure she kept Nick’s attention for good.

[Nicholas North]

He nodded, scanning the crowd for Lillian again. He spotted her, looking rather lovely in her shimmery silver dress. He’d have to tell her later how nice she looked tonight. And how nice the party was. It wasn’t really his thing, but she had done a fine job with it all the same. “I see her, she’s over by the drinks.”

“I’m not even fifty yet, Kay. I’m far from old.” He watched as she downed her drink. Surely she was drinking too much too quickly, and the night would not end well for her. He didn’t know how many drinks she had had that night, he wasn’t her babysitter, but if she was drinking that quickly, then the number had to be high. Meaning she wasn’t in for a fun morning. Maybe he was old after all, since he was stopping to think about the consequences now. He took another sip of his drink, the first one he had had that night.

“That sounds good. We can meet and talk about the details sometime this week.” Really, it was probably the job of someone else at the label to talk with Kay about her album, but Nick liked to be hands on. He always had. Back in the day when he had first been getting started, it had been a necessity, since he hadn’t had staff or money to hire staff, but now it was simply out of habit. And after all, handling something yourself was the best way to ensure it was done to your standards.

[Liam Shaw]

L iam didn’t really like parties that had a lot of celebrities on the guest list. Mostly because there was usually a lot of braggadocio and elitism in the air when a room was full of that many celebrities, but this was also a good chance to socialize with some of the other musicians signed to North star records since Liam had mostly kept to himself. On the way to the party, Liam and his childhood friend Peter had shared a joint in the car to warm themselves up. When they arrived, Peter instantly began chasing anything with a skirt within view and Liam calmly made his way to the bar. Usually Liam would start the night off with some shots but tonight he had decided to play it cool for now so he could let loose at another party, preferably one where he wasn’t surrounded by coworkers. Sure, there were a lot of drinks that were circulating on trays that Liam could grab, but at the moment he was quite high and in the mood for a simple beer. So, he made his way to the bar to grab one. Compared to the rest of the crowd Liam looked a bit underdressed. He wore a pair of black ripped jeans, Off white Jordan ones and a white Nike T-shirt. It didn’t take Liam long to start mingling, a few minutes into the party and  he was already in a group of artists discussing a few music videos that some of them had made. Then suddenly as the music playing at the party went silent for a moment, Liam heard someone behind him mention doing a Joan Jett cover. Now Liam wasn’t the eavesdropping type but he loved old Rock so he couldnt help himself. turned around to see who it was. He saw Nicholas and Kay Andrews. Liam knew Nicholas a bit more since he was signed to his label, but he didn’t really know much about Kay Andrews as a person, he had heard some of her music though. ” A Joan Jett cover? Damn you’ve got to send me a link to that when it’s out. Will you be covering some of her grunge stuff or the wilder stuff like bad reputation?” Liam spoke to Kay, then took another sip of his beer. He didn’t really know her, but that didn’t mean anything to Liam. He had a very nonchalant and carefree way of addressing people even if they were strangers to him. The scent of weed still radiated from Liam’s clothing and he was visibly high, but weed was legal in LA so he figured Nick wouldn’t mind much. He then turned his attention to Nicholas ” Hey Nick This is a nice set up you’ve got here.’ he commented on the party while giving Nick a subtle pat on the back. WORDS TAG

credit to nat of adoxography.

[Kay Andrews]

Kay turned to appraise the newcomer. Liam Shaw. Huh. She had heard his music, even liked some of it, but she didn’t think they had ever met, even though they were signed to the same label. And he was asking her about her music. Wonderful. Finally someone was paying her the appropriate amount of attention without her having to beg for it. “Uh-huh. I was thinking of doing I Love Rock N’ Roll, because I used to sing it all the time with my old band before I started my solo career, or maybe I Hate Myself For Loving You, but Bad Reputation is a good one too.” She started absently singing the song under her breath, half-hoping someone would notice and she’d get a compliment out of it.

After a few lines, she stopped singing, and started looking around for another drink. Unfortunately, the nearest waiter was across the rooftop from her. Damn it, if she wanted a drink she’d have to go and hunt it down herself. She took a deep breath, expecting to smell nothing but the scents of the city around, but instead she caught the smell of weed in the air. She raised her eyebrows at Liam. “Have you been smoking? Cause I know it’s not Nick, Nick is about as straight-edge as they come. If you have, hook me up, I want some.” She laughed.

[Nicholas North]

Nick immediately smelled the weed on Liam, but smiled at him as he approached anyway. He was used to dealing with stoned musicians. Hazard of the job. In fact, he had been known to encourage a little bit of drug use, in the name of selling records. He shook off the twinge of regret at the thought. What had happened hadn’t completely been his fault, and he needed to remember that.

He watched as Kay and Liam talked about Joan Jett songs, but didn’t weigh in. He’d give Kay his thoughts on the matter when they met to talk about it later that week, and he’d also inform her that I Love Rock N’ Roll was not, in fact, a Joan Jett song. He ignored Kay’s singing as well. He knew her too well, she was fishing for compliments. He had worked with her for five years, and dozens like her before. He knew the type, and he didn’t particularly want to feed her desire for attention in that moment.

“Thank you. Like I told Kay, you’ll have to tell my wife that, she put this whole thing together. She’s over there, the blonde in the silver dress.” Maybe it was a bad idea to send an underdressed guy who smelled of weed Lillian’s way. She did like everything to be just so, and didn’t like things to be less than perfect. Yes, it was definitely better to keep him far away. “Or, actually, I’ll just pass on the compliments myself later.”

He looked up, noticing that Lillian was looking over at him. She had probably noticed Liam, and was upset that he wasn’t properly dressed up. But what could really be expected? He had tried to warn her that she was opening a can of worms she didn’t want to open by gathering his clients all in one place with copious amounts of alcohol involved. But she hadn’t wanted to listen, so he had let her.

She turned away, and Nick decided that it was probably time to go after her. “I should go talk to her right now, actually,” he said, excusing himself and leaving Liam and Kay to chat, following Lillian through the crowd.

[Lillian North]

Lillian continued through the crowd, drink in hand, mingling. She hadn’t particularly noticed Liam, she was more worried about Kay. A woman who looked too much like her when she was younger for comfort would be nothing but trouble. No matter how much she denied it and how much she spent on anti-aging creams and treatments, she was still getting older. She couldn’t lose Nick. She had spent her way through her money from her former modeling career, and without him she would have nothing left.

She took a sip of her drinking and nodded along to the person in front of her, all the while thinking of a plan for what she could do to make sure her marriage didn’t end after only three years. The first step would be to speak to Nick, to take his attention back from that girl, Kay. She made an excuse to the person she was speaking with, and turned to go back towards where Nick had been, only to find that he was right behind her. She moved to kiss him on the cheek, her heels setting her at the perfect height to do so without having to lean up or down. “Hi, honey. How’s the party been going for you so far? Did I do a good job?” She smiled at him, resting a hand on his shoulder. She had been enjoying her night so far. Nick’s warnings about how some of the artists might behave seemed to have been utterly ridiculous. Everything seemed to be moving along completely smoothly.

[Liam Shaw]

L iam finished off his beer while listening to Kay Andrews talk about the Joan Jett song she planned to cover. When she mentioned I Love Rock n Roll, he gave a calm nod. "that's a good one. But Joan Jett's I love Rock n Roll was actually a cover too. She was an Arrow Fangirl back in the day. So she covered their song" He spoke in his usual nonchalant tone while looking for a place to dispose of his empty beer bottle. Luckily a waiter carrying a tray full of empty glasses walked by, Liam's attention drifted to the waiter as he conveniently placed his empty bottle on the tray, then his focus went back to Kay. Although Liam loved Rock he hadn't really made a Rock song in quite a while. He usually alternated between making clubbangers and love songs, mostly because those types of songs described his current lifestyle more accurately and allowed him to produce more honest lyrics.  His train of thought was interrupted when Kay asked him if he had smoked, "yeah, I had a joint on the way here." Liam spoke with a small smirk. When she spoke about Nick being straight edge, Liam laughed "Well, they say the only soul you know is the one you own. So Nick might surprise you one of these days." he laughed a bit more as the thought of Nick being high popped into his head. "Or I might sneak him a few edibles while we're in the studio without him noticing. Because now I kind of Want to see him high. " Liam spoke jokingly while pulling a joint out of his pocket and handing it to Kay the moment she asked him to hook her up. Liam only had one pre-rolled joint on him at the moment so they would have to share it, the rest of the weed was on his friend Peter who was somewhere around here chasing skirts. Liam gave Kay a lighter a few seconds after handing her the joint then he listened to Nick give his wife credit for the party. Then Nick proceeded to point out his wife from the crowd. Liam recognized her, he had seen her on TV and magazines a few years ago but he couldn't quite remember what she modeled. "you're a lucky man" he spoke while looking at Nick's wife. She was beautiful but Liam couldn't understand the necessity of marriage. he always figured that if he loved someone and that person loved him back then that was enough. Liam didn't need the law or God to get involved in his relationship. Or maybe Liam just didn't want to feel like someone owned him. When Nick excused himself to go talk to his wife Liam gave a calm nod "Alright cool see you around. " he spoke while turning his attention back to Kay, to see if she had started smoking.  WORDS TAG

credit to nat of adoxography.

[Kay Andrews]

Kay hadn’t known that. “Eh, whatever, she’s the one who made it famous. I’ve never heard the original.” Trey had never told her it was a cover. At the thought of Trey, she looked around again, desperate for another drink.

She turned her attention back to Liam as he answered her question about being high. “I try not to be stoned in public. Don’t need pictures of that everywhere, you know.” She laughed. “But hey, I don’t judge.” She glanced over at Nick’s retreating back. “Don’t tell him, but this is kind of a boring party. Music’s too quiet, nobody’s dancing, and the alcohol is all a little too fancy.”

She raised her eyebrows at Liam as he said he might sneak some edibles to Nick. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. Poor guy wouldn’t know what hit him.” She laughed. “It might be funny, but he doesn’t deserve that. It’d only be good fun if he knew what he was getting into.”

When he handed her a joint, she accepted it, and lit it, clearly well practiced. She raised it to her lips and took a drag. “Ooo, this is nice. It’ll make the party more fun for sure.” She offered him the joint back. “Here, if you want some more too.”