I HAVE BEEN FROWNING AT THE newspaper on the coffee table in my living room for the past two hours. The room was filled with the letters addressed to me that said the company was glad that I had chosen to send my application to them, but sadly they were looking for someone more experienced, someone with better qualifications. As though being fluent in three languages and having excellent grades didn't make me qualified enough. The last one I received the other day made me laugh out loud.

Dear Ms Astra, it started, we found your application incredibly interesting. However, at this point we're looking for someone younger to take this position.

This is where I stopped reading an threw the paper straight into the rubbish bin. Now I felt like I should have framed it. I understand declining someone for not having enough job experience, but ditching a twenty-two year old up for being too old was bullshit.

I blew away a strand of dark hair off my face and sighed, crossing my legs on the couch i was sitting on.

Okay then, perhaps quitting my job just to feel adventurous wasn't the best idea.

I reached out for my mug to drink the rest of the tea that had lost all it's warmth and honestly tasted like slop with mint, when I heard a knock on my door. A knock was a bit of an oversimplification for the three loud thuds that my poor dark wooden door had to suffer. What can I say, some people just believe they have to act like battering rams.

"I'm coming," I screamed as I quickly untangled my legs and ran to take the keys of the hanger. On the doorframe was standing my cousin Heather, her blue eyes were shining mischievously at the light coming from my sunny apartment and forming long rays of sunshine on the floor the dark hallway of the building.

"Aren't you supposed to be at school?" I asked, moving enough to give her enough space to walk in.

"Mr Johnson was sick today," she explained as she entered, quickly taking off her black leather shoes and putting them by the door. At least she didn't march inside with them still on, I had cleaned up my place before sitting down to try read the newspaper notices. Hopefully, it was a small apartment.

"Really?" I asked raising my eyebrow and eyeing her suspiciously. I was just teasing though. She wasn't the kind of person to run away from school, no matter that her looks could fool you. Heather was a die-hard fan of punk and her appearance was showing that. Today she was wearing her black ripped jeans. The above-mentioned had a lot of holes in them and so many strings coming out from literally everywhere, that she looked like she had just robbed some poor homeless person. Her black leather jacket was tangled and thrown on one of the chairs immediately after she entered the room. Her black t-shirt had the name of a band I had never heard before written on it with dark letters that almost blended with the color of the shirt. Wearing her happy colors today it seemed. Her hair was cut off and dyed black, as it used to be light brown like mine. She almost looked like a female version of that Sid Vicious guy, the ome she wouldn't shut up about.

"Fuck off," was her quick answer when she didn't even bother to get annoyed at me. Tragic. She jumped on the spot that I had occupied a minute earlier and threw her backpack on the ground.

Stretched on my yellow couch, she looked so out of place in the bright colored room. Almost like a demon. I snorted. Who could imagine that the same girl will be in her home five blocks away in a hour or so, studying to maintain her perfect grades.

To be completely honest, I did enjoy when she and her best friend came around after school, it amused me to hear about their teenage drama and problems, that they would soon grow up to understand were nothing to write home about.

"Ouch. So, is there something new at school? Where's Nancy, by the way?" I asked, making my way to her and sitting on the couch.

"Sick, she's got the flu or something," she explained her electric blue eyes fixating on the newspaper on the table. "Oh, now I remember! I came to tell you that mom asked me to make you call her tonight, because she wanted to talk to you. She said she talked to one of her clients and she could set you up with a job that would suit you."

With that being said, my eyebrows shot up so high, I could swear I felt them touch my hairline. "That would suit me? No insult but aunt has two moods. She either things I have to wear a tie and a pen skirt and work in a bank or become a street performer. Which one do I have to get ready for?" I asked half-jokingly. I loved aunt Teressa to death, but her choosing a job for me was a bit too much at this point.

Heather laughed. "Maybe both. I have no idea what is going on in her head right now. She could make you a professional boxer with your martial arts experience for all I know."

"Are you kidding me? She came to one of my competitions a few years ago and she was going to pass out when the fighting started," I laughed and the black-haired girl joined me.

"You don't say. I remember you kicked that girl in the face and she gasped so quickly that the other competitor's coach turned around to see what had happened," she snickered and I burst into fits of laughter again.

We chatted some more and I thought just how easy it was for me to talk to Heather, no mather she was six years younger than me. My grandfather would joke the truth was in our names. Heather and Lilly were both flowers, right? That was the thing that got us closer — our dislike of our names. Heather swore she would change it in a heartbeat when she turned twenty one. I wasn't that pretentious to be honest. I knew a girl in university whose name was Begonia, so I guessed there was worse.

Soon enough, I had to send my cousin away and after promising that she would come again with Nancy this time in a few days, she left, leaving me alone again in the warm June afternoon.

✵✵✵

I admit I barely waited for the evening when I dialed aunt Teressa's phone and waited for her to answer. I was chewing on my nail as I was holding the receiver, when I heard her voice on the other end of the line.

"Hello?"

"Hello, auntie Tess, it's Lilly."

"Oh, darling, it's so good to her from you again. Clumsy me, I should have asked you for dinner," she immediately said and from the tone of her voice I could tell she really was getting upset for not asking me to spend the evening with them.

"Oh, please, don't worry," I hurried to calm her, "I am going out with some friends in a hour anyway, so I doubt I would have made it," I lied, I had just called my meeting off, because my friend was having a headache and decided that going out wasn't the best idea.

"It doesn't matter dear, you are not feeding well enough anyway, look how puny you have be—"

"Don't worry, I'm working out, I'm feeding healthy, everything is alright. Heath said you wanted to talk to me. About some job."

"Yes, you see, one of my clients, who is a tour manager of this music band has been complaining recently that one of his assistant has quitted her job unexpectedly and he needs someone on her place fast, since they are leaving for tour soon. And of course I explained him how talented you are, how you can deal with problems and find solutions easily, how your education is suitable for the job, that you have perfect grades from A to Z..."

Oh no, I thought, what have you done?

"... so he agreed that you can go on an interview tomorrow and he'll see what he could do. Isn't that great," she almost screamed the last words into the phone, her voice high-pitched from excitement. I was somehow glad that she was trying to help me, but imagining I might have to stand in front of that same person she was talking to about me made me feel self-consious.

"Yes," I finally managed to say, "yes, that's great, thank you," I managed to say after a pause.

"That's amazing dear, the meeting will be tomorrow at 2, sleep better and dress decent," my aunt ordered in a sing-a-song voice and explained me what I had to bring to the interview, got ready to hang up, when I stopped her.

"Wait, auntie Tess, you didn't tell me the name of the group!"

"Oh darling," she sighed "I can't remember it right now. They are those boys with the painted faces, you must have heard of them," my jaw dropped and I heard a shout coming from the other end of the line that wasn't my aunts, "Heather says their name was KISS, of course, how could I forget..." she continued talking, but I wasn't really listening.

Freaking KISS, you should have started with that. There's no way I'm going to work for freaking KISS.

I quickly thanked my aunt and hung up, sitting on my favorite spot on the couch. I was staring at a spot on the TV in front of me as the thoughts flooded my head. It wasn't like I had anything against the band, their image or their music. Hell I must have listened their last album, 'Destroyer' enough times to know the lyrics by heart. I wasn't afraid or nervous of being around them and their celebrity status. I was worried about being part of something so big. Did I really had the guts to screw up a KISS tour by taking part of it? As a tour manager's assistant? No way!

"No way," I repeated out loud to remind it to myself, as I got up to brush my teeth and get ready for bed.

Fifteen minutes later I was lying on my bed, staring at the dark summer sky from one of the big windows of my bedroom. No matter how small the apartment was, I had chosen it for the huge windows that gave me a beautiful view to the lights of night Manhattan. When I was a kid I wished to move in in a house there, near 5th Avenue, to feel in the center of the big city. To be a part of something big. Strangely, in that moment a thought crossed my mind. A quote from a book that I had read not too long ago. And I made my choice.

"What if I fall?" Oh, but my darling, what If you fly?

✵✵✵

I am so not proud of this first chapter it is unreal. Anyway, I hope you get to enjoy it :)

The first part of the book will follow Lillian's story as she gets to know her job and the people she is working with.

Don't forget to vote and comment, this is what gets me motivated enough to write!