One Man Band System

A moment later,

"Huaaah."

Emma woke up and immediately stretched her arms out. Her eyes drifted over to the dining table, where she spotted Eric sitting with his back to her. She climbed off the bed and walked over to him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders from behind, giving him a slight start.

"Hey... what’s wrong?" Emma whispered in Eric’s ear.

Then, Emma locked her eyes onto Eric’s phone screen and read the threatening message. Her face instantly darkened. She let go of her embrace, walked over to the coffee table to grab her own phone, and came straight back to Eric. She sat down right across from him and pulled up her screen.

She took the phone right out of Eric’s hand, drawing his eyes to her, and copied the sender’s number into her own device. After a few moments,

"Just as I thought," Emma muttered angrily.

"You know who sent this?" Eric asked, confused.

"Take a look," Emma said sharply, holding up her screen.

Eric looked at Emma’s phone and saw that the number was saved under the name Chad. Eric’s expression flipped instantly, a wave of pure anger washing over him.

"What the hell is his problem?" Eric asked, frustrated.

"No idea, but let me pass this along to Laura. She’ll handle him," Emma replied, equally annoyed.

"What are you guys dragging me into?" Laura asked.

Eric and Emma looked back toward the sofa. Laura was sitting up, rubbing her eyes with her hair completely messy, having just woken up and looked their way. Emma immediately went over to her, bringing both Eric’s phone and her own, then sat on the couch to talk things over with Laura. Eric just turned around in his chair, watching the two girls.

As Emma kept talking and showed her the message, Laura’s face darkened completely. She grabbed her phone and shot off a quick text to someone, a sly, cunning smile creeping onto her lips. Then,

"Ding,"

A reply popped up on Laura’s screen containing just a single word: "Okay." Satisfied, Laura sent a final response and tossed her phone onto the table with a look of pure contentment.

"What did you say to them?" Emma asked.

"Well, his dad runs a chain of restaurants in a few locations. I just talked to my uncle, who invested heavily in their business. I told him to pull all his funding, considering my uncle was the one who backed Chad’s dad when he was still struggling and only had a single restaurant," Laura answered proudly.

"Wow... you’re basically destroying his family?" Eric asked, walking over to join them.

"If he keeps messing around... yeah, absolutely, I’ll ruin his family. But I told my uncle to just give him a warning for now," Laura replied.

"Hmm... I see," Eric said.

"Ring."

Suddenly, Eric’s phone started buzzing. He looked at the screen and was shocked to see a video call incoming from the unknown number that had threatened him earlier. Seeing this, Emma and Laura immediately stood up. Laura snatched Eric’s phone and answered it, intentionally stepping right in front of Eric as she held it up.

When Chad’s face appeared, his eyes bloodshot and his complexion pale, he froze, completely shocked to see Laura standing right next to Eric.

"La... Laura... you’re hanging out with... that guy?" Chad asked slowly, his voice shaking.

"Yeah. You’ve got a lot of nerve threatening him," Laura replied sharply.

"I’m sorry... I’m sorry... I thought he was just a total player... playing around with Priya, Chloe, and Heidi... even though he’s already dating Emma... sorry... I totally misjudged the situation... please don’t call my dad again," Chad pleaded, his voice trembling as he looked down.

"Fine. Don’t you ever contact Eric, Emma, me, Priya, Chloe, Heidi, or Monica again. If I hear even a whisper about you harassing them, get ready for my uncle to yank his investments and watch your family’s company go bankrupt. Do you understand me?" Laura said coldly, her face expressionless.

"Okay... okay... I promise. Sorry, man... I didn’t mean anything by it, just delete my message," Chad said, catching a glimpse of Eric behind Laura with his bloodshot eyes.

"Alright... no problem. Just don’t ever do it again, and stop bothering Emma like you did at the supermarket," Eric said firmly and coldly.

"Yeah... I get it. Sorry... I am truly sorry," Chad said, bowing his head.

The moment Chad finished talking, Laura hung up the phone and blocked his number before handing the device back to Eric.

"All taken care of," Laura said with a smile.

"Thanks, Laura. I was still trying to figure out who that even was, and you already handled it. You really came through for me," Eric said, looking at Laura.

"Yeah... don’t mention it... happy to help," Laura replied, suddenly acting a bit shy.

"Hey... don’t get all bashful like a smitten kitten," Emma teased, playfully shoving Laura’s shoulder out of annoyance.

"Shut up," Laura shot back, shoving Emma right back.

"Hey... hey... knock it off," Eric said, placing a hand on both Laura and Emma’s shoulders, separating the two before things escalated.

Emma and Laura stopped instantly, their expressions flattening out as they turned to look at Eric. Eric quickly took his hands off their shoulders, letting out a sigh of relief now that the two had stopped bickering.

"Ugh... what’s with all the noise?"

They turned toward the lounge chair and saw Heidi waking up. Right then, Priya, Chloe, and Monica also started stirring, slowly sitting up in a complete daze. Once they all got on their feet, they wandered over to join Eric, Emma, and Laura.

The three of them immediately filled the rest of the group in on what had just happened. Naturally, the girls’ faces darkened in a split second, only to clear up with relief once they realized the whole mess had already been dealt with.

After that, Eric broke the news to everyone that the video he posted had gone completely viral overnight, holding his phone up for the six girls standing in front of him to see. Their jaws dropped and their eyes lit up instantly. They also noticed the endless stream of DMs still rolling in, with major studios clearly trying to scout Eric and his band.

"Wow... amazing, we’re famous... like, actually famous," Priya said in disbelief.

"Yeah... we’re a real band now... man, this is so cool... I completely didn’t see this coming," Heidi said, clearly holding back the urge to jump up and down.

"I’m not dreaming, right... this is... this is real, right? I’m a bass player... wow... I honestly can’t believe it. Something I just looked at as a hobby... turned into something this serious. I’m so happy," Chloe said, covering her mouth with both hands.

"Craziest part... some people are asking for lyrics... let’s record it again with vocals, I’ll start practicing," Monica said, reading through the comments.

"Alright... if that’s how it’s gonna be, I’m your manager," Emma said proudly with a smile, planting her hands on her hips.

"Eric... can you teach me how to play the drums? I want to join everyone else too," Laura said.

"Hmm... good point, you guys could just form an all-girl band. Alright, while Monica works on her vocals, I’ll teach you the drums. But... not today, I have to head out," Eric said.

"Oh... where are you going?" Emma asked.

"To buy a gift for my cousin’s unborn baby girl. The baby shower is the day after tomorrow," Eric answered.

"Ah... Caleb’s party... got it... I’ll come with you," Emma said.

"That’s exactly what I wanted. Do the rest of you want to tag along too? I need your help since I have absolutely no clue what to buy," Eric asked, looking at Priya, Monica, Heidi, Chloe, and Laura.

"Of course!" they chimed in together cheerfully.

"Okay... but before we head out and while we wait for your clothes to dry... let’s go clean up the fifth-floor deck that you guys completely trashed," Eric said, his expression suddenly darkening.

"Oh," Emma, Priya, Monica, Heidi, Chloe, and Laura murmured in unison. They knew exactly how out of hand they had gotten last night, since aside from wasting food, they had made a massive mess upstairs.

"Um... what should we name our band?" Chloe asked, trying to change the subject.

"How about we come up with a name while we clean up the deck upstairs," Eric replied.

"Uh... fine," Chloe conceded.

After that, they all headed upstairs with supplies to scrub down the floors and walls, working together as a team with Eric chipping in to help. While having fun with the cleanup, they started tossing around ideas for their band name.

Since Laura was planning to take over for Eric as the drummer and Monica was stepping in as the vocalist, they ultimately settled on the name "Reed’s Empress."

"Hey... why use my last name?" Eric protested.

"Because you’re the one who put the band together, composes the song and all the members are women... besides, this building is called Reed’s Record anyway... so it’s a perfect fit, right?" Emma asked.

"Yep... I love it, it’s perfect," Priya said, giving a thumbs-up.

"Same here... zero complaints," Chloe added.

"Hehe... we’re all empresses," Heidi said cheerfully.

"Awesome... I’m going to work my butt off to learn the drums, I’m really into this," Laura said enthusiastically.

"And I’m going to deliver some killer vocals," Monica added, throwing her arm around Laura.

They had a blast cleaning up everything upstairs in high spirits. And that was how the all-girl band "Reed’s Empress" was officially born, destined to perform Eric’s original tracks in the future and score number-one hits on the charts.