The Tour

I still can’t believe it. In a few hours, I would actually get to meet pretty much all my favourite bands. It all started a week ago, when one of my good friends from high school confirmed it: She and her band, Never Is A Long Time, will be opening for the The Music Verses Misery tour. A Day Short, Love Lies, Letter to Pretty, Already Gone, and Secret Kept will all be performing.
Let’s back up for a bit. My excitement is letting me get ahead of myself. First of all, my friend’s name is Aaralyn,, and I can hardly call her a friend from high school. We just graduated a week ago, on June 6th. Her band has been playing small gigs ever since they were freshman. About a year ago, they were discovered during one of their larger shows near Boston by Wes Smith.
Wes Smith is the strikingly pretty bassist of A Day Short, and he has his own record label. He immediately signed Aaralyn on. It was about time. She is an amazing singer/songwriter and her discovery is the biggest thing to ever happen to our small town.
The first show of the tour starts in an arena about an hour from where I live. Actually, most of the shows are going to be in an enclosed building. I think there are only two shows that are scheduled to be outside.
“Bye, Jenny,” I say as I shut the car door. Jenny is my best friend even though she is five years older than me. I was Maid of Honour at her wedding and I am now her baby girl’s godmother. She’s dropping me off because I won’t be needing a car for the next ten weeks of my life.
“Be careful, hunny. Don’t do anything you’ll regret,” Jenny says. I ignore the list of about a billion things she says I shouldn’t do and pop the trunk. Even after I take out my two suitcases, my backpack, and the case for my new laptop, she’s still going on and on. I already got a similar lecture
from my mother. I brought a lot of clothes, because I’m not sure if I’ll have anytime, or anyplace, to do laundry.
“Yeah, sure. Whatever you say Jenny. I got to go.”
“Love you girl. Be careful Skylar,” Jenny says as her final warning.
“Yeah, I love you too. I’ll call you every once in a while. And e-mails. And AIM!” I yell at her as she drives off.
I have just found out a way to carry all my stuff at the same time and my phone rings. I sigh and put my things down to answer it. I’ve been expecting a call since I’m about twenty minutes late.
“Hello,” I say as I struggle to answer my phone before it stops ringing.
“Hey Sky. Your late.” It’s my best friend Lex. “Where are you?”
“Yeah, I know I’m late, but I am currently standing right outside this gimungous building. Any idea what door I should go in?”
“Wait, I’ll come out and get you. You should see your beautiful “crew” pass. It gives you access to pretty much anywhere and anyone since we’re with Aaralyn. They’re excellent to have, since it’s near impossible to get past any of these body guards. When we arrived, Aaralyn had to come out and rescue us since we weren’t allowed in. Your just outside, right?”
“Yeah, around ummmm,” my voice trails off as I turn my head around to see what sign I am close to. “ I’m around gate 5,” I finally answer.
“Good, I’ll be out there in about 3 minutes. See you then!”
I look at the time on my phone. It’s 3:14p.m., and the show is supposed to start at 7:00p.m. I am glad that I might have a little time to get acquainted with some of the bands before show time.
“Ugh,” I say out loud and slap myself across the forehead. I’m so eager I’m not thinking straight. The bands aren’t actually going to be in the building before they have to perform. All the big bands are relaxing at some nice hotel somewhere. I forgot Aaralyn is just here to meet us and to make sure everybody gets settled. Plus, since it’s her first real big show, and I think she wants everything to be perfect.
“Skylar!” I hear Lex say behind me. I turn around and we exchange friendly hugs. I’m so happy to see her. We’ve been best friends since kindergarten. “Here’s your pass,” she says as she hands me some laminated paper attached to a belt clip. I stare at my picture that I had taken a few days before. I scrutinize it carefully. Lex watches me and gives me some of what you could call “reassuring” news.
“Don’t worry about the picture. Everybody already compared theirs to everyone else’s, and we’ve come to the conclusion that yours is the best.”
I criticize it carefully still, until I come to the conclusion that it is indeed a fairly decent picture. My brown hair is straight and not frizzy. I had worn my contacts so I didn’t look like a total geek. The contacts also helped bring out the green in my eyes. My make-up hadn’t smudged, and I didn’t have a dorky smile. In fact, my teeth had been showing just enough to tell they were straight and quite pearly. It’s amazing what three years of braces and some teeth whitening strips can do for a person. The only thing I think that I could have improved on was the angle of my head. It was slanted a lot to the right.
“Skylar, calm down. Yours is so the best. Here, look at mine.” Lex pulls hers off her belt clip.
“Yours isn’t so bad either, “ I tell Lex. I’m not lying, even though it takes awhile for me to assure her I am being honest. Her ear length flared hair looks great on her.
“Let’s go inside and I’ll show you around,” Lex offers. I followed her into the huge building. I dumbly follow Lex through what seems like a series of confusing pathways until we walk into a small, cozy room. The room is not cozy because it is snug, tidy, and has matching contemporary furniture, but because it shelters the rest of my friends.
“All right!” “Finally.” “You’re here.” “Took you long enough.” are the welcoming greetings I recieve as I enter the room and sit down on a soft blue couch. Lex sits next to me. Even though some of the greetings I got seemed a little harsh, I can’t get angry at my friends. They are family to me, or even more than family. We are each others protectors, mentors, counselors, or anything we need.
We make small talk for a while. Gracelyn talks about how much she isn’t looking forward to college. Mandy and Sam are just so estactic that they can’t talk about anything else besides meeting cute guys and such.
Aaralyn all of a sudden makes her appearance in the room. I can tell she is under a lot of pressure because her exotic Asian face has turned unusually pale. I’ve been to her shows before, and I’ve never seen her look so nervous.
My stomach rumbles angrily. It’s loud enough for Aaralyn to hear it.
“That’s what I came here for. I was wondering if you guys are hungry. I’m not, but we can order something for here. I can get someone to go get a pizza for you guys if you all want that.” Aaralyn looks around and sees all our heads nod in agreement. “What do you want on it besides cheese?”
“I want Guacamole!” screams Gracelyn. I almost keel over with laughter after looking at Aaralyn’s confused face. Gracelyn doesn’t actually want guacamole on her pizza. It is an old joke we have, and it really means that we want eggplant on our pizza. After giving Aaralyn a thorough explanation of what we want on our pizza, we come to the conclusion of one half plain cheese, the other half with eggplant, onions, black olives and green peppers. Aaralyn scribbles the order on some paper and hands it to a guy in the hallway.
“Common guys, we have a while before it will be here. For now, I’ll give you a little tour of this place.” Aaralyn then proceeds to drag us around the building. She makes a fabulous tour guide, occasionally stopping at various rooms and giving some quick information about them. “This is A Day Short’s room.” She opens the door and we all peek in and ooh and aww. Mandy reaches in to touch some of the stuff, but I slap her hand away.
“Mandy!” I pretend yell at her. “Stop having obsessed fan syndrome!” We both break into giggles. Everyone knows Mandy is the biggest A Day Short fan known to man.
During the rest of the tour, Aaralyn introduces us to countless people and I pretty much forget all their names as soon as we walk away from then. Her introduction is always the same. “Hey, these are my friends, Skylar, Mandy, Lex, Sam, and Gracelyn,” Aaralyn says as she points to the appropriate person after saying each name. “They’re going to be my road crew for the tour.” Aaralyn never mentions that Sam and Gracelyn aren’t staying for the whole tour. They have summer jobs that they need in order to pay for college this fall. I’m also going to college in the fall, but I don’t have to worry about anything financially. I got my rich uncle to pay for whatever my scholarships don’t.
Finally, Aaralyn takes us behind the huge stage where the magic is going to happen. Forever Is A Long Time is supposed to play first since they are the least popular. The stage has already been set for them, Aaralyn explains. We don’t actually walk out on it because even though it is still about 2 hours until show time, several desperate fans wait out on the floor.
A guy comes up to us as we inspect the stage from the side. “Aaralyn?” he says and looks questioningly at the rest of us. “The pizza you wanted is here.”
“Okay, guys,” Aaralyn says as she leads us back to the room she met us in. The pizza sitting on a coffee table and I grab a slice of cheese. “I wanted to ask a favour of you.” Aaralyn tells us. “I was wondering if you could, ummm, not watch my first show tonight.” Lex swivels her head and stares at her. “Not to offend you guys or anything. It’s just, I’d feel more comfortable if you weren’t watching.” I can almost see sweat slide down her face as she speaks to us. “There’s just a lot of pressure right now, and if you were out there, it would just be too much.”
“I understand,” I finally say.
“Yeah, it’s okay.” Lex and Mandy say. Gracelyn and Sam can’t help to show their disappointment.
“Grace and Sam, I’m so sorry.” Aaralyn apologizes. “You’ll still get to see the rest of the show from the floor.”
“Okay,” they both give a half-hearted answer, just laced with understanding.
“Oh, thanks for being so great about this. I think now we can eat!”1


Later that night…2

I am blown back by the performances. One after the other, bands just kept coming and they never ceased to amaze me. Mandy was absolutely mesmerized by A Day Short. They performed last and I simply can’t deny that they were the best. Mandy was in a constant state of giggling because we were standing very close to Wes playing bass. I was also quite blushy, because the lead singer is adorable and he looked amazing out there.
I thought the next best band was the rising Already Gone. They were still a fairly new band, but they definitely showed they had potential during their show. I think the guitarist is amazing.
After the show, I FINALLY got to meet the bands. They were all really cool and congratulated Forever Is A Long Time on their first performance. (I heard they were SPECTACULAR) I was okay with not being noticed, since I was usually really shy in front of new people. Especially in front of all those beautiful boys, words just wouldn’t come naturally.3


Tour life is exhausting. It’s only been a week and I feel completely drained. All the traveling gives me a sense of insecurity because we are never in the same hotel for more than a night. A lot of the time, we don’t even sleep in the hotels. Most of the time I sleep is spent on a tour bus. I have also given up taking everything out of my suitcases. The packing and re-packing is way too much work. My body has become nocturnal because after shows, which I never seem to get tired of, I go out to clubs or just stay up and hang out with the bands. That is definitely a plus. I have gotten to know all of the bands a little, but none other more than A Day Short. That’s the only band Mandy seems to talk with, and I usually go with her. It’s not that bad though, even after I found out that the lead singer is quite faithful to his girlfriend. Sometimes I go with Lex, who seems to be able to talk freely with anyone.
Aaralyn has suggested to me that the guitar player from Already Gone (whose name I found out was Christian) was very handsome. Since I’ve always been shy and not too quick to talk with boys, my friends have taken on the role of matchmaker.
I’ve only talked to Christian about twice, and only when I’ve been with Lex or Aaralyn. He seems like a really nice guy.
Right now, it’s about quarter to one in the morning and they’ve just finished playing a show in the middle of nowhere North Carolina. Apparently, no one else thought it was in the middle of nowhere because the show was sold out. I’ve decided not to hit the night life tonight because I keep a weekly column online and my next post is due by tomorrow night. It’s not really a column as much as it is a story. I’m currently writing a fantasy and I have no idea where I’m going with it. I decide that I’m getting nothing, so I get up and stand on my crimson sheets and jump off my bed. I’m careful not to unsettle my laptop which is at the foot of the bed. I’m still dressed in my concert attire; tight maroon tank-top with baggy (but fitted) black capris. My hair is in a messy bun with curls spilling out. Most of my make-up is intact, but I fix the smudged parts and apply another heavy line of a dark purple eyeliner. I take one more quick glance in the mirror before grabbing the key to my room and leaving. I plan on going to a terrace I had seen earlier. It overlooked the outdoor pool and I’m sure some fresh air would offer some inspiration. As I walk to the elevator, I hear footsteps softly thudding behind me. I turn swiftly only to see Christian coming up behind me.
“Oh hey, “ he says, avoiding eye contact and looking at the rug. The dim lights in the hall reflect off his hair and accent his natural red and blonde highlights. I rest of his straight brown hair falls across his eyes and rests about an inch below his ears.
“ I couldn’t sleep, especially after the show,” he explains. “ I thought everyone was out, so I was just curious who was here when I heard your door close.” He was still looking at the floor.
“Sleep, me neither.” I can almost slap myself. I am acting like I was 5 in front of him, not even being able to use full sentences. I try again. “It seems like such a nice night so I thought I would go outside for a while.” Now I was doing better. That was probably the most complete sentence I’ve ever choked out in the presence of a beautiful boy.
“Mind if I, err, join you?” A sense of nervousness lingers in his voice.
“Sure.”
As we walk together to the elevator, only a few words pass our lips.
“I haven’t seen much of you, “ Christian says to me. “Your Aaralyn’s friend, right?”
“Yeah.” I look at him and the expression on his face hints that he is waiting for me to say something. I don’t because I don’t know what he wants. So he speaks again.
“Ummm, What’s your name?” So that’s it. I had gotten my hopes up with this boy only to be disappointed. Like normal.
“Skylar,” I say, mumbling towards the floor, the single word passing through clenched teeth. Christian doesn’t seem to notice the change in my mood and replies casually, “I’m Christian.
“ I know.” UGH, that was a smooth move. I am no longer angry, but I feel like my stupid old self.
There is no more idle chat until we reach the terrace. When we reach it, the silence there is almost comforting. It is absolutely gorgeous outside. The hotel’s in the middle of nowhere, and the stars are completely visible. The pool is empty and you can’t hear anything but the quiet sloshing of the water against the sides of the pool.
“This view is breathtaking,” I think out loud. It is truly beautiful. I must be in the trance of the heavens to feel totally at peace out here. After just staring up for a while, I look around for Christian. He is laying flat on a pool chair also looking up. I glance around for another pool chair, but I find none. Christian catches my eye and struggles to get up.
“Oh, no, It’s okay,” I quickly start. Christian sits up, unconvinced.
“No, really. I’m fine,” I reassure him.
“You can sit with me if you want.” He scoots over far to generously for me to refuse. I go and sit next to him, and after a while, I lay down on his chest. He isn’t asleep, and he doesn’t say anything, so I guess he doesn’t mind. It seems like I stayed in the position for hours. I don’t think I could ever get tired of watching the miracles in the sky. My head falls and rises while Christian breathes.
“Skylar,” he says. I look up at him before I catch myself.
“What are you doing?” I just now realize that I’ve been murmuring under my breath, doing one of my rituals.
“I’m counting the stars,” I tell him truthfully. I sit up a little bit into him.
“How do you know which ones you’ve already counted.” He looks overwhelmed. “I mean, there are so many.”
I look up at the sky again, and my sense is renewed of how big the universe is. “I don’t know,” I say, to no one really. I turn my head and our faces are very close together. Neither of us move, and the only sound I here is Christian’s soft breathing. I reach out, and very slowly bring Christian’s head closer to mine. Our lips meet, and for a moment, it seems we both pull or heads back slightly with surprise. It doesn’t take long, however, for our lips to meet again. Soon, I lose count of everything, with kisses leaving me breathless until the breaking light.4