Andrea
The music cut off and everone stopped. All that was audible was the pounding of my heart in my ears. Then, the crowd erupted in screams, filled with energy that can never be compared to. A smile broke my face streching from ear to ear and I jumped on John holding him in a hug that was brought on by a flip he had taught me to do earlier that day. I hadn't quite gotten it down, but he pressed me to do it tonight and we nailed it. We were all oozing energy and it rubbed off on the crowd, and so was the crowd. They fed us with the energy we gave to them. A continuing cycle.
Jumping back I turned back to look at the crowd. Neon lights swirled around making spinning circles in various places of the audience. Walking forward, the faces in the first few rows stood out, people jumping some just sitting, everyone pumped. Looking around and waving to the top I breathed slowly, wishing the moment would never end. Everytime I closed my eyes, I saw frames, pictures...I wasn't me anymore. My mom sat all the way on the left, wearing a look that was most likely pride. I would miss her when she left tomarow. Angie sat to her right still clapping and dancing as if she didn't realise the music had stopped.
I stayed like this, taking everything in until the man in charge of stage production caught my eye. He was impatiently motioning me to continue on and I wondered how long I had stood there like that.
"Alright! Is everyone ready to get this party started?" I yelled, un-necessarily loud into my mic head-set. The crowd screamed even louder and I laughed slightly, happy that I succeeded in waking this crowd up. "You all ready for me to leave already? Because you know who's coming up next." The impossible happened and the screaming grew even more, the people who had sat had now jumped up. I shushed the crowd and looked around at the slowing silence. "Don't fall asleep, cause coming up next is HANSON!" I yelled again. The audience grew ecstatic, the ocean of people moved in any way they could. "You all have been beautiful. See you this fall." I said and waved a final good-bye while running off to my right after waving to my mom.
Another member of the crew came straight up to me and I unclasped the mic and delicatley took it off my head and placing it in his hands and I watched as he hurried off to take it somewhere.
Everyone backstage was rushing around and I loved the feeling of finality the scene never failed to give me. I was heading to a dressing room when Megan ran up along side of me. "We were so hott tonight!" she squealed and threw her arms around my shoulder, I had to laugh. "Yup, can't wait till we get to do it again." She giggled before pressing a scrunchie in my hand and taking off to talk to someone. I shook my head and continued on to the dressing room.
I locked the door and immediately began peeling the too tight clothes off of my moisted skin. I was always so hot after shows that for a minute I just stood there and taking in the refreshing air smothering my body before reaching over to grab my clothes. My hands came across my baggy khaki's and silk purple tank and I put them on and placed my second set of stage clothes neatly on the metal chair by the rack to be washed. Sighing I threw my hair over and straightening up I tied the unmatching scrunchie around the messy pile.
I walked out and turned left to go to the bus, grateful for the fact that tonight was a hotel night and it was the girls turn to get the room (me, Megan and Alexa have to take turns with John and Bryan, I'm just an opening act). The bunks of the bus were starting to do a number on my back and lately it's been getting harder and harder to fall asleep while moving, not that it would have been too hard tonight. I was exhausted and could only throw a weak smile to the people who sent congratulations in my direction. Before I made it to the exit door around back I turned into the large curtained area at my right where I saw everyone putting finishing touches for the big show. My night was over but I had forgotten that it was just starting for the other guys. I stopped and grabbed a water bottle off the snack table and watched the bustle unfolding.
Zac stood closest, streching his arms and jumping around, obviously antsy to get it started. Taylor smiled about something someone close to him had said. Isaac caught my eye, he stood off a few feet from them just looking around. "Your on in 3 minutes." a man came over and said and hurried off to tend to another matter. I had just been turning to leave when I heard Isaac say something.
"Here we go again." it wasn't what he said it, it was the way it was said. He sounded tired which was strange because before the other two shows he had been very excited and cracking jokes ready to go on stage and do what he loved. It shouldn't have been a surprise because of all they had to do today what with a meeting and a promotional with a local radio station, but still, I felt the need to say something.
"You shouldn't say it like that." He looked over just noticing me and arched his eyebrow. "For you, this is just one of a lot of shows...but this is the only one they get. And they are so incredibly excited to be here, I could tell it was different." His eyes bore into mine and I didn't know what exactly to do. "Do you even know what city we're in?" he asked. He didn't seem mad just kind of shocked I had said anything. It was sad to see him be so serious, when I first began talking to him he was always talking and cracking jokes. I had to remember to get someone to do something to get him more pumped...or at least buy him more coffee.
"What does that have to do with anything?" I replied. "They're pumped and they deserve a good show, which you would put on for them no matter what...but why don't you try to have some fun with it?" I looked past Isaac to his left to see Taylor smiling in my direction 'Good, at least what I said made sense.' I thought and threw him a wink. I was ready to turn around and start to leave again when Zac called out to me.
"Why don't you ever even come to watch any of the shows?" I stumbled to my left, an attempt to stop myself in mid-turn. "I see the soundchecks, that's good enough. Besides, I put everything I had in this show and I'm tired now." Zac shrugged and went back to practicing what I'm guessing was air drums (either that or he was having a seizure) and I turned back around and walked out the exit door into the muggy air. I stopped and looked around not seeing anyone in sight and headed for the bus. My heart was still pounding, but it hurt to keep my sleep-deprived eyes open. In the bus I ignored the people talking and laughing and threw myself in my bunk. A light coat of darkness flushed my eyes as I fell asleep.
The sound of my cell phone ringing in my ear knocked me out of my dream world. I looked around lost for a minute before realising we were moving. The bus had grown quiter since I came to sleep but there were still some people talking in the back room. My left arm reached over my right shoulder and I felt around for the phone that was starting to annoy me. I fumbled for a minute before hitting the correct button. "Hello?" I croaked out. "Hey, Andrea? Are you sick?" I blinked for a minute letting this voice from nowhere register so I could process what I was being asked.
"Huh? Oh, no. I'm just sleeping." I said streching and listening to my back crack. "Oh, do you just wanna talk tomarow?" the voice asked back. I was very confused and pulled the phone away from my ear too search the moniter on the phone for the number that called me. The harsh green light shadowed the words 'Taylor's Cell' followed by the number. "No, no. I'm up now, we'll probably get to the hotel soon anyways. How was the show?" I asked, my voice was still raspy but it would be better in a little while. "It went really good. I think what you said actually had some sort of an effect on Isaac. He was jumping around and throwing in his own hooks. It was a really good show you missed." I smiled slightly and groaned as I stretched out my arms.
"Good they were a good crowd. They deserved it." I spoke hushed because I didn't want to wake anyone up. I could hear at least two people snoring and I knew that more may have been sleeping. I stuck my head out of the curtain that shut off my bunk in hopes of finding a clock somewhere and ducked back inside when nothing was visible. Besides the light still hurt my eyes.
"So, where are we going next?" I whispered. "We're going home!" Taylor exclaimed happily, he wasn't afraid to wake anyone up. "Huh?" I asked, we weren't due to hit Florida for another month or so. "Good 'ol Tulsa. Your gonna love it." he said. "Where is that again? Oklahoma?" I asked, geography sucks. "Uh-huh." Woohoo! Point for me. "Oooh, yeah, sounds like a riot." I said mockingly catching my voice at the end and stopping to see if the snoring continued, it did. "You can't say that. You've never been there." he whined. "Your such a baby." I hissed to the phone laughing. "You'll see, it'll be awesome. Besides, your going to be part of the press confrence too." I wondered why it was that he knew about this before I did, but what came out of my mouth had nothing to do with that.
"What? A press confrence for the Hicks-ville print press. How exciting." I stopped and not hearing anything scolded myself for not thinking before I speak. "I'm just playing with ya. I'm sure it's a...very nice town." I offered not sure of what else could be said. "Damn straight, you'll see. And I'll make fun of your home town." he shot back, not realising that, that would be near impossible for him. I took his word for it and we talked back and forth about tonight's show for 15 minutes. Then the topic grew to models...then hot models, then hot celebrities, then dating.
"So, what kind of guys do you date?" he asked. I caught my breathe to stop from laughing about what he had said before and thought about his question. I could almost see him reaching out to try and grab his words back but that wasn't gonna happen. Instead, I thought seriously about it. "Well, I guess the main thing is he'd have to be able to make me laugh. Nothing else it worth it if you can't smile about it." he was quiet on the other end for a minute and I couldn't deal with the awkwardness that had no buisness being there. "So what about you? I mean, with girls. I mean, what kind of girls do you date?"
"Well, I guess I like girls that have a fun innocense about them. Either that or, you know, opening acts." I arched my back dying from the laughter that I wanted to spit out. "Really?" I asked instead, somewhat sarcastically. "Yeah. What? Your not used to dating the big band." he asked also sarcastically. The joking in the conversation gave no hint of any kind of seriousness whatsoever, leaving only confusion. "I don't know, we'll just have to see." I responded quitely. The drowsiness was starting to kick back in. "When can we see?" he asked back, also sounding a little more worn out. "I don't know, we'll just have to wait and see. Goooood byye." I sang and hung up the phone. I turned to my side and hugged the pillow closer to me as I was overcome with emotions that could never be described.
"Ooooo, I'm so sorry." Angie moaned again for the millionth time. We were a half hour late for the press confrence because she copied the wrong time down. I woke up 10 minutes ago to her shaking me as if the sky were falling. I changed into black pants and a three quarter light blue shirt. Brushing my teeth and grabbing my brush and make up bag, I ran out the door and met Angie who was already waiting in the car. When the door shut, she peeled away, leaving smoke and breaking 50 in just the parking lot. We were on the freeway and a good 15 minutes from the hotel where the confrence was but at the speed Angie was going we would be there in 5 minutes.
"I told you, it's alright. It got the adreneline rushing." I said not sure if I believed my own words. I woke up dizzy, undoubtedly from the fact that I haven't eaten since breakfast yesterday because there wasn't much time, but I figured there would be something at the confrence for me to grab. I placed the mascera back in my bag and put on a touch of lip gloss before shutting the car mirror.
Soon we were in the parking lot and we both jumped out of the car. I stopped for a minute, letting my eyesight catch up to me then slammed the door and took off in the direction Angie was already rushing in. Inside was scalding hot and I breathed deeply as she walked up to the front desk. I heard the woman say the air conditioning was broken on all floor and so was the elevator, so we had to climb 7 stories. I rubbed my eyes and looked up to see and Angie already rushing to the stairwell. Still concentrating on breathing, I struggled to keep up with here the whole time. It felt like we ran the whole way and needless to say at the top I was dying.
Out of the stairwell I leaned on the wall and put my hand on my forehead watching Angie continue down the hall to the third door on the right. She fixed her hair and turned to notice I was still by the stairs and rushed back.
"Sweety. What's wrong? We don't have time for this." she said putting on a worried smile. "I know, I know. I'm just so dizzy." I said shaking my head. She grabbed my hands and led me to the door she had been standing at. "Don't worry. You can sit down inside and I'll get you a drink and then you can go and mingle." she said. I don't think she realised that the glowing lights from above was leaving me blind and helpless.
With nothing more said, she pushed my hair back for me and opened the door. The light inside was even brighter and a small breeze came in through the open windows, but it was still sticky. I glanced around feeling scared about how every single person in the room turned to look at who the late comer's were. I saw a few familiar faces and Angie pulled me in. I made a failed attempt at a smile before introducing myself to the first guest...the floor.
