“Kate, how many outfits do you need? We’ve got plenty for you to use,” Natalia said, banging on the dressing room door.

“Shut up! I need to look my best. Hey, can you go get this in a size smaller? Thanks,” Kate said as she handed a miniskirt over the top of the door. Natalia rolled her eyes and we went to get the skirt.

“Scott, what do you think of this?” She said, taking a different skirt off the racks. I shrugged and shifted my weight. I was carrying four bags in my hands, all Kate’s stuff.

“You know, I can take some of those,” She said, trying to grab one out of my hands. I shook my head.

“No, that’s ok,” I said. “Kate wanted me to hold them.”

“What’s up with you lately? I know Kate hasn’t been pushing you around, so what’s with the knight in shining armor deal?” Nati said, putting the skirt back on the rack.

“I wanted to carry the bags for her,” I said, defending myself.

“That’s not just it. What happened to the bad-boy Scott? What happened to my drinking buddy that could swallow a whole bottle of vodka and still walk a straight line?” She said, squinting her eyes.

“What’s your point?” I said.

Nati rolled her eyes. “Kate has got you so pussy-whipped its frightening. Next she’ll be picking out your clothing for you.”

“Um, no way. Kate would never do that to me. Besides, I can dress myself,” I said. She looked at me and laughed.

“Come on, I found the skirt. Let’s go,” She pulled me by a bag back to the dressing room and flung the skirt over the top. “Here, try it on, like it or not and then let’s go.”

“Love you too Nati. I never do this to you,” Kate said.

“That’s because I don’t spend all day doing it,” She said.

“Then you are missing one of the best things in life,” Kate said as she flung open the stall door.

“Are you ready?” I asked her. She nodded and we went to the cash register to pay.

SCOTT

“Come on, we’ve got ten until you have to get onstage. Get ready,” The stage manager said, rounding Nine Lives’ up with his clipboard.

“I’m gonna go wait in the wings. Liv, come with me,” Kate said, pulling her to the stage. I waved good luck to her and sat down on the couch. We had about an hour before we had to play.

“Hey Scott,” Nati called to me teasingly. Oh god, now what?

“I have a present for you,” She said, pulling something out of her bag. Clint raised his eyebrows at me and Dave gave me the evil eye. Um, what’s going on?

“This is for you,” She said, handing me a bottle of vodka. She set it in my hands. I hadn’t had a bottle of this in my hands for at least two weeks. I was losing self-control.

“What the fuck do you think you are doing?” Clint asked, grabbing the bottle out of my hands.

“Hey, that’s Scott’s. If he wants to share with you he can, but you must ask nicely,” Nati said with a giggle. She walked off to the stage.

“Don’t do it man, we have only an hour until show time. If you drink it now, you’ll never sober up in time,” Bob said, getting up from the couch.

“Don’t worry man, I won’t drink that much. Just a little taste,” I said, unscrewing the cap and letting the clear fluid flow down my throat.

“Scott, we know you and we know how you drink and you won’t stop after that first sip,” Dave said to me. But I ignored them. Natalia was right. Kate was taking me over and as much as I wanted to be with her and make it work, I needed to stay the same Scott that I was. “Good luck man. It’s not my ass that’s getting burnt,” Clint said, folding his arms across his chest.

KATE

“Thank you goodnight!” I shouted into the microphone, taking off my guitar for the crew guys to put away. We waved to the fans and left off the side wing, grabbing for a towel to dry myself off.

“Hey, we did good!” Liv said, grinning.

“Yes, I think I did a wonderful drum solo, thank you very much,” Natalia said, smirking.

“Yeah, ok,” Sara said.

“Well it fit in the song well, I think,” Nati said.

“Yeah, it did but you should have told us first,” I said, chucking a towel at her.

“Spontaneity, that’s the key, Kate. Luckily I have it,” She said, throwing it back at me. We sat down with the guys in the backstage. They had about ten minutes to go on, cause the sets had to change and stuff.

“Hey, you doing ok, Scott?” Nati asked, grinning. What, did I miss something?

“Oh yeah, baby. I feel feisty!” Scott said, doing a little spin wrapping his arms around me.

“Scott, what’s gotten into you?” I asked, giggling.

“Russia’s finest,” Clint grumbled. He’s got to be kidding. Scott leaned in closer to kiss me and I could smell the vodka on his breath.

“Scott! I can’t believe you!” I said, pushing him away from me. He frowned and grabbed me again.

“Stop it!” I said, pushing him away again.

“Fine, whatever,” He said, slumping down in the chair.

“Come on, we’ve got ten minutes to sober you up,” Bob said, grabbing some coffee and shoving it in his hands. He gulped down the coffee, letting it spill down the sides of his mouth.

“Oh god Scott. You’re really gone. I can’t believe you did this,” I said, disgusted. The stage manager came out to get them ready.

“Moffatts on in five minutes! Take your places,” He said, flying through the backstage.

“Scott, you’ve got to listen, don’t do anything stupid. Just play the guitar, sing nicely, don’t do any obscene gestures and most importantly, keep your clothing on. All of it,” I said, pushing him towards the wings of the stage.

“Ok, Katie love. I will I promise,” He said, kissing me. I pulled back quickly and watched as he went onstage.

“Please don’t make a fool of yourself, please don’t make a fool of yourself,” I prayed. I knew how Scott could be and I realized we had a 75% chance of him messing up the act.

Natalia came up to me. “Um, Kate, can I talk to you for a second,” She said, rather quietly.

“Talk quickly, I need to make sure he’s ok,” I said, turning around to face her.

“Well, um, how do I put this. I gave Scott the vodka,” She said, looking at me. Swift move Natalia.

“Oh, well. Scott’s the moron who drank it. He was bound to encounter it again sometime. Just think again before you do something so stupid,” I said, nonchalantly.

“Really? You aren’t mad at me?” She said unbelievingly.

“Not yet, but stay a few more minutes and I might be a little more,” I said, turning my head back to the band. Just then, a high-pitched off-key noise came from the lead guitar.

“Natalia. Run,” I said, eyes glued on Scott, who looked like a five-year-old touching a guitar for the first time. Natalia’s eyes grew bigger as she realized exactly what she had done.

“Right. Ok,” She whispered as she quickly went back to the dressing room. In her place came Frank, Olivia, Sheila and Sara.

“What the...” Frank started. He stared in awe at whatever Scott was trying to play. The other boys were getting along fine.

“What the hell are we gonna do about this?” Sheila said, eyes still fastened on Scott.

“Olivia, get your guitar. You know all the Moffatt songs. What you don’t know Frank will tell you. Somebody pull the plug on Scott. We’re gonna put you in his place,” Sara said, walking up to one of the crew guys and telling him to tell Clint to take lead.

“Ok, sure,” Liv ran to get her guitar and was back plugging it in. Frank turned and looked at me with an accusing stare.

“Please don’t look at me like that. I had nothing to do with it,” I said, putting up my hands. He went to go help Olivia with the riffs.

Scott looked over at us with a confused face. Right about then he was probably wondering why none of his equipment was working.

Clint was actually doing pretty well on lead. Scott slowly regained stability and played along with the songs, trying to keep the audience from finding out what had just happened.

DAVE

“Pull over the bus, the bathroom is overflowing and Scott is heaving all over the place,” I said, opening a window in the bus. We were driving back from the venue; we had four hours back to London.

“Fine, fine, Dave. Is there any way we can empty the bathroom while we stop?” Frank asked a roadie.

“Yeah, I guess so. Wanna stop at that one over there? You guys can get out and walk around for a little while. Scott can sober up a bit,” He said, looking directly at him.

The driver pulled over at a rest stop. We got Scott out as quickly as possible. Kate helped Scott into the men’s bathroom and held back his hair as he threw up. God bless that woman.

“Ewwwww! That’s so disgusting!” Olivia squealed. “Kate can’t go in the men’s room.”

“Then you go in and tell her to get out,” Bob said, getting some fresh air.

“No that’s ok,” She said, shaking her head. This was horrible. Scott fucking screwed up the whole concert, he was drunk off his ass. I can’t believe Natalia gave him that alcohol.

I went up to where Natalia was sitting alone on a picnic table with her head in her hands. “Well, look at what you did. You did a fine job, can’t just screw over one Moffatt, you gotta take the whole family on! What the hell were you thinking??” I screamed at her.

“Leave me alone,” She said, not looking up at me.

“No! And you know why? Because I won’t stoop to your level! I won’t leave!” I said. This wasn’t about Scott anymore. It was opening up a whole other wound.

Natalia didn’t say one word. She looked up at me with her tear-stained face, got up from the picnic table and walked away from me towards the woods. Oh, shit now what did I do?

“Natalia, wait,” I said, running after her. She turned around at me and looked at me with cruel piercing eyes. Um...

“What are you gonna say now? That you didn’t mean that too?” She asked. Ok, I deserved that.

“Don’t do this now,” I said. She turned to walk away from me again but instead started to sob. I came up to her and put my arms around her. She didn’t push me away.

“I’m sorry. I just wanted someone, anyone at all. Bob and Sara were all wrapped up in their thing and Clint and Olivia were literally wrapped up. Kate was getting Scott back again and you weren’t talking to me. I needed someone to talk to, some one who would at least acknowledge my presence. I didn’t know that this would happen, I didn’t think he would be that bad. I just wanted things to be the same,” She sobbed into my shoulder and I rubbed her back. All this time she just wanted someone to cry to.

I looked up and around us at the rest stop. “Um, Nati?”

“Yeah?”

“Where is the tour bus?”

She looked up from me at the parking lot. The only vehicles there were an old Toyota and a few trailer trucks.

“They didn’t...” She said as she frantically looked around. We hurriedly ran back to the bathrooms and called around to see if anyone was there. No one was.

“FUCK! They left us here!” She said, eyes still searching the lot. The bus was gone, too far away for us to see.

“They have to come back for us. They can’t completely forget about us,” I said. She just slouched down next to a tree.

“Yeah, but how long is it going to take for them to figure out we are gone?” She asked. Oh god we’re stranded.

“Do you have a cell phone?” She asked me. I shook my head. There were payphones, but they looked a bit nonfunctioning.

“They’ll be back for us,” I said, reassuring not only her but me too. She nodded her head and put her hands on the ground.

“Hey,” I said, trying to get her attention. “Why are you still wearing the ring I gave you? I would have thought you melted it down for scrap metal or something,” I said, trying to make a joke. She looked at me and touched the ring on her finger.

“Because it reminds me of a time in my life when everything was perfect,” She said quietly. I sat down next to her. I knew I had to say something, but I didn’t know what.

“I wish things could go back to the way they were. I wish things didn’t always change,” I said, looking at the cars passing by.

“Sometimes they don’t have to,” She said, putting her head down on her knees.

“I know this probably isn’t the best time to be talking about this,” I said, trying to collect my thoughts. “But sometimes I really miss you.”

“Do you really?” She said, sarcastically.

“Well, no.,” She narrowed her eyes at me and looked away. “I miss you all the time.”

“Is this just another of your bullshit lines?” She asked, still not looking at me.

“I know you haven’t had reasons to believe me lately, but its true. I think of you all the time,” I said, sincerely.

“Dave, don’t do this to me, not right now. I can’t take the games anymore,” She said, wiping her eyes.

“It’s not a game! I wouldn’t be that stupid,” I said, getting angry that she wasn’t believing me.

“Yeah, Ok,” She said.

“What do I have to do, to prove to you that I love you?” I asked. Ok, didn’t mean to pour my heart out.

She looked me in the eyes and didn’t say a word. “This is the point where I try to kiss you, but I’m afraid that you’ll run away again,” I said.

“You’ll just have to take a risk,” She said, face blank of emotion. Well, here goes. I leaned down to her and closed my eyes.

SCOTT

“Scott. I think this goes without saying. You’re grounded. For the rest of your life,” Dad said, shaking a finger at me.

“Dad, you can’t ground me, I’m 18,” I said, putting my fingers to my temples to get rid of the pounding.

“Oh, you think not? For the rest of this tour, there will be no drinking, no partying, no anything unless I know where you are going to be, who you will be with and what you plan to do,” He said.

“Yeah, like that’s gonna last,” I said, scoffing.

“I’m not only your father, but your road manager. I can take you off the tour and put Olivia in your place. Don’t think I won’t do it. Just try and test me, smartass,” He said, leaving the bedroom, where I was attempting to sleep off this hangover.

Kate came in after him and sat down at the end of the bed. “Feeling better?”

“Oh god. Your turn. Spare me the long lectures Kate? I’ve heard enough,” I said, trying to get in a comfortable position.

“I know you have. So, I’m gonna keep this short and sweet. I’m not here to lecture you, I just want to tell you how disappointed I am in you. I thought you had more self-control than that. But I also knew that it was bound to happen at least once in the tour, so I can’t be that mad at you. Just don’t let it happen again,” She said to me. I was shocked.

“Ok, who are you and what have you done with my girlfriend?” I asked, shaking my head. Ow, shouldn’t have done that.

“No, I’m not getting mad at you. I’m just very disappointed,” She got up from the bed and got me some aspirin. “Here take these.”

“Those don’t work. Get Natalia, she’s got a good home remedy,” I said, closing my eyes and laying back on the pillow.

“Ok, hold on,” Kate left the room and came back in a few minutes laughing hysterically.

“Kate, don’t do that. Any sound louder than a whisper hurts,” I said wincing. She didn’t stop.

“What’s wrong?” I asked her, sitting up. Ooo, sshouldn’t have done that either.

“We...left...Natalia and Dave...at reststop!” She said, falling down on the bed from laughter. We did what?!

“That was over an hour ago! I hope they didn’t kill each other,” I said.

“Oh, I have ten bucks down against Bob that they are making out when we get back there,” She said, regaining composure.

“Oh, god. Ok, well I’m just gonna sit here, try not to think, or do anything at all. Um, thanks,” I said, not sure what I was thanking her for.

“Can I do anything for you? You look like you are dying,” She said. That’s because I am.

“Um, can I just have some water?” I said, not moving a muscle.

BOB

“Look, there they are, over there by the tree,” Sara said, pointing. They were making out.

“Aww! Who called it? Cough it up Bob,” Kate said, holding out her hand. I dug my hand into my pocket and gave her the ten dollars.

“Hehe. I knew it,” She said, grinning. Yeah, yeah, shut up.

“Hey Nattie! Nice work!” Sara shouted as they got on the bus. Natalia gave her a look.

“Ok, Nati. You’re on commission. Scott wants a hangover remedy. But first, I’d like to thank you for the ten dollars in my pocket,” Kate said.

“And why are you thanking me for that?” Nati asked, looking at her weirdly.

“Because I made a bet with Bob that you and Dave would be making out when we came to pick you up. You’re so predictable,” She said, just to piss her off. Nati growled and went to work making the concoction.

“Ok, give this to Scott and tell him to drink it,” She said, handing the mug to Kate.

“Well last time you gave him something to drink, Liv had to take over,” Clint grumbled.

“Fuck you Clint,” Natalia sneered at him. Kate tasted the drink and looked at Natalia. She knew what it was but she wasn’t going to say anything.

SCOTT

“Here’s the help, Scott. Nati said to drink this,” Kate handed me a mug of a reddish pulpy substance. I stared at it.

“Drink, don’t ask,” She said, ushering me on. I took a swig of it and felt like throwing up again.

“What the hell is this Kate? Are you trying to kill me?” I said, swallowing quickly.

“No, you do that quite well on your own. It’s a Bloody Mary. Just drink it all, ok?” Kate said. I took a small sip of it and washed it down with lots of water. “It’s horrendous,” I said, finishing off the glass and handing it back to her.

“Made you forget about the hangover though, didn’t it?” She said, smiling.

“Yeah, whatever. Tell Nati thanks,” I said and went back to not moving on the bed.