[ - ]
Table of Contents [Report This]
Printer Chapter or Story Microsoft Word Chapter or Story
- Text Size +
Chapter Eighteen

I was so busy worrying about Charley and our whatever-it-was relationship that I forgot to worry about the fact that I'd be performing on a stage in the middle of a busy city street the next day. Even as Charley had pointed out that's what I was interrupting her planning for, I'd still managed to not think about it. I went to bed after talking to her and lay there staring at the ceiling obsessing over where I'd gone wrong and what I could do to fix it. A quick blitz on the net and I had picked out a bouquet of flowers, but when I went to enter in a shipping address, I realized my tour bus wasn't really an address for the delivery dude to follow, so I cancelled it and sighed in frustration.

How did normal guys fix shit like this when they had issues? I momentarily considered sneaking off the bus and going to buy flowers, but I was in my mind enough to realize that would be dumb without a bodyguard and seeing as Charley was my bodyguard, there really was no sneaking off to buy anything for her. She'd see it before I gave it to her and there would go the surprise. I might as well just go to a florist, point out the flowers and say, "Those are the ones I was gonna maybe buy for you, but now that you seen 'em..."

When you think about it, really, what good is it to get flowers? They just die anyways.

It didn't really strike me about the outdoor concert until the buses were pulling up to the studio that was airing the show and I saw the stage down a side street between two tall buildings. I stared out the window at it, my mouth growing dry. There was no covering, no way to monitor the crowd because there were no gates, there was nothing except an open air stage and about a billion people already surrounding it.

Charley stood by the door of my bus, her face in an expression of stern nervousness as she stared out at the already gathered crowd. She lifted her radio to her mouth, "Have any attempts been made at all to screen this crowd?" she asked.

Various responses echoed through the radio. They were doing their best to keep an eye on everything. There were security dudes throughout the crowd, pushing around, looking, watching. They were working on putting something over the top of the stage.

"Can we please get Nick in here?" I heard my stylist saying, "I need some time with him in wardrobe."

Charley looked up at me. "You ready?" she asked.

I didn't think now that the enormity of what I was facing was sinking in that I'd ever be ready, so I just agreed and Charley radioed in that she was about to transport me. We made our way into the studio, fans crying out my name as we moved, Charley moving me along quickly without pausing. Inside, she lingered by the door. "You go on to wardrobe," she said, "I have some stuff I gotta do." She paused, "Do not go outside or on that stage until I get back. Got it?"

I saluted.

She stared at me for a long moment. "About last night -" she started.

But my stylist came out and grabbed my arm. "Come on, I've got the other Boys practically stage-ready and you're the hardest one to prep. Let's go."

Charley waved me off, "We'll talk later," she said. And with that, she ducked back out the door.

I followed my stylist back to the wardrobe room, where they fitted me into a charcoal grey suit and worked gel into my hair. Brian and Howie were playing chess, their ties loosened, and AJ was flopped over the arms of a director's chair reading a book and sipping on a Red Bull.

When our stylist had gotten me halfway human looking, Eddie appeared in the door. "Ready to hit the stage in five?" he asked.

The other guys chorused that they were, but I asked, "Where's Charley?"

Eddie made a concerned face, "Now that you mention it, I haven't seen her." He shrugged. "No worries, I'm sure she's around. Are you ready to go?"

"I will be when Charley shows up," I said. Eddie ducked out of the wardrobe room promising to go find her. I rubbed my hands across my knees.

"You really are hook-line-and-sinker aren't you?" AJ asked with a snort, "Can't even go on stage without your woman?"

"It's not that," I said, "Charley said not to go on without her. She's the one that wrote up the security plan so I kinda trust her about that."

Brian checkmated Howie and looked up. "I'm sure the whole team knows what's going on."

"I guess. But she said to wait for her."

And wait we did. Eddie searched and radioed for her, poking his head in every 5 minutes, for almost twenty minutes. Finally, he stepped into the room and he stared at me for a long moment. "Look, Nick. We need to get you guys on stage. I don't know where Charley is, but the studio isn't gonna wait any longer. We need to do this. Security is on standby, we've done all the security measures that Charley requested, and we'll station someone on stage, which is where she was gonna stand while you guys did the show."

"She isn't answering the radio?" I asked nervously.

"No, but she could be out of range," he answered, "One of the other guys in the team said he was pretty sure he saw her going in to check out the hotel next door. I'm sure she's fine. God knows Charley's a tough cookie. She probably just lost track of time. When she shows up, she'll get on stage where she belongs, okay?"

I didn't feel comfortable about this at all. I glanced at the other guys, who were all standing up and clustering near Eddie, ready to go. "Okay," I said, "Let's go."