Game of Fate

Crush

We arrived on Monday, and today is Thursday. I had a day to relax yesterday, and it was pretty uneventful. Today on the other hand, it's been busy. The awards show is Saturday night which means we need to start preparation for everything. 

"Hair, check. Nails, check." Zoe was counting off in our dressing room. 

Today was my least favorite part of shows. It was dress rehearsals and a full run through of our act. Performing is so much better because it feels much more natural to me, seeing all the people in the crowd and playing my heart out. But this... sucked. I sat on the couch strumming random riffs on my guitar just to warm up a little as I watched our manager run around the room like a chicken with its head cut off. She was blabbering to herself about schedules and timing, I can't lie it was a little funny. Suddenly, her phone started to ring.

"Okay, mhm, okay. Yes, they're ready. Okay. Got it" she said and hung up. "It's time for you guys to get to the stage, your equipment is ready to go."

We all got up and made our way to the main stage. We've already run through this 2 other times today but now we had to do it in our outfits, whereas before we were in sweatpants and hoodies. As if the universe wanted to increase my suffering, when the curtains came up, I saw a familiar set of eyes. Two of them actually. Bill was here to watch, and Tom came with him. Great! Now I got to be even more nervous than before. We got into our positions and waited for our introduction and queue to start. I was trying to focus on making sure my guitar was okay, but I could feel Tom's eyes on me the whole time. I took a deep breath and looked up.

"Now introducing, ARKIN HEARTSSSSS" bellowed from the speakers, and it was go time. 

"ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR!" yelled Celine. We began to play.

The whole thing went by in a blur, partly because I put my whole focus into playing but also due to the lack of crowd. It's way more fun and interactive when there's swarms of fans in front of the stage. Eventually, it was time for my solo. If I said I was nervous before, multiply that by 50 this time. My fingers were already starting to hurt, and I knew Tom had his eyes on me. I could feel the judgement in his gaze, and it was freaking me the hell out. Nevertheless, I powered through. I think it went pretty smoothly but I definitely could have done better. But I can't worry about that right now.

The rehearsal finished up and we did our outro. Bill cheered with a huge smile.

"That was fantastic!" he exclaimed. Tom nonchalantly nodded his head in agreement and clapped lightly. That cocky son of a bitch.

He looked at me again and I turned away and walked backstage, exhausted from the long day of preparation, and also wanting to get away from Tom. He made me insanely nervous. And it didn't help that he looked really good today either. He was dressed in his usual baggy jeans, but today's color scheme was white. White shirt, white bandana, white shoes. The color really complimented his features. 

"Well, how'd we do?" I asked our manager. She looked at me with a huge smile. "Amazing girls, just amazing."

Her reply made me feel warm. My family rarely made it to my shows and performances, so our manager was like a step-in mother for me while on the road. Me and the girls continued to go over our performance while we changed out of our outfits and got ready to go. I had to make a detour to the instrument room because I needed to switch the guitar I was playing with since the one I had used before was too difficult with my solo. 

"You guys go on; I'll catch up at the hotel. Just let me know what you end up doing for dinner." I said to the band.

"Alright, don't be too long!" replied Zoe as she walked towards the exit.