Under the Influence

XVIII.

Slight Sexual Assault TW. Nothing graphic at all nor anything especially bad happens, but there is a (brief!) instance of sexual assault so if you are sensitive to that, feel free to skip that part.

December 17th 2000.
Tampa, Florida.

To: Isaiah, Freddie, Zoey +32 other recipients                                                                                         Everyone is to meet me at the stadium in 1 hour. If you don't turn up I'll assume you don't want your job and I won't have any difficulties finding your replacement. Don't be late.                     Sent: 7.51am

I sent the text and slumped back into my chair. Usually I wasn't this harsh on my team but after last nights 'backstabbing' by one of my most trusted staff members I felt on edge and more stressed than ever. My only goal was to get through the day without crying or having a meltdown, and I knew even that would be challenging. I forced myself to get up and dragged myself around the stadium's premise looking for Paul. After searching through all of the corridors I finally found him having a coffee in the break room.

I entered the room and Paul looked up, giving me a quick smile before his face fell back into it's default frown. "Hey Cassie".

"Hey" I glumly greeted taking a sip of the piping hot coffee.

Paul chuckled "You look awful".

"Yeah thanks Paul" I sarcastically said throwing my hoodie over my face to shield my eye bags. "I need you to make a change in the hotel rooming plan".

"And what would that be?"

"For now can you book me in with Zoey instead of Em?" I gnawed at my lip hoping the answer would be what I wanted. Paul was not exactly great with changing plans and preferred for things to be done once, and only once.

"Jesus what happened?" Paul asked sympathetically. He was one of the few people on tour that knew of our relationship. Many suspected something was going on between me and Marshall but didn't know if it was official or not. However, they all knew to never ask either of us about it or tell the media, because if they did Paul would personally fire them. It was a tight ship around here to say the least.

"A lot" I replied bluntly not willing to go into it yet again. I'd leave that to Marshall seeming as he caused this mess in the first place.

"For how long?"

"I don't know". My voice cracked and I instantly wanted to crawl into a hole and hide. I couldn't believe I was letting myself be so vulnerable in front of one of my colleagues and somewhat superior.

Paul's eyes darted up and he coughed, feeling uncomfortable just like me. "Okay no problem, I'll go sort it out now" he awkwardly patted my arm on the way out and scrambled away. I almost cracked a smile at his attempt to comfort me.

An hour later I was surrounded by my crew who all looked incredibly nervous, fidgeting on the spot and anxiously talking to one another. I stood in front of them, slightly higher up on some steps. "You can all relax no-one's getting fired" I spoke to the group watching them all collectively relax. "However, I do need to address some issues. Last night it was brought to my attention that someone had been going behind my back and inappropriately contacting someone about my personal, private information".