Chapter 38
After a long period of hard work, the big day has come. It was time to release the album. The boys were very nervous about the reactions they were going to receive. It had been a long time since they released something and they weren't really sure if that would cause a negative reaction or not.
The second the album dropped, everyone felt a lot calmer. Within an hour there were already tweets from fans saying how much they loved it. I could tell the boys were happy because of how much time and effort was put into this album.
Youngblood had hit the charts and everyone was going wild. Giving they were on tour at the time of the release, we had a small little party in the hotel room with pizza and balloons and each other. Social media posts were just flooding every platform and it brought the biggest smiles to each of their faces, including mine.
Naturally, there were a lot of dislikes on the album but everyone has mixed opinions and we understood that. We would just watch reaction videos of the album to make us feel better. There were a lot of funny ones, I must say.
As Youngblood continued to reach the top of the charts, everything got a little stressful because now everyone was trying to get coverage on their lives as they have come back into the light with new music. Most days, I just stayed in my bed to get away from everything and then join the boys for their show later in the day. I was of course proud of what the boys have done, it's just a lot to handle.
The four of them noticed me getting stressed out and would try and ask what was up but I would play it off like I was fine. They knew I was lying to them though. I noticed Ash getting stressed out because I was so I then started to go out with them more to make all of them happy.
"You know, if you're not feeling any of this anymore, you can tell us." Luke said sitting next to me one day while we were waiting for the photo shoots and interviews to be over for the day.
"I'm fine, seriously. I am endlessly proud of all of you with how far you have gotten." I said fighting to hold back snapping or even crying.
"But are you happy with it?" He said looking at me directly.
"Of course." I was happy for them, but not with the stress.
A long day had come to an end and we came back to the hotel to prepare for the show. Once we were all ready, we drove off to the venue.
The boys went up for sound check and practiced a bit in the dressing rooms while also playing around. I sat on the couch in there while playing with the straps of my mini backpack.
One by one they were called out by the crew to check their mics and ear pieces. It came to the point where Ashton and I were the only ones left in the room. He sat down next to me after Michael was called.
"Valerie, I don't want you lying to me. There's something up and we all know it." Ash said facing me. I looked down at my hands.
"Ash, nothing's wrong. Please." I said avoiding eye contact with him. He grabbed both of my hands but I still looked to the floor.
"Is it what's going on? The stress?" He figured it out. And that's when I couldn't hold it anymore. I broke out into tears.
He immediately pulled me into a hug and tried calming me down. I wanted to stop crying to prove I could handle it, but I couldn't stop. A minute later, the rest of them walked in and saw us. The three of them joined us and were all comforting me. I felt calmer then ever with my family all together in one big hug.