Maren was furious, she came bolting backstage looking for one man. It was only the third night of the tour and she had enough. "You seen Quinn?" She yelled over the loud music and roar of the crowd.
One of the stage assistants stopped immediately suddenly very intimidated by the usually nice Maren. "Umm..yeah." He stuttered, "I think he was heading back to the green room."
Without even thanking him, she made her way through the hallway. When she reached the door she took a deep breath before barging in. There she saw Q laying on the couch scrolling through his phone. "Seriously?!" She screamed, "Would it fucking kill you to stay out there after the show?!"
"Would you pipe down? The show was great. What more do you want from me?" Brian responded not even bothering to look up at her.
Maren was getting beyond frustrated with this man. She reached out, snatched his phone and threw it to the ground. "Excuse me!" Q shouted getting of the couch, "You're lucky there's a case on that!"
"I've had it with you!" Maren yelled. She knew part of her was still pissed off about his comment the previous night about her ex not calling her but she was also frustrated by how uninvolved he was with the shows. The other three guys were still on stage taking pictures and signing stuff for fans expect for Q. He never stayed on stage. The second the show was over he quickly booked if off not even bothering to acknowledge any of the people that paid good money to see them.
"You've had it with me?!" Brian laughed sarcastically. "I'm not the one that came barging in here yelling and screaming like a psycho."
Maren instantly saw red. That word was a huge trigger for her and Q knew it. Her ex used to call her psycho all the time and every time she heard it, it always brought her back to such bad memories. "You are such a spoiled asshole Q. I don't understand why every show you have to leave so quickly. Is your time so precious you can't sacrifice 5 minutes?"
"I was on stage for 90, isn't that enough!?" Q yelled back.
"Don't you pay attention to the internet? The number one thing people complain about is the fact that you won't stay and engage with anyone. It's rude Q!"
"Oh for Christ Sakes Mar, you really need to stay off social media. You are obsessed." Brian responded rolling his eyes.
"It's my job you moron!" She cried out, "I'm the tour manager, I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't pay attention to your fans."
"Listen this is my job and when I'm done with my job, just like everyone else, I don't need to stick around, so will you please get off my fucking back!" Q said in a very annoyed tone. Sometimes this woman was worse than any broad he had ever been with in his life.
"Awe...poor Q." Maren pouted, "Must be so hard to be famous and have so many people love you."
"You tryin' be funny?!" Q snapped. "Live one goddamn day in my shoes baby!"
"If it's so tough being you then why don't you just quit. Clearly you feel above all these people who spend their hard earned money to come see you." Maren said.
"Oh trust me just the thought of not having to deal with your attitude everyday definitely makes it tempting." He barked back at her.
Truth was fame was never anything Brian Quinn ever wanted. When him and the guys pitched the show all he wanted was to sell the rights, never actually star in it. When the other three talked him into it, he thought it would just be a one season thing. Now years later and there were no signs of slowing down, in fact it seemed to be getting more and more popular with each passing season. Quitting and returning to the fire department was always a thought but doing that would mean letting his friends down and putting all of the crew out of jobs.
"You're such an asshole!" Maren shouted, "You act like such a fucking child."
"Me?!" Q laughed, "I'm not the one stomping my feet and crossing my arms because I'm not getting my way." He said pointing out how she was standing before him.
As they continued the fight they were eventually interrupted, "Hey hey!" Joe yelled over them. "Enough!"
"What is it this time?!" Sal added.
"Talk to her, just being her normal bitchy self having to lecture me every goddamn second." Q responded sharply.
"Q man, come on. That's not nice." Murray said. "Why can't you both just get along?"
"You know what I don't even care anymore." Maren said giving up, "We gotta be back on the bus in 30 minutes so we can get on the road." She then turned on her heels leaving the Jokers. Maren needed some distance right now if she was gonna be stuck on a bus with this guy all night.
"I'm gonna go check on her." Sal said going after her but not before shooting Q a dirty look.
________________________________
It was a long bus ride but in a couple hours everyone would finally be able to get out and stretch when they hit Cincinnati. Q and Maren hadn't spoken much but were acting civil to each other this morning. The tension was still present but they weren't arguing so everyone was thankful for that at least.
Q laid stretched out in his bunk on his phone. He smirked to himself when he got an incoming text. "Mar!" He yelled sticking his head out looking for her.
"What Q?" She responded looking up from her planner book.
"Make sure when we get to the hotel, the front desk leaves a second key for Hailee." He said.
"Yup." She responded. When Q retreated back into his bunk, Maren looked at Sal and rolled his eyes. Sal smiled knowing exactly what she was thinking and honestly if he was being honest, he shared her feelings.
Hailee Waterman was an aspiring actress Q had known for a couple years. She wasn't even 25 and in Maren's opinion may be the most irritating person on the planet. Q would fly her out to different cities from time to time and they would spend all day cooped up in a hotel room until the shows at night. Everyone knew she was using Q to hopefully make connections in the industry, even Q knew that which was why he never brought her to events. She was using him for her career and he was using her for sex.
It wouldn't be so bad but she was a complete space cadet and it was near impossible to carry an intelligent conversation with the girl. Not to mention when the boys were on stage, Maren was expected to play babysitter and keep her company backstage.
Maren glanced down at her planner, "10 more days." She whispered to herself praying this tour would hurry up and finish already.
A/N: As always work belongs to @hopedanglesonastring just as much as it does to me!