After a morning of back to back tv and radio interviews Dex arrivedn at Heathrow, separate from the other guys, at his request. He needed a little bit of head space before being trapped on a long flight with the rest of the band and crew and needed a bit of time to prepare himself for the crowds that would be at the airport waiting for him, Mac sold it to the rest of the band as logistical, Dex needed to be separated for security reasons, he was always the one that came off worse in the crowds of fans, it was believable.
Cap pulled down low, his jacket collar pulled up and face hugging sunglasses he wasn't giving the press anything today. The car stopped outside of the airport terminal and Dex took a deep breath, preparing himself to get out and face the media and no doubt hoards of fans who somehow knew exactly when he would be there.
Mac was already at the airport waiting for him, which only made the crowds worse, die-hard fans knew Mac. He had acquired fans of his own! But they all knew where Mac was, Dex would be.
Dex watched out of the cab window as Mac fought his way through a crowd of teenage girls. He opened the car door and got in the car with Dex.
"Alright man?" asked Dex.
"Yeah, are you alright?" asked Mac, knowing that Dex had a lot on his mind right now with Jesse and having just said goodbye to Millie his mood would be low.
"Yeah I will be.....once I've got through this crowd!" he replied. Mac radioed inside for more security.
A few moments later 4 more big guys dressed in black emerged. Only making the crowd of fans go crazy, knowing that meant Dex would be getting out of the car soon.
"Right, ready?" asked Mac. Dex sighed. He wasn't really, he didn't have any enthusiasm for the circus he was about to be thrust into, a circus where he was the main attraction, not the ring master but a circus animal, at the mercy of his fans, screaming in his ears, violating his personal space and touching him in places that he was sure broke some kind of laws! But he knew he couldn't do anything about it, if he appeared to not like the attention he would lose fans and he knew that the obsessive fans were the reason he was living his dream right now, he knew all he could do was endure it and fake a smile, no matter how dead inside he currently felt.
"Yeah" he replied.
As expected the crowd were nuts! Mac dragged him through, stood behind him, holding onto his shoulder there were girls screaming his name, asking for photos, shoving camera phones in his face and waving bits of paper at him for autographs, several of them were crying their eyes out, just the mere sight of him made some of them hysterical. They were grabbing at him from every direction, he hated it, it was the worst part of the job! When he was feeling low and in a really crappy mood, about to get on a plane and fly hundreds of miles away from his girlfriend and all these girls think it's fine to touch him, grab at him, pull on his clothes. He knew they meant well, it was down to them that he had the career he had so he knew he had to shut up and put up but he always felt like it was a huge violation of his body and his personal space. He finally got inside the terminal and was whisked away to a VIP lounge. He exhaled deeply, finally feeling able to breathe in his own space. He could still hear girls screaming his name behind him but the customs officials had stopped any of them from following him.
Their flight left on time for once! Dex wasn't sure if it was a good thing or bad thing that he had an 8 hour flight sat next to Jesse. It was either going to be silent and awkward or a great excuse to talk, clear the air and find a way to more forward with the band... and their friendship.
The first hour into the flight was silent and awkward. Jesse had his headphones in, head tipped back against the head rest with his eyes closed not interested in talking.
Dex was worried about him, every time his breathing got a little quieter he knew a little bit about the effects of Heroin and what the signs were and felt like he needed to keep an eye on his breathing whilst he was sleeping. He looked a mess, the colour had drained from his face, it most likely left his body with during the 20 times he had thrown up this morning. Dex could see he was suffering as his body was going through withdrawal. Dex just hoped he could keep it together for the flight without causing a scene. His eyes were sunken and the skin around them was dark, he was sweaty, his forehead glistening with wet streaks. He didn't look well at all thought Dex.
Dex sat going over everything he wanted to say to Jesse in his head, nothing sounded like he wasn't trying to be a parent to Jesse and tell him what to do like a child, he knew Jesse was not going to respond well to that, he was volatile to say the least.
Dex nudged him. Jesse opened his eyes and tipped his head forward, slightly startled.
"Jess, what are your plans from now on?" asked Dex, cautiously.
"What do you mean?" asked Jesse
"Ya know like do you need to spend some time in rehab or something" Dex was nervous of Jesse's response to him digging all this up again. He knew he was pissed off about it all and wouldn't want to talk about it.
"Do we have to do this now?" Groaned Jesse
"We might as well, were stuck on here for 8 hours!" Replied Dex
Jesse sighed heavily, knowing he had to discuss it at some point, getting it out the way was probably better, although his only goal for this flight was to keep his the contents of his stomach down, the sweats and chills were bad enough without the two hours of violent vomiting he had endured before the flight.
"I hope not rehab, I don't wanna miss shows but I guess I'll do whatever the management tell me I have to" he replied.
"I haven't been on the smack that long, I can give that up, it's the alcohol that's going to be hard to stop" he admitted
"Can I do anything to help you?" asked Dex
"Uh.. I guess we could cool the drinking on tour, it's going to be tough to be around it" he replied, he seemed genuine to Dex, maybe the hospital visit really was a wake up call.
Dex nodded.
Dex left it there, he didn't want to push him too much, not this soon anyway.
It was obvious to Dex this was going to be really hard for Jesse, he could already see the physical side effects of withdrawal and it had only been hours so far. Jesse was sweating profusely, his legs were constantly shaking a little, his eyes were wide like a deer in headlights. This was going to be tough, thought Dex. And even tougher to hide.
It was Monday afternoon, Dex and the band were on their way to sound check, they were playing an outdoor, festival type show with some other bands in Central Park that evening. He had barely spoken to Millie since he left her on Saturday morning, his schedule had been relentless and Millie had been in back to back meetings every time he had called and every time she returned his call he was in an interview or sound check, they seemed to have a run of bad luck with timings. He knew she was at her show at London fashion week all day today ready for her runway show tomorrow so there was no chance of catching her today.
Despite missing her the chaos of the weekend had calmed down and Jesse seemed alright, he hadn't drank since they got back to the US and his mood didn't appear to be quite so low, he'd already been to a counseling session since they'd got back and Dex was hopeful he would be able to kick this and recover over time, although, having never been through addiction himself he had no idea how long these things took and how hard it would be to get through it.
Mac led the band to the back of the stage, they were on next for sound check. Dex peeked around the drapes at the band that were on stage doing their sound check, it was the British girl band 'Aimee Saint' again! his ex Lucie was on the line up too, he knew Millie would not be impressed if she knew!
Dex, Zach, CJ and Jesse stood together waiting for their turn. Dex felt awkward with the girls there, he hadn't used the number that Isy had given him last week, in fact he didn't even know what he'd done with it! Then it suddenly came screaming back to him
"Fuck!" he muttered, the guys turned to look at him
"What's up?" asked Zach
"Oh nothing, I've just remembered that Isy girl from that band" pointing to the girls on stage
"Gave me her number, I just shoved it in my hoody pocket" he explained
"But then I gave that hoody to Millie!" he added
"Oops!" replied Zach
"Are you banging her yet?!" asked Jesse, his smile as big as Dex had seen it in a long time, Jesse was hoping this was something he could use to get under Millie's skin, he wanted her gone, he didn't trust her and he had too many secrets that she could reveal to the world, he didn't like new girlfriends being brought into the group, he didn't trust anyone new, certainly not someone who was a fan he was sure she was only really in it for the money and the perks that came with Dex, at some point she was just going to take advantage and sell a story and he didn't like that Dex used to be his drinking buddy but since Millie and Dex had got together Jesse felt like he and Dex had drifted apart, he felt pushed out by Millie. Dex cheating with Isy was just the kind of thing Jesse hoped for.
"NO! absolutely not!" replied Dex
"Shame, she's gorgeous! I would" joked Jesse, he knew given half the chance he literally would!
"Phones please fellas" said Mac, Dex quickly checked to make sure Millie hadn't text him and then handed his phone over.
The girls were done on stage, Dex felt awkward, they had to pass right by him, he pretended to be looking for something to avoid eye contact and having to speak to them, they brushed past him one by one.
Phew he thought. He was about to look up again and prepare to go out on the stage for his sound check when one of them called his name.
He looked over, his heart beating faster
"Dex, can I have a quick chat with you?" Asked one of the girls, he had no idea what her name was but it wasn't Isy, or at least he didn't think it was.
"After sound check? I gotta go on now" he replied trying desperately to avoid it, he was quite shy and wasn't very confident around women like the girls in Aimee Saint. They were young, fearless, loud and a bit obnoxious, pretty much everything he didn't like
in a woman. He felt very intimidated by them
"It'll only take a second and the instruments will need sorting first" said the girl
Oh for fuck sake! Thought Dex, he had no excuse.
As he walked slowly towards them, the look of annoyance across his face couldn't be hidden.
"Hey girls, pizza on our bus 10pm!" Shouted Jesse with his thumbs up as he went out onto the stage
Shut up Jess thought Dex.
Dex approached the girl who grabbed him by the arm and pulled him aside out of ear shot of the other girls, Mac and crew members. Dex glanced over at Mac who shook his head as if to say don't you dare get into anything there!
The girl started talking at 100 miles per hour, Dex could barely keep up
"So you know Isy, she's got like this huge thing for you and she's too shy to talk to you herself but she would love to meet up with you and..." Dex cut her off
"Before you go any further, I have a girlfriend" he replied
"Yeah I know but do you want to meet up with Isy for like dinner or a drink or something? She doesn't mind that you have a girlfriend" said the girl. Dex laughed, shaking his head in disbelief! What the hell he thought, he was about to let her down not so gently when he was saved my Mac calling him to the stage.