From My Heart (10 page)

“You wish, my love.” She broke away from my grasp and spun around for everyone to see. “I can’t believe it’s the first show already!” I laughed as I watched her get herself pumped up.

I instantly thought of what had happened last tour with Damon and Bryn. I should’ve kept a better eye on her or else she might not have been screaming because Damon wanted to have his way with her. Sure, she might have coaxed him into it and just freaked out, but I would defend Bryn any day. Those bloody knuckles were sure worth it, knowing I had bloodied up Damon Charming’s face.

I would make sure nothing like that happened again.

“You’ll get like us at some point. You just shrug your shoulders and go, ‘Eh just our first night, not a huge deal.’” Luke walked up to Bryn, giving her a sloppy brotherly kiss on the head. I shot a glare at him, warning him to back off my girl. He knew how protective I was of her. “But Tyler, you nervous at all?” He turned his attention to Tyler, who was still sitting on the couch in his dark washed jeans and faded out band t-shirt. Tyler was usually the one out of all of us that didn’t get fazed by anything, and you could never tell by his expression if he was nervous, happy, or anything for that matter when it came to shows.

“Why would I be?” He smirked. “It’s only my first big show minus the festival in less than a year…no pressure or anything.”

I helped Tyler up from his spot and gave him a quick hug. “They’ll be glad to see you out there tonight. Don’t worry about it,” I reassured him. “I won’t fight you onstage tonight.”

That got Tyler to laugh, shaking strands of black hair out of his face. “Better not. I’ve been working on my hook. Next time you’ll be the one with a beat up face.”

“Well, I’ll try not sleep with your girlfriend and get on your bad side again,” he retorted, looking to Bryn and then me. Tyler pulled me aside and whispered, “You didn’t take those pills with you, did you?”

“Nah. Threw them down the toilet and flushed them,” I said with a straight face. “I’m going to try to make it through these next few months cold turkey.”

Tyler raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

“Why is it so hard to believe?”

“Because how long has this been going on? I’ll help you recover, dude, but if you slip up again, I’ll tell Bryn,” Tyler warned. “You’re my best friend, Pelton. I’m just looking out for you.”

***

Backstage was crazy, to say the least. We got everything inside and I could hear music blaring from Angels from Hell’s dressing room next door. I made sure Gina and Bethany had gotten their backstage passes, and they had those locked around their necks as if their lives depended on it.

“Look at all the delicious looking men…I think we’ve hit the damn jackpot, girls!” Bethany said, draping an arm around Gina and I as we walked into our dressing room.

“For you guys. Remember I’m taken?” I reminded them.

“Yeah. By Mr. McHotty pants. Seriously, on a one to ten scale he’s like one thousand¸” Bethany boasted about my boyfriend and I couldn’t help but laugh. “But I don’t know about Luke over there…he’s got the whole shaggy red haired nerdy rock star thing going on across the room.”

“Jeeez, Beth, just go talk to him. He’s crazy about you,” I tried to coax her along. “And don’t try to just get into his pants.”

“Thanks,
mother.
” Bethany retorted. “It’s nice to know my bestie thinks that’s the only reason I’m checking him out.”

“He is hot though, you can’t deny it,” Gina interrupted. “Look at Raptor. I mean that man has a way with his words…”

“La la la la la. I’m not listening to you two talk about my guys like this!” I covered my ears. “Now go over there, dammit.”

“Some friend you are.” Gina kissed me on the cheek and giggled, flashing me a smile before they strutted over to Luke and Raptor’s direction, basically staking their claim.
Oh those two
I thought to myself, walking over to where Tyler and Cale stood talking to someone from The Brittle Souls.

“There’s my girl.” Cale immediately picked me up into his arms, squeezing me tightly before setting me down in front of him. “Can I have you to myself for a couple of minutes?”

I gestured to the people that were in the room with us, looking back at Cale. “With all these people around?”

“No, you silly girl, I wasn’t even thinking that. I think I gave you that dirty mind.” He winked. “I meant I want to sit down and hold you until the very last second before we have to go on. I didn’t want to interrupt you and your girls’ movie session.”

I looked into his amber eyes and smiled. He was being extra sweet tonight, and to my surprise, not drinking. My mind flickered back to my very first night on tour last year where I had walked in and he was shirtless and pretty drunk before the night was over. But I was tipsy too, I couldn’t lie. I was going to try to stick with my sodas this time around because all the alcohol did was get me into trouble.

I leaned in closer to him and let my body relax against his. “It’s okay. We’ll get our time don’t worry,” I assured him. “Plus you can totally check me out on stage anytime you want.”

Cale growled in my ear. “That’ll just get me into trouble. I don’t want to have a hard-on while I’m trying to run around and entertain.”

“Hey! Guys said we have about 20 minutes before you we on!” Raptor shouted from the doorway. I watched Bethany detach herself from Luke so they could follow Tyler, Cale and I out backstage.

“You guys will be on the side, right?” I asked them one last time before going to set up my guitar.

They both waved me off. “Of course, girl. Go ahead and we’ll be out in a bit.” Bethany said.

As I was walking down the hallway where the dressing rooms were at, I bumped square into Kallie Cooper. This time she didn’t have her signature sunglasses over her eyes and was dressed to kill.

She gave me a friendly smile and said, “Damn girl, I might have some competition!” Then she came up and hugged me. “I’m sorry about the last couple of times we’ve been around each other. I’m not a nice person to deal with unless you get on my good side. Then it’s smooth sailing.” I cocked an eyebrow in surprise. I couldn’t figure Kallie out if I tried. So I decided I’d be nice to her while it lasted.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s going to be a fun time the next few months,” I told her as she adjusted the belt on her high-waist shorts.

“For sure.” Kallie paused, and then continued to walk. “Especially since I can watch Cale on stage every night. After that photo shoot I feel totally different about him.” And with that, she winked and slammed the door to their dressing room. My hands curled into fists, and I was this close to breaking down the door to punch her for that comment. What did she mean anyway? Was she trying to steal
my
boyfriend away?

Game on, bitch.

I pushed Kallie out of my mind as I walked out to where Cale was talking with Raptor backstage and Raptor instantly ran over to me and picked me up over his head.

“Raptor, you better put me the hell down!” I shrieked and he spun me around. Damn him for doing that. I was going to get dizzy and stumble around on stage because of him. “If I throw up on you, it’s your fault!”

That got him to stop. He set me down and Cale playfully shoved him. When Raptor cut his Mohawk the night before tour, I was beside myself. That was essentially what made him Raptor. I had seen him with every color Mohawk imaginable, always styled to perfection. Now his hair was barely there. It gave him a whole new look, which he said was what he wanted, since he wasn’t playing anymore. He wanted to “blend in” so to speak.

“I just had the funniest vision of you vomiting all over his new hair-do,” Cale teased. “Still can’t believe you did that, dude.”

“I wanted a change. It was hard to maintain that shit every day,” Raptor replied, patting me on the shoulder. “Anyways, shit’s set up so good luck out there and don’t break a leg.” I smiled and gave him a hug.

After tuning up our instruments and a bit of off stage pep talk, it was time for us to go on. We agreed with Angels from Hell to switch going last every other night since it was considered a co-headlining tour. I liked it that way because it kept me on my toes. Plus I could see how Kallie Cooper handled big crowds, since the only time I’d seen the band was New Year’s Eve.

“Ready everyone?” Cale asked as the five of us huddled up together. “Let’s make this the best first night on tour ever and show them who we are!”

“Yeah!” we chanted in return, slapping each other’s hands. Tyler started the drum beat to “Away from You” and that was when the rest of us strapped on our instruments and ran out on stage. Cale ran behind us, his voice booming through the venue, and fans already screaming for us to come on. I took my place closest to the side where Gina and Bethany were standing offstage chatting it up with Raptor.

As soon as we hit the first chorus and our triple harmony, it was crazier than I had ever seen. I couldn’t get enough of it. When you’re up on the stage and you see people moshing and throwing their fists up at your music, it gives you a good feeling inside. It’s indescribable. It pushes me to put on a great show for these people.  I hadn’t been doing it for that long, but being up onstage in front of a few thousand people, I felt like the crowds were my second family besides the guys in the band.

“You guys are awesome, Indianapolis!” I shouted into my mic, just after we finished our fourth song. “Thanks for having us tonight.”

Then Luke stepped in front of me to use my mic. “We wanted to break the news, if you haven’t seen or heard already, that we have an old member back with us in the group. After Raptor had some injuries with his arm, we needed to find a replacement drummer. None other than Tyler Donahue stepped into Raptor’s shoes and is back in Everlasting after a brief time away.” Tyler stood up from his stool and threw one of his drum sticks into the audience, sending everyone into a frenzy. They started to shout “Tyler! Tyler!” and the smile on his face was un-mistakable.

He waved and pulled another drum stick out, leading us into our next song. So far we had played the best we’d played in a long time. Even better than all of the long practices we had before the tour. From the expressions on all of our faces, everyone was having a blast. But Cale stole the show. Even when we suggested he toned down his running around on stage because of the wound by his heart, he didn’t want to hear any of it. So there he was, jumping onto speakers, then leaping off stage to shake hands with the people in the front row.

It didn’t help my lady parts any, especially when he would stand literally inches from me as we sang together. It completely turned me on, and I gave him a silent “You’re killing me” glare. He knew full-well what he was doing, but it was all a part of the show.

During our last song “Live Free,” we had Tyler sing Ace’s part since he wasn’t there with us. It was the first time I heard him
actually
sing since the night he sang karaoke at Crabby Pete’s. Their voices were totally different, since Ace could hit high notes better than I could, and Tyler’s had more grit to it. When the lights dimmed and our set was finished, I could feel the sweat dripping down my face and onto my chest as I hurried off stage and packed my guitar away.

“Bryn Michelle Schaefler, you can frickin’ rock!” Bethany shrieked, pulling me into a hug as I packed my guitar away backstage after the set. “I still can’t believe my best friend is a guitar goddess.”

I laughed. “And look at my model best friends. I’m more jealous of you two than anything.”

“Oh please,” Gina said. “Those guys out there were totally drooling over you. I’d be too scared to go out there on stage like that.” She laughed. “We’ve done photo shoots, but there’s not as many people around as here.”

“You ladies enjoy the set?” Luke asked, encircling an arm around Bethany’s tiny waist after he rolled the amplifiers offstage. Her eyes lit up like the fourth of July as he leaned into her.

“You know it. It was pretty amazing.” Bethany giggled, eating up all the attention Luke was giving her. It was quickly interrupted by the members from Angels from Hell, and their roadies coming to set up their equipment.

“That’s her, huh?” Gina whispered to me, referring to Kallie, and I nodded. She was holding a conversation with one of the other band members when she nearly bumped into us.

“Oops. I’m sorry, I didn’t really mean to do that.” She pretended to sound sorry, covering her mouth with a hand. “Hi again, Bryn. Who’s this?” She gestured to Bethany.

“These are my best friends from back home, Gina Wilder and Bethany Buckingham. They just came back from California after modeling for quite a bit.” I explained, the three of our arms intertwining. “Girls, this is Kallie Cooper, lead singer of Angels form Hell.”

“Wow Cali, huh? Why’d you leave there?” Kallie asked.

“Wanted to be closer to home,” Bethany snipped “There’s jobs around the area that we’ve been doing to fill up time.” She stood a little straighter in her four inch heels. “Plus Bryn invited us to come along with them for the tour and we couldn’t pass up spending time with our best friend and these guys.”

Kallie cocked her hip to the side, her head looking around for something. “Sorry to cut this short, ladies,” she said, speaking over the loud music that was playing in between our sets and the audience. “It was nice to meet you and all, but I need to discuss some stage details with Mr. Pelton over there.” She sauntered over to Cale, who was standing by a water cooler with Tyler and Luke. My stomach immediately started feeling sick. I didn’t like the way she said
stage details
. That could’ve meant anything. I wanted to follow her to where Cale was standing off at the side backstage and rip what little hair she had out of her head.

“She seems lovely,” Gina said sarcastically. “I can see we’ll just be the best of friends.”

“Yeah, I’m kind of learning to just stay out of her way. She’s usually just a plain old bitch,” I admitted, glad she couldn’t hear our conversation from where we were standing.

“If she says anything to your face while I’m around, I’m not afraid to fight her,” Bethany joked. “I may be skinny, but I can throw a good punch when I need too.”

“It’s alright. Let’s just forget about her and have a good rest of the night.”

As we were heading back to the dressing room, Cale caught up to us.

“Hey, are you going to the bus?” Cale asked as Gina and Bethany kept walking, laughing about something. His arm was lightly brushing mine as his eyes stared directly into mine.

“No, we were going to wait around for you guys. Why? Does this have something to do with whatever
Kallie
wanted to ‘discuss’ with you?”

Cale stiffened up at the mention of her name. “I didn’t want to talk to her, trust me. But we sort of have to since our bands are touring together.” He hesitated. “But I was going to say that she asked me to go onstage with them and sing one of their songs?” 

“And you’re asking me if you can do this
why?
” Sure, it was nice of him to at least forewarn me because I’d want to watch him on stage, but the way he was bringing it up made it seem like he was a little kid asking his parents for something he shouldn’t have.

“I don’t know,” I he said. “I saw that she was acting like an ass to you, Gina, and Beth. I didn’t want to agree to anything and piss you off.” He shrugged, kissing me on the lips.

I waved him off. “It’s not a big deal. Actually I love it. I can watch you on stage for a change instead of playing beside you.” I smiled, our fingers linking together at our sides. Mine were callused and rough from playing the guitar everyday while Cale’s were smooth like silk. Perfect opposites, but it worked for us. “And I get to check you out, knowing that I’m the one you’re sleeping with tonight.”