Gossip Girls
By my second show, I was definitely starting to feel like I had the hang of selling merch. It wasn’t so different from selling anything else, and I was definitely used to catering to picky music fans. The pace was faster, but I adjusted to that fairly quickly.
It was the tour bus that I couldn’t adjust to.
Besides Annalee and Bex, the woman evidently in charge of keeping the band from running around like chickens with their heads cut off, I was the only girl on the tour. The smell of dirty boy seemed to be permanently ingrained into every surface of the bus, and space was at even more of a premium than I had realized that first day. Worst of all, I couldn’t sleep in my bunk at all. I wasn’t sure I’d gotten even a full, uninterrupted hour the first two nights, so by the third night, on our way to Richmond, I gave up entirely and took my blanket and pillow to the back lounge. I’d waited until I could no longer hear the sounds of video game zombies dying or anyone talking, because I didn’t want to admit to anyone just how miserable trying to sleep on the bus was making me.
I couldn’t complain to anyone. Even Annalee, who hadn’t toured that much, seemed to be doing just fine. If I complained, I would just sound whiny and entitled, and I didn’t want anyone to see me that way. This was a big opportunity, I knew, so I had to be grateful for it, no matter how miserable it actually was.
When Avery texted to ask how I was doing, I hated lying to her, but I didn’t see any other option.
It wasn’t entirely a lie to tell her I was having a wonderful time. Aside from not being able to sleep and Zac being kind of weird, it wasn’t so bad. After glossing over those few problems and assuring Avery I would call her the next day during my downtime, I tossed my phone onto the floor next to the couch and curled up. It wasn’t that much more comfortable than my bunk, but at least the leather of the couch was surprisingly cool against my skin.
In any case, I drifted off pretty quickly, which was far better than I could manage in the bunk. I wasn’t even sure how long I’d been asleep when I was rudely awoken.
“What the fuck are you doing?”
I rolled over to find Zac staring down at me, once again looking like he would be shooting poison darts from his eyes if he could. I was too sleep deprived to be intimidated right then.
“I’m trying to sleep, obviously,” I replied.
“I was under the impression this was the lounge, not your own private bedroom. But what do I know? It’s only my bus.”
“Yeah, well, I couldn’t sleep in my bunk and no one was back here, so…”
“It’s still not your bunk,” Zac said.
I stared at him, waiting him to laugh and say he was kidding. But he didn’t. His face was deadly serious, as though he genuinely thought I had broken some law by sleeping in the lounge. I knew he was my boss, but this was too much. What did it matter where I slept?
Zac rolled his eyes and flopped down onto the couch opposite mine, turning on his xBox as he did. As it booted up, he shot me a glare and mumbled, “Should have known.”
“Should have known what?” I replied, not feeling like even bothering to be polite to him, even if he was my boss.
“That you were just some little brat leeching onto Avery so you could get near us.”
I stared at him. “Where in the hell did you get that idea?”
“The way you’re just acting like you own the place, like you can do whatever you want. Do you even appreciate the opportunity we’ve given you? It could be gone just as fast if you don’t get your shit together.”
All I could do was gape at him. I didn’t understand where any of this was coming from. As far as I could tell, I had done nothing wrong but try to get some sleep on the couch rather than in my bunk. Was that so much of a crime? The rest of his accusations, that I was just some entitled Hanson fan or something, made even less sense.
I pulled myself up to a sitting position and returned Zac’s glare. “You know what, if that’s what you think of me, fine. I can tell you it’s not who I am, but clearly you’ve already made up your mind. Good for you. But I’m pretty sure you’re not the sole person in charge of hiring and firing people here, so until your brothers also tell me they have a problem with me, I think I’m okay. I’m not hurting anyone by sleeping here, and it’s the only place I’ve been able to sleep since I joined this tour, so I’m not moving. Deal with it.”
He snarled, but evidently didn’t have anything to say in response to that. Instead, he turned all of his attention to his video game as though I wasn’t there at all. That didn’t bother me a bit. I would have much preferred Zac ignore me entirely than continue to be so strange and mean toward me.
Even with the sound of the game, I managed to drift back off to sleep quickly.
When I woke up, we were just a few miles from our hotel in Richmond and I was alone in the back lounge. The xBox was off and there was no sign that Zac had even been there at all, but I knew he had. I remembered our conversation all too well, and felt the sting of it all too well, too.
But there were things to do and little time to dwell on what a douche Zac had been to me. I wanted to mention it to Avery when I called her, but I didn’t. It felt too much like tattling. If he actually tried to fire me, then maybe it would be worth discussing. In the meantime, I would just do my best to stay out of his way and hope that I could avoid another confrontation.
After just a day off, it was still hard to get back in the swing of things, but by that afternoon, Annalee and I were hard at work again. It was the same routine as every show so far, but this time there were a number of fans wandering around as we unloaded all the merch. That was a little new and different, but for the most part, they stayed off to the side.
They weren’t, however, very discrete about the fact that they were watching the bus closely and talking about anyone and everyone involved with the band. I tried to ignore them, but every time the names Zac and Kate came out of their mouths, my ears perked up and betrayed my wishes.
“Well, Jessica’s due in December and I’m pretty sure Kate is farther along, so…” One of the fans said.
“Do you think she’s on tour then? Since she’s so far along?” Another asked in what I was sure she thought was a whisper.
“No, I’m pretty sure they left all the wives at home this time. Thank god. I can’t enjoy the show knowing they’re probably right off the side of the stage.”
This was a conversation I really had no desire to overhear, so I scurried off to the back door of the venue with my box of t-shirts. Even though Zac had treated me like shit the night before and I had no reason at all to be jealous of his wife, I had to admit that I was. I wouldn’t have admitted it to anyone but to myself, though. As I set up the merch table, I was mentally berating myself for being such an idiot with such a stupid, hopeless crush that didn’t seem to diminish at all no matter how Zac treated me. It was just pathetic. There was no other word for it.
I had just finished hanging up the t-shirts when I heard Taylor call out my name. I spun around to look for him, and saw him rushing toward me with a panicked look on his face.
“Colby! You’re not busy are you?”
“Not really…” I replied.
“Can you run out to the bus and try to find the first aid kit?” He asked, holding up a very bloody right hand.
I winced. “What did you do?”
“My piano bit me,” he replied, pouting. “And apparently there isn’t one fucking bandaid in this whole building.”
“Okay, okay, I’ll go find one,” I said, hurrying away before he started bleeding on me.
I wasn’t sure how fetching Taylor bandaids had become my job, but after Zac bitching me out for sleeping in the wrong place, I really wasn’t about to complain about anything anyone on this tour asked me to do. From all the tour stories Joey had told me, I knew that getting my foot in the door in this business meant a lot of dirty jobs, and I was prepared for that. I just wasn’t prepared for being treated so shitty by one of my best friend’s brothers. Still, if running off to the bus for whatever any Hanson needed was part of my job description, then I was going to do it. Maybe not with a smile, but I would do it.
When I made my way toward the bus, I was pretty sure the crowd of fans had moved closer to it. They seemed to have multiplied, too, and now they all had cameras out, no doubt hoping to catch a glimpse of somebody important. If I hadn’t done the same thing over bands I liked, I would have been even more annoyed with them.
I couldn’t really avoid them, though, because I was pretty sure I had seen the first aid kit in the bus’s storage area. Why it was there instead of the bathroom, I didn’t know. I had a feeling that question, along with just how exactly a piano could bite a person, would remain unanswered. I slipped my key into the lock, opened the door and began fishing through all the suitcases and crap for the little white box I was positive I had seen the day before when we were loading in.
“Who’s that girl?” Someone asked.
I knew, without even daring to glance around, that the question was about me. I tried to focus on what I was doing while also straining my ears to hear the conversation. I didn’t really want to hear it, but there was just something about knowing people are gossiping about you. No matter how angry you know it’s going to make you, you want to know every word that’s said.
“Maybe she’s the new nanny or something?”
“Please,” one of them snorted. “Does she look like a nanny to you? I wouldn’t let her watch my kids.”
I felt my blood begin to boil at that, but I had to ignore them. It had me flustered, though, and I knocked someone’s bag out onto the ground. Whatever was in it made an awful racket as it clattered to the pavement, and that only served to make those fans laugh. As if that wasn’t embarrassing enough, the bus door opened to reveal Zac, a look of confusion on his face.
As soon as he appeared, cameras started flashing. I saw his expression turn from confusion to frustration as he shot a glance at the fans, but the change was so subtle that I doubt any of them even noticed.
“What the hell happened here?” He asked.
“I was, umm, looking for the first aid kit,” I replied, staring down at the mess I’d made. “Your brother is dying of a tiny little scratch on his finger.”
Zac laughed, but it wasn’t a malicious sound, much to my surprise. It still made me blush as I stepped back to let him try to find the first aid kit. I was ready to wash my hands of the whole search and just let Taylor bleed to death. Zac located it in record time, of course, making me look like a total fool. He didn’t gloat as I expected, though. He just handed it to me with a smile and shoved the rest of the bags back into the bus.
“Thanks,” I said as sincerely as I could manage.
“No problem,” he replied.
During our little exchange, the fans continued to snap photo after photo. It was starting to give me a headache, and I could see Zac’s irritation growing, his jaw tensing angrily as he looked their direction. I jumped when he grabbed my shoulder, his touch firm but light at the same time.
“Come on,” he said, nudging me toward the venue. “Let’s get away from the peanut gallery, okay?”
I nodded, finding myself at a total loss for words. Who was this Zac and what had he done with the guy who had threatened to fire me less than twelve hours ago?