King sad

Heartbreak hotel

Come on, hurry! Out, out, out. 

Bodyguards were guiding us out of the hotel. We were staying in a nice upper class apartment building. Not as nice as the hotel Elvis and his inner circle were staying in,of course, but we never stayed at the same hotel as him. With "we" I meant me and all the other crew members who were working night and day for Elvis' shows. We were always on the go. We never stayed longer than 2 nights at the same place. I liked my new life. It was quiet and loud at the same time. The places I saw and the people I met were fascinating; however, my job always remained simple and managable. 

It had almost been half a year of working with Elvis. Time flies when you are enjoying yourself. 

I didn't like to admit it but Elvis had distanced himself more and more. Not only from me but from almost every member of our team. I did not blame him. I have never met and will never meet a person who lead a more stressful life than Elvis did. Show starts, show ends, new destination, another fan who has to be escorted out because she is histeric, and don't forget to smile. There were only a few minutes each day for Elvis when he didn't have to put on a happy face. And coming to my dressing room to get ready for the show was one of those chances where he could be himself. So who could be mad about the fact that he wasn't the entertaining heartthrob any more whenever he was around me? He was just a quiet nice boy. And to be honest, I felt honoured that I gave him the feeling that he didn't have to be fake-happy around my presence. We didn't talk much but we both felt a special connection. It was almost like communicating through telepathy. He didn't say a word but yet he was telling me so much when he looked down at me with his handsome, sad looking face. I never failed to smile at him whenever he gave me those puppy eyes and his mouth always seemed to automatically smile with me without him even doing anything.

Where's Elvis? 

Red was waking me up from my day dream. 

Has anyone seen Elvis?

Everyone was clueless, shaking their head. That was really strange. Elvis never left without telling anyone about it. He also didn't mention anything this morning when he showed up in my dressing room. 

I mean, he did say that he was feeling under the weather and that he wants to cancel the trip today but I didn't think that he was serious. 

One assistant spoke up. 

Uh, seriously?! We have to catch a flight, he has a show to play at our next stop!

His manager furiously walked out, he had to fix the situation now, the crowd was already waiting in another city!

I looked around. Everyone was talking about the situation. Some were stressed out, some were just chatting. I noticed that everyone was talking about the show, the crowd. But no one even mentioned Elvis or wondered what was wrong with him. I felt the urge to see him. I had to know that he was okay and not alone. He could only be in his hotel room. No one was paying attention so I just left the scene and headed towards his hotel. 

It was easier than I thought to get into the fancy place he was staying at. The lady at the front desk willingly told me his room number, believing that I was his second assistant. I decicively walked up the stairs onto the third floor where his room was. 

When I reached the end of the staircase, doubts overcame me. 

What am I doing here? 

How did I even come up with such a stupid idea?

I didn't let my sudden insecurities take control over me. I tried to ignore them as good as possible. I felt ambivalent. I was determined and drawn to do this and very self concious at the same time.