Every Night

Chp. 13

We gather behind the stage for one last time before heading home. Standing in a circle we place our arms around each other's shoulder. I slowly begin to sway a little bit, and we do our chants. I look up with teary eyes to see I'm not the only one crying. We all chuckle a little bit and scoot in for a group hug. When these are the only people you're with on the road, you get close, really close. We do one last little chant and get ready to take the stage.

Wayne takes my hand, and we push the curtain out of the way, and into the the lights for one last time this round. The crowd just erupts into cheers as we make our way onto the stage, home is such a good feeling. I take to my chair and yell "LASSSSS VEGAS HOW YA DOINNNNN!" There is so much energy in the crowd's response it just puts a giant smile on my face.

We start going through a whole slew of songs, going in between Smoke + Mirrors and Night Visions. The crowd sings along to every word. We make our way down the set list and arrive at one of my personal favourites, "Hear Me."

I don't know what I'm thinking, maybe it's the crowds energy, maybe it's the feeling of being home, maybe I'm just plain downright crazy. But right as finish the second verse and Wayne kicks in with the bridge, I begin to stand up. Using my mic stand to help me up, I get both feet planted on the ground and carefully walk the few feet over to where Wayne is standing. Each step I take drains me of just a little more energy, but I power through it, making it over to Wayne. He looks up at me with a surprised look and a smile, in the bright shining lights I can see a few tears fall from his eyes. I place my arm around him and lean my head against his, and together we just belt out: "Leave your shoes at the door baby, I am all you adore lately, come with me, and we will run away." I can help but smile like a goof for the rest of the song.

The closing chords finish out, and I pick up my head and face the crowd. Wayne places his arm around me and we both take a bow, the crowd screams like crazy, for this is the first time since the bass drum incident that I walked on my own, and it felt so good. Though the walking did wear me out so Wayne helps walk me back to my chair and sets me down. I smile up and him and he just pets my hair and walks back. I can't help but crack a smile and some happy tears, I actually did it.

It takes me a couple seconds to catch my breath, but then we continue on with the show. I'm just singing and keeping the crowds energy up, and as soon as we close off "Polaroid" I hear the entire crowd just go, "Awwwwwwww" and at first I'm extremely confused. But then I hear little feet pattering and I turn around to see Arrow running out onto the stage towards me. I see Aja peeking out from behind the curtains and she just mouths, "I'm sorry" over to me. I just smile.

Arrow runs up to my chair and climbs right up on my lap. We were originally going to do "Dream" here, but I turn around to the rest of the guys and just give them like look of, "you know what to do" and they all nodded. And I turned back around and we started "It's Time". Arrow just loves it when I sing this song for her at home.

She looks up at me with a giant grin and begins to attempt to clap her hands along with the song, she's a bit off beat, but it's still adorable. When we get to the chorus I lean down towards her and place the microphone at her level, and we sing it out together. To see her just sing, "is tam to begem ibin im" just fills my heart with joy, and it reminds me, I guess Wayne is right, I'm not a screwup, I got this beautiful girl right in front of me, who loves me.

We get to the final chorus and she hops off my lap and starts dancing around the stage, well it's more of running, but for her sake, I'll call it dancing. The song finishes up and she climbs back up on my lap and hugs me, then leans down with her mouth on my mic and just says "agiwn dada agiwn". The entire crowd agrees with her in applause and I tell her, "okay, one more time, for you."

We start again and I can see Aja still peeking out from behind the curtain, so I signal over to her to come out on the stage. She runs over to us, stands me up, and we both hold up Arrow and begin to dance around. We get in a little circle and just place the mic in between the three of us, and we just sing.

As the song ends the entire crowd who already isn't standing, stands up and I swear they clap for a least 5 minutes straight. Once they finally calm down enough for me to be able to talk I turn and point and say, "My wonderful wife and daughter everyone!" And Aja picks up Arrow into her hands, waves and walks back off the stage.

I take a seat again and we go ahead and finish off the set list with all happy songs. We finish up they concert, all stand together and take a bow. Walking off the stage and back to the green room is half reliving/half saddening. We have a two-month break before we head out on the road again, and it'll be nice to have the break and be home, but I'll miss the energy rush every night of being on stage.

We gather together in the green room and get ready to head off for home. Platz is going to fly back to Atlanta and spend some time there before we head back out, Ben is just going to chill in the band house, because he's Ben and he can. Wayne's heading back to LA during this break, and I'm heading back to suburbs to be home. We throw our last few things from the bus into our bags and gather around in the center of the green room.

"See you guys around," I say, "Enjoy your off time!"

Platz looks down at his phone and says, "Ooh my flights leaving soon, I probably ought to get going, have a nice break everyone."

We hug and he makes his way out the door. And that's when it just sorta hits me, I'm home. I begin to cry a bit and the others give me a hug.

Ben asks me if he can get a ride to the band house, and I'm just like, "of course."

I turn to Wayne and say, "I guess I'll see you in a bit bud." I still have a few tears streaming down my eyes as I say this and lean over to give him a hug.

He whispers to me, "Just remember, if you ever need me, I'm just a phone call or text away, and just remember you're not alone." He points to the bracelet on my wrist, and gives me a hug. He grabs his bag, waves, and heads out the door.

I turn to Ben and say, "I guess we better get going." He agrees and we head off to the car.

We climb in and drive on the streets that are still alive with life and light at 12:30 in the morning. I've almost forgot how much energy this place has, and it just makes me smile. We get to the band house and I turn around and toss the keys to Ben, "just don't make a mess of the place."

"Fine....." He says in his goofy sarcastic voice and climbs his way out of the car. We stick around and make sure he can get inside before driving off.

Now it's just me, Aja, and Arrow in the car. We sit just listening to the radio until we pull up to the house. I carefully climb out of the car and get Arrow out of her car seat and we all walk into the house. You can tell its late because by the time I get Arrow to her room she's fast asleep, I place her in her bed and let her sleep. I walk back to the living room and kick my shoes off. "I'm actually home." I say to myself. I'm home.

I pull out my phone and send a text to Wayne that reads: "Dropped off Ben, at home, goodnight bud."

I get a response just a few seconds later that says: "Goodnight Dan, my buddy, sleep well, love you."

I text back: "Love you too."

I place my phone back into my pocket, walk up to my room and get in bed. My phone buzzes and I pick it up to see a picture message from Wayne, it's him holding up the drawing I gave him this morning and smiling. The text just reads, "forever and always buddy, forever and always."

I place my phone on the dresser, take one more look at my bracelet, whisper to myself, "forever and always." And I'm asleep.