MASQUERADE - Bad Omens

Lies - 4

"Never lie to the eyes that look at you with love" - Anonymous

Everyone had gone to sleep after the bus had left echos house, the first stop on the tour was in Houston TX, from California. It was about a 20 hour drive meaning everyone had a while to prepare and just hang out on the bus.

It was about 9am when everyone started getting up from their bunks, Echo was already in the front lounge sitting on the couch with her computer on the table and her headphones in as she worked on some merchandise for Masquerade.

Without realizing it the guys were standing behind her staring at the designs on her computer. "No way your designing for Masquerade!" Nick said with a smile.

When she hurd their voices over her headphones her face flushed white, she had never made the mistake of letting anyone see the designs  before they were out, her heart dropped and she quickly shut her computer.

"None of you were supposed to see that." She said trying to act cool like that didn't just happen. "Do you know who she is!?" Noah asked. "Have you seen her face?!" Folio asked excitedly. "Have you talked to her?" Jolly asked quickly.

"No, no and no. Nobody is supposed to know That I'm her merch designer okay, I only talk to her manager and he doesn't even know who she is okay." Echo quickly explained trying to get them to stop asking so many questions.

Her mind started to race as she had basically just lied to her friends again, she started to panic inside but made sure to keep a calm face. "Guys your not supposed to know about this I promised them no one would know that I designed it" Echo said with a sigh trying to calm her mind.

"You know we won't tell anyone Echo, but have you even seen her, Masquerade?" Noah said with a calming smile, following his statement with the question. "No I haven't, there's no contact with her at all, only her manager" Echo lied again and it made her hate herself more but she knew she couldn't tell them the truth. Or everything for her would be ruined.

"Please no more questions, I'm under a contract with them... a NDA." Echo said trying to get them to stop asking questions. "Come on Echo, we're your best friends can't you tell us anything!" Folio said with an dramatic sigh. "I don't know anything, I know the same amount that you all do." She lied again, but no one could know. That was her secret, her safe place and she couldn't have anyone expose that.

"Go eat breakfast losers" She laughed as she opened her computer again and closed the files she had up.
She watched as all the guys grabbed cereal from the small kitchenette that was on the bus.

Her mind was still racing, how stupid could she have been to work on those designs out in the open, she should have known they would be up soon, she could have turned her computer away or sat somewhere else or just worked on them in her bunk. But she didn't, why didn't she.

Maybe deep down in her subconscious she wants her secret to be revealed, but only to those she trust and knows they won't expose her. Just maybe she'll tell them when the time is right and they'll understand.

Hopefully they'll understand.
Or maybe she's to deep in this lie... this secret.

Echo noticed the guys were still talking about masquerade, about her new song and the emotions that were in it and how deep it was. Her song "Disgust me" (by New Years Day but as my ocs song, obviously credits to the musician)

This song was definitely an important one to her it was about wanting to hear the truth from others around her, but to her it was about herself, wanting to tell her friends the truth no matter what happened, she wanted something real and to stop lying.

A lot of her songs were about herself and her past, but some were about the boys, about their pain too, and about her real feelings, feelings she never shared with anyone not even them.

Echo had her reasons for hiding her feelings, especially with the business she was in, being a designer for musicians was a tough business, for a woman it was even harder. She never wanted to be seen as weak so she never showed her emotions.

As echo was zoning out, her mind racing, the guys were already sitting down around the lounge area eating their breakfast. "Hello earth to Echo! Did you hear us?" Nick said as he poked her arm a few times. "Huh, what no sorry, what are we talking about" she said as she looked at all of them.

"The set list and making sure all the venues will still be good, apparently there's supposed to be snow in North Carolina the week we're there" Jolly sighed as he finished his cereal. "Yeah it's snows there almost every winter" Echo laughed a bit.

"Yeah your from there, how bad does it normally get" Nick asked as he looked at the weather report on his phone. "One time we got like two feet of snow and got stuck in the house for a week" She explained as she pulled up the weather report for the area they would be at.

"Novembers in NC are cold guys, I hope y'all packed warm stuff" Echo said as she fixed her messy bun. "We know echo, you hate the cold" Noah laugh "plus we only lived like 2 and a half ours away from each other" He smiled

"Don't remind me, the amount of times we all drove to meet up was annoying, and now we all live within 20 minutes of each other" Echo laughed and the guys joined in too.

The rest of the ride to Texas wasn't very eventful, everyone playing a song roulette game, eye spy, hanging out in their bunks, talking about the up coming concerts and how the merch booth with work, lots of naps and random games.

Everyone was slowly getting ready they closer they got to the venue, Echo wearing black ripped jeans and one of the new Bad Omens hoodies with her hair curled and makeup simple with a light Smokey eye, and wings.

Things went smoothly when they got to the venue, unloading all the equipment, doing sound checks, light Checks, making sure the smoke went off properly, setting up the merch booth, setting up the VIP lounge where fans could meet the guys after the show, and of course the guys wearing short sleeves then complaining because the show was at night, and the temperatures were between 50 and 60 degrees.

It was winter and even in Texas the nights were nice and cool, so echo ran back to the bus to grab them some other shirt options, they always chose her to run for something, maybe because she was a track star in high school or maybe because the fans would swarm the guys if they went outside. Either way she didn't care, she liked to make sure they were comfortable and had everything they needed.

Once everything was ready and set up, the doors were opened and fans swarmed in the venue, some running to the merch venue, buying merch and asking who she was and about the new merch, others running to their spots trying to see the guys as quickly as they could, trying to take pictures and videos.

Luckily there was a boundary between the stage and how close the fans could get, to prevent them from grabbing Noah's feet, or Nicks or Jolly's.

The show went smoothly, like all of the anxiety Noah was having before the show was completely gone. He was in his element and he loved doing that.

That's exactly what Echo loved about being Masquerade, the stage was her happy place, singing her feelings, showing her emotions and sharing them with her fans without anyone knowing who she was.

She just hated that she had to lie to everyone she loved and she couldn't share that feeling with them like Noah got to with the guys.

Yeah, Echo or Masquerade had her own secret band and all of their identities were hidden as well, her friends from high school that knew some of her trauma and pain and even shared it. It was harder to hide an entire band's identity's but it was worth it in the end. Her band was home with their family's for the holidays... in NC.

Echo sold merchandise and watched the guys on stage during the show. It was amazing, she hadn't seen them preform like this in a while. It broke her heart that they never saw her preform like that and admired her. They admired her without knowing it was her though and that gave her some happiness.

Even though they never knew it was her she still appreciated it.