McKenna "Mikey" Rhodes is in a quickly growing band. This year her band is booked to play Self Help Fest, a music festival created by the band A Day to Remember. It sounds great, right? Things take a turn for the worst, calling for a change of pl...
"Jesus fucking Christ," I muttered to myself as my alarm went off. I was not ready to wake up, but, alas, I had to.
I crawled out of my bunk to find that everyone else was fast asleep in their bunks. I grabbed my backpack and went to the bathroom. I quickly showered, did my makeup, and changed into black skinny jeans and a Green Day t-shirt with the sleeves cut off. I slipped on some sneakers and exited the bus.
I walked across the street to a Taco Bell and ordered a big deal they had for 12 tacos. I returned to the bus and set everything down before going to wake everyone up.
Waking everyone up on the bus was much easier than when we were all spread throughout multiple hotel rooms on different floors. Some of the guys even woke up from hearing me wake up someone else.
"I got tacos from Taco Bell." I announced when everyone was up.
"You seem very happy for being up at 8 a.m." Neil told me as he grabbed a taco.
"I figured it would be better for everyone involved if I wasn't the witch I normally am in the mornings." I told him.
"You've spent three nights with us and you haven't been a 'witch' for any of the mornings following." Alex scoffed.
"That's because I want to make a good impression. Give it a few days." I grabbed my own taco after everyone else had gotten one first. "I didn't order enough food, did I?" I thought aloud as I opened a packet of sauce and put it on my taco.
"Not really, no." Josh shook his head, already finishing his.
"You live and you learn, I guess." I shrugged. I sat down on one of the front lounge couches next to Jeremy. "I can go get more if you guys want." I offered.
"I'm sure the venue has food." Jeremy told me.
After everyone was done eating we had to go check in at the venue. After that, the band had some interviews to do, which left me with some time to kill.
I decided to stay at the venue. I had an all-access pass which basically made it so I could go just about anywhere in the venue. Of all the places I could go, I chose the stage.
I stood in the center of the stage, staring out into the open room. I imagined tons of people in there. I imagined myself with a guitar and a microphone in front of me. I imagined Sam to my left, Olive to my right, and Shane behind me. It felt like home. That is, until I remembered the events of the past few days.
I realized a single tear had fallen from my eye. I wiped it away and sat down on the stage, criss-cross-apple-sauce. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and opened twitter. I had a seemingly endless amount of mentions. I didn't even know this many people followed me.
They were all about me leaving the band. Some happy, some outraged, some sad. Countless people asked why. I wished I could tell them. Instead, I tweeted:
I am no longer apart of Paper Dolls. I dont wish to speak about why at the moment. Thanks for understanding.
I got off of Twitter because it was depressing me too much. I stood up and decided to wander around the rest of the venue.
I'd probably walked the entire building before the band got back from interviews. And I walked it again with them and Adam, so Adam could get some good shots of them.
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"Are you okay?" Jeremy asked me as we started walking through the halls, our destination being the backstage room. Everybody else was way ahead of us. I hadn't realized I was so far behind, or that Jeremy slowed down to talk to me.
I shrugged. "I guess."
"Thinking too much?" He frowned.
"Way too much." I admitted.
"Hey!" Jeremy called to the other guys. They turned. "We're going to go a different way. See you in a few." They nodded and continued on their way. Jeremy turned around and started walking the other way, I followed.
"Why are we backtracking?" I asked him.
"I wanted to talk to you." He shrugged casually.
"Whatcha wanna talk about?" I asked, trying to match his pace, but he had longer legs than me, so it took a bit more effort.
"I wanted to see how you were doing. Like, for real. How you're liking the new job. That sort of thing." He smiled warmly at me.
"I'm not doing great, I won't lie." I confessed. "But I honestly think I would be doing worse if I were sitting at home, not touring, and having way more time to think too much. So, in short, I've been better but things could be a hell of a lot worse."
"That's the kind of attitude I like to hear." He stopped walking and pulled me into a hug. I wrapped my arms around him and hugged back. He gave really good hugs. "We're always here if you need us, all of us. I'm sure even Josh would cut the jokes for a minute if you needed him." I pulled away to see him smiling.
"Thanks, Jer." I smiled back.
"No problem. Do you want to go backstage or do you want to keep walking?" He asked.
