Tom DeLonge's Intern

Chapter 15: Show up to Tour 15 Minutes Late with Starbucks

The next day came late...very late. When I woke up and checked my phone, it was already 2 in the afternoon. I didn't mind sleeping in that late, but I remembered that it was the day before blink went on tour, and Tom had a bunch of media interviews to do that day. While it wasn't my responsibility to make sure he got to his interviews okay, I knew he wasn't going to wake up on his own. And I also knew that he was probably going to be too hungover to function normally. He had turned over during the night and was now facing the far wall towards a glass case of various photos of him and his ex-wife. Some were ripped and on the floor, some were marked out, some were still there. I chose to ignore looking at it further before I kicked my legs over the side of the bed and stood up to stretch, trying not to wake Tom. Slowly, I made my way to the bathroom across his bedroom to change into my clothes for the day- or at least until I could get back home to shower and what not.

By the time I walked out of his bathroom, he was sitting up in bed on the phone. His eyes were droopy and his hair slightly out of place. One of his big hands was on his face like he was either annoyed or distressed. The second he caught sight of me heading towards the bed his eyes grew wide like he was surprised that I was there, but he didn't do much else besides pat the spot next to him.

"Yeah, yeah. I am going to be heading over there soon. I'll do my best to be there as fast as I can. If I can't make it just start without me. This is what? Like one out of 4 interviews we have lined up today? So Tom doesn't make it to one. Big fucking deal," he mocked the action of someone talking with his hand before rolling his eyes. Then he hung up shortly thereafter.

"So, good morning...or afternoon I should say," Tom said to me, "this is going to sound really bad but I didn't know you spent the night last night."

I must have looked as hurt as I felt because he continued rather frantically to make up for what he had said, "no I mean like...I know you were here at some point last night but I didn't know that you slept here."

"In my defense, you asked me to stay here. Plus, I didn't want to leave you alone given the state you were in," I replied, looking around the room, which was honestly a mess.

Tom sighed, running his large calloused fingers through his black hair, "yeah. About that. I'm sorry for whatever I said or what you saw..."

"Don't be sorry. I'm worried about you."

Tom's brown eyes looked at me before he dropped them and looked around the room. He took a breath in and exhaled slowly, then brought himself to look at me again, "yeah. I am too."

As much as I wanted him to elaborate on that, and as badly as I wanted to know what was wrong with him so that I could possibly help him, he didn't. It wasn't my place to try to get it out of him or pester him about it, so I didn't say much else.

"Well you know I'm always here if you want to talk. About anything, not just your feelings. I'll talk about space and UFO's too. Aliens and all of that," I said, looking back at him. He scratched his bare chest and nodded without saying a word. There was a deep sadness in his eyes that I wanted to get out of him so fucking badly, but I just didn't know how. He was too stubborn to tell me what was running through his head unless he was drunk or fucked up in another sort of way.

Eventually, I went to the Macbeth office that day to see if there was anything I needed to do before I left for the tour the next day. I mostly got advice from a couple coworkers of what to do and what not to do while on tour. They had posters made to hang up in the Macbeth tent as well as the shoes they wanted me to rep while on tour. Boxes and boxes were stacked up near the door in the stockroom that would have to fit on the bus for the company. I was told that it wasn't about how many shoes we sold- it was about getting the name of the company out there. Tom, and Mark wearing the brand was helpful, but some people didn't really pay attention to that stuff. Plus, Macbeth wasn't the only thing they wore either. They were still involved with Hurley and Atticus at that point, so they had plenty of shirts to wear with those brands as well. Macbeth was still trying to take off.