Under the Influence

XI.

August 20th 2000.
Greenwood Village, Colorado.
New York, New York.

The tour had been going absolutely amazing. I was so proud of myself and my team for how well we'd handled it so far and I was prepared to make our final night the best so far. No matter how hard I had to work and how little down time I had, I loved every minute of my job. Currently I was going through the final details of tonight's show. "Soundcheck?" I asked the tour crew that surrounded me.

"Done" the sound guy replied.

"Lights?"

"All finished" The lighting crew answered.

"What about the lights on the props?"

"Yep all good" I ticked of the checkbox on my clipboard.

"And the tour merch?"

"All set up and ready to go".

"Perfect, that's it then! Good job today guys, let's try to make this the best show yet okay?" I got a chorus of agreement and light cheering and then I dismissed them all to get prepared for the final show which began in less than three hours. Soon enough the crowd would arrive and it would be pure pandemonium. The kind of pandemonium I thrived off. As I skimmed down my list making sure I'd addressed everything I needed to I noticed Nathan, Marshall's younger brother, approaching me. Marshall had brought him along to some of the tour's shows to hang out and meet me, and so far we had gotten on amazingly. Yes, he was a teenage boy who perhaps idolized his older brother too much, but I thought he was a really great kid. "Hey Nate how's it going?"

He jumped up on a empty crate and sat dangling his legs over the edge "Good. I'm real excited for tonight, should be dope".

"Yeah it's gonna be amazing".

"Marshall's looking for you by the way" he shoved his hands in his baggy pants.

"Where is he?" I put away my pen in my pocket and tucked clip board under my arm.

"Dressing room" he jumped down from the crate and shook the dust off his pants.

"Thanks" I pointed my finger at him as I backed away. "Don't cause any trouble while I'm gone". Throughout the tour he managed to pull a few pranks on Marshall, me and even poor staff members.

"Can't promise anything!" he shouted at my back as I turned the corner. I hurriedly made my way through the long corridors till I managed to navigate myself to Marshall's dressing room. I rapped my knuckles loudly against the door and entered before waiting for a reply. Marshall lay down on the couch head propped up by cushions as he talked on the phone.

He acknowledged my presence with a small smile and beckoned me over to him. "I love you too baby. I'll be home tomorrow and I can't wait to see you and Laney". I sat on his stomach a knee either side of his body and prodded at his belly causing him to hit my hands away. "You getting ready for bed soon? Be good for your mother okay? Love you Hails. Bye sweetie" he blew a loud raspberry down the phone and I could just make out a wee giggle from Hailie on the other end of the line. "You having fun?" he referenced to the small attack I was unleashing on his stomach. I just nodded and laughed as he did it back to me, prodding my stomach.

"So guess what?"

"What?" he asked humoring me.

"I can watch you perform tonight! I'm gonna get my assistant Freddie to manage everything for the 40 minutes or so" I excitedly revealed. You'd be surprised at how little I actually got to see the acts perform on my tours. I could usually hear Marshall do his set as I worked throughout each concert but I'd never actually seen him perform in the flesh.