The Bad Tour(ture)

Chapter 48 - Off The Wall

Lissy

I thought it would be a one-time thing, a one-time heartbreak but it wasn't.  Michael kept calling me, half dead, talking about this girl.  He was clearly in love with her.  I didn't know who she was but all I could do was envy her.  She seemed to had broken his heart, the same heart that I was dying for. 

How dare she?

He never really made much sense to me though when he'd speak about her.  I didn't understand what happened between the two of them.  He said she thought he was on drugs and then pushed him away.

I seemed to be getting the same story every night.  It was weird.  He just kept calling me and saying "I need your ear."  Then he would tell me how much he loved me.  That part always made me smile.  Then he would go on about how much he needed her.  That part always made me cry.

This charade went on for a while, until the end of July and the beginning of August actually.  But I was starting to really worry about him when his speech began to slur.  He kept saying she thought he was on drugs and I started wondering the same thing myself.  He was obviously taking something.  I was praying it was something legal he picked up from the pharmacy but who knows?  There was only one way to find out for sure.

Shakira

Hiding under the covers, I was writing a song with a flashlight for support.  I was on the tour bus and to block out the noise, I had my headphones on while I listened to my Walkman. 

Suddenly, I felt someone hitting me with pillows.  I threw the covers off of me and couldn't stop laughing.  "What?!  You jerks?!" I yelled snatching my headphones off.

It was Jennifer and Dorian.  "We're making a stop, Shaki.  Get up," she mentioned.

We just got done with shows in Ireland and we were now in Spain, on our way to Marbella, then Madrid and lastly Barcelona on the 9th, which is where Michael wanted to perform Todo Mi Amor Eres Tu.  We still hadn't talked since that eerie night when I thought he was deceased.  I erased the thought that he was on drugs but I was still upset he wasn't willing to tell me the truth about everything.  His assistant Jolie kept contacting me, telling me to contact him but I never did.  We only saw each other at the shows and there was no room for him to get through to me there.

The only thing that mattered to me, and probably him, was that we put on great shows and that we did indeed.

Whenever the bus made stops, someone would have to call ahead of time to have the place secured.  Michael's fans clearly knew what his tour bus look liked by now and many of them would follow us everywhere we went while we were in Europe.  We had to have police escorts from every city we traveled.  Roads would sometimes be blocked off.  There was so much craziness going on I wanted to be oblivious to it.  I was always hiding under my covers. 

I never traveled with Michael on his bus.  His was completely separate from the band's; he had one all to himself.

Michael always drew hysteria...mass crowds just waiting to get a glimpse of him.  It was too much of a risk for me to travel alone with him.  I didn't want anyone ever catching me getting on or off that bus.  He usually had company with him anyway, his fans or family.

I don't even know where we were but there was a decent amount of people outside of the gates screaming for Michael. 

Everyone scurried inside the diner and they locked the doors after us so we could have peace eating our meals.

I personally wasn't hungry so I just sat in the corner of a booth alone and drank some hot tea.  I flipped through the menu and admired all the food I knew my body wouldn't accept.