The Rockstar Within Me

The Rock Star Within Me - Chapter 14

I was never a morning person. The sound of an alarm brought a sense of depression and anxiety that only something that symbolized routine could. It was a dreadful device that seriously made me question living at 7 in the morning.

Waking up at 11:30 and then rolling out of bed an hour later was much more pleasing. Thankfully, the lifestyle I had adopted allowed me to do just that. The band's day really only started at 2pm so we all enjoyed ourselves as we slept in. The occasional day we would have to wake up earlier for either press or a photo shoot and that was torture. Absolutely, terrible experiences were created when waking up early and my band never took it for granted the privilege to sleep in.

This particular morning, the morning after the night of tattoos, I was awoken before 11:30 and was faced to something not so nice.

The curtains on my bunk were ripped open and a stunned Jess stood in pyjamas with no make up, holding a magazine up.

"What are you doing?" I moaned, trying to roll over and fall back to sleep in my cozy bunk.

"Look who is on the front page! Look who is on the front page!" She exclaimed, shocked, throwing the tabloid onto my face.

I groaned, picking it up and trying to get my eyes to focus on it. Impatiently, Jess handed me over my glasses that she magically had.

The magazine had thick yellow words that read. "River Johnson and girlfriend get matching tattoos." The headline was attached with a picture from last night.

"What the hell?" I yelled, jumping out of my haven onto the cold floor of the bus.

"Look at this!" She took the magazine out of my hands and flipped through it, landing on a page that's corner was bent. "That stupid no-for-good tattoo artist told all the magazines about us. Read it!" Again she threw the mag at me.

Sure enough, there were details about the conversations we had, details about why we chose our tattoos and it even went so far to comment on the way River and I looked at each other, which apparently was "the pinnacle of teen love". To top it all off, pictures of us were accompanied with it.

"That son of bitch!" I shrieked, totally embarrassed.

"Shut up!" A sleepy voice called as he jumped out of his bunk. A shirtless River stretched, trying to wake up as best he could.

"Read this!" I demanded, handing him the magazine.

He squinted as he read then his eyes widened.

"Wow. He must have run to the phone as soon as left." He commented as he reread the article.

I stamped my foot, angry for trusting a complete stranger. Plus I had almost completely opened up to him. He had seen me cry for goodness sakes, and he didn't hold back on how River had comforted me.

"Whata dick." I muttered under my breath.

River shrugged as he handed me back the magazine.

"Oh well, whatcha gunna do about it? He didn't say anything bad I guess, he did stretch the truth a bit though. River hung on her every word and couldn't take his eyes of his new mysterious girlfriend Alice Carter. Alright then; I'm pretty sure that didn't happen." River reread the magazine out loud, mocking the article completely.

"Did you read what it said about me though?" Jess shrieked, ripping the glossy paper out of his hands.

"The two lovers seemed to ignore their friend that was desperate for attention. She openly flirted with the men in the room-"

"I was totally not flirting with everyone!" Jess interrupted River, still astounded. "Mason and Drew are practically my brothers. Ew."

I giggled because I knew Jess and Jess definitely didn't flirt with Mason or Drew. Maybe another guy but not those two. We've all seen each other during our highs and lows and even if we did once feel something for each other, it had passed. Our friendship was too strong for us to want to break that.