The Last Tour {COMPLETED}

Chapter Three: Show Clothes

Chapter Three

Show Clothes

Jessie Colby seemed to be taking a particularly long time styling Jade's hair that afternoon. But Jade didn't mind. It gave him time to try to relax.

If Jessie sensed his anxiety, however, she did not let on for a while. She said nothing to him until she was almost done carefully combing and spraying his hair in place. Then, when a sudden involuntary shiver ran down Jade's back, Jessie finally spoke. "Something wrong?" she asked.

Jade shuddered and didn't answer.

"Don't wanna talk about it, or what?" Jessie asked. She shot Jade a comforting smile through the mirror.

She was so different from Amber. She didn't try to touch him anywhere besides the area she was working on. She never assumed he wouldn't mind. She never tried to harass him. She never flirted. She never lied. She never teased... "What do the behind-the-scenes crew know about me?" Jade asked suddenly, in half an attempt to draw his mind away from what was going to happen that evening.

"What do they know about you?" Jessie asked. "You mean all the behind-the-scenes workers? Or the roadies specifically? The road crew knows a lot more about you than the behind-the-scenes crew as a whole. Most of tonight's security hadn't even laid eyes on you till today..."

Jade sighed heavily, then suddenly leaned forward and put his face in his hands.

"Jade?" Jessie asked, her fingers retracted from the strands of dyed blond hair she had been whipping into place. There was concern in her voice.

Jade was silent. His lips were pressed tightly together, his eyes squeezed shut. For several long moments, he thought he could fight it—hold it at bay at least for a while. But then he knew it was hopeless. He was going to cry, and Jessie would see it because he couldn't hide anything from her for some reason.

"If you don't want to talk about it, you don't have to," Jessie decided when Jade still remained silent. But she still hesitated, her hands at her sides, waiting for a reply.

"I don't know..." Jade said, and the words came out of him with a squeaky sigh. If he couldn't hide all of it from her, maybe he might as well not hide any of it from her. Maybe it was better to just let it all gush out now while she was the only one there to see.

"Yeah?" Jessie encouraged.

"I..." Jade sighed again. With his hands still held up to his face, he felt hot tears begin to drip quickly off his thick dark eyelashes. He didn't know where to begin. For nearly sixty seconds, he could not find a way to put the surging pain in his heart into human words. He suddenly had the burning desire to be alone in a dead-silent darkness and just scream into it—force the hurt from his soul as quickly and forcefully as he forced the breath from his lungs—out into the darkness where no one would hear it. But Jade did not scream. He took in a soft breath then said quietly, "I've..." he broke off "f-fucked with my dad," he had been half-intending to say. But even as he shaped the words with his lips, he found he could not bring sound to them. "The band members..." he began again, opting for a different beginning. For the second time, however, the statement ended with no conclusion. "There's a rumor," he sighed finally, his voice weak. "I...I just want to know...how many of them have heard it...Because if they've all heard it, they may spread it to the media. I just...I just..." his voice faded. "Don't want that," he finished in a whisper.

"What rumor?" Jessie asked sharply. Then, when Jade did not immediately reply, "Everybody's full of rumors, Jade. New rumors pop up every day. What rumor in particular are you concerned about, and why in the world are you concerned about it?"