"Come on, Nikki. Let's go already."
She emerged from her bunk, fully clothed and ready for the show. I hear her mumble an apology as she brushes past me and out of the bus.
I sigh and roll my eyes.
"Kennedy, you didn't tune your electric," Dirk pipes up, following me into the venue.
"It's fine," I assure him.
Out of the corner of my eye, I can see him eye me as if he didn't think it were fine, but ignored it anyway.
I pulled open the door of the building and found myself staring down a long, empty, bland, narrow hallway. Dirk points to a door at the end of it and begins moving toward it. I followed him.
Jared, Pat, John, Garrett, and Nikki are all in there, preparing as best they could. Which meant that they were drinking.
John and Jared sat on an old couch in the middle of the room, beers in hand, clapping along to some old drinking song that we've all heard a billion times. Garrett and Pat were standing in the corner holding plastic cups and tapping their feet along.
Usually, I'd find Nikki on the couch with John and Jared, banging away on her acoustic and laughing along as they sang. But she was standing alone against the wall with no beer in her hands. As of late, she's become quite distant.
"5 minutes," a stagehand said, appearing in the doorway.
We nodded and grabbed our instruments before heading to the stage. Fans cheered as John took the first steps into their view. Nikki followed close behind him with her electric Fender in hand, and Jared and I right behind her with similar instruments.
I took my spot on the right of the stage next to Nikki as John stepped up to the mic and Pat got behind the drums. Garrett stood on the other side of John with bass in hand and Jared next to him.
John leaned over to Nikki and whispered something in her ear which she nodded to. He squeezed her shoulder before returning to center stage.
A single mic stood infront of her and I which was there for the sole purpose of back up vocals.
"Hello, hello," John said into his main mic. Girls screamed and cameras flashed. A hand even reached up and snapped one of his suspenders.
"Woah, settle down," Garrett spoke into his mic. I smirked and nudged Nikki, but she wasn't paying attention. Her gaze was fixed on the dirty floor.
"Anyway, this first song is called Identify," John continued, adjusting his suspender.
Jared began picking the first few chords of the song as the lights changed colors. John's rough voice echoed into the mic and throughout the venue as he sang.
"Some things are out of my hands,
I'm what time and consequence have made me,
Sit back and watch the world explode,
3, 2, 1, her come the fireworks baby."
My guitar erupted with sound and clashed with Nikki's. I could see Garrett banging his crazy hair to the beat as he plucked on his bass. My own head bobbed to the best, but quickly stopped once John started singing again.
We played a ton of songs off of Pioneer that night at San Fran. It was the first day of tour and we were all pretty stoked on it.
"This next song is called 'Like We Did'", John panted into the mic. Jared handed him a drink and I could hear him mumble a thanks.
Beside me, Nikki's head whipped around to face them, her brown ponytail nearly swatting herself in the face.
We all knew how much she hated playing this song. It was her favorite, but she cried everytime we played it live. All the guys used to tease her about it, but have since stopped. She's never in the teasing mood anymore.
John looked at her out of the corner of his eye and mouthed, "It's okay."
I watch as she nods and grabs the neck of her Fender, giving me a faint smile when she realizes that I've noticed her worry.
"Tell me how to feel like we did," John starts off.
Nikki immediately begins the quick first few chords as I supply a screechy undertone. Garrett adds his bass, making it all come together.
John continues singing. "Tell me how to feel like we did when we were young, you would take the wheel oh yeah we were on the run."
I turn around and see Pat whipping his long hair as he pounds the drums. The chorus explodes and I jump up and down beside Nikki who does the same.
"So let's run free and carry on," we sing/yell into the mic.
"Like we did when we were young," Jared and Garrety echo into their mic.
"Turn the music loud when we drive right through the town," John takes over.
We all immediately drop the guitars down a notch and let the bass play.
I could see John's eyes slowly make their way over to our side of the stage and knew that he was checking up on Nikki. My eyes followed his and saw a bunch of tear streaks on her face, and the veins in her neck tightening-an attempt to suppress full on sobbing.
He removed the mic from its stand and slowly walks over to us, still dinging. "But we roll the windows down so the cops won't come around."
Nikki tilts her face up, trying to hide the tears. If I could, I would wrap an arm around her like John was currently doing. But there was a guitar in my hands and I had an audience to play to, so that wasn't exactly an option.
"Take me to the time when things were fine, it's all broken now," he sang with his chin on top of her head. "But always kept in mind, things are fine and we'll figure it out."
She shut her eyes tight and more tears escape, leaving fresh, dark trails of makeup down her cheeks. John squeezes her tighter. I have to applaud her on the fact that she was able to continue playing, despite his distraction and the water works.
People in the audience scream and cry along with her, yelling things I couldn't hear. It was amazing-what the effect music could have on people.
