Spotlight

27

***Tristan's POV***

For the past month had been touring Europe in our bus that we had kept from our last European tour because we had always carried the hope that we would return.

The date was currently September third, and we were playing a sold-out show in Athens. I was lying down on my top bunk in the bus as I watched the outside world zoom past. The windows on the bus were fogged up from the outside humidity so I smiled to myself when I drew a monkey on the glass, before rubbing it out with the back of my hand.

We were travelling down from our last show which was in Serbia a few nights ago and Athens was the last part of our European tour leg, before we headed down to home in Australia and New Zealand for nearly a month of more sold-out shows.

"Tristan!" Blake called from the other end of the bus. I leaped down from the bunk before he noticed I had got into bed again. I was so drained from the past few weeks. It was a strain on my voice too, because I was the lead singer.

I found the three others down the opposite end of the bus where they were sitting with our tour manager, sharing a few drinks between them. I sat down and refused when they handed me the full six pack of bottles.

We ran over some brief details for the night ahead as we did for every show in a new location. The show was beginning at eight thirty after our opening act performed for an hour.

We all separated into the bus again, the other guys continued on to practice some newer songs that we had been writing for a new album that we were hoping to release next year. I seemed to be the only one that had been drained from the past few weeks. It had gotten to the stage where I couldn't sleep at night on the bus with the sound of the road underneath me, which was something I had never struggled with before.

I felt as bad as I did when I went into rehab. My head felt like I was hungover every morning, even when I knew I wasn't.

When we reached the location where our bus was going to stop, we all climbed out carrying our instruments on the side of the road. At first, we were all loudly talking about the new location as we looked around, until the boys went silent behind me. When I turned around I noticed they were all awkwardly looking at me, as if I was missing something that they hadn't.

"What?" I asked as the three of them looked between each other. Blake shuffled awkwardly on his feet before gesturing towards the billboard above the sidewalk on the opposite side of the road.

Half of the billboard had been rolled off which left it just white, while the other half showed a familiar looking girl and an abundance of men holding cameras in the distant background, barely visible in the image. The girl had a long red dress on with a slit on the right knee, while her right leg was outstretched on the red carpet she was standing on. Her feet were covered with a set of red heels like the ones from the Wizard of Oz. Her face was smiling as she looked back to someone who was obviously behind her, but the other half of the image had been removed. On the other side of the billboard, it said 'Spotlight Season 1, FOX Tuesdays.' Near the bottom of the billboard it said 'Now Streaming on Netflix.'

I'd have to be dumb to not recognize who the girl was, because of course I was in the television series with her. I stared at her golden brown hair that was flowing along her arm that was outstretched to where I was supposed to be standing in the image, but had been removed.

The smile plastered along her face was so genuine that it hit me hard to wonder if she was even forcing a smile in these images alongside me. My eyes drew in towards the small details, and noticed that a small part of my hand that was attached to hers was included in the image too, but the rest of me had been covered over with white paint – or whatever they were using to put up their next billboard.