Stevie kicked the door closed, and threw her bag and room key onto a nearby table. Turning, she barely avoided tripping over the small mountain of her suitcases left piled by the door. She shrugged out of her coat letting it drop to the floor and flung herself onto the bed. She longed to just lounge there, burying her face into the soft cool feather pillows, but she could hear her mother's voice in her ear, chiding her for laying on the bed with her shoes on.. This was one of the rare times she questioned her choice to wear platform boots. You simply could not just flip them off like regular shoes.. Oh the sacrifices she made playing the role of Rock Princess.. Wrinkling her nose into a distinctly NOT Princess-like face, she pulled herself back up to sit at the edge so she could unzip and remove her boots.
It had been a long flight and not a particularly smooth or pleasant one. Lindsey had been in one of his moods and had gone out of his way to be a real prick to her. Even going so far as to try to trip her as she had gone down the aisle of the plane, and then tossing peanuts at her while making noises like an ape. Chris hadn't been much help, telling her to just ignore him and he would stop. Which he hadn't... until he finally fell asleep and proceeded to snore like a banshee.. At which point her bandmates had all jumped to quiet him.
She was feeling quite the outsider on this trip. She couldn't really blame anyone.. Word had gotten out that she was working on a solo project and with the problems and uncertainties recording Tusk had caused, along with all the other business and personal disruptions going on, the news had not been well received. Especially by the other other 2 songwriters in the group. Christine had become reserved and cool. Lindsey being Lindsey, had taken her doing a solo as a direct personal attack and seemed dedicated to making her life miserable even more so then normal, especially on stage.
To the audience none of his antics could be seen. None of the snide comments or intentionally missed cues. The cruel mocking he did or his latest habit of kicking at her with those awful cowboy boots he had started wearing. It had been all she could do not to grab his guitar and break it over his head. But, no matter how satisfying that would have felt, it just wasn't something you did in front of 20,000 paying fans. She had taken to moving off behind Chris whenever she could to make herself less of a target. But she had worked too hard to get out there in front, to let herself be chased back into the shadows...
Last night had been the worse so far. Thinking about it, she grabbed at her badly bruised shin. Her leg almost black to the knee from a particularly vicious kick he had landed during Gold Dust Woman. She had managed to get through the song and then had run off stage in tears. Chris had actually slapped him,throwing her drink in his face and John had promised to throw him off the stage if it ever happened again. Mick had tried to act as if nothing had happened, which seemed to be how he approached most things lately, hopOing it would just go away on its own...
Sliding off the bed and limping over to the bar, she reached for the bottle of brandy, a glass and some ice. The brandy went into the glass and the ice she wrapped in a towel for her leg. She was so very tired and the tour wasn't even halfway done. There was just so much to do these days and so little time to get it all done. She felt like she was being constantly torn in separate directions anymore.. Professionally, trying to balance her commitment to the group with going out on her own and then privately, trying to deal with and without Lindsey in her life. Even Robin, who was usually her rock and soulmate on these tours wasn't here, off on her honeymoon. It was getting to where everything seemed to be blending together so there was no getting away, no time to just be her. Who she was seemed to be more and more defined by what she did. But wasn't that what she had always wanted...
Actually what she wanted most right now was a quiet, peaceful soak in a hot tub, and a long deep sleep. Tomorrow was an off day with just the sound check late in the afternoon. For once no press and no scheduled appearances. What was laughingly referred to as "free" time.
