Lost and Lonely

Chapter 5: Tour

    I awoke groggily, and alone. I could hear male voices talking to each other, and I panicked. I'm in Aaron's bunk, what the fuck do I do?

I stayed put, trying to figure out what to do, when Aaron suddenly pulled the curtain open, grinning at me.

"We're here, doll. Everyone's stretching outside. You're safe to come out," he told me. I stepped out of the bunk, seeing the bus was empty.

"Um. I guess I should get changed," I said.

"Bathroom's open. I'll meet you outside," he told me. "And just so you know. I loved cuddling with you last night. You have a very soft body."

I blushed, grabbing my bag.

"Thanks for letting me, um. Sleep with you. I don't know what the nightmare was about," I lied. I'd been having nightmares since before I could remember. I'd hoped they'd stay away for the tour; I'd been stupid.

"Don't apologize," Aaron chided. "Anytime you need a....friend at night. You got one."

I just smiled and entered the bathroom. God, why does my hair look like that? I look like Bigfoot emerged.

After some serious hair-wrangling, makeup, and toothbrushing, I retreated outside to the boys.

"Jessie!" James greeted. "Welcome to Nashville."

I looked around, seeing a giant concert venue.

"Wow. Is that where we're performing?" I ask.

"Yup. Ryman Auditorium. You'll do great, Jess," Aaron assures me.

"I hope so..." I mumble, getting nervous now. I'd never even sang for a small crowd before the event at the Heat. How was I going to do this?

We entered the building and into the main room where the stage was. It was a huge venue, but apparently they were blocking off a huge portion because Aaron's shows were fairly small, by choice.

"Jessie," one of the guys, Greg, called to me. He was about Aaron's age, which I still didn't know, and he seemed nice. He was the other backup singer besides me. "We're going to rehearse first. Let's get on stage and I'll walk you through it."

I followed him to our spot, which was kind of hidden a little, to the very left of the stage beside all the instruments. There were two microphones on stands.

"Here, put this in your ear," he said, handing me an earpiece. I looked to where the others were and saw they were leaving, going to some backroom I guessed. Aaron was lingering behind with James, seeming to argue with him, but eventually conceding and following James. He looked back at me before he left and gave me a thumbs up. I grinned at him.

"Okay, check, one, two, check," Greg said into the microphone as his voice boomed off the walls. "Okay, Jessie, now you do it."

"Check, one two," I timidly spoke into it. Greg smiled at me.

"Sounds good. Takes some getting used to, but just remember, Aaron is the star. No one will be paying too much attention to us, so we get the easy job," he tried to calm my nerves. I nodded, and Greg shot a thumbs up to someone in the sound booth.

"Okay, so, we got this tablet that tells you when we come in," Greg said, activating the tabler that was sitting on a music stand in front of me. It had the lyrics to Aaron's song "Lost and Lonely" and I could see our parts where highlighted yellow.

"Yellow is both of us. Blue is just me, and pink is just you. Okay?" He asked.

"Okay. But what if, you know, I accidentally sing when I'm not supposed to?" I asked him. He shrugged.