It Started that Night

Part 3

The tour bus reversing alarm woke Jesse up; he tilted his phone towards him to see what the time was. 5am. He pulled back the curtain a tiny bit and peeked outside. Finally, after two long days on the road, the bus was reversing into the venue in Hamburg.

            "Oh my fucking god," he exclaimed, which woke Dex and CJ. "There's a fucking queue of people already! It's 5am! We're not on till 8 tonight!" He couldn't believe it! He didn't know why would anyone wait out in the cold for that long just to see them, though it was becoming a familiar sight at each gig now.

"Fans are crazy here!" said Dex, squinting to see and rubbing his eyes, it was early and they weren't quite functioning yet.

"Dex, wasn't it a German fan who booked your wedding?" Zach asked, laughing to himself. A crazy German girl had written to Dex declaring her undying love for him and telling him she had booked for them to get married, even giving instructions for when and where he had to go! They had a lot of odd fan mail but that one took the crown.

"Ha ha, yeah," Dex replied, dragging himself out of bed. He was going to meet his parents at the airport that morning and he couldn't wait to see them. Being away from his family was hard and he was a self-confessed mommy's boy.

            "Hey, Mac," he called to their tour manager. "Can you get me a cab to the airport, man?" he asked.

"Sure," he called back. Mac had been with them from the start and was more of a friend than a manager. His real name was Ray but they called him Mac as a bit of a joke amongst the band and tour crew. He was a big fella, an ex-bodyguard. He was a bit of a McDonald's addict and got one in every city they arrived in! So they'd affectionately nicknamed him Mac and it stuck.

As the cab arrived, Mac threw a black towel over Dex's head, he put a protective arm round him and quickly escorted him from the bus to the waiting cab. The second Dex emerged from the bus the crowds of people queuing outside of the venue went wild, screaming, shouting, fighting over each other to get to him, but in seconds he was in the cab and away. Mac went with him, he couldn't go anywhere alone these days, certainly not in an unfamiliar foreign country. Dex was cool with that though, he felt much better with Mac with him.

"Jesus Christ! Someone go tell that lot to shut the fuck up! It's not even 6am!" groaned Zach, putting his pillow over his head. Realistically he knew he was up for the day now. He wasn't a morning person and they had been up drinking and playing cards till 2am!

As the cab pulled up at the airport, Mac got out first and quickly ushered Dex inside. Dex felt so vulnerable out in the open, he didn't look up from the floor at all but out of the corner of his eye he could see people looking at him, whispering, pointing. It seemed absolutely mad to him that all these people in a foreign country knew who he was when less than a year ago most people in his home town didn't know who he was. Luckily it was still early and the airport was quiet. Taking a quick scan of the terminal he noticed that most of the people were of an older generation and wouldn't have known who he was, so he could relax a little. He walked over to the arrivals board with Mac closely in tow to see if Dex's parents' flight had landed from New York. It had. He could feel the excitement and anticipation building in his stomach; he was desperate to give his mom a hug! He might be a 31-year-old man, adored by the world, but he was still a mommy's boy at heart.

As Dex waited for his parents, a few fans spotted him and started to approach him for photos and autographs. He didn't really like doing either but he did it. As he signed a girl's ticket stub he looked up for a second and saw his mom and dad coming through the gate.

"I'm sorry," he said as he quickly gave the pen back to the girl. "Hey, Ma" he smiled as he threw his

arms around his mom and kissed her on the cheek. "Hey, Dad." He hugged his dad and took both their bags from them.