Tear In My Heart

Chapter Three

Warnings: Some angst

Word Count: 2856

Author's Note: As always, thank you for all the love on this series! I hope you enjoy this chapter :)

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August 2012 - First Show of the Regional At Best Tour

Your first day hadn't been what you had thought it to be at all. Sure, you were hanging out with amazing people and it was definitely an opportunity of a lifetime... but you had never been so stressed in all your life. Everything seemed to be going wrong and you were at your wit's end, hoping that it would miraculously come together last minute. You could somehow manage to handle a day like today, if it hadn't of been for what happened next.

Looking up from your clipboard, you watched as Tyler started pushing his piano toward the backstage door of the venue. But, something went wrong and his foot got caught underneath, having the wheel and all of the piano's weight run right over his toes. Wincing a bit at the loud yell he made followed by some expletives, you covered your face out of nervousness and stress. Your grip on the clipboard tightened, making your knuckles turn white before you felt a strong arm wrap around your shoulders. Confused, you looked up to see the handsome face of Josh, who seemed to be concerned over you.

Sighing deeply, you motioned over to Tyler who was still holding onto his foot angrily. Josh chuckled a bit and shook his head as he looked over to his friend, lifting his shoulders up into a shrug.

"Oh, don't worry about Tyler. He does that before almost every show," he explained to you, hoping that it would calm your already shot nerves.

"Well, that's good to know... for future reference," you mumbled and lifted a shaky hand through your hair, feeling like you should just quit right then and there. You were doing awful and Josh was this nice to you? There's no way this could be right.

You watched as Mark checked in on Tyler, kneeling down to where he had decided to plop himself down on the pavement. They were too far away for you to hear what they were saying, but Tyler seemed to be doing ok. When Mark stood up and went back to whatever he had been doing previously, you let your shoulders drop in relief. A few moments later, Tyler got back up and continued to push at his piano, now muttering quietly to himself.

You looked back down at your list of responsibilities and idly tapped your pen against the edge of the clipboard, looking over the seemingly endless things you had to do. Only a few of the first things were checked off, and those were just easy tasks like making sure the boys had actually arrived at the venue on time and doing a quick roll call of crew members. Just reading over the rest of the things you had to do was making your head spin.

"I'm not cut out for this," you said, already feeling the lump begin to form in your throat. "What if Tyler had gotten seriously injured? I'm not trained to handle that."

"Hey, hey." Josh said. He pulled you a little closer with his arm so that you were now leaning into his side. You had almost forgotten about the arm he had around you. "It's ok. It's only your first day. Do you know how nervous I was the first time I played with Tyler? I almost puked all over his piano. Besides, Tyler is tough. He's not going to get injured so easily."

"You're right," you said, but the words were empty.

You kept your eyes focused on the clipboard, refusing to let Josh see the tears that were beginning to form. This job really seemed like something you could handle, but maybe Beau had been right all along. There was no way you could manage this many people. And what if they got bigger? That meant a bigger crew and bigger venues and more things to make sure weren't going terribly wrong...