Help Me (sequel to Save Me)

Chapter 35

There's a long line of people waiting outside to meet the boys after the show. Emerson and Sebastian have to push their way through, and try their best to make everyone quieten down so they can say something. "Remington is extremely tired tonight so he's gone to bed. We apologise that he isn't here but sleep is very important." Sebastian is basically shouting so that everyone hears him. "We don't have time to sign anything so photos only!"

The long session of posing with eveyone begins. The two take drawings and letters and two jars of Nutella for Remington, internally rolling their eyes at that. They don't need any more Nutella.

"I really wanted to hug Remington," a young girl complains. She's with her mother, who has one of those looks that tells you not to make her mad.

Sebastian offers her a hug, to which she accepts, but only half heartedly. "He had to sleep. He was falling asleep as soon as we were off stage."

The girl frowns, like she doesn't understand how important getting enough sleep is. "Can't you wake him up?"

Both the brothers nearly laugh out loud. Wake him up? Is she kidding? "No. Do you want a picture?"

She looks angry now. So does the mother. "I want to hug Remington," she says again.

"Look, I'm really sorry, but Remington needs to sleep. We're not going to wake him up because then he'd have to stay out for everyone else." Sebastian tries to usher her away, to move on to the next person, but she doesn't go.

The girl's mother is the one to talk now. "Sebastian, is it? Listen, my daughter has been wanting to hug Remington for months and now she's here and you won't let her? I thought you were all about putting the fans first." She's so accusing and it hurts Sebastian that he's being spoken to like this. He's trying to protect his brother.

The guitarist sighs. "Yes, we try our best to put our fans first, but you must understand that Remington was exhausted. He fell asleep the second he was in bed. It isn't safe for him if we wake him up." It's hard to explain this to her when he can't go into detail about it.

"I paid money so that she could hug her idol and the fact that you won't let her do that is bullshit! I want you to get him so my daugter can hug him."

Sebastian doesn't know what to do. Clearly they aren't giving up and it would ruin their reputation if they were to post about this publicly. Maybe he should wake Remington. He considers getting the security from the venue, but they're not in there anymore and the venue shut at midnight, so it's not their problem. He looks at Emerson, who's thinking the same thing, and then back at the mother and daughter waiting impatiently. "Wait here," he says, defeated, and disappears into the bus.

He gets to Remington's bunk and pulls back the curtain. His brother is fast asleep on Andy, clearly drained. Andy is awake, and furrows his brows. "Everything okay?" He asks in a whisper, as to not wake Remington up.

The man feels so terrible for this. "Remington needs to come and hug someone. Her mother is really rude and they won't go until she's hugged Remington. I don't know what else to do. I'll make sure he just hugs her and comes straight back in here."

Andy frowns. He looks at the boy asleep on him. "I don't think that's a good idea."

"I know. Me neither. But it's the only thing I can think of to get rid of them. They're holding up everyone esle." He's about to say something else when Remington whines and opens his eyes.

"Stop talking," he mumbles, yawning and closing his eyes.

Sebastian feels awful. "You need to come outside, bud," he says as calmly as he can.

Remington whines again. "Why?"

"A girl is begging to hug you. All you need to do is give her a quick hug and then you can come back to bed."

The boy rubs his eyes and sits up. He can't think straight; he's so tired. "'kay," he agrees, not really knowing what he's doing.

Andy frowns but doesn't say anything. He gets out of the bunk too, and follows the brothers to the door.

As soon as remington comes into sight there's a loud cheer, and he yawns, already scratching at his wrists. "Just a hug," Sebatsian says firmly. Remington doesn't really know what's going on when the girl hugs him, but he barely manages to return the embrace, and becomes increasingly uncomfortable when she doesn't let go of him. Holly used to do that. It always felt like he was suffocating. "Okay. That's enough, let go of him now."

When he isn't released, Remington takes matters into his own hands and pushes her off him, shaking, and rushes back to the door of the bus and straight into Andy's arms. The man guides him straight back into bed and holds the boy to him, making sure to take one of his hands so he can't scratch.

Finally the two problematic people leave, and they get on with meeting everyone else. It doesn't exactly go well because lots of people are complaining that it isn't fair that Remington came out for that one girl and not for everyone else. It's such a shame that none of them take the time to look at it from the band's perspective.

PalayeRoyale: Regarding tonights 'issues' in meeting fans after. We encountered two very problematic people who wouldn't leave until the daughter had hugged Remington (who was sleeping because he was drained) so I woke him up and he hugged her. This, of course, meant everyone else there also wanted to hug Remington, and felt it wasn't fair that they didn't get that oportunity. We are really sorry this happened but we feel we aren't to blame. Remington needed sleep and waking him was the last thing that I wanted to do, so, to those two people, fuck you. You ruined the night for everyone else, including Remington.