Chapter 1: Marsh

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Marshall walked the long hall of the hotel leading to his suite; Paul and a few of his people walked with him. He glanced from door to door, half looking for his suite number and half listening for signs of anyone but his crew being on that floor. He had rented out the entire floor so that he wouldn't have to deal with fans, and his squad takes up about the whole damn thing anyways. He had decided to take a break from his usual touring to perform at a festival during spring break in Florida. He was only scheduled to perform 3/7 of the days that he was there, which is why he invited his daughters to come along with him. He wished that they had decided to come, but Kim had a family reunion already scheduled and he knew it was important for the girls to go and see some of their family on their mom's side. He just wished he had someone to keep him company though. Denaun had already been scheduled for a show in LA, so he couldn't make it; and Paul had plans to spend the extra days with his wife Allison. Marshall decided that with everyone else busy, he could use the extra time to actually relax.

As they walked, more people disappeared into their rooms. Marshall's room was near the end of the hall away from everyone else's, he had planned for the surrounding rooms to be taken up by his daughters, but oh well. Paul handed Marshall one of the room keys, and slipped the 2nd one into his pocket. Marshall always let Paul keep a key to his hotel room incase of emergencies.

"So, we don't have to be at the festival until 5 tomorrow and we have the whole rest of the day. It's's still early, did you want to do something?" Paul asked

Marshall opened the door to his room and glanced in "ummmm.. I mean maybe we can go get some dinner later unless..."
Marshall recognized the sorry look on Paul's face
"..unless you and Alli had dinner plans. You know what it's all good man I'm just gonna hang out by myself tonight. I'm honestly tired." Marshall said, almost rushed to make sure Paul didn't feel guilty despite the disappointed tone in his voice.

Paul sighed "you sure you're alright by yourself? I know you were really looking forward to having the girls come spend the week with you... so I got you a surprise if that helps??" Paul said, hoping it'd perk Marshall up a bit.

"Ohhh no" Marshall joked "this better not be some stupid surprise meet n greet or something like you pulled on me in Germany" he exclaimed with a laugh.

Paul chuckled in defense "don't worry it's not like that... look imma let you rest. I'll be down the hall getting ready for dinner, if you need anything just call me alright?"

"Alright cool." Marshall said before giving him a fist bump goodbye.

Marshall walked into his room, set his duffle bag down, and closed the door behind him.
"Well, I guess this is how my week's gonna go"
he said while taking a walk of the suite. It was a large suite.
The entrance lead into a living room made up with couches and a flat screen TV, in the center of the living room sat a glass coffee table with tour planning magazines on top of it. Attached to the living room was a decent sized kitchenette, big enough for him to cook a meal if he really felt like it. He walked from the living room into his room. It was a huge modern themed suite with the entire wall to the right being made up of windows overlooking Miami. Marshall was relieved to see a California King sized bed with white silk sheets in the center of the room. He was so tired after all the back and forth traveling. All he wanted to do was take a nap. Marshall walked further into the room and noticed that the far left side of it switched from carpet to tile, and on that tile was a large white jacuzzi tub. He wandered past the tub, and to the doorway leading to the bathroom. He had seen plenty of suites before that came with a jacuzzi or at least a jacuzzi tub in the bedroom. In his younger days he may have found himself in those tubs with 2 or more girls at a time but now.. he rarely ever used them. And if he did, it was only to rest his sore muscles after a long show.

Marshall walked into the bathroom and switched on the light. The mirror that was set above the granite sink had a frame of LED lights. LEDs always made the blue in his eyes really pop, but also made it easier to see what little wrinkles he did have. He turned on the sink and splashed some water on his face. He looked up into the mirror and thought about how much his age lines bugged him. Getting older was inevitable, he had accepted this, but wrinkles were the one thing that really made him self conscious. That's part of the reason why he had decided to grow out his beard, to hide the aging in his face. He switched the sink off, dried his face, and headed back into the bedroom.

He glanced out the windows and wondered what he was going to do for the rest of the day. It was still kinda early, he wasn't hungry yet, so he figured he'd take a nap and order some room service later. Marshall walked towards the side of the bed. He didnt feel like changing into pajamas since he wasn't actually going to bed yet, but he wasn't about to nap in joggers either. He slipped off his Nikes and continued to strip until he was in his boxers. He slipped under the covers and immediately felt a rush of cold sweep over him. It was the beginning of spring in Florida, so the cold silk sheets felt good against Marshall's bare chest. At least it did for a few minutes. Marshall pulled the sheets closer to himself in an attempt to warm up a little bit. As he laid there, his pale skin covered in goosebumps, he thought about how nice it would be to have a warm body laying next to him.

It always came to this. Somehow, his thoughts always came back to this. Being alone. He was  47 and still single. He knew that whether or not he was in a relationship didn't define him, but that didn't mean that he doesn't get lonely. His recent relationships had been shit. It always started out well, but somehow took a turn after things started to get serious. He always blamed himself. I mean, why should he not when he's the only thing any of these bad relationships have in common? These thoughts continued to engulf Marshall's mind until he felt his chest get heavy and a tear fall from his face and onto the pillow. He tried to just relax and fall asleep but the tears kept going as Marshall slowly cried himself into a deep sleep.

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