The Consequence of a Dream

Ch. 7

Phoenix's pov

Well, Demi was a bit misinformed is what I learned today. The start date was not Monday, but Sunday. The tour started in Atlanta, not anywhere in California. So it was a bit of a rush to get on the plane to Atlanta in preparation for this weekend. But nonetheless, we managed.

Honestly, it wasn't even the traveling, rushing, or any of that that's made me nervous. It'd be the realization I'm sleeping in the same hotel room as her. Sure, were sleeping in different beds. But I can't hide that I'm not sleeping anymore. I can't hide when I'm crying anymore. I can't hide when I'm down. None of that.

"I'm going to put your suitcase in the closet right here. I don't want you to not know where it is." She says.

"Yes ma'am."

Once she puts our stuff in the closet of the hotel room, she sits on the bed farthest from the window I'm currently standing beside, "You can sit down if you want." Demi suggests.

I walk to the bed and sit down on it taking the hint to do so. Because it almost sounded more authoritative than suggestive. So I'm not going to say no when it sounds more like a demand over choice.

"Are you hungry yet?" She asks

What may surprise you to know is I actually ate an entire breakfast due to Demi having to rush to pack while I was eating. As for lunch, I managed to eat a few granola bars which is more than I usually eat in a day.

"No ma'am." I say.

"I want to go ahead and warn you about tomorrow. It'll be a pretty busy day. We're going to have a radio interview which you will more than likely be apart of. So I want you to go ahead and prepare for that. I don't want you to be caught of guard. We also will have rehearsals at the stadium itself and do full run throughs. It's going to be an early morning tomorrow so try and get all the sleep you can tonight." She says.

I give a small nod and stare down at the bed, "Do you have any questions or anything?" She asks.

"No ma'am."

"Is this the longest time you'll have spent away from YouTube since you started your channel?" Demi asks.

"No, I prerecorded enough videos to upload while I'm here. Not uploading for that long doesn't feel right. So I just recorded and edited all the videos." I lie.

The truth would be my dad wasn't going to let me not upload for that long and miss his paycheck. If I miss even a single upload, or one doesn't do as good as it should, I will have consequences. Knowing my dad, he will be keeping track of them all.

"What's the longest you've been away from YouTube?" She asks.

"I haven't taken a week off since I've started uploading."

My dad isn't going to let me. He never has and never will. He wants the paycheck. That's why I even started YouTube, because he told me too. Sure I like to sing, but once he heard you can make money by being a kid on YouTube, he told me I had to.

"Really?!"

I turn my head to her to see her absolutely flabbergasted at my confession. I'm not really sure why. If you look at the number of total videos I have, it's a lot. So it shows that I don't really take breaks.

I shake my head, "No."

"That's crazy. You should take a break sometime. Everyone deserves a break every now and then. Especially you. You're only 14 years old. That sounds like a lot of responsibility and stress." She says.

"It's ok. It's not as bad as it sounds or anything." I say.

I mean it kinda is. It's a lot of responsibility and stress as she said. But it'd slowly becoming rewarding. Without my YouTube channel, I wouldn't be able to do this.

"Have you ever done a radio interview before or is this your first time?" She asks switching topics.

"It's my first one." I say.

I think I'm prepared for it though. I'm pretty good at thinking quick and I do constantly think of lies or excuses I could use for things. Especially when it comes to someone seeing my bruises or cuts. As for my life story, that's what I'm best at lying about. So I'm not too concerned about it. But of course there's the thought in the back of my head if somehow, someway, someone finding out the truth about my life. With how isolated I've been from the world, and the fact I know no one but my dad, that's be hard to do.

However I do put myself on the internet and I don't know. Maybe someone's watching my reactions or assessing me closely and has put the pieces together. I hope not, but I know that's always a possibility. I'm sure someone's thinking things don't add up about me.

"I'll do my best to help you out if you need it. They can sometimes be a bit uncomfortable and nerve wracking. But I'll be there with ya and so will Nick. So it won't be too bad. I had to do my first one alone which was a bit uncomfortable." She says.

It must have been hard to just be thrown into it all with not a lot of guidance. It seems scary to just be shoved into all. I know the music industry is hard to understand, so being that young in it and having to navigate it seems overwhelming. I'm just touring alongside someone who knows the ins and outs now. That's not scary.

If I were handed a record deal and forced to figure out the industry, that would be scary. Because unless you know someone in it, you are warned about what can happen. The stories of some artists being scammed is my horror story. I may not ever get a record deal, that's ok, I'm happy on YouTube. But if I were, I'd be a nervous wreck trying to figure out whats right and not. Because how do you know?

"But I'll do my best to make sure your first ones easy and a good experience." Demi says.

I look up at her and give her a small nod, "ok."

A ding is heard and she grabs her phone from her pocket and I turn my head to the large window in the room. It's a pretty cool video I guess. It's a lot of large skyscrapers and stuff. Much different than what I saw in my very rural city in the middle of Houston.

I've always wanted to see city Houston, but never did. I've only see trees and grass really. This is my first time out of that city ever. So it's a bit of a weird thing to see so many buildings. Where I am there's just cattle and horses with lots of trees and lots of grass. Not much to look at other than that.

I guess one city I will know and the location of in the state is Houston. But it will be a weird experience to see another part of Texas. I've heard Houston's very city. Lots of traffic, lots of buildings, lots of things I've never seen.

I guess that's another cool thing about this tour. I'm about to travel more than I ever have in my life. I'm going to get to see so many places I never thought I would I'm just 4 months.

Sure singing for Demi is cool and all, but honestly, I'm more interested in just getting to experience a bit of life and normalcy. Well, normalcy outside of the fact I'm on a tour with Demi and Nick which many people could only dream of. Don't get me wrong, I'm appreciative of that opportunity too. But when you've lived as sheltered as I have and the life I have, you'd be excited to just get to travel too.

Maybe I should create another Instagram account to post photos and videos of everywhere I go so I don't forget it. Just make a secret private account for it? I mean I'll only get to see it once, what if I forget about it?

Man my brain hurts. This is all too much to process honestly. Tomorrow's gonna be a long day and I'm not ready. But I also don't want it to fly here. I don't want this tour to be over with the blink of an eye. But I have a feeling, it'll be over before I know it and that's gonna suck...