I'd Kiss You Goodbye If I Thought It Would Make You Stay

“What do I do when my love is away? (Does it worry you to be alone?) How do I feel by the end of the day? (Are you sad because you're on your own?) No, I get by with a little help from my friends.” – The Beatles

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We have traditions we do before every tour.

For one thing, we always go shopping together the day before we leave. We’ve been back in L.A. for a few days now for pre-production and rehearsal, which we’ve only barely finished, so we’ve just hit Target for food and random necessities.

Now we’re at the mall, shopping for show clothes.

Suzie stops in front of a certain store, and I shake my head at her.

“Oh, no way. Remember what happened the last time we made the mistake of bringing them in here?” I ask her, putting my hands on my hips.

“But I need new underwear!” she insists. I sigh, knowing perfectly well what we’re getting ourselves into.

“Get this one, Rae. You can wear it on the bus,” Jude suggests, pointing at a lacy black nightie on display at Victoria’s Secret. I roll my eyes and elbow him in the stomach.

It’s like they’re thirteen again, I swear.

“Will you stop being such a pervert?” I ask him in annoyance. I’m waiting with him and Seb towards the entrance meanwhile Suzie’s in line to pay at the register. I’m shaking my head to myself, wondering why in the world my best friend thought it was okay to bring our two immature band mates to such a store.

“Hey, Rae, what size do you think I am?” Seb asks suddenly, holding up a bright yellow and white polka-dotted bra up to his chest. I roll my eyes again.

“No wonder you don’t have girlfriends,” I mutter dryly.

“Admit it, Rae. You’d be lucky to be my girlfriend,” Jude teases, slinging an arm around my shoulders.

“No way,” I reply, shrugging him off. “Besides, this is strictly a no-bandcest zone,” I inform him, laughing.

“You didn’t say that when Seb had a crush on Suzie,” Jude states, and I laugh at Seb’s wide-eyed expression.

“Dude!” he exclaims, looking around and checking to make sure Suzie’s still in line at the register. “That was like…six years ago!”

We know it’s true that Seb hasn’t liked Suzie since we all met freshman year in college, but nonetheless, we mercilessly continue to tease him about it until Suzie’s ready to leave.

Suzie joins us again, but Seb’s still red-faced and flustered and we’re still laughing at him.

“What?” Suzie asks in confusion, leading us into another store. Jude opens his mouth to reply, but Seb shoots him a death glare and he shuts up for once.

The guys groan when they see what store we’re in now, because it means that Suzie and I get to dress them like life-size rocker dolls in tight pants.

Suzie drags Jude away from an ugly brown blazer and shoves v-necks and skinny jeans into his hands, already ushering him towards the dressing rooms, leaving me to choose Seb’s clothes. I mill around thoughtfully for a bit, browsing the clothes, and he follows, looking almost scared of what I’m thinking of choosing, so I tell him to relax.

Soon, Jude and Seb are modeling their clothes for us in exaggeration, making it difficult to get anything done as they strut around like they’re on Project Runway.

They immediately stop once a fashionable male employee tries to pick up Jude, and then we’re choosing their outfits as fast as we can to get out of there before he comes back for Jude’s number.

Suzie and I take another hour or two at yet another store, for our show clothes, which is only made harder by the boys’ whining.

We finally drive back to my apartment, where the customary pre-tour sleepover is to take place (last time it was at Suzie’s place, which her sister wasn’t so happy about.)

All our bags and luggage are crowding my front door, and all our equipment and instruments are in Wes’s garage for the night, where we’ll be picked up in our bus tomorrow morning, and then the real fun begins.

It gets late in the night and we’re lying around my living room, which is littered with pizza boxes, soda cans, and other various unhealthy snacks.

We decide to go asleep around midnight since we’re going to have to wake up by three in the morning to meet and board the bus.

I find it difficult to sleep, knowing thatI’ll be seeing Michael we’ll be on the road in less than twenty four hours.