Black Rose Dying

I awoke in a not-so-pleasant manner. Hearing Beau and Eric screeching Journey at 6 A.M. was not okay with me.

Upon coming to my senses, I felt Jared’s dense muscular arm draped over my stomach and his hair was disheveled from thrashing about in his sleep. The heat must have kept him awake.

I slipped myself out from his dead weight of an arm as quietly as I could without waking him up. How anyone else could sleep through Eric and Beau’s “serenade” was beyond me.

I stumbled into the bathroom to see my little ginger and BFG (Big F’ing Giant) clad in nothing but small towels, which hung limply from their waists.

“Oh hey! Good morning, teacup!” Beau greeted.

The “teacup” reference was from when Beau and I first met.

[FLASHBACK]

“Adri, meet our new singer. Beau, this is our wonderful merch girl slash best friend!” Matt was grinning from ear to ear as he introduced us.

“Heya, Beau! Nice to finally meet you.”

“Same goes for you, teacup!” Beau was radiating happiness. He was obviously ecstatic as being introduced as the new lead singer.

“Whoa, whoa. Teacup?” Jared shot us a glance as he quirked his brow. None of the guys had given me a pet name yet; leave it to the new guy to establish that before my best friends.

“You don’t think she looks like a teacup?” Beau scanned the room, taking in each of the guys’ faces and their perplexed expressions.

“Well…not really,” Eric mused, as he scratched his chin in thought.

“I always though Adri just looked like a panda,” Matt shrugged.

I mentally rolled my eyes at the boys and their obliviousness.

“She’s small, compared to me. Fragile-ish…” Beau trailed off as his cheeks started turning a slight shade of pink.

As usual, Jared saved the awkward silence by talking about promotional tours and the like.

[/FLASHBACK]

“Morning Beau, Eric,” I mumbled, trying to keep any more possible loud noises to a minimum.

“Awh, does somebody have a hangover?” Eric turned to me with his lips pouted and his infamous puppy dog look.

“Yeah, just a little. You do realize it’s only 6 A.M.?”

“Duh,” they scoffed in unison.

“And you do realize Jared and I only went to sleep three hours ago?”

“Oooh! You and Jared, sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!” Beau sang.

“Getting it on!!” yelled Eric, thrusting his hips to indicate sexual innuendo.

I laughed as much as my head could stand it, rubbing my temples in the process. “Oh yeah, totally, you guys. Because Jared and I would totally just get into it with five other people in the room.”

“You never know,” Beau smirked, “Some people are into kinky stuff like that.”

“You two are disgusting,” I squealed as I shoved them out of the bathroom so I could take my own shower.

I turned the knob so it was smack dab in the middle of hot and cold, leaving lukewarm water to travel down the spout and hit my exposed skin. Goose bumps ran all down my back as the water reached the perfect temperature. I went about doing my normal shower routine and stepped out of the shower/tub combo to wrap myself in a surprisingly plush towel. Oh great, I thought. I left my clothes in the room. Streaking across the room in a towel, with six angsty, horny guys didn’t sound like a good idea to me at the moment. I decided I’d try my first, and best plan: call in the reinforcements. I cracked the door open just enough so I could peep my head out to see the boys. I cleared my throat rather loudly to make my presence known.

“Uhh, guys? Little help here?”

Just my luck. All their faces were glued to the t.v.

“Beauuuuuu?” I whined.

“Whaaaaat?!” He screamed.

“Can you get me some clothes? I forgot to bring some in here with me.”

“PANTY RAIDING TIME!” Matt yelled. Of course Matt, being the most sensitive of the guys, would also be the most perverted.

I heard a stampede of six boys race over to my suitcases to see what undergarments I wear that they’ll never get to see again. I closed the door and waited until someone ended this embarrassing episode.

Two raps on the outside of the bathroom door signaled that someone had enough decency to throw an outfit together for me instead of ogling at bras and such.

“H-here,” Jared stammered, holding out a pile of clothes for me.

I sighed in relief and gratitude, “Thanks, Jer.”

It was plainly obvious that he was trying extremely hard to not be a creeper and look into the bathroom. I shook my head at his attempt at chivalry and saved him further awkwardness by closing the door.

I looked through the stack Jared delivered. In it was: my favorite pink and black polka dotted bra, matching boy shorts, acid wash skinny jeans with the complimentary hole in the left shin, and Jared’s favorite “BTF FTW” tee shirt. The shirt even smelled like Jared’s cologne. And of course, since Jared was so tall and skinny, his shirt fit me perfectly, even though it seemed too large for his thin frame.

After dressing myself for the day, I walked out of the bathroom to find half of my friends left. Dougie, Jared, and Matt still sat on the beds, watching the local weather predictions for the day.

“’Bout time,” Dougie yawned, “I thought you died in there.”

“I hate to burst your bubble, Dougie, but I am a female. Which means, it takes me longer than five minutes to take a shower.”

“Ready to go?” Jared smiled, his blue eyes glistening in the hotel room’s dim artificial light.

“Yep! Let’s go boys!”

We all went downstairs to enter the hotel’s bed and breakfast lobby. The smell of Belgian waffles, bacon, and butter wafted up to greet our noses.

I turned to see Beau and Mike already working on their third round of breakfast plates. Sometimes, the guys would eat so much that it’d make me sick to my stomach to watch them eat it all. Dougie, Matt, Jared, and I shuffled to the breakfast bar to fill up on food before we had to leave for the venue. We returned our room keys to a petite, brunette girl at the counter, collected our baggage and began driving. Mike decided to take the wheel today.

The rule of the van was: Whoever’s driving gets to listen to whatever he/she wants. Mike took this opportunity to listen to his guilty pleasure; rap. He’d mumble along to the lyrics as he merged into turn lanes and then continuously pound out the rhythm on the steering wheel with his thin fingers. Thankfully, it wasn’t that far of a drive from the hotel to the first venue of the tour. We arrived just in time to offload the equipment and merchandise into the small club. Since I wasn’t too upper-body strength inclined, Dougie and I took to setting up the merch booth while the guys hauled all their equipment backstage until later.

Two hours before the doors even opened, and we could all hear the kids starting to line up outside the rusty metal doors. When it was time for those damn doors to open, a majority of the kids raced up to the front, hoping to stay in their envied spots for as long as they could. A few of the others came up to buy tee shirts before hand, so their favorite wouldn’t be sold out later. Promoting the “BTF FTW” tee got a few kids, mostly boys, to buy it. Looks like it’d be a good selling day so far.

While sipping our ice cold Monster energy drinks, Dougie and I observed iwrestledabearonce’s set. Their song names were…interesting, to say the least. Half an hour later, IWABO cleared the stage for Blessthefall. I could see the fans getting anxious, antsy, swaying from side to side as they tried their very hardest to be patient. My boys may not be ridiculously popular, but they have some diehard fans out there.

Matt walked out to start putting his drum kit together. Everyone said, and though, the same thing after it was completed. “Moose?”

Courtesy of the curious trailer hitch-cover turned drum kit decoration beheld a plastic moose head. Charming, no?

At long last, everything was tuned and ready to be played. The high pitched notes of Eric’s Les Paul started the opening riff for their new song, “To Hell and Back”. The newly exposed kids were enjoying the catchy, heavy song; already making circle pits and pumping their fists to the music. And when Jared screamed, oh man! Those kids went crazy! He may not be Craig, but Jared did a phenomenal job coming into his own screaming style.

The next forty minutes were as well received as the first five.

“Thanks Atlanta! We’ll see you next time!” Beau yelled as he dropped the mic
onto the stage. When all of the gear was safely put away, the boys all came to the merch booth to share their enthusiasm of the first show of tour. Kids came up to Eric and Beau asking for pictures, and autographs, since they were the most openly friendly. The guys didn’t mind though, as long as the fans were happy.

Occasionally, a few shy girls would get prompted by their friends to ask for a picture with Jared or Mike. Almost all the guys would ask Matt and Jared for some pictures. Everyone had their own little group of fans that preferred one of the guys over the others. It was interesting to see how everyone mingled and meshed together.

Each of them had a certain place where they’d hang out after the show. Matt and Mike would sit behind the table with me and Dougie; they were guilty of fan-watching, too. Beau and Eric would walk in front of the table, meeting with fans. And Jared, he’d normally lean against a nearby wall and observe everyone; including me, sometimes. I think that’s why people were drawn to him; laid back, mysterious, a puzzle waiting to be solved.

A lot of the young girls were too intimidated by Dougie –apparently being tall, skinny, covered in tattoos, and having huge plugs is not an everyday sight in Georgia- , so I managed the majority of the money and sales.

After all the kids went home and the venue was cleared of loiterers, we started packing everything up again, only to repeat this process for the next forty days on the road.

“I’m tired, Adrienne,” Jared sighed, wrapping his slender arms around my waist. He laid his head on my shoulder; I could feel his hot breath hitting the crook of my neck, making me shiver involuntarily all over.

“I know, Jared. You can sleep in the back, okay honey?” I cooed, as I helped him into the backseat of our large white van.

“Mmmmph, okay Adri.” No partying for Jared tonight.

Just as I was about to close the van door, Jared stretched his long arms out towards me, mumbling something incoherent as he did so. I assumed it was a “come here” sort of utterance, so I situated myself next to him as I propped his heavy head on my small shoulder. Even though he was sweaty and on the brink of falling into Dreamland, I smoothed his nutmeg brown hair over his forehead. He sighed in contentedness and laid his head in my lap, curling his long, lanky limbs into a tight ball. I smiled to myself as I continued to pet his hair.

The other guys piled in being as quiet as Jared was when he was about to go to sleep. Dougie was driving, finally, after three months of weasling out of it,.

When I heard the reassuring snores of Matt, Eric, and Mike, I knew it was safe for me to drift into a restless sleep. I propped my head against the cool window and allowed my eyes to close. I felt Jared move right as I was about to go to sleep; he was only half-conscious, but he pushed himself up and gave me a small peck on the lips before returning to sleep.