For One Beat More

Lexi had forgotten about how difficult it was to get dressed in the confined space of a bunk on a tour bus. It had taken her almost four minutes to wriggle into her favourite pair of dark indigo jeans, the ones with the rips on the knees from when she used to go up to the horse field to drink when she was younger and almost always fell on the rocky path on the way home. After manoeuvring into a grey v-neck and shoving her feet into her purple flats she crawled out of her sleeping place and stretched, her back making a satisfying pop.

“Lex?” she heard a familiar Australian voice calling her name.

“Yeah Jona?” she asked, sliding the door open to emerge into the still relatively tidy front lounge, it wouldn’t stay this way for long.

The heavily tattooed man smiled at her. She knew this smile as she had met it a few times before, like the time he asked her to dump the girl he was seeing for him and the time he asked her to call his mother to let her know that he was in fact still alive after not calling her for three weeks straight.

“You remember Flip, right?”

She nodded, the tall, super happy, American guy who sold the BMTH merch whenever they were over in the US, “What about him?”

“Well, uh, you see, his mum’s like really sick so, uh, he’s not coming out on tour for another few weeks and well, we need someone to sell our shit and stuff so uh, could you do us a favour? Seeing as how you did such an awesome job last time and everything, would you mind manning the tent?”

Lexi bit her lip, she really didn’t have much else to do and selling the merch was something she enjoyed but she wasn’t about to give in that easily, “A few weeks?”

Jona nodded, “Tops.”

She folded her arms across her chest and pretended to think the offer over for a few seconds, “Okay,” she shrugged, “But next time you’re going to need a better excuse than his mum’s sick.”

The guitarist smiled and mock saluted her as he handed over the key to where the merch was stashed.

***

Lexi groaned as she heaved a box of shirts on top of another box, unfortunately she was on the tent all alone, it was meant to be shared with Drop Dead but they weren’t going to be out on the tour for another couple of weeks so she had to run the thing herself. The gates of the venue had just closed and she had to wait for some of the boys to turn up and help her move the boxes back to the trailer.

She brushed her fringe off of her forehead and rested a hand on her hip as she surveyed just how much merchandise she’d managed to sell in just the first day, going from the little metal box in her bag it was a lot.

“You waiting for us?” Lee asked as he and Vegan appeared with two trolleys for loading the boxes onto.

“Yup,” she smiled and motioned to the merch in the corner, “It’s all yours.”

“Is this all that’s left?” Vegan asked.

“There’s still a load in the trailer but we sold a lot today. Would’ve been good to have some help.”

The boys were quiet as they lifted box after box into the trolleys and helped Lexi dismantle the tent and took it all back over to the bus. After loading the trailer they all trooped onto the bus to find what looked like the beginning of a party.

“Ey wondered where ye’d got to,” Matt smiled, a can of beer in his hand.

She scratched her head, “I was packing up the merch with Lee and Vegan.”

“Ye wan’ a drink?” he asked, motioning towards the fridge.

“I’m just going to freshen up, maybe go for a little lie down,” Lexi nodded.

Matt ran a hand through her hair, “Ye feeling alright?”

“Yeah, just feel a little manky and tired,” she smiled, “You stay and have fun,” she moved past him towards the bunks.