Hummingbird

The next day was horrible. Not only had my bruise gotten worse, but I couldn’t even cover it with makeup that well. In fact, it even looked worse with makeup on. So after piling makeup on my face, I had to scrub most of it off to make my bruise look normal. Great, I had to walk around all day looking like this. Thankfully, all the guys had gotten off the bus early to go eat at the food stands set up for the bands. Maybe I could go unseen until I had to go to our tent. Grabbing a water bottle out of the mini fridge and my hat off my buck, I walked over to the door and opened it up only enough to see out. No one seemed to be near, so I quietly snuck out.

I didn’t really know where to eat; I didn’t feel like what ever the Starbucks booth had to offer. There should be a Denny’s or IHOP somewhere, I mean, how hard could it be to find? Letting the security guard by the gate know where I was going, I made my way out. Which way? I thought, Probably right. And which that, I turned to the right and started walking.

Five minutes passed, then ten, and by the time almost twenty minutes had passed, I finally caught sight of the IHOP. Relief settled, but my stomach grew even more restless. At long last, I reached the doors and pushed my way inside. Few people were in the restaurant; it was mostly empty except for an old couple by the window and a group of guys in the corner. Something about the back of their heads was familiar, and after a moment, I knew who they were.

No way. Of all the places to eat, Escape the Fate HAD to choose this place. Wonderful. There was always food back on the bus, I could just eat there. I turned to leave, but before I was even a step out of the door, a voice called out to me.

“Hey, Blondie, weren’t you at our show yesterday?” The voice yelled. Slowly, I turned around to see Robert leaning halfway out of the booth to get a look at me. As Robert said that, Craig’s head whipped around. My head, on the other hand, ducked down towards the floor.
“Hey, it’s Niki!” Craig said happily. He scrambled out of the booth to go see the blushing blond. “Hey, what are you doing here? Why isn’t ukulele boy with you?”

I looked up. “His name is Chris. And him and the guys are eating at the venue. I wanted to get real food, so I came here instead.”

“That sure explains why it looked like you were leaving without even eating anything.” I blushed an even darker shade of red.

Bryan stretched his neck so he could see over Max’s head. “Why don’t you eat with us?” He called out. Craig offered a hand.

“Come on,” he said, “it’s supposed to be really hot today, you really should have something to eat.”

Stubborn me, I brushed past his hand and strode over to the table, leaving a stunned Craig two steps behind me. I slid into the circular booth, moving into the space that Monte and Max had cleared for me, and right after, Craig slid in next to me. Keeping my head down wasn’t enough, they all noticed my bruise.

Robert was the first to comment about it. “Was that from yesterday?”

“Uh, yeah. I didn’t think it would bruise this much. Actually, I didn’t think it would bruise at all.” I replied shyly.

Max was the next to speak. “Well, that sucks for you then. At least it’ll clear in a couple days.” He stole my hat.

Max Green stole my fucking hat.

And he’s wearing it!! Ohmygoodness!

And all I could do is look at him in shock. He smirked at me, and Bryan hit him in the chest. As Max doubled over, Bryan reached and grabbed the hat, then gave it back to me.
“Thanks,” I said. The waitress chose then to appear.

“Can I get your order, Hun?” She looked at me expectantly. I had no idea what to order, I didn’t even have a menu. I glanced around, but saw nothing to help me.

Craig leaned over and whispered, “Do you just want me to order for you or something?”
I nodded. All I could think of was how close to me he was.

“Can she get an order of chocolate chip pancakes?” He told the waitress.

“Sure thing.” Scribble scribble. Click. And walk away.

“Thanks,” I mumbled.

He leaned over again, though this time, not as close. Darn it. “Sorry we didn’t give you a menu or anything. I hope I ordered okay?”

“Yeah, that was fine.” Ohh wow. My hero was actually talking to me. He was actually sitting right next to me.

In short, the food was brought to us, we ate it, I blushed a few times, my hat was passed around the table, Max was forced by Robert to pay the bill, we left, and walked back to the venue.

The security guard nodded us through, and we made our way back to the buses, me in the middle of the group. At this point, my hat had made its way to Bryan. Robert and me were in deep conversation about what Chris and the guys were like. He was shocked that Chris could be a vegetarian, and how I could share a bus with seven guys.

“I honestly have no idea how I can do it, especially since there’s only one bathroom,” I gushed. “And it’s pretty much always a mess. Not that I’m completely disgusted, I grew up with four older brothers, so I’m used to it.”

“Ohh I know what you mean, this one over here,” –he nudged Craig in the side- “is like a total chick with his hair. There’s always clouds of hairspray on our bus, I swear, it could burn its own hole in the ozone.”

We both laughed as Craig sulked. We were finally getting close to the food stands, which meant that it was almost time for me to go set up the tent. I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and checked the time. 10:55. Shit, I had to get the tent open by 11:15, and it took almost ten minutes itself setting the actual tent up. And David couldn’t help today, cause he was busy with Chris’s schedule.

“Uhh, guys,” I said, getting their attention. “I have to go set up the tent within the next twenty minutes, and if I don’t I’m kind of screwed.” I started to set off towards the bus to grab everything, but before I got far, Max called back, “Do you want help?”

“Seriously?” Ohh they were lifesavers.

“Yeah totally, we don’t really have anything to do until this afternoon, so we can help,” Bryan said.

Hurrying, we all went to my bus and grabbed the bag with the tent in it, the table, and the boxes with all the merchandise in it. 11:00. Maybe if we hurried, we could set it up in time. Setting everything down in out spot, Robert and Max dealt with the actual tent part while Craig, Bryan, and I started to unpack the day’s merchandise. Laying all the shirts out flat and stacking them by size took the amount of time it took for the other two to even get the tent and poles out of the bag. Setting the shirt on top of the box, I marched over to the two and grabbed the poles out of their hands and started assembling the tent. The only problem I had was getting the canvas cover on top of the poles. My 5’2’ height wasn’t enough to reach over and hook the corners on. I felt a body come up behind me and grab the canvas to finish setting it up. Robert repeated the act with the other three corners while Max and I set up the tables. Bryan and Craig were separating “the Yippee EP” from “the Summer EP”. Finally, I could hand up the posters and display shirts on the hooks in the back of the tent. Moving up to the front of the tent, I set out the display bracelets and EP’s. Once Craig and Bryan moved the boxes with the shirts in them inside the tent, I could finally grab my fold up chair and precious NeverShoutNever Merchandise cash box and sit behind my table.

Looking up at the four of them, I smiled. We were right on time.