In the Band

"Thank you New Jersey!" Pat and I finished our last cord as Grady screamed his thanks to New Jersey, most of the crowd went wild, but the other fraction of those who didn't know who we were just clapped aimlessly.

Patrick and I ran off first, followed by Anne Marie, and then Lucy and RT. When I looked back, Grady was still beaming in his pride for one last second, and when it seemed like it was going to be just a bit too late, Grady ran backstage with the rest of us, beaming with pride.

I shoved him once, laughing a little bit. "Come on Grady." I said, laughing harder when he stuck his tongue out at me.

We all trooped to our little dressing room back stage, where I passed out waters and lounged on the beat up sofa with my head leaned back. "Here's to our awesome show!" I held up my already half-drained water and watched as the rest of the band held their water bottles up and mumbled some incoherent words that sounded like a congrats to the rest of the band.

We all grinned, and started chatting in separate groups, up until the door opened to the back stage room, letting in sounds from the show going on, and our manager walked in with a grin on her face.

"You guys played great." Nicole said, smiling at us all warmly as I leapt up and handed a water bottle to you. "Dahlia's packing up all the merch since the show is about over, and we'll all head out to Apple Bees or something." She grinned once more at the appreciative woops from the band. "But first you're all gonna have to clean up because you smell like a bunch of men at a GYM."

All of us laughed, and stood, I grabbed my duffel bag and threw all of our makeup, hairspray and extra things that were littering the dressing room in it, and followed the train of our band back to the parking lot, where our RV was, waiting for us to take showers and whisk ourselves away to Applebees.