Rescue Me

“Kaydene are you done in the bathroom?” I heard Tom yell from the other side of the door. I had just finished brushing my teeth so after wiping my mouth with the towel, I opened the door to reveal Tom, waiting there. “Are you okay?” He asked, sounding a bit worried.

“Yeah,” I said, giving him a small smile. “What's up?” I asked as I got out of the bathroom, with my bag in my hands.

“We're already at the venue so I wanted to know if you're going to stay here or if you wanna come with me?” He asked and followed me to my bunk, where I placed my bag on my bed. “I could show you around and you could listen to our sound-check,” He smiled.

“Okay,” I said, smiling at him.

“What happened this morning?” Tom asked me as we walked out of the bus.

“Nothing why?” I said, making it look like nothing happened.

“Kaydene.. you looked traumatized and you were... laying on the couch just staring at nothing,” He said and took a glance at me as we walked outside. It was a beautiful day. It was sunny but cold.

“I just...” I stopped talking and entered the venue as Tom held the door for me. I muttered a little thank you and waited for him to come back to my side. “I had a dream, okay? A dream about him and I didn't liked it at all. Can we please talk about something else now?”

“You could of came in my room instead of going on the couch, you know,” My best friend said, quietly.

“I couldn't,” I said, quietly.

“Why?” Tom asked me, just as we heard our names being yelled.

“I-I'll talk to you later about it okay?” I told him, quietly. He simply nodded as I looked around the venue where we had stopped walking.

“Took you guys long enough to come! David is looking for you,” Bill said, almost breathless. “Hey Kaydene,” He said, smiling at me.

“Hey,” I replied, quietly. He was about to come towards me and give me a hug but I backed away from him, looking at bit scared.

“Go, Bill!” Tom told him, placing his hand on his brother's chest to make sure that he didn't walked closer to me as he looked at me. “We'll talk later okay? I just need to show Kaydene around the venue.”

Bill nodded and gave me a weak smile. “I'll see you guys later,” With that, he walked back from where he had originally came.

“It's okay,” Tom quietly said and placed his hand on my shoulder.

“It's not going to be okay, Tom,” I said, trying to fight back the tears. He walked over to me and wrapped his arms around me.

“It is, don't worry,” I stiffened from the touch which made him detached himself from me. Tom sighed and looked at me. “Kaydene...”

“I'm sorry,” I said as tears blurred my vision. I wrapped my arms around Tom's body, hugging him tight. “I don't know why he's getting to me like that. It's just that my dream was about him beating me up. It seemed so real and it's the first time that I have a dream like that,” I said, letting the tears fall as Tom hugged me back. “Maybe coming on tour was a bad idea.”

“Don't say that. It wasn't a bad idea at all,” Tom said, after pulling away, his hands still placed on my shoulders. “Everything's going to be okay,” He gave me a short smile. “Do you want an exclusive tour of the venue?” He asked, with a little smirk on his face.

“Okay,” I smiled weakly and wiped my eyes. “I'm sorry for everything. It's just that I'm still a bit shaken up by everything that happened lately,” I said as we started to walk again.

“I understand,” My best friend smiled.

“I'm glad you do,” I said, smiling a little.

--------

“The venue's pretty cool huh?” Tom asked me, smiling a bit. He had just finished showing me around where they were going to play tonight.

“It's pretty cool, yeah,” I said, giving him a smile. “I take it as you've been here before.”

“We've played a show once in this venue,” He explained. “but every time we play a show, I like to just walk around and check out the venue. If we have time, that is,” He laughed, quietly. “But yeah, I like 'exploring' the venues we play in.”

“Trying to locate pretty ladies as well?” I teased.

“Of course,” He winked which made me roll my eyes.

“Well there's a bunch of 'ladies' over there,” I pointed to a table where a group of people were. They looked a little older than us. Twenty, twenty-five maybe.

“Oh! I know these people. Come! I'll introduce you,” Tom said as I followed him towards the group of people. “Hey guys!”

“Hi Tom,” One girl said and came over to hug him. “How was your time off?”

“It was good you can say,” He said, chuckling.

“Who's the pretty girl you're with? Is it one of your groupies or some shit?” A guy said, laughing.

Tom didn't laughed, though. He glared at him which made the guy stay quiet. “No. This is my best friend since we were... I can't even remember since when we're best friends,” He laughed, which made me smile shyly. “That shows how old we are.” I chuckled quietly and looked around the group. There was 2 girls and the rest were guys. I felt a little awkward just standing there, having everyone looking at him. “You can say hi,” Tom said, laughing a bit as he looked at me.

“Hey,” I said, shyly and waved my left hand a little.

“I'm Laila,” The girl, that spoke with Tom earlier, said as she came to hug me but stop as Tom spoke.

“Kaydene is a little uncomfortable with the physical contacts right now. So a hand-shake will do,” He said, looking at me as I thanked him with a little facial expression. I know he'd understood what I tried to tell him.

“Oh I'm sorry!” She said, giggling lightly as we both shook hands.

After Tom introduced me to everyone, I uncomfortably shook all of their hands, giving them a small smile. I was a really awkward person when it came to meet new people. Especially lots of them at once and I gotta admit that seeing to many guys looking at me made me more uncomfortable and thoughts about Alec came running through my head.

“Do you want to stay here with us? We could show you how the merchandise work and all,” Laila's friend said, smiling at me.

“No it's okay. I wouldn't want to intrude or anything,” I said, smiling back.

“You wouldn't be intruding, silly!” Laila said, giggling. “Please stay. We can get to know each other better!”

“Yeah Kaydene,” Tom said which made me look at him. “Why don't you stay with the crew while I go do the sound-check and all that shit?”

“It's okay. I'll just stick with Tom for the rest of the day. Maybe we can hang out some other day?” I said, looking back at the crew.

“Of course,” All of them nodded and gave me a smile.

“I'll see you guys later then,” I told them and followed Tom as he walked away.

“Why didn't you want to stay with them?” He asked, as we were far enough from the merch.

“A-are you trying to get rid of me?” I asked him.

“What? No! Why are you saying that?” He asked immediately.

“I don't know... it's just that you really looked like you wanted me to stay with them,” I said, more quietly.

“It would be nice if you could at least make some friends here, don't you think?” My best friend asked, smiling at me.

“Yeah,” I said, nodding my head a little. “I'm sorry okay? I swear I'll try to socialize with them in a few days. I just need time to figure some shit out.”

“I understand,” Tom said, giving me a smile as he jumped up on stage. “You can sit there in one of the chairs and watch me do my sound-check, yeah?”

“Sure,” I said, giving him a bright smile.