Beautiful Lie

“Tom are yeh goin’ to lunch with everyone?” Nicholls asked as he stood in the doorway of the bus. I looked over at him as I sat at the table, my laptop in front of me as I edited one of photos that I had taken at the show last night.

I hit the save button and stood up, slipping my shoes on. “Yeah, ‘ang on a second,” I answered and went to shut my laptop, but it had switched to the next picture. It was one of the pictures that I took of her.

I sat my drink back down on the bar and looked around the venue. The first band just went off and the place was already pretty full and there were still tons more coming in. I heard someone beating on the drums and looked over and watched them.

Then a girl walked out and set up one of the microphone stands and set a mic in it. When she was done she looked out into the

“Oi, where the fuck are yeh goin’ Sykes?” Matt Nicholls crowd and I gasped. She was gorgeous. I began to wonder how I hadn’t noticed her on the tour before. We were almost two weeks in.

“Can yeh put this on the bands’ tab?” I asked the bartender and showed him my pass that said I was with the band. He nodded and I jumped off the stool I was sitting on. There was a door that led backstage right next to the bar and I opened it and walked through, wanting to get backstage before she left the stage.
yelled to me as I ran past him, slightly pushing him out of the way.

I glanced back at him as I kept going and quickly looked forward again so that I wouldn’t run into anything, or anyone. “I’ll tell yeh later!”

The dressing rooms each had paper on them telling you which band was inside. I found Bring Me the Horizon’s and knocked a few times before running in and finding my camera bag that I had put in there earlier in the day.

I saw Oli and he looked at me confused, then he laughed. “Where’s the fire at Tommy?”

“Fuck off, Oli. I’ll tell yeh later, I’m in a ‘urry,” I explained pulling my camera and the lens out of the bag and attaching the lens before running out of the room again, pulling the camera strap around my neck.

When I got to the side stage I debated whether to snap a few pictures of her there or go back to the bar and get some from there. But when I looked on stage, she wasn’t there. “Fuck,” I muttered. I missed her.

Instead of going to put my camera back, like I probably should have, I kept it around my neck and walked slowing back down the hallway that led to the bar. When I opened the door I noticed Nicholls sitting there with a beer in his hand.

“Is that why yeh nearly knocked me over? To get yeh bloody camera?” he laughed turning to face me as I walked over and sat next to him.

I sighed, “No. I saw a girl up on stage that I wanted to get a picture of. But when I went to the side stage she wasn’t there.”

He turned around on his stool and put his elbows up on the bar, leaning back on them. Then he pointed to the stage as I heard someone start to play the guitar. “Is that ‘er?” he asked.

I turned around quickly, making Matt laugh. As soon as I saw her my hands flew to my camera, snapping the lens cap off. I took a few pictures of her then looked back at Matt.

“Is she their tech?” I asked. Surely if she was a tech I would have seen her around on the tour before.

He nodded. “Yeah, guitar and mics. I think ‘er name’s, Wilma or Wanda, yeh know it might be Wendy. I don’t know it’s some weird name that starts with a W. I’ll think of it eventually.”

I looked back on stage where she stood with Chris’ guitar in her hands. She plucked random strings then played a couple notes. I snapped a few more pictures of her and when she walked off stage I wished that I had gotten a few more of her.

After putting the lens cap back on my camera Matt offered me a drink of his beer, but I declined. Drinking after people disgusted me. When I was in school I borrowed one of my mate’s water bottle and ended up catching mono from him. Now I refuse to even drink after family.

“Oh, I remember ‘er name now,” Matt shrieked. “It’s Willow. I told yeh it started with a W.”

When he finished speaking I looked back to the stage, hoping to see her standing there again. To my surprise, she was. But as soon as she got to the other side of the stage she jumped down and made her way through the crowd. Then she walked straight past the merch tables and the door. She was coming for the bar.

“Wouldn’t it be funny, if she saw the flash of yeh camera?” Matt asked then tilted his head back and downed the rest of his beer. “Yeh know she kinda looks pissed off, maybe she is comin’ over ‘ere.”

As she continued to get closer Matt stood up and excused himself, then scurried off to the door that led to the backstage area.

“Yeh a right creep, yeh know? Takin’ pictures of me,” she yelled and pointed to the camera in my hands. “Don’t try and deny, it. I saw the fuckin’ flash. Or should I say flashes.”

I held up my hands in defense. “Woah, I’m sorry, if I offended yeh or somethin’. ‘ow do yeh know that I was takin’ photos of yeh? I’m the headlinin’ bands photographer, ‘ow do yeh know that I wasn’t takin’ photos of the set or something?” I asked.

“Well I sure as ‘ell don’t believe yeh. Care to show me those pictures? Just so I know that yeh weren’t takin’ ‘em of me.”

I looked down from her face to my camera sitting in my lap, then quickly converted it back to her. “Not exactly. My photography is personal.”

“Just stay away from me,” she snapped back then quickly added in a softer tone. “Yeh creep me out. Takin’ pictures of me.”

I shrugged, “Only doin’ what they pay me to do. Do yeh stay on the crew’s bus? I like to stay there sometimes if my brother is throwin’ a party on our bus and I don’t feel like partyin’. It’ll be nice to have some…female company.”

She looked down right pissed off now. “Yeh brother? Who’s ‘e?”

“He’s the vocalist of the band whose tour yeh’re on. Oli Sykes,” I answered, smirking.

Her straight face rose into a smirk that could have put my brothers to shame. “Well at least now I see where yeh get yeh cockiness from. Both of yeh rub me the wrong way. Just stay away from me, yeah?”

She truly shocked me when she said that. In my whole life, no one has ever told me that I was a cocky as Oli was. And it kind of hurt. I liked being known as the quiet, and more sensitive brother. Oli was always the out of control party boy.

Then seeing her stomp away toward the doors leading outside, made me upset that I had treated her like I did.

I stayed at the bar and waited for the band to come on. And when they did I kept an eye on the side stages, looking for Willow. I spotted her a few times, when she would bring a new guitar out to Chris or Max. When they went off I vacated the stool I was sitting on and headed backstage to help Nicholls set up his drum set.

“How’d it go?” he asked as soon as he saw me, an almost excited look on his face.

I laughed sarcastically, “She yelled at me. Told me I was a creep and to stay away from ‘er. I don’t think I want to though. She seems…I don’t know, a little off. Like something’s wrong with ‘er. And I’m goin’ to find out what it is.”

I noticed that Matt left the door of the bus open, not sticking around to wait for me and walked away, probably back over to where everyone else was.

After grabbing my phone from the table I shoved it into my back pocket as I ran down the stairs and slammed the door behind me. A few people looked over due to the sound, one of them was Willow. As soon as I decided to make my way over to her the group started to walk down the road. I didn’t get to her fast enough so I hung around with Oli and the band for a few minutes before making my way through the crowd until I found Willow.

Unfortunately, before I got there someone grabbed my arm and yanked me back. I twisted my head around to see that I was in between Chris and Max, guitar players from You Me at Six, Bring Me the Horizon’s opening band.

“What’s up, Tom? Where yeh headed?” Chris asked, slinging his arm around my shoulders.

I looked uneasily between the two, then lifted my arm up to point to Willow. “I was gonna go talk to ‘er. Apologize for pissin’ ‘er off las’ night.”

“Be nice to ‘er. She’s got a rough life. Don’t push ‘er into anything. Got me?”

I nodded and as soon as they released me I rushed to get away from them and to Willow.

“’ey,” I said, walking next to her. She had a jacket on and it was zipped up, even though it was going on seventy degrees outside. Her arms were folded across her chest and she had on jeans and trainers.

“Just go away. I don’t feel good and I’d like to focus on tryin’ to get better so it doesn’t get worse and get out of hand,” she said harshly, keeping her stance the same, not moving at all. Even her facial expressions stayed the same.

She had her blond hair pulled up, just a few pieces handing down around her face. Every time the wind would blow the pieces would get in her face and she’d brush them away. Eventually she must have grew tired of this and pulled her arms apart, tucking the hairs behind her ears.

“If yeh don’t feel well, ‘ow come yeh didn’t stay back on the bus and rest?” I asked. I’d been sick during a tour once and all I did for about three days was lay in my bunk and sleep. Matt got a bit pissed at me but he got over it.

She shrugged her shoulders and looked up at me. “I don’t know.”

“Do yeh want me to go back with yeh?” I knew before I even asked the question that she would probably get mad at me again. I didn’t regret asking it though.

“No,” she answered. “We’re probably almost there and I’m hungry. Will you just leave me alone? I just want to be alone right now.”

And with that I stopped walking. I just stopped and let everyone pass me, and everyone did. Until Oli and Nicholls came up to me.

“She wants me to leave ‘er alone,” I mumbled to them as they each looped an arm through mine and pulled me along.

“Then leave ‘er alone,” Oli said as if it was the most obvious thing ever.

To leave her alone would be easier said than done. I don’t know if I could do it.