Beautiful Lie

It’s time for sound check, come back. I have news about Willow.

I received the text from Jona only a few moments ago. I looked at the time in the top corner of my phone and nodded slightly. It was going on eight, You Me at Six most likely just finished their set. I got my wallet from my back pocket and pulled out enough money to cover the coffee I had.

“’ave a nice evening,” a waitress said as I exited the building.

It was much darker outside than I remember it being last time I looked out the windows of the café. I could now see the red lights on the sign of the venue we were at today.

When I left, my intentions were to get as far away from the venue as I could, for as long as I could. But when I passed by the café and looked in through the window as pretty red head caught my eye and I had to go in. What better way to get my mind off of Willow than to hook up with another girl, right?

Wrong. The waitress ended up calling me a pig and slapping me before storming off to where I guessed was the kitchen. Then an older woman came out with a scowl on her face and got the cup of coffee that I wanted.

Even though I could tell that I wasn’t wanted there, I stayed at the counter, sitting on the stool, until I received the text from Jona.

The guard on the other side of the door demanded to see my pass as I opened the door to backstage. I pulled my keys from my pocket and showed him the card. Once he let me pass I went down the hallway until I heard the guys talking, or rather laughing, about something.

“That was quick. Where the fuck were yeh?” Jona asked, standing up and walking over to me. He led me away from the others.

I shrugged. “Jus’ down the road. Gettin’ some coffee. What did yeh want to tell me ‘bout Willow?”

“I was talkin’ to Willow earlier, after yeh left. She wanted to know what was up with yeh, and when I asked why she wanted to know, ‘cause it seemed to me like she hates yeh, she said she doesn’t. Then I asked ‘er why she won’t give yeh a chance-“ I cut him off.

“What if I don’t wanna be with ‘er? ‘ave yeh guys ever thought ‘bout that?” I demanded.

“Like ‘ell yeh don’t wanna be with ‘er. As I was sayin’ she says that she can’t be with yeh, not that she doesn’t want to. Then Josh talked to ‘er then came back and told me what she said. ‘e’s tryin’ to talk ‘er into gettin’ with yeh too. I guess she ‘as some kind of illness or somethin’ and ‘e doesn’t want it takin’ over ‘er life,” he explained.

“What does she ‘ave?” I asked, worried that it might be something serious. She hasn’t been feeling well lately and it would be proper terrible if she got even worse.

“No idea, man. Josh wouldn’t tell me, said that it was Willow’s job to tell people when she was ready. I’m guessin’ that it’s somethin’ bad, though. If it was jus’ the flu or somethin’ I don’t see why ‘e wouldn’t tell me, yeh know?” he said.

“Tom!” Nicholls called. He was standing in the doorway of the room, looking oddly at me and Jona. He waved me over and I took one last look at Jona before walking away from him. “’s time to start settin’ up.”

I follow him out of the room and we headed for the door to start bringing in the drum equipment. I grabbed the cymbals and he grabbed the bass. Then I headed back into the building, the cymbals clanging together nosily with each step that I took.

When I got out on stage I looked around before sitting the stuff on the ground and turning around to go grab the rest of the kit.

As I pushed the curtain out of my way I looked down the hallway where the dressing rooms where. Someone just walked out of the room and was walking toward me. Even though the hood of their jacket was up, I still knew who it was. The blonde hair peeking out around the edges of the hood gave her away. It was Willow.

She started to look up and I immediately looked away, not wanting to have a confrontation with her right at this moment. Or even in a couple days for that matter. I was going to take Jona’s advice for once. Stay away from her for a while, then completely change my attitude and maybe she would change her mind about me.

When I looked back up she was looking down, and she had a very confused look on her face. That confused me. Shouldn’t she be relieved that I’m not going over to bother her?

I tried not to look back as I walked right past her and into the trailer, but when I got in there I couldn’t help myself. She was no longer standing by herself, Jona was talking to her.

“I think somethin’s goin’ on between those two,” Nicholls commented as he joined me in the trailer. My gaze shot over to him and my eyes widened as my jaw dropped.

Then all at once words failed me. I tried to speak, but all that came out was little portions of the words I was trying to speak. Matt looked like me was going to burst out laughing so I stopped, took a deep breath and went to start over, hoping that I could now speak clearly.

“Why do yeh think that?” I asked as I tried to make it not so obvious that I was extremely worried. I grabbed another drum and it’s stand then walked back into the venue.

Nicholls joined me seconds later with a smirk on his face. “Relax Tommeh. I was jus’ jokin’ with yeh. I don’ think that anythin’ will ‘appen with them. Jona knows damn well that yeh like Will, and if ‘e goes after ‘er that would just be wrong. And we’d ‘ave to find a new guitarist.”

I smiled at his attempt to get me to laugh and headed back onto the stage to get everything set up in it’s proper place, ready for Matt to play. So when Willow walked onto the stage with Jona’s guitar, it would be an understatement to say that I was shocked.

“Where’s Dean?” I asked, making her turn to face me.

She shrugged, “Don’ know. Jona jus’ gave me ‘is guitar and told me to make sure it was in tune. I don’ mind, after all it is what I do.”

I nodded and looked back down at the drums in front of me. Doing this was almost second nature to me now. I’ve been Matt’s drum tech for almost as long as they’ve been a band, and I’ve been on tour countless times.

Once everything was in where it’s supposed to be, I got a set of sticks and tested them. Nicholls high fived me as I walked of stage and I handed him the sticks I used and walked over to Jona, who was by himself.

“What were you and Willow talking about earlier?” I asked.

“We were talkin’ ‘bout yeh. She wanted to know why yeh were ignorin’ ‘er. I just said that I didn’t know,” he explained.

“Get ready to go on, guys!” a stage hand announced standing right by the curtain where everyone was gathering around.

“We’ll talk later,” Jona said before leaving me to go stand with the rest of the guys.

There was something that he wasn’t telling me, and I knew that the hour and a half that they were on stage would be the longest that I’ve ever had to wait though.