A Week, A Lifetime

The feeling of post-concert jitters was probably one of the best feelings Dakota had ever felt. She had not felt a single drop of nervousness on that stage – at all! And she had loved every single, precious second of it. The show was done, and the guys were buzzing with excitement. The arena had been absolutely filled with people, and the cheering of the fans had given her the greatest rush of adrenaline. They all went outside, and was greeted by a cheering crowd of fans. They guys immediately started talking to fans standing by the fence. Dakota was quickly waved over to a group of girls, and she happily greeted them, and signed the autographs they wanted. She also took a few photos with a couple of girls.
“Dakota!” Dakota turned around, to see a slightly older woman. By older, she thought she was around 30.
“Hi,” Dakota said happily, walking over to her. The woman put a camera up in her face, which Dakota shook off.
“How did you manage to get to sing with the band, Dakota?” the woman asked, her voice sour.
“I… Well, it is actually kind of a funny story. We were joking around, and the guys basically tricked me out on stage.”
“So how many of them have you slept with?” the woman asked, her face looking disgusted. Dakota was absolutely taken aback, not knowing how to respond.
“Excuse me?”
“How many of them did you have sex with to get on that stage?” she repeated. Dakota blinked, not fully understanding what was happening. The woman pushed her camera up in her face, and Dakota took a good step back.
“You need to leave,” Dakota said sternly, blinking violently to fight off the tears that were threatening to push through her eyelashes.

“You need to leave,” Dakota said a little louder, and Alex turned to see in how much distress Dakota was in. He turned to look at the woman, and he cursed under his breath. He ran over and took Dakota in his arms.
“Don’t you listen to a word that woman says, Dakota…”
“So you have slept with him, who else?” the woman screamed, and Dakota collapsed into tears. Alex started walking away, Dakota safely in his arms, but the woman was forcing her way through the crowd, taping every single second of what was going on. Jack came running over, and stood in front of the camera, blocking the woman’s view.
“You need to get out of here. Now!” Jack yelled to the woman, but all she did was snigger. The fans were confused, and did not know what was going on.
“Two out of four, Dakota!” the woman yelled, and tried keeping pace with the three moving people.
“Stop bothering them!” a few girls exclaimed, and pushed the woman back, making her fall to her knees. Alex passed Dakota along to another set of arms, and before she knew what was happening, she was inside the bus, being put down in the couch.
“Dakota, breathe. Look at me!” It was Zack. He was sitting next to her. Dakota was hyperventilating, and the tears were running down her face.
“What happened?” she said in a whisper, blinking violently, trying to make her eyes focus.
“I don’t know, but you need to breathe, Dakota. Take it easy. Here,” he handed her a glass of water, but Dakota could not even think about making her hands grip around the glass.
“I… What happened?”
“I don’t know, Dakota, but you need to relax. Take a deep breath. Look at me, Dakota.” She finally locked her eyes with his, and she took a deep breath, finally being able to focus.

“That woman…” Zack interrupted her.
“Wait here,” he ran to the door, and as he opened it a roar of anger filled the air. Dakota could clearly hear Alex yell angrily: “Get her the fuck out of here!” Dakota stood up to walk out with Zack, but Kaylee came running in the door, and pushed her back in her seat. She was clearly stressed out.
“Are you alright?” she asked, and forced the glass of water into her hands. She took a sip. “My god, you are a mess. What the hell happened out there?”
“This woman called my name, and she started yelling at me. I have no idea.” Dakota realised that she was still crying, and she tried brushing the tears away.
“They got her away. Sent the security guys on her, and now they are trying to calm down the fans. A lot of them stood up for you.”
“They did?”
“Sure did.”
“I need to go out there,” Dakota said, and tried standing up, but Kaylee pushed her back down in her seat. She shook her head, and used a finger to dry away some of the tears that were trailing down Dakota’s cheek.
“Sorry, you are not going anywhere. Strict orders from the guys. Jack told me we will be driving away from here, to someplace quiet, but they need to deal with the fans first.” Kaylee smiled sweetly at her friend, although Dakota could tell she was worried.
“Who was she?” Dakota asked carefully.
“I have absolutely no idea.”

A few minutes later, all the guys came in to the bus. Alex was seriously pissed off, as he grabbed the now empty glass, and threw it as hard as he could onto the floor, glass splinters flying everywhere.
“That fucking bitch!” he yelled, and Dakota jumped up, grabbing hold of his shoulders.
“Alex, calm down. Calm down!”
“How the hell could she do that, how the fuck could she do that!”
“Alex! Calm down!”
“Dude, take a breath,” Jack said carefully, as Dakota shook his shoulders.
“Alex!” he finally took a deep breath, and managed to calm down a little.
“How could she do that?” he said in a whisper, and grabbed hold around Dakota’s waist, pulling her into a hug. “How can anyone do that to you?” he whispered into her ear. Dakota held him in her arms, as Alex sighed. She pulled out of the hug, before urging him to sit down.
“So, does anyone know who that was?” Dakota asked carefully, not wanting Alex to explode. Before he could answer, Jack had taken the chance to talk.
“She’s bothered us before. She doesn’t like us, our lyrics or anything else we do. We’ve had problems with her before.”
“She is a bitch, that’s who she is!” Alex yelled, and Kaylee put a hand on his shoulder, shushing at him for him to quiet down. Rian walked over to Dakota, and put a hand around her waist, and whispered into her ear: “You ok?” Dakota nodded.
“What did you do with all the fans?” Kaylee asked.
“We managed to calm them down, and we apologised for the mess. They were fantastic! Stood up for you as well. They practically held her down, in order for the guards to grab her, and get her out.” Zack said, and smiled. Dakota smiled too, and felt a surge of happiness flow through her. The fans had stood up for her?
“Wow,” was all Dakota was able to say. Kaylee stood up, and walked over to the place where Alex had broken the glass, and started cleaning it up.
“You don’t have to do that,” Alex said, but Kaylee shrugged the comment off, continuing to clean up the mess.
“So, what happens next?” Dakota asked carefully.
“We get out of here, and then we sleep. And tomorrow we will worry about suing that woman,” Alex said, and fell back in the couch, clearly exhausted from the ordeal.
“Thank you. For saving me,” Dakota said, and wrapped her arms around Rian’s waist. All the guys smiled, and Dakota sat down. Silence fell in the bus, in a weird sense of awkwardness.
“So… That was intense,” Jack said, making all of them laugh, breaking the awkwardness.