Two Different Worlds Collide

Cheyenne didn’t consider herself to be famous. Far from it, as far as she was concerned… small-town famous? Maybe, but that would be pushing it. As far as a university student’s standards go, her EP had done extremely well; she’d sold nearly ten thousand of them just through her Facebook page and from the shows she played on weekends or during the summers, as well as some iTunes downloads and some pictures and odds and ends here and there. She played small shows in Edmonton where she was going to University; mostly just bar shows, but she did a few weddings in St. Albert and even one at Jasper last spring. Then there was a few festivals during the summers; Regina Folk Fest, Calgary Stampede, Sudbury New Music Festival, but other than that she pretty much stuck to her coffee houses and bar shows.

Occasionally she got recognized; just the odd person here or there who’d seen her at a show and wanted to see if it was in fact the ‘girl who sang’. She’d been asked for a few pictures, even an autograph or two, and it blew her away every time. But she was still just a university student; she lived in a tiny, over-priced apartment with her best friend, worked a part-time job and struggled to balance out her life. Things got tense sometimes, and without her best friend Liza she had no clue where she’d be; Liza doubled as her sort-of manager, full time organizer, and just a general sense of order, which she desperately needed in her crazy life. Their living room was usually a mess of papers, songwriting ideas, her guitar, a laptop (or both of their laptops) and sometimes a box of merchandise or CD’s that had come in for a show that weekend. It was deemed ‘the office’ and they both constantly joked about it. Cheyenne used to try and use the laundry room as her sort of office, but it was too small and cramped for any good to come out of it, so they agreed that the living room could be sacrificed. Their system had worked for the two years they’d been living together and she’d been playing shows, so they stuck to it.

~

“Cheye! Come on, we’re going to be late!” a frustrated Liza huffed from the living room as Cheyenne struggled to get ready, probably making them late once again. She ran a hand through her blonde hair and checked the time on her phone again, knowing they should be out the door sooner than later. Soon Cheyenne came down the hallway, hopping awkwardly as she tried to get her boots on while walking. Liza attempted to stifle a chuckle at her friend, because she was incredibly unorganized, regardless of what she was doing.

“I’m almost ready! At least I packed last night,” the brunette pointed out, finally getting her foot into the boot and straightening up. She adjusted her shirt before grabbing the backpack she’d packed for the weekend of bar shows in Whitecourt.

“Only because I made you,” was the response she got. After double-checking her purse, Cheyenne picked up her guitar case and made her way to the door. Liza rolled her eyes and followed her friend out of the apartment, locking up on the way. Cheyenne had put two boxes of merch in the trunk of the car last night so she couldn’t forget – one of CD’s and the other of random merchandise for the show.

The drive to Whitecourt wasn’t too long – the girls usually made the most of road trips to shows, singing along to the radio, talking about whatever random and new things were occurring their lives. Ever since the whole Chad thing had went down though, Liza had learned to stay away from any romance related topics – Cheyenne just couldn’t handle it. And if she were to judge by some of the new songs her friend had wrote, it was going to be a while before she was over that one. Cheyenne hadn’t even wanted to talk about it, so Liza had no clue what had even gone on – all she knew was that their breakup had been sudden, unexpected, and nasty. So the closest they got to talking about romance was debating whether Jensen Ackles was hotter than Ryan Reynolds, or if Taylor Hall was cuter than Jordan Eberle; things that were safe. And until Cheyenne could talk about it, Liza was okay with that. It wasn’t like there was anybody in her life right now to talk about anyway.

Their arrival in Whitecourt turned downright frustrating. The guy running the pub Cheyenne was playing at Friday night would not believe that Liza was the head of the operations, managing Cheyenne’s gigs and everything else, and remained stubborn and unhelpful until Jon, Tuck and Zach showed up. The man became more than willing to help then as the five of them started setting up their equipment. After a quick sound check they split up – the boys eating at the bar while the two of them grabbed some DQ, because a craving for ice cream like that couldn't just be ignored - before meeting back at the bar for the show.

It went off without a hitch, and Cheyenne couldn’t help but smile to herself; she’d seen some people singing along, not just to cover songs but to some originals as well, and a couple people had been dancing. That was the best part, and she knew that words would never do the feeling justice. Once they’d packed up she stuck around the bar for a while with the boys – Liza had opted to head back to the hotel and get in an early night. Cheyenne never stayed too long, but she liked getting to talk to people after the show. She ended up meeting about thirty people, selling some CD’s. A few people had even asked for pictures with her, which made her grin like the Cheshire Cat.

That was generally how bar shows went; a good show, a full tip jar on the edge of the stage, selling a couple of CD’s, maybe a few T-shirts, meet some people, take some pictures... but sometimes there was a creep who offered to buy her a drink… or other things. It started being easy to just politely smile and make a quick escape, and then she would stick by Tuck or Zach’s side for the remainder of the night, which kept any scary people far enough away for comfort. Tuck was about six foot two, and he’d played hockey until he was eighteen, and kept up with the exercise and his hockey-playing friends when he’d decided to follow music. Zach was built about the same and when he wasn’t playing drums he was a bouncer for Diesel in Edmonton. Either of them were scary enough to keep just about anybody at bay, which sometimes was helpful.

At one thirty she decided to head to the hotel and call it a night, bidding goodbye to the guys and heading back. Liza was already fast asleep, so she quietly changed into her pajamas, did her night routine and crawled into her bed, falling asleep as soon as she’d turned out the light.