Kill Me With Words

Abigail pointed at various things as the roadies were setting up Maiden Voyage's equipment for their set. Marcus was helping them set up his drum equipment and Spencer always helped with the guitar tech check and the mic checks.

"Check, check, check." Spencer yelled into the microphone until he was heard by the sound guy who gave him a thumbs up.

Emily wandered over to where Abigail and Jessie were with the big set of noise blockers for Abigail to wear. She knelt down and smiled at the young girl. "Are you excited?" Emily asked.

Abigail grinned. "Of course!" She played with Emily's hair.

"Good." Emily giggled. "These are for you to wear. It's really loud on stage so these will protect your ears from the really loud noise."

"Will I still be able to hear you guys play your music?" Abigail wondered.

Emily nodded. "It just won't be really, really loud." She explained. "We don't want your ears getting hurt. Marcus plays his drums too loud sometimes."

Abigail giggled with Emily and gave her a hug before giving the headset to her mother to put on her head. They were a little heavy, but she felt really cool.

On the other side behind the stage, Heidi was putting her ear plugs in and getting her bass ready. She felt a tap on the shoulder and spun around to see Ashley standing there with a slight grin on his face.

"What are you doing here?" She asked. She never expected Ashley to show up to their set. She figured seeing them once would be enough for him.

Ashley shrugged. "I just wanted to say good luck today. And..." He trailed off and looked at the dusty sand at his feet. "I wanted to... Never mind." He said. "Good luck today."

She gave him a weak smile and turned to get ready to walk up the stairs to get on stage. She glanced over at Beth and Spencer doing their last minute good luck warm up and then over to Marcus and Emily who were sharing one more brief kiss before it was time to go on. Everyone in the band had some kind of good luck ritual and someone to share it with. Heidi had herself, and no one ever offered her good luck, except for today.

Ashley.

"Heidi, what the fuck, go!" She was snapped out of her day dream when she heard the roadies yelling at her to go on stage.

"Shit." She mumbled to herself as she hoisted herself up the stairs and onto the stage. She waved at the cheering crowd before getting to her spot and waiting for Beth to give the cue.

They played through their first song and the crowd went wild for them. The crowds had grown bigger and bigger with each passing day of tour and now that it was almost over, their crowd at the Monster Energy tent was bigger than some bands playing on the main stage had.

"Shit." Beth said into the mic and the crowd laughed in unison. "Well, for those of you who don't know us, we are Maiden Voyage. We come from a small town in New Jersey and we're so psyched to see all of you here today to watch us play. When we started this tour, we never expected to be rounding in crowds this huge and to see all the support we've gotten this summer from all our new and old fans brings this great sense of joy and accomplishment to all of us. We want you to know that all of you are important to us individually and we don't just see you as another fan in the crowd. We see you as people like us and we would love to meet all of you. We'll be doing a signing over at our merch tent right behind you so come see us after the show and get a t-shirt and some hugs from all of us. We love you guys so much, and this next one's called 'Healing.'"

The crowd cheered as Spencer, Emily, Heidi and Marcus went into the intro. Beth sang and jumped around and pointed at Abigail a couple of times rocking along next to her mom to make her feel included.

Towards the end of the last song, Beth went over and reached out to Abigail and brought her out on stage with her. The crowd went wild and Beth kept singing as she danced around with Abigail in her arms. Abigail laughed and jumped around with Beth. When the song ended, Abigail waved goodbye with Beth and blew a big kiss to the audience in front of her.

Marcus chuckled to himself. "This kid is gonna go places in entertainment." He silently said to himself as he watched his niece play it up for the crowd. She was smart enough to know they were loving every minute of her and she couldn't seem to get enough.

Marcus ran to the edge of the stage and chucked his drumsticks into the audience for a lucky fan to catch, then scooped up his niece in his arms, giving her a big kiss on the forehead and walking her off stage.

"Uncle Marcus, that was so much fun!" Abigail exclaimed.

"I'm glad you had fun, munchkin." He rubbed her head and messed up her hair like he always did.

Heidi sped past them and went to put her bass away. She didn't have a single clue what she was going to do with the rest of her day, but she knew she was going to spend it as far away from the band and Marcus's family as possible.

"Hey." A man's voice spoke behind her and she turned to see Ashley standing behind her with his hands behind his back.

"Hey..." Heidi replied.

"You did great." Ashley complimented.

"You watched the set? Like, the whole thing?" Heidi was at a slight shock. She thought her and Ashley had agreed on just being hook up buddies. Hook up buddies didn't watch each other's sets and hang out like friends.

"Well, yeah, of course I did." Ashley smiled. "I was going to give you these before but I figured it would be better for after." He revealed a small bouquet of roses from behind his back and handed them over to her.

Heidi adored roses and she wondered how he had ever found out she loved them so much. They were beautiful, but they were also tough with thorns. "Wow," She finally spoke. "Thank you. These are beautiful."

Ashley shrugged. "I just... I really like you, Heidi. And I know what we said before--"

"Fuck what we said before." She smiled. She could hear Spencer's voice in the back of her mind telling her to go for this. Ashley was a guy who actually liked her. This was all she had ever wanted, ever since she was young. She figured, now was a better time than ever to finally pull those thorns from her heart.