Status: In Time

To Caress My Day

Chapter 197: Some Awesome News

It was the first day of the new year, January 1, 2013. Life had returned to normal after Seth had taken a flight back to his home in California, but Twig’s heart ached over her loss. Their last night together had felt like a dream, and when she woke the next morning, she believed it to be one. Trudging around with a heartache as excruciating as a large hand squeezing her heart with an iron-tight compression, a ‘ding’ of a new message from Seth corroborated word by word that her dream had been reality. Yet and still, her heart throbbed from missing him.

Later on that morning, Jess and Amira had dropped by to visit with Twigs and Simone. Both Shereen and Asami had taken a detour at a bakery for some goodies while the other two ventured on. Twigs was placated to see them, and embraced them earnestly. She had missed them too and was looking forward to being preoccupied from the recurrent thoughts of Seth. Flocking into the kitchen, Jess abruptly blurted out some news that she and the rest of Neon Jungle were excited to announce. “So there’s a rumor going around that we, Neon Jungle, might be going on tour with some popular UK artist this year!”

Twigs couldn’t help gasping, and leaned forward in her seat to inquire with corresponding excitement. “Are you serious!? Where did you hear this rumor?”

“Through the grapevine.” Amira answered, then shot her bandmate a glare for leaking the secret before the others could arrive. “Thanks for opening your big mouth, Jess! We agreed we’d wait for Asami and Shereen to arrive before we told anyone!”

“I’m sorry but can you blame me!? It’s major news!” Jess defended herself with a pout. “Plus, Simone isn’t here so I didn’t exactly spill everything, now did I?”

“Oh, don’t worry about all that! It’s done and over with. Now back to the news!” Twigs speedily wrapped up their conversation for them, her eyes darting between the two as she grinned proudly. “You gotta tell me, how do you feel about your career making a move as HUGE as this?”

Jess shrugged at first, her fingers curling around the steaming mug of fresh coffee. “I don’t know. Nervous, I guess you can say. This feels like a milestone in our careers that I never expected to happen this soon. Yes, in the future down the road, but right NOW!?”

Amira nodded in accord then laughed to herself. “Asami was literally shitting her pants at the idea of performing on stage with a notable UK star!”

All three of the women laughed, the visualization too uproarious to resist. It brought tears of merriment to their eyes, and they each dapped at the corners to abstain from ruining their makeup.

Simmering down, Twigs inquired with interest. “Do you know who this notable artist is?”

Jess shrugged again. “Beats me. We didn’t hear any names. All we know is that it’s a famous artist.”

“And we’ve already eavesdropped on a ton of conversations on the subject.” Amira confessed with a weary sigh. “And not a single one of them dropped a name.”

Suddenly, the front door opened to Simone who had stepped out for some coffee at the cafe nearest to their apartment. “HONEY, I’M HOME! And look who I found along the way!”

Pushing the door open behind Simone, Shereen strolled into the apartment with Asami at her heels. Shutting the door, the duo squealed with excitement at seeing Twigs again and scurried over to give her a great hug with some kisses. “TWIGGY BABY!”

“Oh, I missed you guys so damn much! Never mind that I saw you two last night at Percy Hopkin’s New Years party.” Twigs giggled at her absurdity as she embraced each one. Noting that there was no room at the kitchen table, she gestured to the living room. “Let’s go sit in the living room since everyone is here.”

“And get to scolding Jess for opening her big mouth about our ‘maybe’ upcoming tour.” Amira tattled from behind the groups as they assembled into the next room.

Asami let out a gasp and whirled to face Jess in shock. “You did what?!”

“Jess, how could you!?” Shereen chided her with a frown as she took a seat at the farthest end of the couch. “What part of ‘keep your mouth shut’ did you not understand?”

“Yeah yeah yeah! I get it now, you guys! Let up on it already!” Jess sighed, rolling her eyes as she lifted a hand to flip them all off, earning a chorus of boos from her friends.

“Whoa whoa, what's going on here?” Simone curbed, her hands up to silence the rest. “Are you saying I’m not the only one with some awesome news over here?”

“We might be going on someone's tour with them.” Amira reported with a proud smile. “Rumor is it’s a huge UK artist, but we haven’t heard who it could be.”

“But it’s a big MAYBE that we’re going.” Jess pointed out, wanting everyone to get that through their heads, including herself. Sure, this would be a glorious opportunity if it did indeed happen, but that’s just it, it MIGHT happen. No need to get high-strung and publish it to the world until they knew for certain. There was no point in exhausting any hopes or prayer until then. “There’s a chance it’s just some fake rumor made up to breaking the hearts of little girls wanting to make it like us.”

“Hell, that still sounds dope anyway!” Simone marvelled, her eyes twinkling with excitement at the possibility of it one day happening to her as well. She wondered which artist GRL might hit the stage with.

“Simone’s right.” Twigs concurred with pride over her friends. “And if it happens to be true, then it’s a splendid opportunity to get your feet wet singing in front of millions of fans in a colossal stadium rather than the mundane small intimate settings.”

“Oh my god, don’t say that!” Asami whined, concealing her face with her hands. Out of the four, she was deathly nervous at the idea of serenading a mob of screaming people. Her stomach was feeling queasy simply at the thought, and so she pleaded with her friends with a wave of her hands. “Please, can we stop talking about it now? I think I’m gonna throw up if I have to think about it one more time.”

Everyone else in the room burst out laughing at her distress. They felt bad for poor Asami, and decided to do her a solid and not go further into the probable monumental event of their career, even though they did want to provide her with the confidence that she was clearly lacking.

Reaching out a hand, Twigs took hers and gave it a squeeze. “I’m sorry, honey. I know it’s a difficult thing to do but just think of all you’ve accomplished to get to this point.”

“Twigs is right.” Shereen seconded. “Don’t you guys remember the times when the expectation of stepping out onto a stage nearly sent us vomiting in the toilets backstage?”

“Ugh, how could I forget?” Amira shuffled with revulsion, recalling such foul memories. “I puked on my fucking braids one night!”

Jess let out a laugh along with the rest of them. “Holy shit, we were a hot mess! It’s hard to believe we used to be those same young naive girls with magnificent dreams of making it big, puking our guts out into a toilet bowl at nearly every show.”

“And now you’re singing in front of crowds of over thousands of people!” Simone exclaimed with pride for their growth. She could hardly recognize them as well when she looked back at how they used to be. Four excited but anxious girls that had no idea what they were getting themselves into.

“How times have changed.” Asami mused with an diverted shake of her head. “And now we might get the opportunity to sing to millions in a stadium!”

“And when you do, you’re gonna kill it just like you did all those other times.” Twigs promised her with a supportive smile. “As the crowds get bigger and bigger, you’ll become stronger and stronger until your nerves will be a thing of the past.”

“Ancient history.” Amira stated, lifting her tea cup in toast to Asami’s improvements over the years.

“I love you supportive bitches.” Asami crooned to them, her eyes swelling with tears. She blotted at them as she sniffled. “I can’t promise it’ll be perfect, but I’m gonna step out on that stage and own it! As long as I got you guys in my life, I can do anything, the past has proven that time and time again.”