Closer to the Edge

*Jared*

I was surprised that Shannon had liked her so much. Going into it, I hadn't expected him to, if for no other reason than the fact that Shannon likes to be disagreeable sometimes just because he knows it pisses me off. As soon as she left the interview, he looked at me and told me she was the one. He wouldn't tell me why he thought so, he just seemed so dead-set on her. I thought he would've said she was too young, or too inexperienced. I asked him about both of those things, and he seemed to shrug them off. It wasn't that I didn't like her, I definitely did. She was absolutely the best out of all of the interviews. It just threw me off that she was also Shannon's pick. He insisted on calling her right then. I told him that we should wait at least an hour or two to make it look more professional. He refused and stole her resume from me, stepping outside to call her.

*Shannon*

Even I was surprised that I was so impressed with her. When she walked in, quite honestly, I thought she was going to awful. We'd never had a tour manager that wasn't a nearly middle-aged man, so I couldn't figure out why this young girl wanted it so badly. But as soon as she opened her mouth, it was undeniable. She was it. She was much smarter than I would've guessed, much more together. It also didn't hurt that when she smiled, the entire fucking room lit up.

*Natalia*

The next week was a complete blur. I met so many people and heard so much music that I thought my head might explode. As it turned out, I had heard Thirty Seconds to Mars' music before, I'd just never associated the name with the sound. I loved listening to them play. They were all real and true artists. They were also all some of the goofiest guys I'd ever met. They were hilarious. They did everything they could to make me feel at home right from the start and it was really amazing.

The day the tour started, I was nervous. Jared kept telling me it would be easy this go-round, since their previous tour manager had set basically everything up before he'd resigned for some sort of family reasons. He said that I was pretty much just watching, seeing how they did things, before starting to really get stuck-in to the work the next time around. I knew that was true to an extent, but I also knew that it was probably going to be a lot more complicated than he made it sound.

It didn't help, of course, that both Shannon and Jared had a tendency to make me pretty nervous. It wasn't anything they were doing intentionally, it was just the fact that they could both be pretty intimidating guys without really realizing it. They were both so gorgeous and carried themselves so well. I wished I could've had as much confidence as either one of them had just in their big toes. I'd never met anyone quite like either of them, and they were both constantly surprising me.

Before I even knew it, the month-and-a-half tour was over. It was amazing, definitely the best experience I'd ever had. Their fans were absolutely fantastic, and so were they. They were quite possibly the kindest, most caring people I'd ever met. I'd never worked with a band, or any group of people for that matter, that seemed to just seamlessly fit together so well in every way.

The night of the last show, everyone on the bus stayed up pretty late as we made our way back to L. A.. I ended up tapping out of the party at about one in the morning. I was exhausted. Jared made fun of me as I made my way back to my bunk, calling me a party pooper. I couldn't help it. My stiff bunk mattress felt like heaven as I sank into it. Just as I closed my eyes and started to fade off to sleep, there was a tap on the wall beside my bunk. I had the curtain closed, so I couldn't see who -or what- it was. I ignored, hoping it would go away, but a few moments later it came again. I slid the curtain open slowly and was slightly surprised to see Shannon standing there smiling at me.

"Hiya Natty," he said, using the nickname that they'd all taken to calling me.

"Hey, Shan, what's up?" I asked him, and he smiled again.

"I'm drunk," he said, swaying just slightly with the movement of the bus.

"No way?" I asked him, and he gave a full-out laugh.

"Yup."

"Anything else?"

"I just wanted to make sure that you know I'm not a total douche all the time."

"I didn't think that, Shan."

"Good. You're very pretty," he said abruptly, covering his mouth and giggling. "I didn't mean to say that."

"You're very pretty too, Shan," I said it just because I knew it would make him giggle, and it did. It didn't hurt, though, that it was true.

"Thanks, Natty!"

"I'm gonna go to bed now, Shan."

"Oh. Okay. Goodnight!" he whispered it, and it was adorable.

The next morning, Jared and I were sitting next to the giant windows in the front lounge of the bus, coffees in hand. We'd realized that we were both early risers, usually up before everyone else, and had established these morning coffee dates very early on in the tour.

"I had a run-in with drunk Shannon last night," I told him, and he laughed quietly.

"Oh yeah?"

"He told me I was pretty."

"At least he didn't tell you any lies," he said it, and his eyes grew wide, similar, actually, to how Shannon's had the night before when he'd said it. I didn't know how to take it.

"I told him he was pretty too and he giggled like a toddler," I said a moment later, hoping to douse the tension that had suddenly risen. It seemed to work because Jared laughed again and the conversation carried on.

I had a hard time paying attention to anything the rest of the way home. All I could think about was the fact that in a twenty-four hour period, both of these absolutely gorgeous men of my dreams had, in one way or another, hinted that they found me pretty. I knew it was stupid, but I couldn't get my mind off of it.