Let's Make Waves

All In.

Tour busses were absolutely disgusting, which shouldn’t have come as such a surprise. Multiple people housing together in such a tiny living space was bound to become messy. I had never shared a living space before and it felt as though the walls were closing in on me.

We’d been on the road for about three hours, only stopping at gas stations and the occasional fast food restaurant. The guys were spending most of their time playing video games and loudly passing gas, while Eve was plucking at her guitar strings trying to write something new for us to perform.

I’d flipped through all my magazines, and scrolled through all my socials and found myself bored out of my mind. Eventually, after a lot of nagging on my part, Eve-lynn allowed me to braid her hair and do her makeup. The winged eyeliner and dark lipstick she normally wore were obscuring her natural beauty, and I was just the person to fix that.

Time passed slowly, but luckily, we would arrive in Los Angeles soon. This meant we’d arrived at our first hotel and I was looking forward to soft egyptian cotton sheets and an nice hot shower to rinse the boys stank off myself, thanking whoever would listen that I was not sleeping on this bus.

We pulled up to a lavish hotel and followed Louise inside, carrying only our essentials. My fellow band members looked around with wide eyes, stunned by the beauty of this high class hotel we’d be staying at. I was used to such a lavish retreat, but we’ve already established I’m not some commoner.

“I’m sorry,” the host behind the counter spoke, her fingers eagerly pressing away at the keys of her keyboard. Small pearls of sweat appearing on her forehead. “Our system got hacked a few weeks prior, and in the process of getting all the information we’d lost back it seems we’ve accidentally double booked your rooms. I’m trying to see if we have any other rooms that could accommodate you, but I’m afraid it won’t be possible.”

This was not happening. I could almost feel the steam coming from my ears, as if I were a character in one of those silly cartoons the boys kept watching. My eyes safely hidden behind my Gucci sunglasses, giving this woman my signature death glare.

“Would I be able to speak to your manager?” Louise asked, her tone reasonable but stern.

I hoped she would be able to clear this mess up. I was not about to spend the night sleeping in some second class motel, or worse our smelly tour bus. The bunks were cramped and uncomfortable, and merely imagining spending the night on those discount mattresses made my back ache.

We all went outside to bask in the sun while Louise conducted her professional interaction with the hotel manager. I sat myself down on one of the stone benches, leaning back and soaking up some vitamin D. I noticed that Eve-lynn was talking to Levi and Blane, which brought a smile to my face. That girl could do with some male attention that wasn’t coming from the uncultured idiots she usually surrounded herself with.

Anthony, Ashton and the remaining members of Water Waves were kicking a hacky-sack around. There was a lot of bonding going on from which I had excluded myself. I was longing for some quality me-time in a five star hotel on the day before our first performance.

After an hour, Louise greeted us outside. A soft warm breeze pushing back her sharp red bob, as her heels clicked against the pavement.

“They have to make some arrangements, but they’ve managed to clear up some rooms. Now, before everyone jumps up in excitement, I was only able to get us three rooms in total. You boys,” and she pointed at Nathaniel, Parker and Jonathan, “will have one room.”

She walked over handing them their keycard, before addressing Untamed Highs and handing them theirs. She also warned them to behave like civilised young men, or to face the consequences.

“The last key shall be ours, ladies,” she mentioned, turning to look at us and holding up the remaining keycard. I hoped she was joking. Not only was I not going to have that me-time I was craving, but now I was also forced to share a room with, what could only be described as, the tour mother.

As though she could sense my disdain, Eve-lynn thanked her and nudged me with her elbow to do the same. I was reluctant, but thanked her anyway.

* * *

Our room was large enough. It housed two queen sized beds, with the desired thread count sheets, a dresser with three drawers and a larger closet with multiple hangers, a large LED smart t.v. and a beautiful balcony overlooking the warm city.

“You girls settle in, I’m going to call the venue and check what time they’re expecting us for soundcheck tomorrow.”

Louise headed out before either of us could say something. Eve-lynn threw her guitar onto our shared bed and walked up to the large window, taking in the view of the bustling city. She wrapped her arms around herself and rubbed her arms.

“Let me guess,” I started, walking towards her and wrapping my arm around her shoulders in comfort. “Your terrified.”

“I’m not sure terrified is the right word,” she replied, dark eyes glued to the window. “I’m excited to be here, and this is a dream come true, but actually being here… if this doesn’t work out, I won’t know what to do with myself.”

“Eve, Eve, Eve,” I sighed, “always the pessimist.”

“One of us has to stay realistic,” she chuckled, finally walking away from me and my comforting embrace. She dropped herself onto the bed and started taking off her Dr. Martens ankle boots.

“Says the one who doesn’t believe in the power her own music,” I fired back, my eyebrow raised to the heavens. “Our demo got us here. Your vocals, your lyrics, our music. Believe in yourself a little. Self doubt doesn’t look cute on anyone.”

I wanted to say more, but got distracted by the vibration of my phone.

“Anthony just texted. He’s inviting us to come play poker with him and the guys.” I wiggled my eyebrows. “I wonder what kind of poker they had in mind.”

“Jesus, Poppy,” Eve-lynn exclaimed, picking up the pillow behind her and flinging it across the room towards me. “Behave.”

“What?” I asked innocently. “I’m not going to ignore that I’m tragically single and they are all pretty cute. Even Anthony is an attractive guy, though I can’t imagine myself ever going there.”

Eve-lynn made a face, her cheeks flushed red at my words. I knew for a fact that she had a crush on Levi Glass; he was featured on one of her ‘role model’ moodboards that hung on the wall of her room. She insisted she admired his songwriting skills - ‘He’s an amazing lyricalist. Have you listened to ‘Go With God’, it’s absolutely genius!’ - but when push came to shove I knew deep down she wouldn’t turn him away.

“I promise I won’t flirt with Levi,” I mentioned, before darting into the bathroom and locking the door behind me.

“What?!” I could hear her exclaim from behind the door. “Poppy, don’t you-” but I quickly turned on the shower and pretended I couldn’t hear the words that followed.

* * *

“Ladies,” Blane spoke as he opened the door to their hotel room. Their room was larger than ours and housed four single beds, a large couch, a seating area and a familiar dresser and closet combo.

Levi and Anthony were setting up our poker game at the table, while Blane passed us and headed straight towards the balcony for a smoke. I followed him, rummaging through my purse for my cigarettes and asked him for a lighter.

My back leaned against the railing of the balcony as I watched Eve-lynn move across the room in what only could be described as slow motion. Like a deer caught in headlights, she moved only when she wasn’t being watched, or talked too.

“Jesus,” I sighed, exhaling the smoke I had inhaled, shaking my head dismissively. “This is going to be a long night.”

“I’m guessing she doesn’t really go out much?” Blane asked, one arm across his torso as the elbow of the other rested against it, inhaling and exhaling smoke repeatedly.

“I said a thing,” I confessed. “I said a thing and made things awkward. These are the consequences of my actions.”

“What did you say?” Blane asked inquisitively, but I paid him no mind. Instead I pressed my cigarette bud into the overflowing ashtray, sighed and carried myself inside. Dropping myself onto the couch next to Eve, I wrapped my arm around her shoulder as an affirming signal that she was not alone and asked what kind of poker we were playing.

“Regular,” Ashton replied as he entered the hotel room. He was carrying five large boxes of pizza, and a goofy grin across his face.

“Why? You offering up a different idea?” He asked with a gentle eyebrow wiggle. He placed the pizza’s onto the bed and walked over towards me, hands tugged into the pockets of his jeans.
“Maybe,” I played.

I felt his eyes scan my body, no doubt imagining what I would look like stripped of all my clothes. I’m used to being watched like that; I loved being watched like that. I pressed myself up from the couch, taking a few steps closer to Ashton as I playfully bit my lower lip.

“I’m not sure you could handle it, though.”

I could almost hear him gulp at the idea, but it was overpowered by Eve-lynn’s heart dropping at the mere thought of having to play strip poker with the guys. I was going to stick in her corner for now.
“I guess regular poker will be fine.”

The room took a collective deep breath. Levi continued setting up the table as the tension in his shoulders subsided. Eve-lynn sloughed back into the couch, throwing her head back in relief.

“Dude,” Anthony finally broke the silence, addressing Ashton. “I know you’re going through this dry spell, but four guys and two girls, chances are we’d be balls deep before they take their socks off. We’re not that great at this game.”

A soft chuckle originated from Eve, who seemed to be a little bit more at ease now that strip poker was officially off the table. She even dragged herself off the couch and over towards the table, seating herself opposite of Levi, who was wrapping up dealing the first round of cards.

“You guys are in for a long night,” she spoke, picking up the two cards before her and quickly glancing at them. “My uncle is a professional player. I know all the tricks.”

* * *

The long night Eve-lynn predicted became the opposite. Blane was the first one out; he had a nervous tick where he’d start bouncing his knee whenever he was bluffing. The rounds that followed after that ran smooth, although I wondered if Eve-lynn was letting us win a few rounds to make us feel better about ourselves.

Anthony faltered after that, and I closely followed, leaving my best friend to play with Ashton and Levi.

“I’ll see your twenty, and I’ll raise you fifty,” she spoke, throwing a couple plastic chips into the large pool in the middle of the table.

This was going to be the final round. Ashton was all in, and Levi was struggling to hold on to the few chips he had left. Meanwhile, Eve could build herself a miniature castle with the amount of round disks she had collected overnight.

“Okay, I’ll see your fifty,” Levi replied, putting two of his last five remaining chips. “Show me your cards.”

Eve-lynn turned over her cards; full house, ace high. Levi slumped back into his chair and threw his cards on the table in defeat.

“Fair enough, you did warn us,” he chuckled.

“I’m just glad we weren’t playing for actual money,” Ashton sighed, dropping his cards on the table as well. He had one pair, King high, which would have defeated Levi who was playing an awful hand and had been bluffing.

“You should’ve copped out sooner,” Eve laughed, sorting her chips and stacking them accordingly. “That was a terrible hand.”

“I guess I just wanted to see how far you were willing to go,” Levi replied. “You’ve shown your true colours tonight.”

I could hear Eve-lynn’s heart drop to the floor. Her pale complexion whiter than a sheet of paper. I wanted to rush to her defence, but to my surprise she actually formed words and asked him what he meant by that.

“I mean no offence,” he quickly corrected. “You know what you’re good at and you don’t hide it for the sake of our fragile male ego. It’s been a while since we actually had our asses kicked by someone outside of the band.”

Slowly I watched colour flush back into her cheeks to the point where I realized she was blushing. God, she was into this guy and she wouldn’t even admit it to herself.

“Well,” I chimed in, stepping up towards the table and wrapping an arm around Eve-lynn’s shoulders. “We’re not here to impress you. We’re here to impress the label.”

“What?!” Ashton exclaimed, eating the last piece of cold pizza. “You’re here for your own personal goals, and not to cater to our needs? Pathetic.”

I wasn’t set back by his sarcasm, but I shot him a deadly glare anyway.

“Would you look at the time,” I replied, looking at my bare wrist. “I think it’s best if Eve-lynn and I leave for the night. Big day tomorrow.”

“We can’t leave without helping them clean up a bit,” Eve spoke, already putting the chips and cards back into the metal suitcase they came from.

“Fine,” I sighed as I started collecting empty beer cans and throwing them away.

* * *

The entire room was cleaned in a few minutes, apart from the smell of pizza, and Eve-lynn and I found ourselves on our way back to our hotel room.

It was late. The clock had struck 2 am and Louise was already fast asleep when we entered the room. We quietly changed into our pyjamas and climbed into bed. The weight of the bedding almost lulling me to sleep instantly.

“I had fun,” Eve-lynn spoke, to which I replied by making a disgruntled noise. “Thanks for dragging me along with you.” That was all I remember, as sleep took me far away from that hotel in Los Angeles.
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Hey everyone, so it took me a bit longer than usual. But I'd rather give good content than fast content. I hope you guys are enjoying this! I'm super self concious, so if you have any tips/tricks/comments, let me know. As always, thank you so much for reading!