Boy Band

by Jacqueline Smith

  Artist: The Kind of September

  From the Album:17 Times Over

  This morning, we’re all awake bright and early to catch a flight to New York, where the guys will spend most of their time being interviewed by talk shows, news outlets, and just about every person with a microphone.

  After emotional goodbyes and promises to call our families as often as we can, the entire group, bandmates, musicians, security, managers, all of us are escorted to a private waiting area where we all spread out immediately to wait for our flight.

  Something that the guys have always strived to emulate is individuality. When Josh and Oliver first joined, they expressed concern than as a part of a boy band, they might be viewed as “clones,” and although they wanted to present themselves as one team, one band, they also want to be known as themselves. They don’t dress alike. They put their own spin on their choreographed routines. They’re five guys in one outstanding group, and none of them ever have a problem being who they are.

  For example, all five have drastically different relationships with early mornings.

  Jesse is the one who has to be physically dragged out of bed, and once he actually is up, he has to have some sort of coffee or energy drink before he can force himself to talk or have any kind of human interaction. Honestly, though, it’s kind of his fault. He and Josh are total night owls and they’re the ones we always have to shush whenever we all sleep in the same room or on one of the tour buses. But at least Josh is pleasant in the mornings. That boy falls asleep with a smile every night and he wakes up with one every morning. He’s just a great person to be around all the time.

  Except when it’s 2:00 AM and you’re trying to sleep after a twelve-hour work day and he won’t stop laughing or making weird noises.

  Then there’s Cory, who is more of a morning person than anyone else I’ve ever met, except perhaps his sister. They’re both highly ambitious and motivated people, but they seem even more so when they first wake up. That’s probably why Cory gets so many things tossed at him at times like these. While the rest of the guys are relaxing, trying to steal a few extra winks, Cory likes to discuss their plans for the day. This morning, however, he seems too preoccupied with his phone to care about what the others are doing.

  Oliver, surprisingly, is probably the worst of the bunch. He’s sweet and adorable most of the time, but he can actually get a little snappy when he’s tired. I told you that Josh and Jesse will be the ones being shushed late at night? Well, Oliver is always the first to do the shushing. It’s more of an issue at night than in the morning, but if he hasn’t gotten a proper night’s rest, he can be just as crabby in the AM.

  We’d never admit it to him, but both Joni and I agree that cranky Oliver is actually really precious.

  Finally, there’s Sam. Sam in the morning has always reminded me of a sad, sleepy puppy. His eyes get droopy, his hair is always a disaster, and he usually wears something like sweatpants and a hoodie. He barely talks, and when he does, his voice is hoarse and much lower than it normally is. He’s never in a bad mood, but I don’t think he fully wakes up until at least an hour later.

  As for me, I’m not a morning person, but I can usually wake myself up and get myself together fairly quickly. Unlike Sam, Jesse, and Josh, who are already camped out and dozing, I’m hanging with the awake crowd consisting of Oliver, Cory, and Joni.

  “One day, I’m going to go buy a giant stuffed animal and plant it on Jesse, I think,” Oliver remarks.

  “That would be so funny,” I say. It would be, too.

  “Yeah. Then I’m going to post it on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. In fact, we might just make it the new album cover.”

  “I’d buy it,” I tell him.

  “Yeah?”

  “Definitely.”

  “I’d buy the stuffed animal,” Joni remarks.

  I realize I should probably be taking this rare and limited down time to study for my upcoming final exam, but I feel like I spent the majority of my week off doing school work. Now, I just want to spend time with my friends and prepare for our next adventure.

  By the time we board, Josh, Jesse, and Sam are finally awake enough to at least act like functioning members of the human race, if not society. I happily take an aisle seat next to Sam and Jesse. The whole group knows that I’m something of a nervous flyer. That’s why I usually prefer life on the tour bus to hopping around on airplanes. That bus might be cramped and crowded and more often than not, it smells like a strange mix of cologne, stale popcorn, and a mountain of men’s dirty socks, but at least it stays on the ground.

  Then again, sharing that one itty-bitty, teeny-tiny bathroom with all of them might just make it a toss-up.

  Life on the road with the hottest band on the planet? Not glamorous. But you know, at least they’re entertaining.

  “Say cheese!” Sam announces and holds his smartphone up to take a selfie of Jesse, him, and me.

  “Are you tweeting that?” Jesse asks.

  “Nope. This one’s just for me.” Sam takes a lot of pictures. He has this fancy camera that he’s absolutely in love with, and he takes it everywhere he goes. Right now, however, it’s packed up and stowed away with the rest of our luggage, so he has to resort to snapping pictures on his phone.

  “Good. I look horrible,” Jesse murmurs and runs a hand through his messy, auburn locks. Somehow, even though he in no way intended for it to be so, he makes it look like a seductive gesture. That’s probably why, next to Sam, he gets the most attention from girls.

  When the plane finally starts to move, the flight attendants step out to begin going over safety procedures. I’ve heard the drill so many times that I could probably recite it from memory. Besides, with the plane preparing for takeoff, I’m trying my best to stay calm and not let my flight jitters get the best of me.

  Sam knows that I’m nervous. Every flight that he sits next to me, he offers his hand during takeoff. I always take it. Today is no exception. As the plane turns onto the runway, he lays his hand down on the armrest between us, palm up and fingers slightly spaced apart. I take it, and immediately, flying doesn’t seem that scary at all.

  Okay, I’ll admit that there is a small part of me that always tries to get a seat next to Sam just so I can hold his hand like this. Holding hands with him is one of my favorite things in the world. But the fear of flying is still there and is, in fact, a real nuisance when I’m not sitting next to him.

  “You okay?” he asks me.

  “Yep. Great,” I reply, sounding breathless. Thankfully, as far as he knows, that’s because I’m stricken with terror and not because his fingers are currently laced through mine.

  “Melissa, I can’t believe you made it through that flight to Australia last year,” Jesse remarks.

  “Easy. I took a Dramamine.”

  “There you have it. She was unconscious,” Sam laughs.

  The rest of the flight is relatively uneventful. Jesse dozes off again, his head resting against the closed window, Sam listens to music on his phone, and I bury my nose in the newest Meg Cabot book. The others like to make fun of my young adult literature addiction, but hey, at least I read. I bet you anything that right now, Josh is playing a video game, Oliver is watching Netflix on his iPad, Cory is messaging Tara, and Joni is griping about it.

  I ask you, who is the cultured one in this group?

  ⋯

  Once we land in New York, we’re given twenty minutes for lunch before the guys are whisked away to the dressing rooms for a day of interviews with a host of reporters from a variety of news outlets. They’re the kind, you know, where the interviewers sit down one at a time with the guys in a dark room with an enormous picture of the new album cover in the background. Most of the time, they ask questions about the album, sometimes touring, and sometimes it gets personal, even downright silly.

  For example, “Who’s the biggest prankster of the group? Who is most likely to kiss and tell? Whose feet smell the worst?”

 
; The answers to those questions, by the way, are Josh, Jesse, and Josh again. Sam’s feet are a close second, though.

  Today, however, I’m guessing most of the questions will be about the new album and the upcoming tour. Fans, of course, are ecstatic, as are the guys. They’re always excited to talk about their new music.

  Joni and I only see them for a brief moment before they meet with the first reporter, but they all look great. By now, they’ve each established their own individual look. Jesse is the sexy rock star. Oliver is cute and stylishly nerdy. Cory is a throwback to the late 90s. Josh is dreamy in an All-American kind of way. And Sam is trendy and a little rebellious.

  The interview, as expected, starts with questions about the new album. What are their favorite songs? How long did it take to write? Is this their best album yet?

  Then come the personal questions, or as this reporter puts it, “the questions that millions of girls around the world want to know the answers to.”

  For instance, “What do you look for in a girlfriend?”

  Josh wants a girl who likes to laugh and is into sports. Oliver likes girls who are smart. Jesse isn’t sure, but he wants to be able to talk with her about anything. Sam’s answer is my favorite. He says, “I want her to be my best friend. I want to know she loves me for me.”

  I hope for a fleeting moment that maybe, just maybe, he’s talking about me. But I know, deep down, that if he did have feelings for me, he would have said something by now. Sam’s not a shy guy. He’s also not very subtle. He’s so very caring and he always wears his heart on his sleeve. If he has feelings for someone, he’s going to let her know.

  Finally, it’s Cory’s turn to talk about his ideal girlfriend. Of course, he responds with, “Well, I’m kind of dating mine right now.”

  “Oh, please,” Joni scoffs.

  “What?” I ask.

  “Tara Meeks is not his ideal girlfriend. She isn’t anyone’s ideal girlfriend.”

  “Joni, why do you hate her so much?” I ask. I mean, yeah, she is kind of stuck-up and a little rude, but to be honest, I’m sure other male celebrities have dated a lot worse.

  “I’ve told you. She can’t get famous on her own so she’s using my brother - no, she’s using all of them - to make a name for herself. She doesn’t care about him. And he just doesn’t see it. He doesn’t know what this is doing to the entire band.”

  “The guys seem okay with it. I mean, I don’t think they’re big fans or anything, but they seem to at least be happy for him.”

  “I’m not talking about how they feel about it. I’m talking about the fans. The media.”

  “What do you mean?” I ask.

  “I’ve been talking to Stan and a few of the other crew members. They think that with the album release and the tour coming up, it’s better for the band’s image and their relationship with fans if the guys at least appear to be single,” Joni explains. Stan, for the record, is the band’s manager. He’s the one who, basically, runs all of our lives.

  “Wait, what?” This is the first I’ve heard of that, and I’ve got to be honest, it doesn’t make much sense to me.

  “Why are the guys so popular, Mel?”

  “Because people like their music.”

  “Of course there’s that, but think about it. Most of the fans are girls. Young and single girls. And Stan thinks that those fans would be more loyal to a group of guys who are, for all intents and purposes, unattached. Personally, I don’t think that’s giving the fans enough credit, but at the same time, with all the tabloids trying to stir up drama, I can’t help but think he might have a point. Reports of bad behavior and rude girlfriends are huge turnoffs for some fans. And they should be!”

  “So, Stan doesn’t think the guys should be dating at all?” That’s news to me also.

  “I guess if they dated someone halfway decent, it would probably be okay. But if they do, I think he would definitely prefer that they keep it on the down low. And if I’m right about Tara, which I’m pretty sure I am, she wants to make it known as far and wide as humanly possible that she is dating Cory Foreman. It’s sickening.”

  “So, is that why you don’t want to date any of the guys?” I ask, thinking of Oliver.

  “No, it’s because I’m not into workplace relationships or guys who are constantly in the spotlight. We watch from the sidelines, but just imagine what it must be like to actually date that. No privacy. Constant gossip and speculation. It’d be horrible.”

  “But if you really cared about him, don’t you think it’d be worth it?”

  She looks me in the eye. “Exactly who are we talking about here, Mel?”

  “No one,” I try to shrug it off. “I’m just being hypothetical.”

  I’ve said before that I’m pretty sure Joni knows I’m harboring a secret crush on one of the guys. In fact, she probably knows it’s Sam. She grew up with us, too. I’m sure she’s seen the way I act around him. Maybe she’s pretended not to notice in order to spare my feelings. But that would go against her God-given instincts to tell me what to do, which would probably be to forget Sam Morneau altogether. That, or maybe I’m just a better actress than I’ve been giving myself credit for all these years.

  The guys end their long day of interviews with an acoustic performance ofHighway, their second single off the new album. Although they usually have a band backing them up, I think they sound just as good, if not better, when it’s just them singing along while Jesse plays guitar. It reminds me of the days when they were first starting out.

  Those were some of the best days of my life.

  Sam:

  Lost in time

  Tell me what’s real

  This place, it never changes

  Oliver:

  Time to get lost

  I’ll take the highway

  Don’t want to know where I’m going

  But I’ll tell you when I get there

  All:

  Gonna take my time

  Roads keep stretching on

  And I’ve got everything to find

  I’m leaving tonight

  Please don’t miss me when I’m gone

  Everything will be alright

  Jesse:

  Under the sky

  I see myself

  This face, it’s seen the ages

  Cory:

  Can’t stay below

  I’ll take the highway

  I’m not going to turn around

  But I’ll think of you when starlight fills my eyes

  All:

  Gonna take my time

  Roads keep stretching on

  And I’ve got everything to find

  I’m leaving tonight

  Please don’t miss me when I’m gone

  Everything will be alright

  Josh:

  And I can’t promise you

  That I’ll come back to stay

  But I will remember

  Oh I will remember

  Promise you’ll remember

  All:

  Gonna take my time

  Roads keep stretching on

  And I’ve got everything to find

  I’m leaving tonight

  Please don’t miss me when I’m gone

  Everything will be alright.

  CHAPTER 6

  “I wanna wake up to your smiling face

  Wake up to your arms around me

  Why does this night have to end?

  Tell me, why has morning found me?

  If I have to wake up, wake up

  Please let me wake up, wake up

  With you.”

  Song: “Wake Up”

  Artist: The Kind of September

  From the Album:Meet Me on the Midway

  To get the fans excited for the new album and the world tour, the guys have written a short book. It’s calledThe Tour Bus Diariesand it’s filled with all of their stories and personal experiences from the road. Some of the entries are kind of short. Some are longer. Some are insightful refle
ctions. Some are rants. Most of them are pretty hilarious. All in all, it’s the guys’ way of sharing a little bit of themselves with the fans. It’s their way of thanking them for always being there.

  The book also includes a lot of pictures from behind the scenes that fans have never seen before. I actually took a few of them on my phone. All in all, it’s a fun book and I really think that fans will enjoy it.

  To celebrate the release ofThe Tour Bus Diaries, the guys are participating in a big meet-and-greet book signing at one of the New York convention centers. The event sold out within minutes.

  We arrived at the convention center early this morning, long before any of the fans or media representatives showed up. Well, there were a few of the more passionate fans staked out near the back entrance where the guys were escorted in. Despite Stan and security trying to hurry them along, the guys lingered back, took pictures, and signed a few early autographs.

  Now the guys are getting ready to head out to the signing table. Joni will be standing out with them to monitor the crowd and to keep everything moving efficiently. We only have three hours and we, especially the guys, want to make sure that every fan gets a chance to interact with them. As for me, I’m once again on camera duty. Just photography for today, though. No video. And that’s okay.

  It’s always interesting to see fans reactions to actually meeting the guys. Some of them scream. Some of them break down and cry. Some can’t stop talking. Having known them as long as I have, I’ve never been starstruck by any of them (well, except for Sam... and that was even before he was famous). However, I know for a fact I’m not immune to the fangirl phenomenon.

  Case in point: last year at this big international music awards thing, I ran into this really hot Irish singer-songwriter and I kid you not, I could not remember how to breathe. His eyes were just so blue and his accent was so dreamy... I think I rambled on about how beautiful he was and how much I loved his music for a good five minutes before he finally determined I was psycho and walked away. Oliver told me that he felt the same way when he was introduced to the girl who played Hermione in theHarry Potterfilms. It happens. Of course, when it happens to Oliver, he still comes off as adorable. With me, it’s just creepy.