Merch Girl

by Rebecca Lewis

  I snapped out of my trance of misery as Devin stopped at our table. “I didn’t know you and Logan were together! Why didn’t you tell me?” she squealed.

  “What are you talking about?”

  She shoved her phone in my face, and showed me photos from last night. They were the same photos Jenna showed me earlier. Great, just great. Like I really needed more drama right now.

  “We’re not together, we’re just friends,” I told her.

  “Riiiiiight,” she said. “Well, I think you’re cute together.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Thanks, I’ll be sure to tell him.”

  I was actually secretly happy that those photos got out. Now the whole world would know that Logan liked me. On the flipside, I knew he would probably get in trouble with his record label, and I didn’t want Griffin and Ryan to be mad at him either. I held off from bothering Trina with this new information since she had enough to worry about for one day.

  The guys took the stage and Logan pumped up the crowd. The band sounded great, but I could tell Griffin and Ryan weren’t very happy. They hardly smiled and their usual infectious energy wasn’t there; it looked like they were just going through the motions.

  “Griffin looks miserable,” Trina noted.

  It was the first thing she said since they got on stage. At least she wasn’t giving me the silent treatment.

  “He’s not upset with you, he’s upset with Ryan,” I explained.

  “For now,” she said. “Next time he sees me, I can bet you he won’t be thrilled.”

  When the show was over, the fans bombarded our table, and I noticed a lot of the girls staring at me, or pointing and whispering to their friends. Some of them didn’t even buy merchandise; they just came to look at me. I assumed they saw the photos, and wanted to see me up close and personal. It was freaky, and I felt like they all hated me now.

  “What’s their problem?” Trina asked.

  “Jenna posted those photos she threatened me with earlier.”

  “Figures, I knew she would do something like that.”

  After everyone left, we packed up the boxes and took them back to the bus.

  “Can we just stay on the bus tonight? I don’t want to face Griffin right now,” Trina said.

  “Of course.”

  We climbed up the stairs of our bus, and for the first time, I didn’t feel on edge. I checked around to make sure, but I knew Jenna and Jeff were long gone by now. The only person left on our bus besides the driver was Robyn. It was going to be nice and quiet from now on, and I was so relieved.

  We heard the commotion outside and knew what it meant. I peeked out the window anyway, and saw the guys signing autographs and taking pictures.

  “I swear these fans get crazier every night.”

  “Yeah,” Trina replied, quietly.

  Her voice sounded so sad. I sat next to her at the table and wrapped my arm around her. Before I could say anything she started to cry.

  “I messed up so bad,” she said through her tears.

  “No, it will be fine. You guys can talk through it tomorrow, and then everything can go back to normal.”

  She shook her head and pushed her hair behind her ears. “I don’t know. I don’t want to think about it right now, let’s just watch a movie.”

  We turned on the DVD player in the lounge and popped in a comedy. After some time passed I heard Trina begin to snore. I started to drift off too, and would wake up every so often as the movie was still playing. I woke up again to the feeling of soft lips brushing my forehead. I opened my eyes and saw Logan leaning over me.

  “What are you doing in here?” I whispered, still half asleep. Maybe I was dreaming.

  “Heard there was some extra room on the bus,” he whispered back.

  I felt the bus start to move.

  “You’re staying on our bus for the night?” I asked, confused.

  He smiled and kissed me again.

  “What about Trina?”

  Logan looked at Trina, asleep next to me on the small couch. He picked her up and swiftly set her down inside her bunk. He came back to the lounge and lay next to me, even though he was a little too tall to fit comfortably.

  “Go back to sleep,” he said.

  I rested my head on his shoulder and he caressed my hair. It felt so nice that I didn’t want to fall back asleep. I tried to keep my eyes open, but it was useless. I snuggled up close to him, and breathed in the mix of sweat and cologne on his body. He sang something quietly and I let his voice drift me back to sleep.

  I wasn’t sure how much time had passed by before Logan shook me awake. My eyelids felt like they had ten-pound weights attached to them. I rolled over, but he shook me again.

  “We’re at the hotel,” he whispered.

  I looked at my cell phone and saw it was about two in the morning. We were already in D.C.? Logan helped me crawl out of the lounge and held his arm around my shoulders, guiding me inside the hotel.

  “Do you want to spend the night in my room?” he asked.

  Did I really just hear that or was I still asleep, dreaming?

  “Yeah, sure…” I replied. “But, I need to talk to Trina first.”

  “Okay.”

  I found Trina waiting near the elevator.

  “Hey, Logan asked me to stay the night in his room, would you be okay alone in our room?”

  Her jaw dropped. “Oh my God! Yes, I’ll be fine; you go get some rockstar ass!”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes!” she said. “Don’t worry about me.”

  I hugged her goodbye and waved over to Logan. He ran over to meet me and we got in the elevator. He pressed the button to his floor, and quickly turned around to pull me in close for a kiss.

  He stepped away as the doors opened. “Sorry, I just can’t keep my hands off you.”

  “You don’t have to apologize for that; you’re just a horny teenager,” I joked.

  “Actually, I’m almost twenty.”

  I poked him playfully. “Really? I had no idea you were such an old man.”

  We entered the large room, which had a nice king-sized bed.

  “How old are you, anyway?” he asked.

  “Almost eighteen.”

  “You’re only seventeen?”

  “Almost eighteen!”

  He shook his head. “Well, I’m not taking advantage of you until you’re an adult!”

  He winked and threw me down on the bed.

  “Fine, wouldn’t want you breaking any laws now that you’re famous,” I told him.

  “Famous? I’m not famous.”

  He sat up on the side of the bed and took off his shoes, shirt and jeans, and crawled back onto the bed in his boxer briefs. He lifted up the covers for me to get underneath with him. I snuggled up beside his warm body and rested my head on his chest.

  “Yes, you are. Hello, don’t you see all the fans constantly screaming for you?”

  “That doesn’t make me famous, that just means some people like my music,” he replied.

  “Well, I like to think that my boyfriend is famous.”

  “Boyfriend, huh?”

  Crap! I so did not mean for that to slip out. I was glad the room was dark so he couldn’t see how embarrassed I looked.

  “Well…I heard you call me your girlfriend earlier at the venue, and we’ve been spending a lot of time together and…” I rambled.

  He hugged me closer to his body and turned to face me.

  “Lacey, will you be my girlfriend?” My eyes were still adjusting to the darkness in the room, but I could see him smile.

  “Yes,” I whispered and leaned in to kiss him.

  “I’m glad you stayed with me tonight,” he said, rubbing my arm.

  “You need to go to bed, it’s really late and you have a show tomorrow. I won’t allow you to be tired when you need to perform.”

  “Alright, alright.” He kissed me one last time before I fell asleep in his strong, comforting arms.

  Chapt
er 11 – Washington, D.C.

  The phone rang loudly, waking up Logan and me. A line of sunlight shone through the small space between the two window curtains. It felt too early to be awake. Logan rolled away from me and picked up the phone on the nightstand.

  “Hello? Yeah, I’ll be down in a few.”

  He rolled back over on his pillow, yawned and stretched out his lean body.

  “Who was that?” I asked.

  “Robyn; she needs me downstairs,” he said. “Wish I could stay in bed all day.”

  I nodded my head in agreement. He slowly crawled out of bed and I heard the shower turn on. I tried to fall back asleep, but it wasn’t going to happen. Logan came out of the bathroom a few minutes later, wearing only his boxer briefs.

  “I really, really wish you could stay in bed all day,” I remarked.

  He leaned over the bed and gave me a quick kiss before slipping into his clothes from last night.

  “Me too babe, but I’ll see you later,” he said, and ran out the door.

  So much for a nice morning with my new boyfriend. I got dressed and went down a floor to Trina’s room. She opened the door and I noticed dried mascara all over her face.

  “If I knew you were going to be crying all night, I would have stayed with you! Why didn’t you tell me you were so upset?”

  “How do you know I was crying?” she asked.

  “Your eye makeup is kinda…” I said, pointing to her cheeks.

  “I didn’t want my drama to ruin your night with Logan, don’t worry about it,” she responded, wiping her face.

  She fell back in bed and I sat down on the edge.

  “Do you want to talk about it?” I asked.

  She was silent and shoved her face down into her pillow. I rubbed her back, and tried to help, but I wasn’t sure what to say.

  “Maybe I should just leave the tour,” she said through muffled sobs.

  “What? No! That’s crazy, you guys can just talk through it.”

  She shook her head and turned to lie on her back. “I’d rather not have to go through all that crap and just leave and be done with it.”

  “No, I won’t allow that to happen, you’re staying on tour, and that’s that.”

  I brought her some tissues and she wiped her nose and eyes.

  “Text Griffin and tell him you need to talk to him later,” I suggested.

  She pulled out her cell and pushed the buttons.

  “Don’t forget to hit send,” I said.

  The phone beeped back almost instantly.

  “He said, ‘ok,’” she reported. “Ugh, now I’m going to be so stressed all day about what we’re going to say to each other!”

  I opened the window curtain to let the sun come in the room. “Come on, let’s go do something to get your mind off of it.”

  She nodded and I waited for her to get ready.

  We grabbed some maps from the hotel lobby and found our way to all of the tourist spots we could get to before we had to face reality again.

  We returned to the hotel, and sat in front of the mirror to do our makeup for the night. “I can’t do this, I can’t face him.”

  “You’ll be fine!” I said.

  We changed into our merch selling outfits and went downstairs to the bus. It didn’t take long to get to the venue, and we could see the girls lined up outside already.

  “I feel like I’m gonna throw up,” Trina said.

  “Come on, let’s just get the merch set up and we’ll find Griffin later.”

  We unloaded the boxes and carried them across the street to the night club. It was smaller than the other places we’d been to so far. The guys were already tuning their instruments on stage. We finished setting up the merchandise display and I ventured in to watch the rest of soundcheck. Trina stayed behind at the table; she wasn’t ready to see Griffin yet. Soundcheck wasn’t going too well though. The boys weren’t talking and joking around like usual; I guess they were still mad at each other.

  Logan waved at me and I blew him a kiss back. I couldn’t get over how lucky I was to have him. It still felt like a dream.

  “Hey, sexy girl in the front row, can I get your number?” he said into the microphone.

  I shook my head, no.

  “Aw, come on, please?”

  He smiled and jumped off stage.

  “How was your day?” I asked.

  “Interviews, interviews, and more interviews,” he replied.

  “Sounds fun.”

  “Nah, not really, would rather be singing.”

  “Can’t wait to hear you later,” I replied. “But, listen, I gotta get back to Trina, she’s still pretty bummed.”

  “I’ll see you later.” He gave me another hug before jumping back up on stage to finish soundcheck.

  I walked back to our merch table and noticed Trina sitting on a box, staring into space. I hated to see her so depressed. She was usually so cheerful and upbeat.

  I placed my hand on her shoulder and looked her straight in the eye. “You’ll get through this, don’t worry so much.”

  “That’s the weird thing; I’ve never been so upset over a guy before,” she admitted. “But, with Griffin…I don’t know, I just think we have something special between us, and I love him, I really do, and I never had the courage to tell him yet.”

  “I’m sure he feels the same way.”

  We couldn’t hear the show that well from where we were in the lobby. I’m sure Trina was glad, but I wanted to experience the concert, so she kept watch at the table while I went further into the club. The guys were professional and put on a great show, even though there was so much tension between them. Logan’s voice sucked me into a trance and I locked my eyes on him as I danced to the music.

  I rejoined Trina before the last song ended so I could help her sell the merchandise. The merch table was a mad house, and we sold for about an hour.

  “Can I go backstage tonight?” someone asked us. I looked up to see Miss Super Fan herself, Devin.

  “No,” Trina said, loudly.

  “You don’t have to be so mean about it,” Devin replied.

  “Sorry, we just have some things we have to get done tonight…how about tomorrow?” I said.

  “Alright,” she agreed. She sounded disappointed and walked out the door with the last group of fans to leave the building.

  “That girl is so annoying,” Trina said.

  “She’s not that annoying, she just really loves the band. I can understand that.”

  Trina rolled her eyes.

  “Anyway, I’ll ask Griffin to switch places with me tonight so you guys can talk,” I told her.

  She grabbed her stomach with both hands. “I can’t do it. I feel sick.”

  “Yes you can! You’ll be fine.” I needed her to work things out with Griffin, and I hoped my words of encouragement would give her the motivation to try.

  After the guys were done meeting their fans I told Griffin the plan. He agreed, and looked just as nervous as Trina did. I crossed my fingers that everything would go smoothly between the two of them.

  As I climbed up the steps on the band’s bus, Logan came to greet me. I didn’t notice Ryan anywhere; he must have escaped to his bunk.

  “Let’s chill in the back,” Logan said.

  I followed him to the lounge and memories of the last time I went back there flashed into my mind -- visions of Logan, half naked, on top of me. My stomach filled with butterflies just thinking about it. But, tonight was not going to be a repeat. I was too worried about Trina to enjoy myself.

  “What’s up?” Logan asked.

  “I’m just scared for Trina. She really, really likes Griffin, and I hope they can make it past all this crazy drama, and get back together by the time we get to Atlanta.”

  “Well, they have ten hours to figure it all out…”

  He turned on the TV and wrapped his arms around me. I listened to his heart beating, it was quick and steady, and his chest rose and fell ever so slightly with eac
h breath. I placed my hands under his thin t-shirt and scraped my fingernails lightly against his skin. I felt little goosebumps rise up at my touch, and I looked over at his angelic face. His eyes were closed and the corners of his mouth turned up. My eyes began to water from the overwhelming emotions I felt being with him. It was scary and exciting, and everything I ever wanted.

  “What’s wrong? Still worried about Trina?” he asked.

  He must have felt my tears seep through his shirt. I looked up at him and shook my head. It had nothing to do with Trina.

  He raised his eyebrows. “Did I do something wrong?”

  “No,” I managed to sputter out. “I just can’t believe that someone as perfect as you would want me.”

  He wiped the tears from my cheeks with his hand. “I’m not perfect, and any guy would be crazy not to want you.”

  Chapter 12 – Atlanta

  I jumped awake at the sound of my cell phone ringing. If it wasn’t for Logan’s arm wrapped tightly around my body, I would have fallen right off the couch. I managed to maneuver my phone out of my pocket and saw it was Trina calling.

  “Hey, what’s up?”

  “Can you meet me outside, right now?” she asked.

  I looked out the window and noticed that we were parked at the hotel; we must have just got there.

  “Yeah, I’ll be right out.” I hung up the phone and kissed Logan’s forehead. “I gotta go talk to Trina.”

  He loosened his grip on me and kissed my lips in return. “Okay.”

  I ran off the bus, anxious to hear what happened. Trina met me as I stepped off the last step. She looked awful. Her eyes were bloodshot and her face was puffy. I waited for her to say something, but she was silent. I couldn’t find any words either, and swung my arms around her tightly.

  We pulled apart and she finally spoke. “It was the best and worst night of my life.”

  “Why? What happened?” I asked.

  “I tried to explain to him that I thought I was going to get kicked off the tour if I told anyone what was going on with Jenna and Jeff, but he didn’t think that was a good enough reason to keep the secret from him. He thought I should have confided in him, and that I should have trusted that he wouldn’t let me get taken off the tour.”