Backstage

by Mandy Bee

  “I’m fine with that.” He lifts my chin with his fingers so I have to look at him. “To tell the truth I don’t think that I’m ready for sex yet either. I’ve learned from past relationships that having sex too early can ruin everything. I want this relationship to work. We need to be honest with each other, we will go slow at first, then when we both are ready we can talk about sex. No need to rush, just being with you is all I need right now.”

  “You are something else Justin Crow. A rock star with a bad boy image, a sweet caring friend, and now the sweetest boyfriend ever.” I lean over and start kissing him. We end up laying back down and starting a new make out session. It wasn’t until Scot knocked and told him that they had to go to sound check, that we both got out of bed. Chris left us some sandwiches up front with a note saying he was afraid to interrupt whatever we were doing back there. I wanted to kill him but all I could do was laugh.

  Tonight’s show was a little different then the other ones. This one being the first stop on the over seas part of the tour, it was bound to be special. But for me it was something else, this is my first show as Justin’s girlfriend, not just Chris’s baby sister. I watched the final song from the side of the stage. I have only stood by the stage one other time, and that was when I had to be introduced on stage, what a nightmare that was.

  Now I’m not going to say I’m turning into a big Freak Street fan, because that would be a lie. I still don’t like their music that much, but it’s not as bad as I thought it was when we started the tour. I watch the guys line up on stage and take a bow, everyone is screaming and the guys are glowing. Yes it’s mostly from sweat but still they look so happy. My new family, and my new boyfriend.

  “Hey!” Justin screams as he runs up to me and kisses me on the lips. A big wet kiss!

  “No! Ew you’re all sweaty!” I giggle when he tries to hug me.

  We walk back to the dressing rooms hand in hand, and I’m the happiest girl on earth. We walk into his dressing room and I go to close the door, but a woman pushes her way in then slams the door shut!

  “What the hell?” Justin yells and tries to get in between us. Before I know it I’m on the ground, she punched me! She must have a ring or something on because I can feel a cut on my face. I’m dizzy, really dizzy. I can hear her and Justin fighting, then I hear other voices but I’m so dizzy. I lay my head on the cool tile floor, why am I so dizzy?

  “Flower, can you hear me? Flower, wake up! Come on sis you have to wake up!” I can hear Chris, he sounds like he is crying. My brother never cries. I force my eyes to open but there is a bright light, I groan and try to move.

  “She’s waking up! Get the doctor!” Justin screams, oh my head! Please no more screaming.

  “Sis, can you hear me?” Chris asks me again. I groan to answer him. I try to sit up but there are two sets of hands pushing me back down.

  “No, don’t try and move just yet.” Justin says and brushes my hair out of my face. I open my eyes again and I can see I’m in an all white room, and I have an IV in my hand. What the hell? My heart starts racing then I hear a loud beeping sound. I look over and I’m on a heart monitor too?

  “Miss Marshall, glad you are back with us, how do you feel?” An older man comes in wearing a white jacket and holding a clip board. He must be the doctor.

  “What happened?” I chock out, man my throat is dry.

  “You were attacked, don’t you remember?” Justin says, he is at my right and Chris is at me left. My two boys.

  “The girl in the dressing room? But why am I here? Someone tell me what is going on!” I’m starting to panic, this makes the beeping of the heart monitor louder.

  “Miss Marshall please, just take a breath, everything is fine. You were only out for two hours. Your MRI, x-rays, blood work, and CT scans all look good. No damage to the brain, you do have a small fracture along your right jaw but that will heal it’s self. The bruises on your side will look worse then they are, I promise. Now that you are awake and I can see everything is okay, I just need to examine you, then I can let you go home.” He smiles at me, then makes Chris and Justin move, this I didn’t like. When he shines a light in my eyes I groan and he laughs making Chris growl.

  He said I would have a headache for a few days but that everything looked good. After he left to get the papers to release me, I had Justin tell me what really happened. After the girl pushed her way in and knocked me out, she tried to kiss Justin. I gasped which sent a pain to my head and then I groaned. Scot came into the dressing room right as the chick was trying to manhandle Justin. Scot screamed for security then put her in a head lock. She is now in jail, and I hope she rots there.

  “Wait, what about the tour? We were to leave right after the show, you guys have another show tomorrow night.” They can’t miss a show, how are we going to make it on time?

  “We are only six hours from Burgos, we still have plenty of time to get there before the show.” Justin says and wipes my face with a cold rag.

  “Okay, okay. Can we go now?” I ask with my eyes closed. I hear Chris say he is going to go check, he’ll have to sign the papers anyways. Justin wipes my face a few more times with the rag, then lets it rest on my forehead. I let out a deep sigh but keep my eyes closed.

  Of course Justin had a car waiting for us at the back door of the hospital. Both him and Chris were acting like I was made of glass, if I didn’t feel so bad I would go off on them but all I want is to get into bed. I had to snap at Chris to put me down when he tried to carry me on the bus, I know he is trying to help, but come on! Dave and Scot are sitting on the couch and jump up the minute they see me.

  “Oh thank God you’re okay!” Dave says and gently hugs me.

  “She’ll be okay, she has a fractured jaw, and will be black and blue for a while.” Chris tells them. Scot walks up and hugs me too. I can’t believe these two, I don’t think I have ever seen them like this, so worried but yet relived at the same time.

  “Bedtime!” Justin says while taking my arm and walking me to my room. I wave goodnight to Dave and Scot, while pulling on Chris’s hand so he will follow us. Once in my room I ask them to sit down for a minute.

  “I need you both to promise me that you will not treat me like I’m made of glass or something. I know I’m hurt, and I’ll need help from time to time. But I don’t want to be babied, and I don’t want to be treated any different then how I was before. Promise?”

  “No, I will not promise that!” Chris almost screams “You were attacked by a fucked up fan, I will not let it happen again! You will have a bodyguard from now on, you will not go anywhere alone, and you will just have to deal with it!”

  “I’m with Chris on this, we are not going to let you get hurt again. When you get off this bus there will be a bodyguard waiting for you, and you will not go anywhere without him. You will not walk around any of the arenas by yourself, you will not walk back to the bus by yourself, are we clear?” Justin is giving me orders? Oh I don’t think so!

  “I may have to put up with him trying to order me around but I’ll be damned if I’ll let you do it! I will agree to the bodyguard, but only if I get to interview and pick him myself. I will not have some jerk with a gun following me around because your security team let a psycho bitch attack me!” I’m okay with the bodyguard, a little more then I’m letting on. But I will not let them think they can order me around.

  “What about Tom? Didn’t you like him?” Chris asks while pulling down my bed and pointing for me to sit.

  “I didn’t know he came with us.” I’m looking at Chris, I don’t want to look at Justin right now, he pissed me off.

  “Most of the guards did, will Tom work or do you want to meet some of the others?” Chris is taking my shoes off while talking, I don’t care about this, I don’t think could do it myself tonight anyways.

  “Yes I liked Tom, he will work. But he will take orders from me, no one else. Deal?”

  “Deal, now I’m going to go get you some night clothes but I need
you to stay here and calm down.” Chris kisses my forehead then leaves.

  “Still mad at me?” Justin asks, while relaxing on the couch.

  “I don’t know, you tell me. Should I be mad at you? For the bitch attacking me, no that wasn’t your fault. For you trying to order me around, yeah dumbass I’m mad at you for that!”

  “I’m sorry, I just don’t want you to get hurt again. I promise you I will do everything I can to make sure no one hurts you like this again. I’m so sorry.” He has walked over to me and is holding my hand, damn as much as I want to be mad at him, how I can be?

  “It’s not your fault Justin. Can we not talk about all this anymore, please?” He just shakes his head. “Hand me the remote, if I missed my show then I will be mad.” I giggle.

  When Chris comes back with my clothes I make them both leave so I can change. Chris fought me on this, he said I would need help because of the pain. I told him the only thing I would need help on was unhooking my bra, and I would just wear the bra to bed for tonight. Justin gave me a hug and told me he would be back in a few minutes, then he ran his hand down to the middle of my back and I felt the snap!

  “Bra’s unhooked now!” He laughs and walks out!

  “Dude, I should kick your ass for that!” Chris is dying laughing while following him out.

  I start to stretch but the pain hits, I let out a deep groan. Then I realize I’m alone, where is he? He was here when I fell asleep. I slowly climb out of bed and put my hoodie on. When the girl knocked me out I landed so hard on my side that it feels like I broke a rib. Luckily nothing is broken, just my whole side is bruised black and blue. Forcing myself to go slow I walk to the front of the bus looking for Justin. I see Tom sitting on the couch reading, his Kindle is just like mine, cool.

  “Miss Marshall, how are you feeling today?” He asks, he is a teddy bear of a man.

  “Tom please call me Flower, I hate to be called ‘Miss Marshall’. And I’m hurting today. Where is everyone?” I try to sit down gently but it still hurts.

  “They’re at sound check, and Mr. Crow is waiting for you to call him.” Sound check? What time is it? I look over at the clock and its already three in the afternoon, goodness how long did I sleep?

  “I don’t know where my phone is, so Mr. Crow will have to wait a little longer.” I smirk at him. I really hope Justin doesn’t make Tom call him that.

  Fighting with Tom is worse then fighting with Chris. I wasn’t allowedto get my own coffee, fix my own breakfast, or even stand up without him helping me. I was allowedto take my meds by myself but only because he didn’t know what I needed to take. Tom helps me into bed, then hands me the remote, without me asking for it, and tells me to yell if I need him. I like Tom but we are going to butt heads soon. Seeing my phone on the table I remember that Mr. Crow is waiting for a phone call, might as well let them know I’m up, and guarded.

  “Hey honey, how you feeling today?” He answers.

  “I won’t lie, I’m hurting. I can’t believe I slept so long.”

  “You needed the rest. Do you want anything before we head back to the bus?”

  “Yeah, a new body till this one heals” I try to laugh but my head is starting to hurt.

  “No can do sweetheart, plus I kinda like the body you have. I’ll be there in a few minutes” He hangs up.

  Good to his word I heard the boys voices only a few minutes later. Then a knock at my door, all four of them pile into my little room. Justin kicks his shoes off and lays down with me, I’m under the covers he is on top. Still the look on Dave and Scot’s faces are priceless! Chris didn’t really mind it, I mean he had seen us once already, so why should he care about it now?

  “Hey, you okay?” Chris asked while standing over me and Justin.

  “I’m hurting but I’ll be okay.” I snuggle closer to Justin and lay my head on his chest. I’m okay now.

  “Dude you have guts.” Scot laughs at us.

  “And why is that?” Justin asks him without taking his eyes off of me.

  “You’re in bed with Chris’s sister! While he is in the room!” Dave laughs now too.

  “Why shouldn’t he be in bed with his girlfriend when she needs him?” I stare at both of them while their mouths drop.

  “They finally came out of the closet yesterday. But can we get back to why we are here?” Chris asks, then sits on the edge of the bed.

  “Okay” Scot grunts and comes to stand by the bed “Flower, we need to vote on something and I have been chosen to tell you about it. More like I lost a bet and now I have to do it.” I just stare at him, shit what now? “We want to vote to move a few tour dates around.”

  “Why should I care?” I ask him, but seeing how all of them are looking at me, tells me I should care.

  “We want to move them around so that we can take a three week break……….so you can heal some…” I’m guessing the reason Scot just jumped back is because of the look on my face.

  “No vote, Justin, Chris I’d like a word with you. Scot, Dave please leave!” They didn’t need to be told twice.

  “Told you.” Chris tells Justin.

  “Really? Why in the hell would you even think I would be okay with this? Then poor Dave and Scot, they didn’t need to be in on this when you knew I would say no!” I try to sit up but Justin won’t let me.

  “Listen, we are not doing anything major. We will finish this week and reschedule the next three weeks. They are our lowest count weeks of the tour, only six shows. Most of the time would have been traveling and down time anyways. The arena’s are all on board and have set new dates to work with us.” When Justin finishes I just lay there staring at the ceiling.

  “Flower I hate to say it but all we need is a final vote and it’s a done deal.” Chris says taking my hand “Please don’t fight us on this, you need time to heal and it won’t happen on a tour bus.”

  “I hate you both so much right now. I hate that you did this behind my back. I hate that you made Scot tell me. And I hate that it is probably a good idea, but that doesn’t mean I’m happy about it!” I smack Justin hard on the chest, and kick Chris off the bed.

  “So can we vote?” Chris asks while getting up off the floor.

  “I guess so. Are we all going home for three weeks, and then meeting up somewhere to fly back?” I don’t now how this is going to work.

  “Yes, we are going home. Then we will meet up in New York again and fly back over.” Chris yells for the others to come back in. Scot wants to know if its safe first, I giggle and tell him to get in here and vote so I can go home. The vote took all of two seconds, it was a no brainer.

  After the others left, Justin and I just laid there. What does this mean for us? I hated going home last time because I was going to miss him, how am I going to make it three weeks without him? He must have felt me tense up because he pulled me closer to him and kissed my hair.

  “Three weeks?” I ask, please understand what I’m saying.

  “Yup, you should be healed up by then.”

  “I guess everyone will be glad to get a unexpected break……”

  “Yeah,” He closes his eyes and sighs. “I’m not going home Flower”

  “What does that mean? Where are you going?” He’s not going home?

  “I would like to come stay with you, if you’ll let me.” He looks down at me.

  “Of course I’ll let you!” I smile “But what about your family? Won’t they be mad when you don’t come home?”

  “No, mom knew I was going to ask to stay with you. She said the only way I could come home was if you said no.” He laughs.

  “Well the answer is yes! And I guess we don’t have to worry about the guest room this time.” I lay my head back on his chest.

  “I hope Chris doesn’t care about me coming, and me staying in your room.” He runs his hand up and down my back.

  “He will love it. We should invite Dave and Scot out for a few days too. I bet he would love that too. But he won’t care about you staying in
my room, he doesn’t care about you staying back here.”

  “I like that idea, maybe we could do a BBQ or something.” His hand stops right at the small of my back.

  “Plus I’ll need your help at home.” He looks down at me puzzled “You’ll have to help me keep Chris’s bimbo’s out of the house!” We both laugh, even with the pain I’m feeling better now. Scot comes to get Justin, they have to go get ready. I thank Scot for everything he did last night, putting the girl in a head lock and all. He blushed a little and said it was nothing, but it wasn’t nothing to me.

  HOME, SWEET HOME, once again. The boys unpack everything while I’m told to stay in bed and do nothing. Well when Justin and I are alone we do a little more then ‘nothing’! We are still not ready to have sex, but just kissing him is a major high. I can get around a lot easier now, I’m still black and blue and sore, but I can handle it now.

  All of a sudden Justin comes rushing in the room, shuts the door and locks it then gets on the bed and pulls me close to him. With his hands he is trying to cover my ears.

  “Justin what in the world are you doing? Get off me!” I push him but I can barely move, he his holding me so tight. “If you don’t tell me what is going on right now, I’m going to scream bloody murder!”

  “Just be quiet, and don’t move.” He whispers.

  “You’re scaring me, what is going on? Where is Chris?” You can hear the fear in my voice.

  “He is dealing with someone.” I can see he is trying to hear what is going on but the way he has my ears covered I can’t hear that far off. Oh the hell with this! I hit Justin in the knee, not hard enough to really hurt him but enough to make him jump. I run to the door and get it open before he gets to me, but the voice I hear drains all the blood from my face. Tammy!

  “Not again!” I groan, and start to walk out the door but he grabs my arm whipping me back into the room.

  “No! Chris will deal with her.” He better let go of me.

  “This chick needs to know she is not welcomed, I love my brother but he has never been able to talk tough to a woman in his life. Me I don’t give a crap who you are, this is my house and that’s the end of it.”