†author
about
survey

†fiction
short
long
series
hosted

†site
info
history
awards
guestbook

believe that they're real

prologue
We finally left the club at 1am. Three hours of packing up, signing autographs, and basic mingling so that we don't look like the assholes everyone likes to think we are. It's a routine, the same thing that happens almost every day. Wake up when the bus hits a rough spot in the road or when the baby cries. Calm the baby, go back to sleep. Wake up three or four hours later when our dad comes in and tells us we're at the hotel. Go to the hotel, get a couple more hours of sleep, do a radio interview, meet some fans. Back to the hotel, or out to lunch. Soundcheck. Nap. Back to the venue. Second soundcheck. Meet and greets. Show. Clean up a little, go out, sign some autographs and smile.

I'm used to it by now. We've done this three, four, countless times. Overseas, in the good old US of A, wherever. It's always the same. The venues all look alike to me after awhile. The fans all do the same crazy things. Grabbing, kissing, shouting, screaming, hyperventilating…I've never understood it. We're normal guys. We do normal guy things. We swear. We take shits. We piss. We sleep…Well, most of the time, at least. We try. Some of the girls think we're untouchable gods or something, and it's so weird to me.

"Tay, have you seen my shirt anywhere?" Zac's muffled voice came from his upper bunk on the bus.

I rolled my eyes. "Which one, Zac? You only have about a million."

"The lettuce one. I can't find it." He jumped down from his bunk, hands on his hips, obviously frustrated.

"You didn't leave it back at the hotel, did you? Because if you did, you're never seeing it again. Some crazed fan probably already stole it and is selling it on Ebay…Or humping it, one of those." I said lazily, not looking up from my book. "Look for it in the morning. It's way too late to be worried about it."

Zac looked as though he was about to pout and stamp his foot, as he so often does, but for some reason, he decided to spare me tonight. I rolled over, flipped my bunk light off, and as soon as my head hit the lumpy pillow, I fell asleep.

next
more to life index