He growled, “Go find ye bunk, English.”
I moved down the bus, passed a small fridge and sofas where the band members were sprawled. Candles burning, fluffy blankets, bottles of beer open even though it wasn’t yet eleven am. I found some pretty basic ass bunk beds with a privacy curtain. Mine was the lowest bunk, with a cute little Irish Teddy holding a piece of paper with my name on it. I threw my bag on it and sat down.
“So, you got enough snacks? I have some spares,” Harry asked as he squeezed by from what the bathroom area must be.
“Sandwich, couple of bags of sweets, a soda or three,” I replied.
“Dude, do you not know how long we are gonna be in here?” he asked.
“Couple of hours?” I asked.
Harry laughed. “Hey guys, ‘greenie’ thinks we will be in Edinburgh by lunchtime.” More laughter as I blushed in annoyance. “Greenie, it’s a hundred and eighty miles give or take London to Edinburgh. We will be there for a late dinner, somewhere between eight and nine pm depending on traffic. If ya ain’t got books, or a phone for movies and music, good luck to you.”
Adrian stuck his head around the bunk as Harry left, “Here use my phone, here’s the charger and spare headphones. There are earplugs in the drawer there if ye want to sleep. And don’t worry, we are stopping for a drive through at least once. Don’t let the boys get to you.”
“All day, you travel the whole day like this in a tiny metal box all tour?” I exclaimed.
Adrian shrugged. “Nah, sometimes it’s all night. Ye will get used to it to go crazy. We all did. As much as they tease ye, it isn’t in cruelty. We were all greenies once. Harry, he puked for the first three months of tour, he hated travelling. Me? I lived on caffeine pills and energy drinks until I dropped because I couldn’t bring myself to trust others around me to sleep as we travelled. We each found our own way to cope, so will you, But, yeah, it will be a kicker until ye do. Make it work for you darling, hopefully in a non-addictive way. We are here for youse if you need us, promise.”
He stroked my hair before leaving me to as much privacy as you can possibly get in such a small space crammed in with so many people. I flicked through twitter trending tags out of boredom. “Oh my god!” I shouted.
Adrian stuck his head back, “Are ye okay?”
“Look!” I held out the phone to him. “My ex, he just had his nudes leaked on the internet. The media is going crazy!”
“Oh, would ye look at that, karma couldn’t have happened to a better person,” he commented. “So, he is the jerk? This singer from a talent show?”
“I said nothing.” I grabbed the phone back.
“Yeah, sure, English. I heard nothing and I certainly never wanted to see those kinds of pictures of him.” He smiled as he turned back to his poker game. “Shouldn’t mess with my girl,” he muttered under his breath.
Chapter 17
Lily’s POV
This shit was exhausting! Up at dawn, working until late night. Half night’s sleep at best, and back at it. I have no idea how they do this shit every single day! This was sheer insanity! I could now start to understand why my ex took the cocktail of drugs that he did to keep going, even if I still did not approve of the use. Hell, there were times that I could almost want a hit myself. I felt useless, which did not help matters. I had no real tech skills to help the crew with anything. I just ran around passing people things, coffee runs, sandwich runs, stuff like that, boxing a few pieces up. A lot of my day turned into helping with washing and pressing the stage costumes.
As for the new phone, it was only really used by Shelly or Rose to tell me the next batch of chores they needed me doing, or things they needed fetching. One or twice a week I would get a message from Adrian asking if I was okay. I barely ever saw him, other than in the distance or the odd meal together that was so rushed we could barely exchange a hi and goodbye. I fell into a chair, trying to find the energy to scoop a few forks of pasta into my mouth. Every part of my body ached. My legs felt like concrete. I needed sleep, but there were hours yet until bedtime.
Adrian’s POV
Tour was crazy and this was only the pre tour promo and spot concert stages. God help me when it came to the full tour! All these interviews back to back around performance spots on tv shows. If I was struggling, I hated to think how Lily was holding up. I text her when I could, but that was rare. She tended to be asleep by the time I fell into my bunk to move to the next city.
I was amazed how well she was taking to this life, as hardworking as any of my team. She always made sure all of the costumes were ready, guitars prepped after I had quickly taught her how I tune and restring them. She listened, learned and did everything well. I wished that a lot more of my crew were as dedicated. I would have to fire a few of these before the main tour! All they did was sit around eating my food, and moaning they were tired. I sighed as Claire yet again stormed out of rehearsal after a fight over a vocal arrangement change. I would be glad when she quit, she was causing us nothing but trouble since I refused to go to
