Straight from the Heart

by Breigh Forstner

Tyler cackled as if that was the funniest thing in the world. “I’m not in the mood to cry like a baby, Schaefler. Don’t you have like Fight Club or something?”

  I pointed to the few movies I had. I was never home enough to watch them unless something was on demand on TV. “Feel free to look,” I replied sarcastically. “But no matter what, you’re going to cry or not want to watch it.”

  Cale snatched the movie from me and put it in my DVD player.

  “You owe me big, B.” He winked, jumping stomach first onto the bed.

  “Shut up, it might be good.” Vince said. I looked at him and he high-fived me. “I’ll take one for the team. I don’t feel like driving back to the apartment anyways.”

  So all five guys, including me, piled onto my bed. Somehow we all managed to squeeze onto it with just a little bit of room. Luke pulled out his phone and managed to get a picture of all of us, posting it to our ‘official’ Facebook & Twitter page. He captioned it “Our one big happy family having a sappy movie night. Guess whose idea that was?’

  Towards the end of the movie, where the main character finds out about her dad dying, I could hear a sniffle beside me. Of course, it was Raptor ACTUALLY starting to cry. I didn’t want to put him on blast so I ignored it and my attention turned back to the movie. By the end credits, I was bawling my eyes out, while Vince and Cale were passed out cold. Tyler was staring at the screen with a blank expression on his face, while Luke and Raptor were wiping tears away.

  The rest of us that were awake tried to untangle ourselves from Cale and Vince. I ended up taking the couch, while Raptor, Luke and Tyler slept on the extra floor space.

  Before the guys hogged the bathroom for the night, I decided on taking a quick bath. I had never used the bath while living here, and was sort of anxious to put in my bubble bath I had picked up while on tour. Filling the tub to the rim with water, I stripped down and stuck one foot in to test the water. Sinking in, I let out a sigh and tilted my head backwards towards the end of the bath tub. I don’t know how long I was in there, but then I heard a loud knock at the door.

  “Almost done!” I cried, reaching for the towel that sat beside the tub. I dried myself off and wrapped the towel around me, turning on the blow dryer to quickly dry off my hair. Cleaning everything up, I yelled again. “Can come in now!”

  Tyler popped his head in to make sure I was covered before coming in.

  “I’m sorry,” he whispered, with a sleepy look to his face. “I didn’t cut your time short did I?”

  I smiled and shook my head, gripping the towel tighter and closer to my body. Why, I didn’t have a damn clue because he wasn’t even paying attention to the fact I was naked underneath my towel. He was eyeing the shower and my first thought was he felt the exact same way I did.

  “Don’t worry about it. It’s all yours bud.” I patted him on the shoulder playfully before leaving. His fingers dug into my shoulder slightly before I turned around. I got a good hard look at his chocolate brown eyes, noticing the honey colored ring around his pupils. Stop staring at him! I thought, but there was no harm done right? “Everything okay?”

  Now he started to notice me. I could feel his gaze start from my partially dried hair down to my single piece of clothing, which only covered just below my ass. It made my insides feel like they were on fire. Damn I needed to get to my clothes ASAP before I did something I’d regret. My boyfriend was just outside of that door snoring away.

  “Yeah. Sorry Bryn. You just look different right now, that’s all.” Taking back what he said, he replied “I mean not because you’re wearing just that towel, but you look pretty stripped down without your makeup or your hair done.” Then he ruffled up my hair with his hand and I swatted it away. “Alright, sleep with the angels, Bryn.”

  I took my spot on the couch after slipping on my matching pink lacy bra and underwear set, in addition to a baggy t-shirt. Snuggling my face into the pillow, the sound of the shower lulled me to sleep.

  “NO we totally need the drum solo in the middle of the set! You know people dig that shit right Raptor?” Tyler tried to get Raptor on his side as the argument continued.

  “If I could get this arm to recover any faster I’d join you out there. Shit, drums totally over power the guitars when it comes to solos boys, and you know it. Ladies LOVE the men who can pound on those drums.” Raptor bumped fists with Tyler and they cackled in Cale’s face.

  “We don’t even have that much time out there! Like an hour? They want us to play all the new shit from the album, so we won’t have time for any damn solos.” Cale, being especially grumpy this morning, scolded everyone. Then he saw me getting up from my sleeping position and stopped in his tracks. “Oh, uh, hey babe good morning.”

  I rubbed a hand through my bed hair and pulled down my oversized shirt to cover my exposed thighs. Cocking my head to the side, I said “So what’s this about solos?”

  “Tell your boyfriend here there’s no reason why we can’t each have a little solo at the festival.” Vince gestured towards Cale, who had a smug smile on his face. “He’s hell bent on the idea that we won’t have any time.”

  I threw my head back and laughed.

  “Cale Pelton, you are something else.” I nudged his side. “Only you would be arguing about something like this at this time in the morning.”

  Winking at me, he lifted me up into his arms so high that my bare feet weren’t touching the ground. “I love getting a rise out of you Bryn. You’re hot when you’re mad at me.” The guys snickered, and I tried to get out of his grasp by punching at his shoulders, but he only tightened it. “Keep wiggling like that and see what happens. ”

  Finally putting me down, I crossed my arms in front of my chest and glared at him. He knew I wasn’t mad, but it was still fun to pretend anyways. “Just for that I’ll tell all of the new waitresses next door that you’re single. They’ll hit on you like wildfire, and I’ll stand back and laugh.”

  “Is that a punishment?”

  Chapter 18: The Final Episode

  Festival day.

  My nerves were set into overdrive today, and I had a feeling in my gut something was going to go wrong. But I had to push it aside until our set was over

  Lucy: Don’t forget about lunch Bryn!

  Me: I’m looking forward to it girly. See you later

  Before Hal could even get us out of town, something on the bus didn’t sound right. He pulled over off an exit nearby Pontiac, and examined the outside of the tour bus for a possible cause of what was going on.

  “Mother fucker!” I heard him shout, as he yelled for Luke to come outside and help him.

  I couldn’t get a view of what was going on from the window, but I heard more cursing and a string of swear words from both of their mouths. Taking a peek from the door, I saw Hal and Luke inspecting a tire that had come from our bus. What the hell?

  “What happened?” I yelled, both Luke and Hal turning in my direction.

  “Someone slashed the back tires to the damn bus!” Luke replied, running his hands furiously through his red hair. “Who could’ve done this? The bus has been parked safely back at home since being off tour!”

  “Could’ve been anyone,” Cale sighed under his breath, moving past me to help the guys change the back tires. “By the looks of it, this person really didn’t want us to go to Pontiac today. Cut straight through, looks like at least a dozen slashes per tire.”

  “Well than how’d we make it this far?” Tyler snapped. “Unless someone did it while we were getting gas at the last stop.”

  “We were all right there!” Cale snapped back. “There’s no way…”

  “How about you all just shut up and help us fix these tires so you can make your show?” Hal bellowed over all of us, which meant we all needed to shut up and listen. “We’ll figure out who slashed the tires later.”

  The guys finished replacing the back tires while I sat back in panic. I kept over reacting, wondering ‘Is someone going to try to pull something at the fe
stival today?’ Trying to push back the negative thoughts out of my head, I started singing softly the words to ‘You Were Young,’ and imagining the crowd that was expected to be there today.

  Half hour later, we were back on the road, reaching Pontiac in plenty of time before being considered late. The area that was blocked off for the festival was already thriving with people, and I could see the Ignite the Flames tour bus in the distance. “This is going to be interesting,” I murmured as we parked next to their bus that was nearly half a size bigger than our bus.

  As soon as Hal stopped the bus, the guys swarmed off, rushing around like mad men, and leaving nothing to me. I texted Lucy to let her know we were finally there, and apologizing about missing the chance to do lunch. Once I hit send, her head popped out from an open window on the Ignite bus and screamed “About time, B!”

  I walked over to the bus door and Lucy opened it, jumping out and embracing me. “Good to see you too Luce,” I chuckled as she let go. She looked like she was dressed to kill, wearing tight pair of Silver skinny jeans and an off the shoulder Asking Alexandria shirt. Her hair was styled like a big hair ball, reminding me of the 80’s. I also noticed there were no colored streaks in it, just her natural jet black hair similar to mine.

  “I was having a bad hair day, so I figured why not just go with it?” She giggled. “But you look awesome Bryn. Excited about the album?”

  “More so nervous I think, I can’t believe it’s already out today,” I replied honestly.

  “I always hated the days leading up to the release. More so release day because it’s a big ball of excitement and once it’s out, you’ll still feel nervous because it’s like ‘Are people going to hate it?’ ‘Are they going to love it?’ But it’ll be fine no matter what. I’m sure it sounds amazing. I’m going to pick up a copy after the show.” Lucy smiled, and Damon came out of the bus with the rest of the boys a few minutes later.

  “Well look who it is!” Damon grinned like a possum, swooping me into a big hug. “How are you, kid?”

  “Can’t complain,” I replied as he ruffled Lucy’s hair. “How’s the break treating you?”

  “Ha…there’s no break for me. I’ve been back taking care of my dad who got really sick. Label wants us to put out a new album by next summer, early fall though so it’ll be back to work again.” He chuckled. His blond hair was almost shaved off, giving him a completely different look. “So how’s Raptor doing? I heard about what happened and wanted to get ahold of you.”

  “He’s doing a lot better,” I explained. “Doctors don’t want him playing the drums for a while, but he’s still going to help set up equipment and stuff while he heals his arm. We got Tyler back in his place and he’s kicking ass, much to Cale’s disappointment.”

  Lucy’s face turned bitter at the mention of Tyler. I knew that was a sore subject seeing as she was the reason behind the Cale/Tyler fight not even a year ago. “They’re actually getting along?” She asked, surprised.

  Right on cue, Cale and the rest of the guys were heading in our direction, all laughing and joking about something. We watched as Tyler fist bumped Cale and I turned back to Lucy with a smile. “I guess that’s your answer!”

  “Damon how is it going pal?” Tyler gave Damon a one armed man hug and shook hands. “Haven’t seen you in a while!”

  “Your nose looks a lot better.” Damon smirked, and Tyler shook his head laughing.

  “Yeah still crooked, but all’s well that ends well I guess.” He replied, looking straight at Lucy, who was staring at the ground. “Luce, beautiful as always.”

  Once she knew Tyler was no harm, her eyes studied his face. “You’re still charming and cocky I see. That broken nose didn’t affect your ego any.”

  Both Lucy and I thought that was the funniest thing in the world. I didn’t know if she was serious, or just joking around.

  Tyler itched his nose and cocked his head to the side, grinning like a little kid. “How about a truce?” He outstretched his hand, and she took it reluctantly.

  “I suppose, just for a day.” She laughed. Everyone got the equipment off the buses and chatted it up while the first band was taking the stage. Like a crowd warmer so to speak but when I got a glimpse of the crowd, this area was already packed in by the thousands. How come I never heard of this festival before? I wondered as we took everything towards the back of the stage and headed back to our buses.

  There was Ace Patterson, talking on the side of the stage with what looked like an older version of himself. Both tall, around six foot, with curly copper hair, they had their arms crossed as the two were talking casually.

  Ace noticed us first and gestured all of us over. “Hey! Glad you guys made it okay!” Ace shouted with his Boston accent. He gestured over to his dad. “Dad, I want you to finally meet my good friends from Everlasting.” He went down the line and I was last. “This is their new guitarist Bryn Schaefler. Wait until you hear her Dad, she’s amazing.”

  I blushed. Here I was in front of a huge rock star, and his son called me an amazing guitar player? Harley stuck out his hand and I shook it. “Nice to finally meet you everyone. Glad Ace suggested you guys to play today. He gave me a rough recording of one of your shows and the new song he recorded with you and I knew you had to play here at the festival.” Harley Patterson was intimidating to say the least. This guy had been in the music business for over 30 years, and for him to even acknowledge us was huge. “Excited to hear your new songs. Good luck up there.” Harley patted us all on the back and we went back to the bus to relax before Ignite the Flames performed.

  Lucy wanted me to come onstage for a song and I told her I’d be ready with my guitar strapped on just in case.

  “You nervous at all?” I asked Tyler, as he spun his drum sticks around and played with them against our tour bus. He shrugged his shoulders, unzipping the Ignite the Flames jacket he had on the whole morning.

  “With it being my first actual live show in months? I’m just a littttttttle terrified, I won’t lie,” he replied honestly. “Last time people saw me, I was getting beat up on stage for sleeping with my best friend’s girl. How bad is that?”

  I snickered, clasping his shoulder. “It’ll all be fine. The ladies missed seeing you, that’s for sure.” It was the truth. A lot of times during the break after tour, a few curious people would ask ‘What happened to Tyler?’ and ‘How’s his face holding up?’ I had a vision of Cale sucker punching Tyler on stage, and was thankful I wasn’t there to see it. Tyler was attractive, but I wasn’t going to put myself in the same position Lucy was in not even a year ago. But looking at his ruffled up black hair and the way he carried himself like Cale, it was hard not to fall for him.

  “You’re just saying that, Bryn. But I’ll take it as a compliment.” Tyler beamed, walking towards the side of the stage where Ignite was getting ready to take the stage.

  Before Damon ran onstage, he walked over to me and kissed me on the cheek. “Good luck Charming,” I said, and he winked in my direction.

  “The Hell was that?” Cale asked with an attitude, striding up beside me. “Is he hitting on you again?”

  Rolling my eyes, I replied “You wish, huh? Just saying good luck, Pelton, that’s all. Watch the set.” Cale kept his arm around my waist and his mouth shut as we watched Ignite the Flames rile the crowd up with one of their biggest hits. I tried to push the nerves out of my mind, but all I was thinking about at that moment was screwing up a note or tripping on stage.

  The music stopped and Lucy snatched the microphone from Damon. “How’s everyone doing?!” She growled, and the guys went nuts. Lucy knew how to work the crowd to their advantage. “We only have two songs left, but right now I want to bring out a very close friend of the band who we have gotten to know since our last tour. She’s the lead guitarist of Everlasting. Bryn Schaefler everyone!”

  Vince handed me my guitar, tuned up and ready to play, and I strapped it on. I waved to the crowd as I walked out and high-fived Lucy and Damon, w
ho were standing closest to me.

  “Doing ‘Freakshow,’” Damon warned me, as Lucy set the mic back in place. I nodded my head in acknowledgement, preparing my fingers for the string of notes I was about to play. I fell in love with this song hearing it every night on their set during the tour, and was happy they asked me to play this with them today. This was the song that made Ignite the Flames bigger then Everlasting would ever be. The guitar chords that Pauly and Xavier, the other guitarist, played chilled me to the bone. The song had a ‘sexy’ vibe to it, reminding me of Hinder.

  Once the song ended, Damon shouted into the microphone “Bryn from Everlasting everyone! Girl can shred, can’t she?” the crowd responded by yelling “Hell yes!” and chanted “More!”

  I mouthed “Thank you” to the crowd, waving once again before stepping off stage to tune up for our set which was coming sooner than I thought.

  “Don’t go leaving us now, B. That rocked.” Vince high-fived me as I took off my guitar and set it down by the other ones.

  “Thanks guys. I think that just got me even more ready to play now.” I admitted, still feeling the adrenaline rush through my body. Before we knew it, Hal and Raptor were helping us get our equipment on stage and set up.

  Here we go, I told myself, jumping up and down to keep myself warm. I had forgotten that it was in the middle of November in Southeast Michigan. But luckily there was no snow on the ground or any cold winds. Once we had our cue to go on from Ace, who was standing on the opposite side of the stage, we huddled up and told each other good luck.

  As soon as Tyler stepped foot on stage to start out the first song, it was like all hell broke loose. He lifted his sticks into the air before sitting, unleashing the drum beat. I bounced up and down again, singing the words to “Never Again” as everyone took their turns running out. Before taking my turn, I kissed Cale on the lips and said “I love you.”

  “Love you too, B.” He grinned, shooing me onstage.

  Chapter 19: Outside