Page 132 of On The Edge
“Five more minutes,” she grumbles under her breath but doesn’t move, like moving will pull her out of her dreams more.
I chuckle under my breath. “In five minutes, you’ll be thrown off the couch as we land. Come on, baby, I’ll carry you if I need to.”
“I’m up, I’m up,” she groans, jolting upright with her eyes closed.
“Come on,” I repeat, taking her hand and nearly dragging her to where she was sitting before her little nap. She stumbles and plops into the chair, eyes still closed. Reaching down, I buckle her in and she’s already snoring.
“Do I need to be worried about how much she’s sleeping?” Adam asks quietly as I sit back down in my seat. We can feel the descent start to happen and I click my belt in place.
“Don’t you remember when we started touring?” Reis states, looking up from his notebook where he’s been writing this whole time. If he keeps up this pace, we’re going to have our next album on our hands faster than the first one. I haven’t seen him this inspired since we started and were trying to prove ourselves. “We were sleeping every spare second. At the venues, at the hotel, on the planes, in the taxis. Hell, Adam. I remember you falling asleep at dinner on our night off. She’s not used to all this yet.”
“Yetbeing the key word.” Markus nods, solidifying that this is our new normal. Our girl by our side, no matter where we are in the world.
“As long as we can all agree on that,” I say darkly. Nothing is going to take her from me now. Not me, not the guys, not her. And I feel sorry for any sad fuck that tries to keep us apart.
We’rein Manchester for even shorter than we were in London, so they take us from the airport directly to the venue. I wish we had more freedom to be able to enjoy where we are. To get to show Melody around and let her actually be a tourist. Instead, she gets to see the inside of the venue and the beautiful English countryside through a blacked-out car window.
I try not to let my guilt fester too much.
That worry also lessens when I see how much she’s working now that we’re here. She’s uploading videos, making graphics, handling each of our accounts, plus our website, all from her tablet.
Later, I’m standing on stage with the guitar and we’re running through the first chorus of each song on the set list, while the techs are getting everything set up. We don’t have to go through the whole show this time since we ironed out all the bumps in London. We’re all on stage, while Melody is sitting in the audience, typing furiously on her tablet.
“Melody, Melody, Melody, Melody,”Reis sings softly into the microphone and she doesn’t even look up.
“Yo, Sync!” I call out sharply, my voice booming through the empty arena even without a microphone.
She looks up, dropping the pencil that was in her mouth. “What? I’m working!” she yells back, eyes narrowing at me, pointing down to her tablet aggressively.
Reis laughs softly, the sound reverberating through the sound system and Markus chuckles off to the side.
“You’re cute!” I yell back with my panty-dropping grin on my face.
I should’ve known that wouldn’t work with Mel. She narrows her eyes before rolling them at me, waving us off to get back to work.
Adam starts the drumline to the next song and we all jump, ready to go. But my eyes keep drifting to her.
She’s so focused, eyes narrowed and unblinking as she stares at the task at hand. So fucking adorable. I swear my heart skips a beat.
Mel must feel my eyes on her because she looks up at me, no anger in her eyes this time. I wink at her, flash her a grin and then sit back as I watch her squirm in her chair.
She’s it.
Mine.
The last chordofMelodies On My Mindrings through and we all nod, happy with how the sound check went. Getting the thumbs up from the tech guy and Louis, we put our things up, ready to leave and eat something. Finally—I’m fucking starving.
We walk off stage and I wait until Melody makes her way to the stage exit. I don’t know why I’m so fucking focused on having her in my line of sight at all times, but I’m not going to question it. Something feels…fragile and off, and I’m not letting her slip through my—our—fingers again.
She gives me a half smile before running to catch up. Her eyes are stormy, filled with questions and a little hesitance, but she lets me hold her close. Because of that, I can relax.
Slightly.
“Come on, baby. Let’s get some food,” I offer, steering her towards the dressing room where I know they’re bringing our catering.
Melody’s quiet the whole time and I start to think that maybe she’s just still tired. Still stressed. She’s not cold, but I canfeelher confusion and hesitance.
“Are you okay?” I ask her softly when we get to the door, holding it open for her to walk through first. The guys had obviously arrived right before we did, because they’re in various stages of pre-show relaxing. Markus is pulling his stash out to get high now, so that by the time we’re on stage, he’ll be more mellow and can really focus. Reis is doing some soft vocal warm-ups as he grabs his bag, pulling out his phone and typing furiously. Adam is stretching and taking the world's biggest bites of some chicken dish between each movement.
