Disclaimer: Don't own!
A/N: There's no real plot. It's more a collection of moments that happen when Kaylie Cruz goes on tour with Damon Young and the Shelter Pups. What happens on tour…gets put on YouTube. ;)
-BB-
Tour Life
Kaylie gets a little lost in the months after the 2012 Olympics. She spent her entire life working up to that moment, working for the dream, and then she gets there, to the top of the roller coaster, rides it out. Then what's she to do after the ride stops? Get back in line and ride it again? According to Payson, that's the answer, but for Kaylie, she doesn't know.
At a chanced meeting, Damon suggests she go on tour with him and after a lot of thinking, Kaylie takes him up on the offer. Something just feels right about accepting. It's new and intriguing and exciting. He admits to her that he didn't think she would and Kaylie gets a little thrill out of being spontaneous. Alex Cruz grumbles and disagrees, says she can at least get another cycle out, but Kaylie's eighteen now. She chooses a grimy tour bus with a bunch of strangers and the boy she kissed and pushed away when she was sixteen.
…
Urbana, IL
Being on the road with a bunch of rowdy overgrown children for two shows and two cities so far, Kaylie has somehow mastered the art of sleeping through their ridiculous zoo animal sounds. She actually lucked out in that the guys don't even try to mess with her or hit on her (less about their maturity level and more because Damon would kill and immediately dismiss them from the tour). Instead of bugging her, the guys torturing the drummer, Bats, and Razor is the one planning the said pranks. Sometimes Kaylie doesn't know why she puts herself through this.
"Rise and shine, Merch Girl!" someone shouts.
Kaylie groans and rolls over to her side in the queen size bed that miraculously fits into the back room of the tour bus. It should be Damon's bed because he is the face of the band, but he offered it up to her since she's his guest. Kaylie often teases him about how her presence must be totally cockblocking him, but Damon just gives her that easy smile and says he really doesn't mind, that touring is about the music, not hooking up with girls. Razor quickly disagrees, but Kaylie has learned Damon and Razor disagree about everything.
When Kaylie remains lifeless in bed, the flimsy sliding door (that's more like a plastic curtain) separating the back area of the bus suddenly slides open. "Standing in line to see the show tonight and there's a light on, heavy glow," Damon sings.
"By the way, I tried to say I'd be there," Kaylie softly sings, eyes still closed. "And I don't remember the rest of the words…"
"At least you got the tune down. Your musical education is coming along nicely."
Kaylie turns over and slowly opens her eyes, seeing Damon Young himself, standing at the foot of the bed. "Which is amazing," she says, "considering I've been trapped on this bus since we left Kansas with a drunk Razor dancing to Barbie Girl at least a dozen times every night."
"His lip synching was pretty incredible though, wasn't it?"
Kaylie can't disagree. Damon dives down to lie beside her on the bed, rolling onto his back and staring up at the bus ceiling. "It's okay. Our next stop is Chicago and we're playing two nights so we'll grab a hotel, sleep somewhere other than this bus."
She hums at the pleasant idea of being grounded for once. Kaylie carefully reaches across him, not even concerned when her arm brushes his chest, grabbing her phone off the nightstand. She's become so comfortable around these guys, a drastic change from when she first joined the traveling troupe, always so self-conscious and cautious. After she witnessed the band (minus Damon) drunk and streaking in the middle of nowhere in Kansas, modesty went straight out the window and hasn't been along for the ride since.
"It's already five," Kaylie says. "Why did you let me take such a long nap?"
"You looked really peaceful?" Damon shrugs his shoulders. "We've got to start our sound check soon. It should be a fun show tonight. The University of Illinois is close. College crowd."
"Fun," Kaylie says with fake enthusiasm. "I mean, it was cute, listening to girls gush about your eyes and your voice and how your lyrics speak to them for the first city, but now?"
"Fans will be fans," Damon says loftily. Kaylie rolls her eyes.
"I just thought this would be a little more Almost Famous and a little less manual labor."
"Looks can be deceiving. C'mon. The merch isn't going to sell itself," he says, rocking his legs to gain momentum and get back to his feet. Once he's standing, Damon extends his arm to her and easily helps Kaylie sit up. "By the way, I love that movie. We should Red Box it."
Kaylie smiles as she grabs one of her many Shelter Pups t-shirt, slipping it on over her tank top. "Sounds good."
Damon pops the tab of a Monster and Kaylie easily steals it away from him with a grin. He argues that he needs it more, being the frontman and all, but Kaylie just shakes her head and takes a sip. While Damon charms and is worshiped by fans, Kaylie "Merch Girl" gets screamed at over sizes, has to prevent total anarchy and give out precise change.
…
CDs. Posters. T-shirts. Tote bags. Stickers.
She's barely ever worked a day in her life prior to joining Damon and his merry band of musicians. Now, she's a master at quick, simple addition and subtraction and knows how to handle charge cards like a pro. Standing behind the table of merchandise, Kaylie gets to see the waves and waves of people who pour in just to see her friends perform. Between the rushes, her favorite activity is people watching.
While Kaylie is close with the band and most of the crew and roadies adore her, she knows for a fact that the makeup crew (Razor explained to her the necessity of base makeup so they won't look completely washed-out under the stage lights) and the rest of the merch team totally assumes she's sleeping with Damon or Razor or all of them. Kaylie is annoyed, but she just assumes they're all jealous because, who wouldn't be?
After the shows, all they do is party.
The boy hot box backstage after a little meet and greet with their fans that stay extra late just for a glimpse. Kaylie stumbles out to the alley, bleary-eyed and with a grin. She might have taken a hit or two (or three) only because Razor is insistent and she's curious and it isn't like she's driving and Razor wouldn't let anything happen to her. She isn't totally high, but she's starting to feel it and after a long, hard night of working her ass off, it's nice. Oh, if only Alex Cruz could see his little princess now.
Kaylie scares away a few girls who were trying to peer into the tinted window of the tour bus and she laughs when they gasp and scurry off. She goes inside the first of their two buses (both trashed) and finds Damon celebrating another show with a trash bag in hand, cleaning.
"Hey Mr. Hipster Man, what are you doing in here?" she inquires. Kaylie spins in a little circle before plopping down on the couch. The jacket she's wearing is Razor's, too big for her, sleeves too long, but it's comfy and has Ninja Turtles on the back so she's going to wear it.
"Kaylie Cruz, are you high?" Damon teases. "What would my tour manager think that the girl I invited on tour with us is a pothead?"
"Pothead." She giggles. She's gotten high one other time. That hardly measures up to like, Razor. "By the way, your tour manager is inside, getting high with the owner of the club and your band as we speak."
"We are only human," Damon says with a chuckle. He picks up an empty, ravaged box of pizza soaked through with grease and stuffs it into the trash bag. "Kaylie, we live with animals."
"Yeah, but they're fun animals," she says sleepily. "Why aren't you inside, partying? Razor told me stories about you."
"Ha, I bet he did. That's Razor." Damon grins. "I swore I'd give all that up when Jimi was born. Doesn't mean I won't have a drink. I'm actually legal." He playfully narrows his eyes at her and Kaylie waves him away. She's eighteen. That's legal enough. "But all that other crazy shit Razor is trippin' on all the time? I think I'll pass."
"Me too," Kaylie agrees. She looks over at the cupboard near the little kitchen area to where a photo of Damon and his son is duct taped to the wall. She smiles. She knows it kills him to be away from his son and it's nice to know he's grounded despite the extreme hedonism that orbits him. "Damon, you shouldn't be cleaning. You just finished playing an amazing show. Chill time."
"Someone has to do it. And we've already established that we live with animals."
"No," she grumbles. Kaylie reaches out and tugs on his arm, pulling him to sit on the couch beside her. Kaylie lays her head back against the cushions, comfortably sunk in, while Damon just sits there, upright.
"What are we doing?" he asks.
"Enjoying the moment. The nice, quiet, animal-free moment."
Kaylie slowly opens her eyes and smiles when she sees Damon more relaxed, leaning back and smiling at her. She only has enough time to notice how close they are before loud screaming and hollering interrupts their moment and the animals return to their cage. Razor, drunk and stoned, leads them in as always, squeezing his long-limbed, gangly body between the two on the couch, trying to get Damon to give him a hug.
"What happened to the groupies, Ray?" Kaylie questions.
"Found out they were minors, even younger than you, Cruzie," Razor says, clicking his tongue as he playfully taps a fist against her shoulder. "So we did the responsible thing and told 'em to GTFO! Get home before curfew and such."
"Nice, Ray," Kaylie laughs, "it honestly baffles me why you're single."
"Me too," he says, ignoring her sarcasm. "M'kay, know what time it is? Karaoke time! Karaoke time! Karaoke time!"
Razor launches himself off the couch and moves towards the sound system and the little TV mounted in the corner of the bus. As Razor gets the drummer to "sing battle" him (both of them well on their way to plastered) no one really notices the way Kaylie scoots towards Damon and curls up with her head on his shoulder. And they just stay that way for the rest of the night. He doesn't even try to get up and start cleaning again. Kaylie considers it a successful night indeed.
A/N: Next stop: Chicago, IL! I honestly don't know what this is or where it's going. All I know is it's random and there will probably be crack. I needed something fun to write. Tell me what's up. Review. XOXO