Chapter 7

The next few days went by so fast.

Shane and I woke up every morning to go run up the pass and then stop at the Al-Mart to buy some energy drinks. Then at breakfast he would brag about his amazing eyebrow muscles (which I could not seem to get no matter how hard I tried.)

Then after breakfast I would go upstairs and throw up.

Then we would watch TV and talk until lunch, and after I would throw up.

After lunch, we would rehearse until dinner time, when I would eat, and then throw up again. I would do my daily one hundred sit ups and eyebrow lifts.

But I never seemed to get any eyebrow muscles.

So I would look at myself in the mirror, get disappointed, and slash a few times.

But now we're loading up our tour bus and we're about to head off.

I bring the cat in the car and Bubba sniffs around, but then runs and hides under the couch.

Shane is putting all the candy we bought at Al-Mart in the snack drawer and Jason is trying to close his suitcase.

"Shane!" he calls out. "You and your muscles get over here; I need help with this!"

Shane goes over and uses his 'beastly-ness' to close Jason's suitcase.

"Thanks," Jason says, shoving the suitcase in a closet.

"Just thank these babies," Shane says and kisses his arms. "Oh yeah."

So maybe Shane's a bit of a showoff. What are you gonna do?

"Thank you, muscles," Jason rolls his eyes and gets some more stuff ready.

I sit on my bunk, sipping a water bottle, waiting for everyone to get a move on.

When everybody does finally get their acts together, we finally roll out of our neighborhood and go on the road. I lie down in my bunk and close the curtain.

But I guess I can't have a bit of peace and quiet, because Jason throws back my curtain and says, "Hey Nate! Say hello!"

"Hello to who?" I ask, my eyes still closed.

"Our fans!"

I open my eyes. "Huh?"

"I'm recording our tour to put on YouTube so people can see what it's really like on the road," Jason explains.

"Okay, here's one thing: You never get to sleep."

Jason laughs.

I close my curtain. "Bye now, Jason."

We drive for what seems like forever, and then we finally stop at the venue in Denver. I hop out of my bunk when I feel the bus stop moving and we all head out for sound check.

The sound check was long and boring, and all I could concentrate on was how hungry I was. I stayed in the same spot for most of the time, and didn't want to move around a lot as I already felt exhausted.

When people started arriving, we went backstage.

I ate some food and then went to the bathroom, only to see Tess Tyler, our opening act, in there with her manager, warming up her voice.

"Any reason why you're in the men's restroom, Tess?" I ask. "Is there something you haven't told me yet?"

Tess laughs. "Sorry, but there were people in the girl's and I needed to warm up alone. I'll leave now." She and her manager leave and I go to the last stall, purging all the food I ate.

When I finish, I wash my mouth out with water and then go back into the lounge with my brothers.

By the time I get back, Tess is about to go onstage and I can hear the roaring of the screaming fans.

"Don't you love that sound, Nate?" Jason asks.

"Yeah," I say, sitting down on the couch with them.

"It's my crack," Shane laughs, standing up and going over to the mini-fridge. "Speaking of crack, want a coke?"

"Sure."

He tosses me a Diet Coke and I drink it while he drinks his Sprite.

Shane's odd. He only drinks Sprite, orange juice, and energy drinks. But he refuses to drink anything else. But I'm not about to begin to understand what goes on in that head of his.

"Guys, don't drink soda! You'll ruin your voice!" Jason scolds taking our sodas away. "Water is better."

"But fish have sex in water!" Shane defends.

"I don't care!"

"But what if there's fish sperm in it? That's gross!"

"I don't care if there's fish sperm in it, you're gonna drink it."

Jason gives Shane and me water bottles.

I say, "Thanks," while Shane says, "I ain't drinkin' no fish sperm!" and tosses the water bottle off to the side.

"Shane! Drink your fish sperm!" Jason yells.

At that exact second, our dad walks in the room and kinda stares at us for a bit.

"I mean," Jason starts, "uh, drink… water."

"Thirty minutes, guys," Dad says and then leaves.

"Hey where's Bubba?" I ask, looking around for our cat.

"He must be still on the bus," Jason says with a shrug.

"Well I want him."

Shane huffs. "I don't. That damn cat pooped in my shoes one too many times!"

"But I love Bubba!" I defend.

"Well Bubba doesn't love me."

"I want to bring him onstage tonight."

"Ugh, fine. Bring the dang cat. But it better not poop on me again."

I turn to Jason. "Who do we call to go get the cat?"

He shrugs. "I guess Dad."

I stand up from the couch and go out of the dressing room, looking for my dad. When I do find him, I say, "Dad, can you get Bubba?"

"Bubba?" he asks all confused like.

I nod. "Yeah. I want to bring him onstage tonight."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Yeah. I think it's about time people met him."

"Okay, just make sure he doesn't run off into the crowd; we'll never get him back. Your fans are crazy."

"Get the leash, then."

Dad laughs. "Okay. I'll go get him."

As he heads off to the bus, I go back into the dressing room.

Jason is there with his annoying video camera, talking with Shane. When he sees me, he jumps off the couch and points the camera in my face. "Hey, Nate, who's our special guest tonight?"

I smile. "My cat, Buster."

Jason points the camera at him. "We're gonna get to meet Bubba!"

It was then that Dad came into the room with Buster on his leash.

"Bubba!" I exclaim and take the leash from Dad. I pick him up. "Everyone, this is Bubba."

Buster meows.

"Oh, look, he's talking to you!" Jason exclaims.

I take Buster's paw and wave it, but Buster just looks away from the camera, so I set him down on the floor and he starts sniffing around.

Buster thinks he's a dog. He drinks out of the toilet, takes walks on leashes, sniffs everything, and only eats dog food. He's a strange little one.

Jason starts filming him, but then Bubba takes a huge crap on the floor and he turns off the camera. "That's attractive, Bubba."

Bubba meows and goes over to Shane.

"Five minutes!" someone calls to us.

Shane looks down at my cat. "Hey, Bubba!"

Bubba meows twice and then Shane starts scratching him and he purrs. The cat, not Shane.

Jason turns on the camera again. "Okay, we're about to go onstage. This is so exciting!"

Someone comes and gets us and we go off underneath the stage, getting on our elevators. I hold Buster in my arms and shush his meowing. "It's okay, Bubba."

When Jason starts playing the intro to our first song, "That's Just The Way We Roll" everyone screams even louder than before – if that was even possible. Bubba tries to escape, but I hand on tight to him as we start to go up.

I finally get a look at the crowd and I hold my breath. We all jump off of the elevators at the same time, just like we had rehearsed, and I guess Buster wanted to jump too, because he leaps out of my arms, but it was okay, because he was on his leash.

Shane takes Bubba from me and someone tosses me my guitar and I start playing with Jason. Shane grabs his mic and has it in one hand, while he hangs into Bubba's leash in the other.

"I woke up, on my roof, with my brothers," Shane starts singing. "There's a cat in the pool with my mother."

I laugh when he changes the lyrics and everyone screams.

After we finish the first song, we don't go right on to the next one, and I take Bubba back from Shane, going back over to my mic. "Everyone, I want you to meet my cat, Buster!"

The audience goes absolutely crazy for Bubba. Bubba meows and it echoes through the venue. He gets spooked and jumps out of my hands.

"Everyone, Bubba!" I laugh.

They all clap and scream some more.

I tug back on Buster's leash and then pick him up again. "Okay, guys, get your cameras, because Bubba and I are gonna go on the catwalk!"

I suddenly see more flashes and I do my best "model" impersonation while holding Bubba, and I go down the little catwalk. I pose at the end with my cat, blowing kisses and then walk back to the main stage, giving Bubba to one of the stage hands.

"Now that we've all met Bubba," Shane says, "let's get this party started! One, two, three, four!"

We start playing our next song.

X X X

After the concert, I meet up with Bubba backstage.

Shane walks into the dressing room and groans. "Ugh, it smells like ass in here!"

I nod. "Yeah, cause Buster left us another present on the floor."

"Ew!" Shane exclaims and grabs a Sprite from the mini-fridge. He tosses me a Diet Coke, but I don't catch it as I was holding onto my cat.

I set Bubba down and let him sniff around the room, and I pick up the coke, drinking it.

"So are we gonna have Bubba come onstage to every concert?" Jason asks.

"Nah," I say, shaking my head. "He seemed pretty spooked, and I don't want to freak him out too much. Maybe we'll bring him back at the last concert."

"I sure hope he didn't poop on the bus," Shane mutters. "I'll bust a cap if he does."

"Well his litter box is in there," I tell him.

"Yeah, and that doesn't stop Bubba from using the world as his litter box."

When everyone left the venue, we head off in our bus.

"Where should we eat?" Jason asks.

I shrug.

"Well there's a Wendy's, McDonald's, Burger King… Pick one."

They all sound pretty fattening to me.

"McDonald's!" Frankie screeches.

Jason laughs. "Frankie picked it."

We stop at the McDonald's and we all hop off the bus and go inside the building. It's late so we're one of the few people here. When we stand at the counter to order, I look at the menu.

Instead of food, all I see is me… turning into Godzilla and eating a bunch of buildings.

"Nate, stop standing there and order before she thinks you're retarded!" Shane says, hitting me lightly.

"I'll just have a small order of fries," I say.

"Seriously?" Shane asks.

I nod. "Yeah. I'm not that hungry."

"Whatever."

We get our food and sit down at a booth in the back. I sit there, silently eating my fries while Shane, Jason, and Frankie stuff their mouths with an ass-load of food, talking about the concert.

I finish my fries quickly, but I keep staring at Shane's two super-sized fry containers.

Shane looks up at me. "What?"

I don't take my eyes off of them.

"Here," he says and puts one of them in front of me.

"Thanks," I say and stuff fries in my mouth like there's no tomorrow.

"Good god, turns out you were hungry, eh?" Shane laughs.

I ignore him and keep shoving the potato-y goodness in my mouth.

When I finish, I burp really loud and my brothers stop talking. Thankfully, Mum and Dad were sitting at another table, and didn't hear it.

There was an awkward silence and then my brothers burst out laughing.

When we get to the hotel, I go in the lobby bathroom while Mum and Dad were checking us in, and throw up.

I slap myself in the face.

How could I have eaten all those fries like that?

I splash water on my face and look in the mirror.

All I see is Godzilla, so I go back in the stall and stick my finger down my throat again.