“WAKE UP KAT!” Brian yelled at the top of his lungs and shook me with all his might as I was still asleep in the bunk.

“Holy fucking shit!” I screamed, flinging straight up in the bed, stopping just before I crashed my head into the top. “What the fuck are you doing Brian?!?!” I slapped his arm as hard as I could, leaving a red outline of my hand on his flesh.

I could hear Matt’s husky laugh coming from behind Brian, standing between the two rows of bunks. “I told you not to do it!”

“Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck Kat,” Brian rubbed his arm and scowled at me. “I was just trying to make you laugh…and let you know that we’re fucking here.”

“Go away!” I moaned and crashed back to my previous position.

“Fine, be a bitch!” Brian threw his arms in the air in defeat as he turned to walk towards the front of the bus.

Matt approached the edge of our bunk and placed his large arms along the edge, resting his chin on his folded arms. Our bunk was on the bottom, but it was still high off the floor as there was a large storage drawer underneath, the bottom of the bunk level with the bottom of Matt’s ribcage. “Don’t be pissed at Brian,” he sympathized with his friend.

“Matt, stop taking up for him. He scared the crap out of me and if my forehead would’ve made contact with the top of the bunk, I’d be on the way to the ER to get stitches.”

“It’s your first overnight experience on the bus. Prepare yourself, because you are going to be harassed,” Matt laughed and rubbed my stomach softly.

“Just like that?” I rolled my head to the side to look him in the eye.

“Just like what?” he parroted.

“You are going to let them give me shit the next two months? Aren’t you supposed to protect me?” I pouted.

“I protect you from danger, not a good hazing,” he joked. “Besides, all the girls have gone through it and you can’t be treated any differently.”

“Be prepared to be on edge for the next two months,” Michelle warned as she passed through on her way to the front of the bus. “They were rough on all of us. They are just trying to have fun, so don’t take them too seriously,” she offered and continued down the hallway.

“See?” Matt pointed his thumb towards Michelle. “They aren’t singling you out! And you know Brian loves the shit out of you.”

“I know, I know,” I said as I threw the covers off me and rolled over to hop down from the bunk.

“And remember, that doesn’t mean you can’t fuck with them too,” he winked at me as he moved aside to give me room to get out.

I gave him a devilish grin from the corner of my mouth before standing on my tip toes to kiss his lips. “That DOES make me feel a little better…”

He swatted my ass as hard as he could as I pushed past him towards the bathroom, causing me to rise up on the balls of my feet as it stung my flesh.

Standing in the way too small bathroom, I leaned against the sink to get closer to the mirror to examine my face. I had some smudged mascara underneath each eye, licking my index finger and rubbing it gently across my stained flesh. I pulled my dark hair up into a tight ponytail and brushed my teeth.

As I exited from the cramped closet also known as a bathroom, I saw the boys strewn about the bus and Michelle chatting on her cell phone. I couldn’t help but wonder if she was giving Val some sort of update.

Brian winced as I walked past him, jumping back slightly causing everyone to erupt in laughter. “What? Look what she did to my arm!”

Jimmy squinted his eyes and leaned forward to get a better look. “All I see is tattoos, fucking pussy.”

“Look on the bare parts!” he pointed.

“Brian, I’m sorry! Ok, let it go!” I plead with him as I stood in front of him. “You just scared me and that was an automatic response. It’s not like I was lying in bed, waiting for you to come wake me up so I could rack you in the face.”

“Oh, I forgive you,” he reached out and grabbed my legs around the thighs and squeezed them tightly as he rubbed his cheek against my stomach, causing me to have to grab his shoulders to steady myself.

“Stop molesting her,” Matt grabbed my arm from behind and pulled me from Brian’s grip, gently placing my slight frame in his lap.

Two long couches lined each side of the bus with only about 3 feet between them. If you stretched out your legs, you can be sure you’d end up kicking whoever was sitting across from you.

“Ok, it’s 11 o’clock. We have sound check at 3, dinner at 5 and the show at 9,” Zacky went through the day’s agenda.

“He CAN read! It’s a miracle!” Johnny put his hands together as if he were praying as he looked up at the ceiling. “You have been heeeeyahled!” he praised in his best southern accent.

“Shut the fuck up Christ,” Zacky smacked his arm in a similar fashion to what I had done to Brian earlier.

“Look! Kat’s violent temper is rubbing off on everybody,” Brian teased as he pointed to Zacky. “You should be ashamed!”

I laughed and kicked my leg out playfully, tapping Brian’s shin with my bare foot.
_______________________
The hours between arrival and show time would be spent idly most of the time; for the ladies anyway. We had a driver arranged in each city to take us wherever we wanted to go.

“You DO know the main reason I’m always on tour with them, don’t you?” Michelle pulled me away from the earshot of the guys.

“To be with Brian, I’d assume…”

“Of course,” she agreed. “But there’s a lot more to it than that.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, scrunching my eyebrows at her.

Michelle swung me around to face a huge crowd of people that stood behind a chain link fence and pointed. “They are here hours before the show? Just to stand out here all day?”

“They want to meet the guys, big deal,” I shook my head at her.

“Don’t be naïve Kat. Every girl standing out there would fuck Matt senseless if they were given a chance,” she explained. “They’d do just about anything to get with any of the guys…and trust me, they have done it before. And it‘s obvious his isn‘t known for his faithfulness.”

I shook my head slightly as if to clear my ears, not believing what I was hearing. “Look, I know you probably hate my guts and maybe I am naïve to believe he‘d be faithful to me, but he hasn‘t given me a reason to worry yet.”

“All I know is what I see and I’ve never SEEN Matt do anything with any of them. But then again, I didn‘t think he was fucking around on my sister either.”

“KAT!” I heard loudly behind me as Matt Berry hugged me from behind, lifting my feet off the ground. “I still think you should ride in the crew bus with me and Jason.”

“It‘s good to know some people are glad I‘m here,” my tone dripping with sarcasm.

Michelle rolled her eyes before she walked away.

“Matt?”

“Kat?”

“If I asked you something, as a friend, you’d tell me the truth and not what I wanted to hear, right?” I looked to him sincerely.

“Of course,” he put his arm around my shoulder, giving me a squeeze. “What do you want to ask me?”

“Well,” I began to fidget with the hem of my shirt, looking down to my feet. “Does Matt fuck around with groupies?” I spit out bluntly.

“What?!” he dropped his arm from my shoulder to swing around directly in front of me. “Are you seriously asking me that?”

“Yes. I know how close you and Jason are to him and you are always with him and the guys. Don’t protect him or my feelings. I just need to know,” I looked into his eyes.

He sighed. “What started this?”

“Michelle said that the whole reason she comes on tour with Brian is to make sure he doesn’t fuck groupies,” I shared, not knowing if Michelle had wanted to keep it between just the two of us.

“If you can keep your mouth shut, I’ll tell you something,” he moved closer to me. “You promise you won’t repeat it to anybody?”

“Yes, I swear. Tell me,” I was almost begging.

“I’m not going to tell you that the guys are perfect angels. They get wild and crazy sometimes. And…yes…some of them mess around with groupies,” he spoke cautiously.

“So the answer is yes?” I felt my adrenaline start to flush through my body.

“No!” he interrupted. “I swear to you on my Grandma Berry’s life that I have NEVER witnessed Matt doing anything he shouldn’t with fans or anyone else for that matter. I mean, in the past, of course he did…” he cut off mid-sentence realizing that he was going down a rocky path that had Kat standing on the side.

“If your Grandma dies while we’re on this tour, I’m going to fucking stab you,” I grinned as my mind was soothed, disregarding his unintentional dig.

“Cross my heart, Grandma will be fine,” he grinned at me. “But if something happens by chance that she has a heart attack or something, its mere coincidence!”

I wrapped my arm around my his waist as he heaved his arm around my shoulders as we walked together towards the loading docks of the venue.

“So which one of them cheats?” I looked over at him with a curious grin.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” he looked to me with his mouth gaping open. “I could lose my job if I gave you specifics.”

“No you wouldn’t. I’m fucking the front man, you are good as gold,” I teased him. “It’s Johnny, isn’t it? That little horn dog!”

Matt’s hand left my shoulder and found its way to my mouth. “Sshhh! Stop talking about it!” he squeezed my mouth tighter as we got closer to the doors of the venue.

“MmmMm! MmMmMm!” I mumbled against his palm, trying to speak.

“What?” he asked, not understanding a word.

“You’re ruining my lipstick!” I yelled as I tried his hand from my mouth, laughing.

“Just go do your girl stuff,” he said as he wiped his hand off on his pant leg. “I’ve got work to do!”

“Fine, fine,” I smiled and waved, not able to avoid glancing over at the crowd next to the fence. My eyes scanned the girls, trying to figure out who could be a possible threat. “Seriously?” I thought to myself. “You are on tour with him and you think he’d be stupid enough to cheat with you around?” I rubbed my forehead with my hand and laughed to myself as I continued inside.

As I got further into the building, I saw Zacky leaning down, looking over his guitar that lay in a case at his feet. “Hey Kat,” he turned his head as he saw me approach and grinned.

“Hey Zacky,” I smiled back. “Where’s Matt?”

“Last time I saw him he was going to the stage, that way,” he stood up and pointed to a door that lead to another hallway. “Just go down there and follow the hallway to another door. It should take you straight to him.”

“Thanks Zacky,” I smiled and turned to go through the door.

Just as he had said, when I exited the final door, I could see Matt’s large frame standing on the stage. He was holding his mic and adjusting his ear phone monitors with his back to me.

I continued walking in, still about 40 feet away from the stage, down on the pit level. I walked up to a large metal gate that would later become the only barrier between the huge crowd and the guys.

“Alright Matt, give me a good scream,” I heard the sound engineer yell from the mixing board.

I couldn’t help but grin as he gave a loud, rumbling roar into the microphone that vibrated in my chest.

“Alright, let’s try some more. Give me a couple good verses, and really belt it!” the engineer instructed.

I could see Matt’s shoulders expand as he took a deep breath before he exploded into “Gunslinger”.

“I've always been true; I've waited so long just to come hold you. I'm making it through. It's been far too long; we've proven our love over time so strong, in all that we do. The stars in the night, they lend me their light to bring me closer to heaven with you,” his voice echoed the empty arena.

My arms were covered in goose bumps the entire time. Hearing him sing live with the guys was awesome, but to hear just him giving it all he has gets me every time.

“That’s good Matt. I think we got all we need from you,” the engineer called out, giving him a thumbs up.

He removed his ear phones and handed his mic off to a crew member before sitting on the edge of the stage and hopping down the rest of the way, walking towards me. “Hey baby,” he flashed his dimples as he smiled at me.

“Hey,” I returned, getting a peck on my lips.

“Where’ve you been?” he asked before walking around the barrier to be next to me.
“Shooting the shit with Berry for a while, then I was told you were here, so I came to check it out,” I winked at him causing him to show his dimples once more.

“If I would’ve known I had an audience, I might have put forth a little more effort,” he laughed.

“Shut up Matt,” I poked my finger into his rock hard stomach. “You always sing perfect.”

“Well, thank you baby,” he smiled and kissed the top of my head before throwing his heavy arm around my shoulders as we began to walk down the long hallway back to where Zack had been earlier.