14 Days

“Evie, can I have a word?”

Evie turned around to see Phil, the tour manager standing behind her. He gestured for her to follow him and he walked away from the stage. With her curiosity instantly peaking, Evie set down the guitar she was holding and followed behind Phil.

They wound their way through the corridors, eventually ending up back outside the venue and standing in front of the tour busses.

“What’s wrong?” Evie asked, her thoughts immediately going towards the negative. A general rule for any roadie is that the less attention you get, the better you are at your job. To be picked out by the tour manager made no sense to Evie, and her mind came up with 101 bad scenarios instantly.

“Nothing is wrong, it is actually the opposite,” he said, his cryptic words not helping ease Evie’s mind. She waited for him to continue, biting her tongue while he took his sweet time finishing his explanation. “I just received a call from a friend of mine, Larry Jacobson, he is the manager for Avenged Sevenfold.”

Phil paused as if he was waiting for Evie to give some sort of reply to this. Her head was still spinning with what she could possibly be reprimanded for, and she had no idea of why Phil was name dropping this Larry guy and the band he manages. Why should it bother her that he called Phil?

“Anyway,” Phil continued, seeing that Evie was not going to comment on his previous statement, “Larry needed a favour. One of his guitar techs has had to fly back home urgently, apparently his wife had given birth to their first child earlier than anticipated. The band are not far into their tour cycle, and can’t keep playing without a guitar tech.”

“And I am meant to fill in?” Evie guessed, finally figuring out what Phil wanted from her.
“Exactly,” he confirmed, smiling widely.

“But we still have shows ahead,” Evie noted, already knowing that though they were not at the start of their own tour cycle like this other band, they were not at the end, either. “We have tonight, and then a break until Rock on The Range. We will meet back up with you at the festival as both bands are playing, and then hopefully their tech will be ready to come back,” Phil told her, having already sorted out the few details. “What if he isn’t ready to come back?” She asked, knowing that it was 2 weeks until the festival. Surely he would need more paternity leave then that? It is his first born!

“After the few festival dates, either you get to come back home to Pennsylvania with us, or you stay on with Avenged until they don’t need you,” he replied, shrugging.

“Do I get a say in this?” she asked, already knowing her fate was all but decided for her.

“Of course you do, Evie,” he said, his tone almost patronising. Evie bit back the urge to roll her eyes. “But just think of what a good opportunity this could be for the band! Oh, and for you.”

And there it was, Evie thought, a good opportunity for the band. The reason Phil was such a good tour manager, and why the band had chosen him in the first place was the fact that he always put the band first. Whether it was pulling strings to get them great percentages from their shows, or finding any way possible to promote, he was damned good at his job.

Logically, Evie could see the benefit in her agreeing with this plan. It would be a great opportunity for her to promote Halestorm while she was with this band, and it would also give her skills a run for their money. She had no fear that the work would be anything she couldn’t handle, and she was sure that it would be nice change of pace. She had been working exclusively with Halestorm for quite a while, so it could be fun to work with another band, another crew, and in a whole new setting, right? Change is as good as a holiday, right?

But as logical as the decision seemed to be, it was hard to find a reason to actually go. Leaving this tour meant leaving her family, the rag-tag team that she had been working with for the last 5 years, and being thrown into the deep-end of another tour team she had no past with. She would be leaving the band, her friends, and her comfort zone, and wasn’t sure if she would be up for the giant social change that would be before her.

“Listen, Evie, I know it is all a lot to process, and that you don’t want to leave your family behind, but best case scenario is that it will only be a handful of shows, and then you will be back. Worst case scenario, they love your work, and you will be offered a job with them,” Phil told her, seeing the indecision in her eyes. “On the positive, they are offering a lot of cash up front for your help.”

And there was the money side of Phil coming out, yet another reason he was so good to Halestorm. Evie swore he saw life in a type of currency Matrix, dollar signs flashing over his field of vision at all times.

“Ok, fine, I will go,” she agreed, hesitantly.

She didn't make the decision based on the money, but because of her damned soft heart. She knew first hand how hard gigs could be without the right help, and how it can literally make or break a show. Like all bands, in the early days Halestorm had no help at all. It meant that the guitars would quickly become out of tune, or, on occasions, useless when the guitarists snapped strings. With no one there to replace strings or retune while back up guitars were used, the show either stops, or the crowd realise how awful the music sounds and leave. Music is a tough field, and Evie had seen too many bands end because all the needed was another set of hands.

“This is why you’re the best, Evie!” Phil exclaimed, grinning widely now his plan had worked. Again, Evie repressed the urge to roll her eyes at the expectation Phil had of her, and plastered a fake smile of her own on her lips. “So you will need to start packing your things and getting ready for to leave. Your flights are booked, and all you need to do is show up at the airport.”

“Ok, so when is my flight tomorrow?” She asked, trying to mentally pack her things. Were her headphones in the venue, or still in her bunk? Or did Joe steal them again?

“Tomorrow? No, no no, you need to be ready to go in 30 minutes. I have you on a flight in 2 hours so you will get there in time for tonight’s show,” Phil told her, making Evie’s anxiety skyrocket to an unprecedented height.
“What?! I need to be there tonight? I need to be here, I can’t just leave! And 30 minutes? Are you insane?!” Evie shouted, her temper getting the best of her before she could reign it in. Her heart rate began to rise. She had to leave in 30 minutes? That was barely enough time to get her clothes together, let alone say any goodbyes, or do any work for the show tonight. “We have a show tonight, I can’t leave!”

“Evie, it will be ok,” Phil said as he took her shoulders in his hands to stop her from pacing. “I am sure Chris will be fine covering all the guitars tonight, so relax.”

“But he has to be on top of the bass stuff for Josh, and the rest of the stage gear, he can’t do the guitar stuff too. He doesn’t know the timing, the systems we have! It will be a shit storm for everyone,” Evie told him, shaking his hands off and taking a step back. “Can I at least run him through it?”

“I will try and find him. In the meantime, you need to pack,” Phil said, already whipping out his cell phone to start making calls. He started walking back towards the venue in search for Chris to calm Evie down. “Remember, you don’t need to pack everything! We will see you in a few days.”

“Holy fuck, I can’t believe this is happening,” Evie muttered to herself.

She took a second to take a deep breath, trying to clear her mind of the flurry of thoughts swirling around. With a physical shake of her head, she pulled herself back together and headed towards the bus to pack.

It was only two weeks, she told herself, you can survive for two weeks.

Notes

New story!
This is a little intro chapter to give you a taste of what is to come.

Please be patient with updates! I will post when I feel the chapters are good enough for my lovely readers.

Thanks,
Sas