The rest of the world
Jingles and jangles.
But the grass is green
And sunshine angles…
Striking your head like gold.
Together we can mold…
Life that’s only ours
Sitting in the stars…
The crowd went crazy. They did one more song after this with no encores. That was reserved for the headliner. But the way the crowd screamed for them when they left, handing off guitars, they’d be topping the bill before long.
Kay came off the stage, grabbed water, and beelined for the dressing room. I barely kept up, and then I ran into Harrison. He put his hand on my shoulder to stop me. “Where you going, bro? Hunt is about to take the stage.”
“I know, but Kay—”
“Kay isn’t your client. He’s your friend, but you need to check out the performance.”
“I’ll be back, Harri. But you’re right, Kayismy friend, and I think he needs help.”
“Help?” He looked perplexed. “They kicked ass tonight. What’s wrong?”
I exhaled loudly. I didn’t want to get into this with Harrison when I hadn’t had time to work it out with Kay yet. “I don’t know for sure. But, I really need to go.”
He held his hands up in surrender. “Fine…” He wasn’t a total asshole, simply more in tune with his goals than anyone else’s.
I jogged down the hall, but when I got to the dressing room, he wasn’t there. “Where’s Kay?”
“Alden took him back to the hotel room,” Dave answered, looking concerned. “You should get over there. He seemed like, off. Or something.” Alden was one of the two guards assigned to Bramble Punk.
“Off?”
Dave shrugged. “I mean, he usually needs quiet time after a performance, but this seemed worse.”
I tore out of there; even more thankful we were staying at the venue. I could go check on him in the room we were sharing and get back before Hunt’s performance ended. Unlike the guys in the band, I didn’t need a security guard, which was good, because the other guard, Brax, needed to stay with the other guys.
Using my keycard, I opened the door without knocking. “Kay!”
At first, there was no answer, and I didn’t see Alden. Panic crept up my throat, then Alden walked out of the bedroom, thumbing over his shoulder. “In there.”
“Is he okay?”
“Seems very tired. Like that performance sucked the life out of him.”
“Oh.” I had feared that and brushed past Alden on my way in. “Thanks.”
Kay sat on the edge of the bed, head hanging.
“Kay? Talk to me. What’s going on?”
He shook his head.
“I’ve seen this before, but not this bad. What’s going on with performing that you’re not loving?” I waited a beat but wasn’t surprised that he didn’t answer. “Is it more than that?”
