“Eric, you good?” Max asked. I looked up to find him looking at me, a half-smile pulling at the corner of his lips.
“Yeah,” I said. I wished I could tell him that my hands were shaking and that there was this tight knot in my stomach that I couldn’t seem to get rid of. That my mind kept looping through the same few thoughts: What if we mess up? What if the crowd doesn’t like us?
But all I did was give a half-hearted smile and nod, because I didn’t want to seem weak. Not in front of any of them. They’d been at this a lot longer than I had, and I didn’t want them thinking they made a mistake by asking me to be part of it.
My fingers twitched against the drumsticks, and I closed my eyes, willing myself to breathe.
The door opened and Chris, the drummer from Waves Apart, poked his head in.
“Yo, you guys ready?” he asked, a giant grin on his face, like he was the happiest guy in the world. His long, dark hair fell over his eyes in a way that screamed “rockstar.”
I forced myself to smile back. “Ready as we’ll ever be.”
He laughed, a deep, throaty chuckle. “Don’t worry, guys. You’ll be fine.” He slapped me on the back a little too hard, making me wince. “The energy from crowd feels goodalready. They’ll get you so amped you won’t even realize how many people are actually out there.”
Another sudden knock at the door had my heart skipping. The tour manager, a guy named Tim, stepped in, his expression stern. “Five minutes,” he said, checking his watch. He gave us all a quick look, then exited without waiting for any response.
The room went still.
“Break a leg guys,” Chris said. “We’ll see you after.”
We all looked at each other and something unspoken passed between us. There was no turning back. The crowd out there was waiting, and we were the ones who were supposed to get them fired up.
“Alright,” Josh said, clearing his throat. “Let’s do this. No backing down.”
“And no stage diving before we even start, alright?” Max added.
I couldn’t help but laugh. The tension in the room broke a little, but not enough to fully erase the nerves gnawing at the edges of my thoughts. The adrenaline was there and starting to build. My stomach churned, but it was now more from excitement than fear. The thought of playing in front of thousands of strangers made my heart race, but it also sent a thrill through me. It was what I’d always wanted, what we’d been dreaming of for months, what we’d been working for.
We’d earned this moment.
“Let’s fucking do this!” Josh shouted before pushing the door open.
We filed out into the hallway, heading toward the side stage entrance where the energy of the crowd finally hit us—a mix of anticipation, chatter, and the low hum of the venue’sspeakers. The lights were dim, and I could feel the reality of the moment settling over me like a weighted blanket.
The roadie who’d been following us gave a thumbs-up as he led us to the side of the stage where Waves Apart were waiting for us.
We huddled up and Ryan led us in a pre-show peptalk. A part of me wishes I could remember what the hell he said to us that night, but the nerves had a complete hold on me in that moment, and everything sounded like we were underwater.
We broke apart and lined up behind the curtain, waiting for our cue.
Max adjusted his guitar one last time, and Josh cracked his knuckles, his eyes already blazing with that energy he always gets before he takes the stage. I looked down at my sticks, focusing on the familiar weight in my shaking hands.
When Tim started the ten second countdown, I closed my eyes and centered my breathing.
You can do this.I told myself.You werebornto do this. Show them why you’re the best.
As soon as we ran onto that stage, the nerves disappeared.
I sat down at my kit and lost myself in the music, feeding off the energy the crowd was giving us. I had expected a few people to be familiar with us but was surprised when almost everyone was on their feet for our entire set, singing and screaming and bringing the energy from start to finish.
Josh was a goddamn master at working a crowd and had them in a chokehold from the first note. I lost track of how many women flashed him that night, looking around to the other guys and laughing every time.
When he tore his shirt off and a literal fist fight broke out between two women when he tossed it into the crowd, I knew my life was never going to be the same.
TWENTY-FOUR
Eric
