Crow’s head was throbbing. All that whiskey did not sit well with him overnight. He felt dehydrated and shaky, which was exxaactly how he wanted to feel on his first day on the road for the tour.

“Please tell me there’s Advil on this bus,” he groaned to Angela as he climbed up the steps and entered his tour bus. It was a pretty decked out bus, he could tell from the second he walked in. It had a nice living area at the front, with comfy looking tan leather couches and mahogany accents throughout. There was a big flat-screen TV up on the wall along with a table on the opposite side, where they could get together and play drinking games (not that Crow ever wanted to drink again)… (but, let’s be real) or write new songs.

“Funny you bring that up,” Angela said as she climbed up onto the bus behind him. She was looking over a clipboard, checking things off. She couldn’t look more like a producer, in her dark fitted jeans, black leather kitten heels, and a casual black suit jacket that meant business. He was so grateful he had Angela around, because Crow was a mess with everything else that didn’t have to do with music. He could barely produce his own breakfast, much less an entire national tour.

“What?”

“Well, I have two pieces of bad news and one good. Which do you wanna hear first?”

Crow slumped down onto the couch. He laid down across it, his arm covering his eyes from the blazingly bright sun breaking through the closed blinds. “Let’s go with the bad.”

“Ok. One or two?”

“Two.”

“Good choice.” Angela sat down at the table, still looking over her notes. “We can’t leave on your tour today.”

“What?” Crow shot up on the couch. The move made his head feel like it was injected with acid jello.

“Relax, relax. We’re only delayed by a day at the latest, and it won’t affect the dates at all. We planned some buffer time for exactly this.”

“Why?”

“Doctor Cherry’s wife just had her baby. There were some complications, though, and she wants to stay here to be with them.”

Crow exhaled. “Fuck, is everything ok with the baby?”

“Yeah, last I heard everything was fine, she just wants to stay and be with her wife and newborn. Which means we’re out a doctor, and with Troy’s medical issue, we shouldn’t leave without one. Just in case.”

Crow sighed. “Right, of course.” He let his worries go with a deep exhale. Or at least tried to. It was hard when he was feeling like shit and getting shit news all at the same time. All on top of the fact that he had to go home alone last night. He honestly didn’t even care if he had gone home with Ethan and they never hooked up, all he wanted was that extra time with him. There was something about the man that was completely enrapturing. A way he only remembered feeling through reading fairytales.

“But don’t worry, I think I found someone.”

For a split second, Crow imagined Ethan being the doctor Angela found. That single thread of thought opened up an entire can of worms, flooding his brain with images of the two on tour together. Getting to know each other more, traveling across the country and experiencing all these different things together.

“She’s one of Cherry’s close friends, so we’ll all be in good hands.”

She.

Crow felt his moment of fantasy deflate like a popped balloon. He closed his eyes and rested his hand against the wall behind him. “What’s the other bad news, no no, actually give me the good news next. I need to cleanse my pallet.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, go for it.”

“You crossed a million subscribers on YouTube this morning,” Angela said, excitement clear in her voice. Crow sat up straighter, the excitement pushing aside the hangover. That was a huge milestone, even though to some it may have just seemed like numbers. To Crow, it was so much more. It meant that all these people, an amount of people Crow had a hard time even comprehending, supported him and what he did.

“Yes, queen!” It was Jordan. He burst in through the entrance of the tour bus with an exuberance that immediately filled the room and sent a quake through Crow’s head. He wasn’t ready for that onslaught of energy. “You did it! We have to celebrate. Here, let’s do champagne.” Jordan waltzed past Angela and Crow and stopped right in front of the small bar back toward the bedrooms.

“I can’t do alcohol right now,” Crow groaned.

“Oh, honey, you’re going to do champagne.” Jordan found what he was looking for, squealing in excitement. He waved a golden bottle of champagne in the air, pointing it toward the opposite end of the room. A loud pop followed by a fizz. The sound made Crow’s stomach curl.

Then, another sound. Five rapid knocks on the bus door. Frantic giggles filtered in through the opened window.

Angela scrunched her brows together. She said something under her breath, sounding very much to Crow like ‘fuckin’ groupies’, as she got up and walked to the door. She pushed it open, revealing a gang of six teenage girls, all bubbly and jumpy, each wearing their own handmade ‘Crow Kensworth’ t-shirts. Crow could see a few from where he sat, but they hadn’t spotted him yet.

“Hi!” one of the girls said, the braver one of the group. He saw Angela bristle.

“How did you girls get past security?”

Jordan piped in from the back as he poured the champagne. “Security?” He scoffed. “Girl, all that’s outside is an angry raccoon and a nicer parking attendant.”

Angela huffed in frustration. “I’m sorry but Crow is feeling sick, he can’t do any meet an—“ She was cut off by a loud shriek from the girl in the back. She spotted Crow first as he walked up behind Angela, a big smile on his face. How could he not give his fans at least a few minutes of conversation? They were clearly persistent enough to spot his tour bus from the street and pull into the parking lot (which Angela apparently thought was guarded to the effect of Fort Knox). The note with the flower did pop into his mind momentarily, but he couldn’t see how these teenage girls would pose any kind of threat. They were all just genuinely excited for a chance to meet him.

“Hi, everyone!” Crow said, mustering up as much energy as he could.

The girls flipped. The screaming felt like ice cold darts getting thrown at his skull, but he powered through. He was wearing a white hoodie and gray sweatpants, so he clearly wasn’t looking anything spectacular, but he still posed for photos with each and every one of them. After he was through, he thanked them all for taking time to visit him.

“Are you kidding?” said the one with the dark hair and the light purple streaks. Her name was Tina if Crow remembered correctly. “I’ve been, like, straight up stalking twitter all day, looking through your hashtag legit twenty-four seven.” She pushed a strand of jet black hair off her eyes. They bore into Crow, seeing him as something more than just the man Crow felt himself to be. He would never get used to that. He remembered asking Red one day if it ever stopped feeling weird to be looked at like some exotically rare animal spotted out in the wild. He answered with a shake of his head.

“The tour schedule is up there too, although I’m sure you already knew that.” Crow ended it with a light laugh, his head still plagued with dull throbs.

“Hell yeah! We’re going to try to make it to each stop!” It was another girl in the group that answered, her bright blonde hair drawing Crow’s eyes like a lighthouse, an even brighter pink streak going down the side of her hair. “Total groupies,” she admitted, causing the group to break down into a fit of giggles.

“I’m honored,” Crow said playfully as he climbed the steps back up to the tour bus. “It was great meeting you all!”

Angela huffed, her shoulders visibly slumping as the door hissed shut, leaving the girls outside, scrolling through all the selfies they had just taken. “We can’t have that.”

“Relax, Ang, they’re just star struck kids. Least I could do is take a few photos with them.” Crow walked over to the mini-fridge that was set under the white marble kitchen counter. Jordan tried handing him a glass of champagne, but Crow waved it off. The overhead lighting bounced off the shiny surfaces, causing the stainless steel handles to pop. He bent down, opened the fridge, and grabbed himself a bottle of water.

“No, it really can’t.” Angela’s tone changed. “This is the other piece of bad news.” She was no longer in business mode, getting things done and getting them done right. She sounded… emotional? Crow looked her way as she reached into her back pocket and pulled out a crumpled note.

Crow was shocked as realization dawned on him.

“Another one?”