Page 20 of The Devil's Tattoo
Chapter5
We were startingtheWalls on Firetour in Brisbane and traveling right down the east coast through all the capital cities and a few regional towns before hitting Victoria again, bypassing Melbourne via the country cities of Shepparton and Ballarat. Then on to South Australia for gigs in Mt Gambier and Adelaide before coming back the eight-hour or so drive from there to Melbourne for a final two shows before the tour officially ended. We had a planned twenty gigs to get through in the next month and a bit, and that didn’t include interviews and photo shoots alongtheway.
Much to my relief, I was stuck next to Frank on the flight, and we made it to the hotel at the edge of the CBD with a few hours to kill before the gig. We had a tight turnaround, so we had to make do with no sound check and hope for the best. We were playing at Brisbane’s Hi-Fi Bar, so hopefully, that would sortitselfout.
Check in seemed to be a slow process for a busy Saturday afternoon, and we loitered in the lobby as the staff coded key cards for us. I leaned against the tours counter and flipped through some travel brochures—not that we’d get the time to see anything, but there were a lot of things about rainforests and tropical islands that looked like a great way to stop my gaze fromwandering.
A shadow loomed in my peripheral vision. Automatically, I glanced out the corner of my eye, and there stood Will with his wild sexy hair, and—now that he was close enough in daylight so I could see—stormy blue-gray eyes. My whole body began to tingle, and it unsettled me how attracted I wastohim.
“Hey,” he said, leaning against thecounter.
“Hey,” I said slowly, and it came out like I was suspicious. Well, that would be thetruth.
“I’ve seen you around. You know, before this.” He waved his hands around, gesturing toward theothers.
“Oh?” I tried not to let on that I knew exactly what he was onabout.
“There was this show atThe Corner a while back,” he said, frowning at me. He seemed to think I would remember the awkward, sexy eyes he gave me and the odd eyebrow-raising incident. And that thing at our first gig. Of course, I remembered, but I wasn’t going to let on. It wasmonthsago.
“Oh, yeah. I was there,” I said nonchalantly, putting the brochure I had in my hands back ontherack.
“I wanted to say hi to you, but your mates seemed ratherprotective.”
“Who? Dee and Frank?” My eyebrows rose. “Yeah, well, maybe Dee, but Frank would probably push me on anything that looked my way.” Will looked confused, so I said, “He’s all for havin’ a good time if you know what I mean.” It didn’t seem to begoingwell.
“Well,” he said. “It’s gonna be a great tour. I guess we’ll have heaps of time to hang out and get to know oneanother.”
I’m not sure if he said it to be polite or to get away from the crazy person, so I just nodded. Dee chose that moment to come along and thump my room key on the counter, and I turned around to pick it up. Obviously, Will used the distraction to escape, so when I turned back, all I saw was his back as he went over to pick uphisbags.
“So awkward.” Dee shook his head at me. “I need to coach you on social interactions orsomething.”
“Shut the hell up,” I hissed and pushed past him, picking upmybag.
“Don’t be sobitchy,Zoe.”
“Don’t be such asmartass.”
I pushed the button for the elevator about a million times as if it would make the hunk of junk faster. I heard the rest of the guys loitering in the foyer as the doorslidopen.
“Zoe!” Dee yelledatme.
I turned and gave him a look, holding the door with a hand to stop it from closing. Everyone looked at me, and I felt my face going red. Shit, I could stand in front of hundreds of people on stage, but this made me embarrassed? Whatadork.
“Pick you up at six, bitch,” Dee declared, much to his own amusement, and I glaredathim.
As I stepped into the elevator, my gaze crossed Will’s, and he looked away before he had to acknowledge me. It stung more than I thought it would. Shit, at least I didn’t declare my crush on him, but somehow, I thought I might have done thatalready.
Sometimes, I thought I was grateful for the human interaction, no matter how awkward it was. Hiding away for so long had to leave some kinks for me to work out, right? I just wished they weren’t soembarrassing.
* * *
The dayafter the gig in Brisbane, we stood in the middle of the hotel car park, the early morning sun peeking over the top of the trees, and stared at our mode of transport for the next fiveweeks.
It was a gold bus with a trailer attached to the back. Enough room to stick us all in and our gear. We weren’t rich enough to have a fancy bus with beds, so seats would havetodo.
The night before, I cut out on the after party altogether and went straight back to my room and crashed. I tried to convince myself I was just tired after an early morning flight and another show and wasn’t being antisocial at all. Secretly, I was too embarrassed to look at Will, let alone talktohim.
Frank opened his arms wide and spun around. “This is the lap of luxury,” he yelled at the top of hislungs.
