Page 37 of The Battle of Maddox
“Yes,” Ora said, walking back to his amp. “Let’s do this.”
Aaron
Six Weeks Later
The cheers from the crowd were deafening as the guys yanked me forward to take the bows, and shoved me up in front of them. They clapped along with the rest of the crowd.
I was sweaty, tired, and absolutely pumped on adrenaline. Tossing my fist up into the air with the sticks, the crowd roared again. Smartly, I had grabbed a handful of generic sticks and signed them. I’d even had the guys sign them. Those were the ones I had in my hand, not my lucky ones.
Dropping one into my other hand, I carefully threw it into the crowd ahead of me. A hand snatched it out of the air and I heard a shriek. I walked down to the other end of the stage and tossed the other out carefully and another hand grabbed it out the air with a manly yell.
They wanted my drumsticks.
Maddox was suddenly next to me and wrapped an arm around my neck, pulling me in and down for a noogie. I playfully punched at him as he dragged me off the stage as the lights went down.
He let me go as we walked down the stairs and into the hall that led to the green room.
“They like you, man,” Rand said, punching me in the shoulder. “I didn’t know if they would be that excited about your drumsticks, but they were. I’m really impressed.”
The door swung open and there were dozens of women inside, and as soon as they saw the five of us, started shrieking and jumping up and down.
“Who let them in?” Ora growled.
Someone shoved us hard into the room and slammed the door behind us.
Rand grabbed the doorknob without looking and rattled it. “I’m not about this.”
“You’renot?” I asked.
They were all moving toward us as a single mass, and yelling in what I guessed was French. I listened hard, and heard a few telltale language giveaways. Definitely French.
“Madamoiselles,” I called, holding up my hands. “While we are thrilled that you’re so happy to see us, we’re all quite exhausted. If you’d all like to line up, we can happily give you all an autograph and a hug. Fair?”
The women quickly shuffled into a line, eyes wide and bright.
I nodded, and turned back to the guys. “Sign whatever they want, give a hug, and they’ll be gone. We can go to bed after that.”
They were all staring at me.
“You speak French?” Ora asked.
“French, Spanish, ASL, a bit of Hindi, and just a little of Mandarin,” I answered.
“Where the fuck would you have learned Hindi?” Holland asked.
“From a Hindu?” I lifted an eyebrow. “Come on, let’s get this done so we can sleep and get a full day off tomorrow.”
“This guy.” Holland grabbed my head and dropped a loud kiss on my forehead then headed over to the women waiting in line patiently.
Ora and Rand clapped me on the shoulder and headed over to join Holland. Maddox grabbed me and gave me another noogie.
“Good job, dude. I need sleep.”
“And it’s freakin’ Paris. I haven’t been here before. I want to do shit tomorrow that isn’t sleeping.”
He groused. “You’re ambitious.”
“You wouldn’t have hired me if I wasn’t.”
