Mom: If your sister can find the time to fill us in while she is finishing up law school, you can find time while you dilly dally on the bus all day.
Her tone sounds harsh, but I know she’s not actually pissed. She just enjoys giving me a hard time.
Me: You’re right but what are you doing reading those articles anyway? I told you to stay away from them.
Mom: When they are discussing the business of my son, they become my business.
I roll my eyes. Those sites were how she used to discipline me on the road years ago, when she still wanted to parent me even though I was an adult. She’d read up on some of my wilder nights out, then call the next morning bright and early for a lecture, before doing the same for the other guys.
Her lectures were never very serious though, and I could always tell that even if she preferred I was a little more discreet when I was younger, she was happy that I was getting to live out my dream and enjoying my life.
Me: What do you want to know?
Mom: Many things, but like I said, I’d love for you to call me at some point so we can further discuss. But for now, I will settle for, are you happy?
Me: Yes.
Mom: Then that’s all that matters to me. Jane said she was sweet.
A laugh bursts from my lips at that. I wouldn’t exactly classify Scar as sweet, but it was nice of Jane to say.
Me: She’s great. I’d love for you and dad to meet her.
Mom: You just give us the word and I will have your room all made up for you to come home for a visit.
I try to picture Scar in my childhood bedroom with me. The way her eyes would scan over the line of posters I have covering my walls, all from my favorite movies and bands I looked up to. She’d definitely give me shit for the giant Princess Leia one I had hanging on my ceiling over my bed.
Me: I’ll see what I can do.
Mom: Tell her I say hello, and that I would love to chat with her sometime. We could Skype one evening. I located my computer charger finally. Your dad told me he didn’t take it but I found it in his desk drawer.
I smile.
Me: You can use your phone to video chat, you know? You don’t need Skype or your laptop.
Mom: Don’t confuse me. Just give your mother a call once in a while, will you?
Me: Love you.
Mom: I love you, too. I’m glad you have someone else to care for you besides the boys. Tell them all I said hello.
Me: Will do
* * *
The next couple of weeks fly by so fast I feel a little whiplashed. Restless nights on the bus, writer’s block every time the guys and I sit down to try to work on the next album, and sexual frustration. The last part is definitely the worst of it all.
We’ve been going back-to-back nights, in a stretch of the tour where we haven’t had a stop in a hotel for an entire night and have been falling asleep in one city just to wake up in another.
Don’t get me wrong, I fucking love it, the deep-seated exhaustion down to my bones that you only get from hours of playing. If I could live my life on tour forever, right now I’d take it.
But what I wouldn’t give for one night in a hotel with Scar, uninterrupted by anyone or anything. The bus doesn’t create much privacy with so many other people around. And the guys know it and are having fun messing with me and Scar.
They all saw us that night at the club and then the photos posted online. I was grilled by Arun the morning after, to which he visibly relaxed when I assured him that this wouldn’t be causing him another headache fresh off the situation with Nikolai’s last ex-girlfriend.
Even though it was milder than some of his previous relationship drama.
The guys have adjusted quickly to the new dynamic I have with Scar. None of us have ever had a girlfriend with us on tour and in this cramped environment, but they got to know her as a peer before she became my girlfriend, so there hasn’t been much change in any of their relationships.