Merch Girl Read online

  “Bye girls. Have fun. Please be careful and don’t forget to call!”

  I hugged her goodbye and blinked back my tears. “We’ll be fine, don’t worry about us!” I said, hoping my voice wasn’t noticeably breaking.

  “Really Mrs. K., don’t worry about a thing. We’ll take care of each other,” Trina said, hugging my mom goodbye as well.

  It was the first night of Lansdowne’s summer tour across America, and our first night as official “merch girls.”

  We pulled our heavy suitcases out of the trunk and waited for the train to come. It was a hot, humid summer night. Fly-away strands of hair stuck to my face, and Trina’s eyeliner ran under her eyes. At least our clothes were hot. We took the Lansdowne shirts that Logan gave us and customized them to our liking. Trina transformed her t-shirt into a halter top and cut it a little short so her belly button was showing, and I cut my t-shirt’s collar wider and lower and wore a white tank top underneath. Hopefully the guys would like it.

  “I can’t believe this day has finally come!” I said.

  “It’s going to be so weird to see Griffin all the time,” Trina remarked. “We’ve been texting 24/7, but I haven’t seen him since band practice.”

  The train arrived and we got off at our stop in Boston a half hour later. I really should have packed lighter. Dragging two heavy suitcases up the steps and then down the narrow city sidewalks wasn’t easy. As we turned the corner I saw a couple of tour buses parked outside behind Fenway Park’s Green Monster. Some roadies were unloading the band’s instruments and wheeling them inside the venue. Griffin ran to greet us as we came closer to the bus.

  He took one suitcase each from us to carry to our bus. “What do you have in there, dead bodies?”

  Trina shrugged her shoulders and smiled while I laughed. We followed behind him up the steps to the bus.

  “You guys are nuts,” he said, shaking his head. “This is the crew bus, where you guys will be staying during most of the tour. We’ll also stop at a few hotels along the way. Anyway, make yourself at home. There’s a bathroom and a kitchen in there, and a little lounge in the way back with a TV. Come meet us on the other bus when you’re done.”

  He gave Trina a quick kiss on her cheek and left us to wander around our new surroundings.

  The “kitchen” consisted of a small table, a microwave and a mini-fridge. Behind the kitchen area were six small bunks, three on each side of the bus, one on top of the other, with curtains covering the sides. We found the bathroom which resembled an airplane restroom. The lounge in the back had a couch that wrapped around the wall of the bus, and a TV/DVD player. It wasn’t the life of luxury, but it wasn’t horrible either. I was pretty sure I could live like this for a few weeks without a problem.

  “Where are we supposed to do our hair and make-up? And there’s no shower!” Trina screamed.

  Thank goodness I packed a full bottle of body spray.

  “There must be some place to get clean. I’m not shaving my legs in a sink,” I said.

  “I think we might have to,” Trina replied.

  We left our bus and knocked on the band’s bus door. Logan opened up and welcomed us in.

  “Wait, you girls need your official VIP passes before entering our domain.” He grabbed two passes off the counter and placed them over our heads. “There, now you can party with us, officially.”

  I stared down at my shiny VIP pass with a smile, and stepped up onto the bus where I saw the rest of the band, Jeff, Jenna, Holly and Carson. There was another person there who I didn’t recognize. She looked like she was in her late-twenties, and had bright pink hair.

  “Hi, I’m Robyn, the tour manager,” she said, extending her hand to us.

  “I’m Lacey, and this is Trina,” I replied, shaking her hand. “We’ll be selling merchandise.”

  “Great! Come with me. I’ll show you where all the merchandise is and how to set it all up,” she instructed.

  Trina and I followed Robyn outside, passing a long line of girls already waiting outside the venue. I didn’t have much time to look at them, but I definitely noticed some evil glares shooting in my direction. I couldn’t blame them though, if I was in line and saw two girls walking into the club with VIP passes dangling from their necks I’d be jealous too.

  “I’ll help you set up today, but the rest of the tour you girls are on your own,” Robyn advised.

  She helped us unload the boxes and hang up the apparel on the board behind us. Then we laid out some photos, posters and key chains on the table in front of us and matched up the price stickers.

  “This is the cash box and key,” she said, handing the items over to me. “There’s already some cash in there for change. Just keep track of how much you started with and how much is in there at the end of each night, then get the numbers back to me. I’ll keep track of it.”

  It sounded easy enough.

  High-pitched screams erupted from the crowd outside. The guys must have left their bus and entered the building. Trina and I stepped away from our merch stand and watched them set up for soundcheck. I got chills as they took the stage and waved to us. We were the only ones in the building besides the club’s employees. They sang three songs as the sound board technician checked the sound and lights.

  Trina whistled and clapped her hands in the air.

  “Thanks babe,” Griffin shouted back.

  Logan strolled to the front of the stage and sat down right in front of us.

  “I’m so nervous,” he admitted. “This will be the largest crowd I’ve ever sung to.”

  “Don’t be. You sounded great, and by the sound of things outside, your fans are really excited for you guys too,” I said, placing my hand on his knee cautiously.

  “Thanks,” he replied, looking down at me and putting his hand on top of mine. “We’ll see you guys after the show.”

  I nodded back and smiled. I’d never done anything as gutsy as that before. The guys ran backstage to do some interviews with the local newspapers and radio stations, and Trina and I headed back to the merch booth.

  The doors opened about a half hour before the concert started and the fans came running in. They bypassed the merch booth completely, moving quickly to get as close to the front of the stage as possible. I spotted Jenna and Jeff sitting on the side of the stage near the extra equipment. Jeff had his camera in hand, ready to start filming.

  The room went dark and the filled with the noise of screaming girls. My heart beat faster in anticipation. Griffin took the stage, followed by Ryan, and finally Logan. The fans went absolutely wild, jumping up and down, and yelling hysterically.

  “Hey, Boston!” Logan screamed into the microphone. “This is our first show of our first tour. Thanks for joining us on this journey!”

  They broke into song and everyone sang along, even though the full record wasn’t out yet. I guess the fans found some leaked songs online. Their music vibrated through my entire body. I wasn’t just hearing it; I was feeling it too, down to my very core. Listening to them play was like a drug. Their music brought on a euphoric sensation that swept through me. The next hour flew by, and when the show came to an end it was like waking up from a dream.

  “This is our last song, we hope you enjoy it, and thanks for a great night!” Logan said.

  The audience erupted into louder screams and danced through the entire song. The guys left the stage and everyone in the club raced to the merch booth. The experience was a little frightening, like hungry dogs running towards fresh meat, but Trina and I were ready to take them on.

  “I’ll take one small t-shirt and a poster.”

  “A medium sized hoodie and a key chain, please.”

  “Can I get two posters and two tank tops?”

  We were selling for at least thirty minutes before the crowd began to wind down.

  “Whew, this is like a work out!” Trina said, bending over to open more boxes and grab more shirts.

  “I know! It’s crazy!” I handed her some more
key chains.

  The last fans left the building and we packed up.

  “Woah…” Trina said, counting up the money in the cash box.

  “What?”

  I filled the boxes back up with the little amount of merchandise we had left.

  “We sold,” she said, shuffling through more twenties. “About $4,000 worth of merchandise!”

  “Wow! Robyn will be happy, and so will the guys.”

  Carrying the boxes of merchandise back to the crew bus, I noticed a huge mass of girls waiting outside. We slid the boxes underneath the bus and turned back around to grab more inside the club.

  “Can you believe all the girls out there?” Trina asked as we gathered up the rest of the merchandise and brought it back outside.

  “I know! Should we warn the guys?”

  “Maybe, let’s go find them.”

  I held up my VIP pass proudly, and the security guard let us in the roped off backstage area.

  Jeff stopped us as we walked down the hallway. “Hey, you finally made it, how’d your first day on the job go?”

  “It was great, we sold most of the stuff we had,” Trina replied. “Where are the guys?”

  “I think in their dressing room,” he said, pointing to the room next to him.

  I opened the door to find Logan standing in the middle of the room, wearing only a white towel around his waist. My jaw dropped.

  “Sorry!” I said, closing the door as quickly as possible.

  “No, it’s okay,” Logan said through the door with a laugh. “I’m almost done.”

  Trina cracked up. She was standing behind me the whole time.

  “Shut up! I’m so embarrassed!” I whispered back at her.

  Logan opened the door again, still shirtless, but with jeans on this time.

  “We get sweaty after the shows, have to shower, ya know? Don’t worry about it, I’m sure it’ll happen again, but maybe next time I’ll be the one walking in on you,” he said with a wink.

  I was stunned into silence.

  “In your dreams,” Trina shot back at him. “Wait, did you say shower? Are you saying we have to shower in the venues?”

  “Yeah, if they have one, unless we’re stopped at a hotel for the night,” Logan responded.

  “Okay, that’s really gross,” Trina said, shuddering.

  “Wear flip flops and you’ll be alright,” he said.

  “Ew, I’ll pass.”

  “You smell good to me,” Griffin said, sneaking up behind her and running his nose along her collar bone.

  “Thanks, creep,” she joked.

  “We came to warn you that there are hundreds of girls waiting for you guys outside the bus,” I said.

  “Really? That’s awesome!” Logan replied, scrambling to find his t-shirt. “You ready Griffin?”

  “Yeah, where’s Ryan?”

  “I don’t know,” Logan said. “We need to leave though.”

  I think we all secretly knew where he was since Jenna was missing too.

  Trina, Jeff and I followed Griffin and Logan outside to the sea of fans still waiting for them. It had been almost an hour since the show ended. I was surprised they had this many hardcore followers already.

  A few security guards kept watch over the crowd to make sure the guys didn’t get mauled as they signed autographs and took pictures. Jeff filmed the Lansdowne mania that ensued.

  “Where’s Ryan?” one fan asked, wearing a “Ryan is Hot” homemade t-shirt.

  “Umm…he wasn’t feeling too great, but he should be out soon,” Logan told her.

  I knew he didn’t want to lie to his fans, but what else could he say?

  Ryan finally emerged from the venue twenty minutes later, with Jenna trailing closely behind.

  “Gross, was he with that blonde groupie?” a fan asked.

  I acted fast to save his butt.

  “No, no, that’s one of my friends, she’s cool, don’t worry,” I explained.

  “Oh, okay.”

  I think she bought it, but she still looked a little pissed off.

  The crowd died down after Ryan finished signing autographs, and we all piled back on the band’s bus. Logan paced back and forth through the narrow hallway between the bunks. His face was red and his hands were in tight fists.

  “I swear Ryan, if you ever pull a stunt like that again, then I’m having Jenna kicked off the bus, or even better, the whole tour,” Logan threatened.

  “What? It’s not Jenna’s fault, don’t blame her,” Ryan said, standing up to face him. “And you don’t make the rules for the entire band anyway.”

  “I have our best interests in mind, unlike you,” Logan replied. “The fans were really upset when you weren’t out there with Griffin and me, and I don’t want them thinking you’re hooking up with random girls either, we need to keep a good image.”

  “I think it’s dumb to lie to them, why is it wrong to have a girlfriend?” Ryan asked.

  I saw his point, but I also hated Jenna, so I was rooting for Logan on this one.

  “It’s not about that, it’s about you choosing to hang out with Jenna over meeting our fans, who are our number one priority right now. Without them we wouldn’t even be on tour,” Logan stressed.

  “Fine,” Ryan said. He sat back down next to Jenna, and grabbed her hand. “It won’t happen again.”

  We all looked at each other in silence, and Logan stomped off the bus.

  “Think I should follow him?” I asked Trina.

  “Yeah, I would.”

  I ran out the door and spotted Logan in the distance. He made it down the street pretty fast and was about to turn the corner.

  “Logan! Wait up!” I shouted.

  He stopped in his tracks and turned around as I jogged to catch up to him.

  “Hey,” I said, waving nervously.

  “Hey.”

  “Just wanted to keep you company. You don’t have to talk about anything.”

  “Thanks,” he said, running his fingers through his shiny, clean hair. “I just really want to punch something right now.”

  I took a step back.

  “Not you!” he said, and laughed a little. “I just don’t understand. It’s like Ryan’s trying to sabotage us before we even make it big.”

  “I don’t think he’s deliberately trying to do that, it’s just that Jenna pretty much always gets what she wants, and right now it’s pretty apparent that she wants all of Ryan’s attention.”

  “Yeah, I guess.”

  He looked up to the sky and slowed down his pace.

  “If it happens again I would mention it to Robyn or Carson, they’d be able to handle it from an outside perspective.”

  He didn’t respond. We were almost on the other side of Fenway Park. There was no Red Sox game going on, so the street was calm and quiet.

  He turned his head towards me and we finally made eye contact. “After our tour I’ll take you to a Sox game,” he said, nodding towards the ballpark.

  Was he asking me on a date? No, he couldn’t be, he was probably just making small talk.

  “I’m not really a sports fan,” I confessed, kicking the pebbles up from the street with my shoe.

  “What? How can you be from Mass and not be a Sox fan? Blasphemy!” he yelled, placing his arm around my shoulders and pulling me closer to him.

  Maybe he was asking me on a date. My heart rate soared as he touched me, but I tried my best to keep a cool composure.

  “I don’t know; I’m just not big into sports in general.”

  “You’ll change your mind after we go to the game,” he said.

  “Okay, we’ll see,” I said, smiling up at him.

  Turning the next corner, we made our way back to the bus.

  “Thanks,” he said.

  “For what?”

  “For helping me calm down.”

  We stopped outside of my bus and I looked up at his hypnotizing blue eyes. Staring back at me, he leaned down to give me a hug. Yes! Another hug! It was
even longer than the last one. I took in a deep breath, and smelled the soap lingering on his skin.

  “Anytime,” I responded.

  “I better get back to the bus. We’re taking off for Providence in a bit,” he said, glancing down at his watch.

  He ran back over to his bus and I knocked on the door to mine. The driver opened it up and Trina ran down the steps to greet me.

  “Tell me everything!” she said, pulling me up the stairs.

  “Girls, before this turns into a slumber party, can I have the numbers for tonight?” Robyn asked.

  We reported our amazing sales to her which seemed to brighten her mood.

  “Great work! Keep it up!” Robyn exclaimed. “I’m going with the guys to a couple radio stations in the morning. You can do whatever you want while we’re gone; just make sure to meet us at the venue by four.”

  “Sure.”

  “Oh, and we’re staying at a hotel tonight and tomorrow night,” she told us. “You two are in a room together.”

  “Cool,” we responded.

  I peeked in the back of the bus and saw Jeff hanging in the lounge with Jenna.

  “What’s she doing here?” I whispered to Trina.

  “Ryan didn’t want to cause more trouble with Logan so he’s having her join our bus for now,” she explained.

  “Great,” I said, rolling my eyes.

  “It’s actually a good thing. Jeff hasn’t tried to hit on me at all since she’s been here. Maybe we can get them back together,” Trina said quietly. “But enough about Jenna, tell me what happened with Logan!”

  We sat at the table in the front of the bus and I gushed about my walk with Logan. It was the first time I’d ever been alone with him and it just felt so right. I didn’t want to get too carried away, but I couldn’t help it.

  “I really think he was flirting with me,” I told her. “He even asked me to a Sox game.”

  “No way!” she said. “He asked you out!”

  I nodded and held in a scream. It was the best night of my life.

  Chapter 5 – Providence

  We arrived at the hotel in Providence around one o’clock in the morning. The guys walked through the doors as Trina and I checked in.

  “I’d invite you guys to hang out in our room, but we have to wake up in four hours to get ready for the radio interview,” Griffin said, looking in Trina’s direction.