28
“So what do you know about her?”Kasen asks Trent as we wait for our new tour manager to show up to his house.
She came with Decker’s recommendation, so we decided to give her a shot, but since Trent handled all the details with her, he’s really the only one who knows anything about her.
“She’s got a lot of experience.She’s been a tour manager for the past five years, but has been in the industry for ten years.She’s worked with several big bands, and everyone I talked to said she was the best.She’s got a take-no-shit attitude, which I thought we might need this round.”
The doorbell rings.“That’ll be her,” Trent says as he stands up and goes to the door.
“What did you say her name was?”Miles asks.
“Melrose Fletcher,” Trent says right as he reaches the door.Kasen stiffens beside me, and I glance over to see him staring at the door with disbelief.
The woman who walks through has bright dyed-red hair—like Ariel inThe Little Mermaid—colorful tattoos up and down both arms and across her chest which are on display since she’s wearing a black tank top over skinny jeans, and a pair of black shit-kicker boots.She has piercings through her bottom lip, her nose, and her eyebrow, as well as several in both ears.She looks like a hardcore rocker chick, and her commanding presence as soon as she enters the room gives me no doubt she’s able to run a tight ship on tour, despite her small stature.
Her whiskey-brown gaze slides across Trent’s living room landing on each of us in turn.Her eyes pause when they land on Kasen, and her entire body seems to stiffen into an almost defensive posture.But just as quickly, she composes herself and offers him a friendly smile.
“Kasen Stone.It’s been a long time.”
I look at Kasen, who’s frozen in his seat as he stares at her like she’s an apparition.“You know her?”I ask.
He doesn’t answer me or look my way, his gaze still locked on Melrose when he finally finds his voice.“Hey Melly.”
Melly?
Trent and I exchange glances.How well do these two know each other andwheredid they meet?If it’s because of his party scene, we’re in deep shit.
“How do you two know each other?”Trent asks, doing a damn fine job at hiding the concern I can see in his eyes, but not hear in his voice.
Melrose finally breaks the stare off she and Kasen were participating in and looks to Trent when she responds, “We went to elementary and middle school together.I moved away in eighth grade.”
“We were best friends,” Kasen adds, his gray gaze still locked on Melrose.
Her expression softens when she looks back at him and she nods.“We were.But we lost touch.”She directs her last comment to Trent.
“You stopped responding to my letters,” Kasen says, a hard edge to his tone.
She stares at him, an unreadable expression on her face.“You stopped sending them.”
Kasen frowns.“No, I didn’t.”
She gets a deep wrinkle on her forehead as she stares at him like she’s trying to gauge if he’s being honest with her.Trent, Miles, and I remain silent, our gazes darting between the two of them.There’s tension that wasn’t in the air before.
She visibly swallows and then, as if she remembers why she’s really here, smiles and shrugs her shoulders.“Well, it was a long time ago.Either way, it’s nice to see you again.”Turning to Trent, she says, “Should we discuss the tour?”
For the next hour, we go over the logistics.She’s competent and takes away a lot of our stress.She’s also sympathetic to our loss and careful not to overstep, which I appreciate.By the time she’s ready to leave, it’s clear we’re all feeling a lot more confident about the tour.
“I’ll walk you out,” Trent says as he guides Melrose back toward the front door.
Kasen watches her with a fire in his eyes I haven’t seen in a very long time.“Wanna come over to my place and play someSuper Mario World?”I ask.
My uncle gave Trent and me an old Super Nintendo, and we used to playSuper Mario Worldall the time in high school when we weren’t rehearsing.We continued the tradition on tour until Kasen started using drugs more.It’s been a long time since we hung out just the two of us, and I’m curious about what’s going on with him and Melrose.My brother has enough on his plate, so I figure I can be the one to do recon and decide if we need to worry or not.
He can barely peel his gaze away from the front door where Melrose is now walking out.“Yeah, okay.”
We say our goodbyes to Miles and Trent and then he follows me to my house.I grab us some waters and snacks and then pull up the game.“Who do you want to be?Mario or Luigi?”
“Mario.I’m feeling red today.”