One Step Above Guest List

Absence of Heart

It was the summer again, and bands all over the country were back on tour. Now that I was working with Suncoast Records, Ruby Riot was one of the bands I would be promoting, and I joined them on the east coast part of their tour. The great thing was that they were touring with The Best, so I already felt at home when I joined the bands outside the Avalon in Boston, which is now the House of Blues. Ruby Riot was in the venue for their soundcheck, so I knocked on The Best's tour bus door. They opened the door and got hugs from all the guys. They invited me in, and we caught up on what we were doing over the winter. Nearly twenty minutes later, there was another knock on the door. D opened the unlocked door and bounded up the stairs yelling, "room for one more?!" to which we all responded, "always!" It took him a minute to see me, and he pushed Tony out of the way and onto the couch so he could reach me. He took me in his arms and breathed me in. "I'm so sorry I haven't been in touch." I responded, "I know you've been...busy." He pulled back and gave me a look of remorse. I told him it wasn't necessary and that I graduated and soon found a job at Suncoast. He was thrilled and refused to let me leave his side the entire night. As I oversaw their night in Boston, it worked in my favor.

We traveled to Baltimore, Atlantic City, Long Island, Hartford, Providence, Worcester, Hampton Beach, and Portland, all within a week. D and I were inseparable. I handled all of their interviews and meet-and-greets, and even though I knew the band was so tired from working nonstop, it warmed my heart to see how much they loved their fans and how D treated each of them like they were the only one in the room with him. It was quite the opposite of the following night when Ashes to Ashes joined the tour for the three remaining shows in Augusta, Bangor, and Montreal. Their bus pulled onto the street near Ruby Riot's bus. It was also near the State Theater. My heart began to pound. D, knowing what had happened, sat next to me and assured me that I would be ok and he would never leave me alone with Logan. The guys are A2A got off their bus and headed over to RRs. D cut them off at the door and told them the guys were resting and that we would see them the next day in Augusta. Logan was able to make eye contact with me, and my blood turned to ice. He told D he understood and that they would catch up the next day. I never told Jane or Daniel about Logan assaulting me. Honestly, I was afraid I wouldn't get the job. "Me too" wasn't a thing back then. I didn't feel like I could be vocal about it without it coming back on me negatively. I didn't want to take that chance. I loved my job then."

"What do you mean then?" Sadie asked. 

"Well, the more time I spent at the label," Melvin said, "the more I realized that maybe it just wasn't for me anymore, but I wasn't ready to give up. I loved being around creative people, but the industry was changing, and I wasn't sure I wanted to change too. Plus, there are people and attitudes you don't want to put up with anymore, and I wasn't in a position of power to do anything about it. For example, Jane joined me and my local coworkers at one of Ruby Riot's Maine shows. She got so drunk she fell down a flight of stairs in front of the band, their manager, and the President of our record label, wetting her pants on the way down. I volunteered my coworker Luz to take her back to her hotel. I quit handling that level of incoherence.

At the Augusta show, I ran into Lidia, who I had not seen since the incident with Logan in Maine. Not surprisingly, she was there with Logan and would be joining him for the remainder of the tour. Still hurt by the fact that she didn't believe what had happened to me, I still worried she was putting herself in danger by being with him. She again blamed me for what happened, but before I could defend myself, I heard a scuffle behind me and saw Logan and D fighting in the parking lot. Lidia and I ran toward them as I screamed for them to stop. A few roadies jumped in and pulled them apart, but not before a police officer heard the commotion and came to see what had happened. Both D and Logan were arrested and taken to the local police station. Neither of them would say what it was about, but I knew. I think you could have guessed that, at some point, someone was going to go to jail.