The Height of Fame

Chapter 7

All of us go straight to our bunks when we get on the bus. With the initial rush of the show over, we are all exhausted. By the time the bus starts moving, I can already hear Christina snoring and Katherine turning in her bunk. 

I try to sleep but after thirty minutes of no success, I sigh and pull my phone out. 

There's twenty-three new texts waiting for me along with hundreds of notifications from my social media accounts. I open iMessage and see that nine of them are from the family group chat, wondering how our show went. 

Show was absolutely amazing. We're in the bus headed to Cleveland now. Will call in the morning. Love you guys. 

I exit out of that thread and open Taylor's. 

How was the show? 

Meet any cute guys? 

I laugh to myself a little. 

It was freaking awesome Tay. There were so many people. I wish you could have seen it, I send back to her. Within seconds my phone buzzes. 

That's great! You totally ignored my other question though.

There were plenty of cute guys in the crowd.

I ignore the buzz as my phone alerts me of her response. My mind wanders and starts to replay the show in my head. Every move. Every word. I make mental notes on things to change. Dances that I need to hit harder. The perfect times to breathe so that my notes won't be messed up. 

Dozens of tiny little things that I need to change and perfect. Trevor was right. This tour is going to be a lot different than our other ones. The show tonight proved it. Playing concerts is one thing. Playing a stadium concert is a whole other level. 

Anxiety bites at my insides. I sigh and hit my dab pen. It seems to be the only thing that keeps me calm lately. I pick my phone back up. 

Make sure you crowd surf then.

I quietly chuckle and tell Taylor to go to bed before going on Twitter. 

#LastSummerTour is one of the top trending hashtags. I click on it and the feed for it pops up.

It was such a great show!

Worth the four hour drive! 

Absolutely life changing

I smile to myself as I read through the comments. Knowing people enjoyed the show and that it connected with them in some sort of way is a good feeling. 

I keep scrolling until I stumble upon one that catches my eye. It comes from the handle IhateLaurenCim.

Saw videos of the show tonight and honestly it was eh. Her high notes were whiny at best and what the hell was she wearing???

My heart sinks in my chest as I replay the night once more. It's true. Every once in a while my high notes got pitchy and in turn they came out sounding whiny. Not everyone can put as much force behind them as Lisa. But it's something I've been working on for a very long time and I thought it was starting to get better. 

Maybe it wasn't though. 

I lock my phone and set it down beside me. I bite my lip as I think of ways to make myself better. Despite having a decent buzz going, my anxiety is still to high to go to sleep so I grab my laptop and make my way to the back room to work on some arrangements. We've got about five different covers in progress right now along with working on original music. It's a lot of stuff. 

Being the main producer is great and rewarding but also tedious and tiring at times. When we signed again, the record label wanted to take over but Christina and I pushed for us to be in main control with the production. We do most of the work and their guys just finish mastering the tracks for release as well as some minor tweaks here and there. 

I spend the next few hours creating and tweaking the backtracks to three of our covers as well as recording demo harmonies for my sisters to listen and rerecord later. Normally Christina and Lisa do that but I know that I won't be able to sleep so I go ahead. They can always change it later if it doesn't sound right. 

I'm still sitting in the back editing things as the bus pulls up to the hotel and comes to a stop. Dani sticks her groggy head into the backroom and looks at me. 

"What are you doing?" 

"Working," I say shortly. 

"Dude, it's four A.M. Did you even sleep yet?" she asks. 

"Yeah, for an hour or so. Sleeping on the bus is weird," I say shrugging. 

"Well hurry up and get your stuff. Lisa is cranky and wants to go back to bed." 

Sighing, I close my laptop and go to follow the others off the bus and into the hotel.