When Worlds Collide
Chapter 3
By: Bella
"Ohmigod ... I'm ... so ... sorry ..." Tristen managed to say to Benji before quickly turning around and shutting the door behind her. With her eyes wide, she couldn't help but giggle before quickly running as far away as she possibly could from the dressing room that she had just entered.
"Tristen! Where the hell have you been? I've been looking all over for you," she heard Trevor say as she was once again searching for her dressing room, preferably the correct one.
"Trevor! I'm so glad to see you. I thought I'd be lost here forever! You wouldn't believe how adventurous the past twenty minutes have been," she said.
"Well, we're going on next and we were all about to have a shit fit because we thought you were gonna bail out on us. C'mon, the rest of the guys are backstage," Trevor said as he led her to the backstage area where the rest of their band nervously waited for them.
"I hate this, I hate this, I hate this," Tristen said as she strapped on her guitar and faced the wall, letting tears stream down her cheeks as she felt her heart race and chunks rise up her throat. Casey saw her and came over to comfort her.
"It'll be fine," he said, giving her a hug. "You always end up doing a kick ass job. Just pretend like we're in practice. Just you, me, and the guys. No paying audience, no experienced tourmates to impress, no New Found Glory fans to convert, no dvd footage to record, no pressure at all."
"Gee, thanks Casey. You always know how to calm and comfort me," Tristen replied with a fake smile as they headed out on stage.
---
(Later that night after the show, headed to the next stop on the tour)
"Benj, man, you've been unusually quiet tonight. What gives?" Billy asked, watching him sit at the table and stare at the bag of chips that he'd opened, but hardly touched. Benji snapped out of it and looked at Billy, who wore a concerned expression on his face.
"Did you happen to see that new band that played tonight? The one called Pacifica?" Benji asked.
"Yeah, Joel and I watched the last half of their set. Not bad. Why?" Billy wondered.
"About a year ago John and I watched them play because we were considering signing them," Benji started.
"Wow, I didn't know that. Small world, ey? Why didn't you guys sign them?" Billy asked.
"I thought the chick was a prep and I didn't think they'd go anywhere," Benji answered honestly.
"Oh ..." was all that Billy could say back.
"That's not all. That chick, errrr ... woman," Benji corrected himself as Paul's wife, Sandy, glared at him after overhearing him use the term "chick." She hated it when he said that. "That woman barged into my room this afternoon while I was getting dressed. I had seen her earlier and vaguely remembered her, but couldn't quite place her. But this afternoon ... that was definitely her."
Billy couldn't help but laugh. "She just barged in on you? Oh man, I wish I would've seen it. What did you say?" he said while continuing to laugh. He knew what a short temper Benji had when it came to people entering his dressing room without his permission. Surely his temper was much worse when he was in the middle of getting dressed.
"What could I say?" Benji said, throwing his arms in the air dramatically. "As soon as she saw my naked ass she mumbled apologies and ran out."
"You were naked?!?! Oh Lord ..." said Billy.
"Yeah ..." said Benji. "And this is only the beginning. We still have many more months of touring with these people. We're bound to run into each other again. Hopefully I'll be dressed next time. But man, it's going to be so embarrassing."
"I feel for you, man," said Billy, as he stole a few of Benji's chips.
---
When Benji awoke the next morning and opened the curtain to his bunk, he found a big basket of flowers sitting on the ground near his bunk and a card with his name written on the envelope. Confused, he got up and took the flowers and card out to the "living area" of the bus where the rest of his bandmates sat at the table eating cookies.
"What the hell?" asked Benji, holding up his basket of flowers.
"Tristen came by this morning while you were asleep and left those by your bunk because she didn't want to wake the precious sleeping beauty," Joel said, stuffing another cookie into his mouth.
"Who the hell is that?" Benji asked, opening the card.
"That girl from that band. Oh, and she brought you cookies too. They're really good. Want one? She said she would have made them herself, but that's kind of hard to do on a bus so she just bought these from a bakery a couple blocks up. Wasn't that sweet? God, these are really good. We should go there later and see what else they have there ..." Joel said, but was cut off by his brother.
"You're eating MY cookies? Give me those," Benji said, taking the box of chocolate chip and walnut cookies away from his piggish bandmates and opening the card she'd bought him, which had a teddy bear on front holding flowers that said "I'm Sorry." Inside she had written:
"Dear Benji, I just wanted to say that I am so sorry for interupting you yesterday at a time when you were very much in need of privacy. I don't normally barge into strangers' dressing rooms, I swear. I thought that it was my own. Please don't be embarrassed ... I promise I didn't look down. This was not exactly the way that I had invisioned us meeting, and that is completely my fault. Please accept my apology and know that I have learned my lesson. I'll remember to knock next time. Once again, I am truly sorry. Enjoy the cookies and flowers.
Sincerely,
Tristen McFaron of Pacifica - your fellow Warped tourmate
P.S.Good Charlotte kicks ass!"
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