Heavy Wears The Crown

Ten

"And if you don't know, now you know I'm taking back the crown. I'm all dressed up and nakedI see what's mine and take it."
------- Emperor's New Clothes - Panic! At The Disco -------

They say there is something truly poetic about the open road. I, on the other hand, find it quite the opposite. There is something quite eerie about waking up and your first thought being "I have no idea where I am" every day for two weeks. No idea if it was day or night as there were no windows on our bunks and with the sliding door it was always dark.

Did I wake up after just a few hours? Was it now only four in the morning? Or had I slept long into the day and missed breakfast? Were we even in the same state? Were we almost at our destination?

Like I said, there was something eerie, something indescribable about waking up and literally having no idea where you were. Only knowing by the steady vibrating of the bus that you are still aboard.

Every day, the same thing. "I wonder where I am right now. I wonder what time it is right now. I wonder how much I have slept through."

In the two weeks since the first concert I guess things were going alright. We had a decent schedule. We'd arrive to the concert venue a good four hours early. Sound check. They'd all meet with the makeup artists and wardrobe. Nolan would get violently ill for about an hour while the others would eat and chit chat. They would perform. I would sit outside Nolan's dressing room patiently while he "entertained" a groupie or two, and then we would either stay at a hotel for a few brief hours or come straight back onto the bus and sleep while our driver, Ed who was a total blast, drove through the night. Nolan had a hard time sleeping after a concert, adrenalin I would guess, or maybe it was sobriety's effect on him as he never took anything before a show. Nolan refusing to sleep usually meant I didn't get to sleep. Sometimes he would be bouncing off the wall, talking excitedly, insisting we go out if it was a night we were staying in a hotel. On the nights on the bus we would spend a few hours watching movies with the volume turned as low as it could possibly go before we couldn't hear anything until he'd fall asleep.

It wasn't glamourous. It wasn't even exciting. The concerts were always good. The energy they had, the look Nolan had in his eye, contentment. There was something beautiful about watching them play. But the minutes hours and occasional days between shows, and even the days and the hours before and after, were hell. I was averaging three to four hours of sleep a night.

I unlocked my phone and looked at the time. Just after nine. We still had another four hours. I locked my phone and set it back down on my stomach. After a moment I snapped upright, smacking my head on the ceiling as the room in these bunks was essentially nonexistent.

"Ouch, oh, man, I, fȕck-" Someone slid my bunk door open.

"What is wrong with you?" Nolan asked and stepped back against the wall as I rolled out of the bunk and rushed into the bathroom.

Several minutes later I came back out with flushed cheeks. The guys were sitting around, some on the couch, some at the table for the sake of room. You could see the TV from both positions. I cleared my throat and they looked up. "We, uh, need to make a stop today."

"We just did two days ago?" Gunner said looking to the group through confusion.

"Yeah. I know..." I trailed off.

Nolan reached onto the table and picked up my planner. I left it out most of the time, making sure to keep nothing personal in it, this way everyone could feel as prepared as I always did. "There's nothing on the schedule for today. Not until check in."

"I thought we were going every other week?" Derek said leaning over to look at the planner with Nolan.

"Well. We need to go. Today."