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The venue was packed with people. The buzz they created could be heard from backstage, though muffled. It was clear that this night was going to be another high-energy concert, and the guys could feel it.
Maybe all of them, except Emily.
At that moment, Emily felt as if the world were coming to a standstill and then crumbling around her, with nothing she could do about it.
It was the kind of feeling that left your mind blank, but with a deep ache in your chest.
She was standing there, her hands resting on the vanity, her head bowed, staring intently at her phone screen. A simple message from two minutes ago had knocked the wind out of her lungs.
“I’m sorry, Emily. I don’t think we can keep going like this. We have to break up.”
It was short, but it marked the end of a long string of conversations and arguments between her and her girlfriend due to the lack of privacy caused by her new lifestyle. Emily had tried everything she could to make it work, to protect her in some way, but she couldn’t stop people from digging deeper and prying into aspects of her life that were none of their business at all.
Still, despite everything she’d done to keep her out of the public eye, she’d failed. And now she was seeing the result of it.
She felt weak, and maybe she’d always been that way. Because no matter what she did, things would always end up falling apart from one moment to the next, slipping through her fingers like sand while she could do nothing but watch resignedly.
Her relationship was simply another one of those things she couldn’t hold onto.
Outside, the staff was bustling about, finalizing the last details for that night’s concert. The woman thought she heard someone tell her from her half-open door that there were only fifteen minutes left, but she didn’t react. She remained frozen in place, trapped inside her own head even though her mind was a blank, her eyes still fixed on those words.
When there were at least ten minutes left before the show started, Emily’s absence became evident, beginning to worry several people.
“Guys, has anyone seen Em?” Mike asked, as a staff member helped him with the bodypack monitor.
The rest of the band looked at each other with curiosity and confusion before shaking their heads.
“I haven’t seen her for about half an hour,” said Dave, making a slight, thoughtful grimace. “She’s probably on her way.”
“I’ll go look for her,” announced Colin, getting up from a sizable flight case where he’d been sitting. “I wanted to go get something from the backrooms anyway.”
“You mean the dressing room?” asked Joe, raising one eyebrow.
“I said what I said,” he pointed at him, smiling, as if to say, “You owe me a movie, ” before heading off toward the dressing rooms. He’d stop by hers first to see if she was there.
And oh, she certainly was.
When he arrived, he found the door closed. For a moment he thought she wasn’t there, since they usually closed the doors when they left, but he decided to knock anyway.
“Em? Are you in there?” he murmured, waiting for a response, which didn’t come.
However, he could hear sobbing coming from inside her dressing room. That made Colin’s blood run cold, and he immediately grew concerned.
“Emily?” he said again, this time a little louder.
“I want to be alone,” the blonde said in a choked voice, holding back a sob.
The drummer frowned with concern. His bandmate didn’t sound well at all, and that weighed a little on his heart. He imagined the worst, like finding out about the death of a family member or friend, or something of equal magnitude.
The man hesitated for a few seconds. He didn’t know whether to insist or leave her alone.
“Uh… The show starts in about ten minutes,” he reminded her, hesitantly.
From inside, he could hear a curse before the sound of movement. Emily was probably rushing to get out.
“Everything okay in there?” asked one of the sound technicians passing by.
The one with curly hair waved at him, nodding. The technician, though unconvinced, waved back and continued on his way. Colin watched him until he disappeared from view.
“Em?” he repeated, knocking a couple more times, but received no verbal response, just another stifled sob.
That was enough.
Colin’s hand grasped the doorknob, and he opened the door without even asking permission. Inside the room, he found Emily sitting in front of the mirror, covering her eyes with her hands and doing her best to control her breathing while her leg bounced up and down repeatedly in an obvious sign of anxiety. Colin could see that her cheeks were drenched in tears, and his brow furrowed slightly at the sight.
Carefully, he closed the door so no one would disturb them.
“Emily? Did something happen?”
The blonde pursed her lips but didn’t answer. She was afraid that if she spoke, she’d start crying again, and she didn’t have time to deal with any of that right now.
“Hey…” His tone softened as he cautiously moved closer to her, crouching down beside her and holding onto the back of the chair and the edge of the desk to keep from falling. “You can talk to me, Em.”
The woman’s hands finally left her face, and the sight of her reflection made her grimace. Her eyes were red and puffy, and her makeup was smudged. It was far from a pleasant sight, and that made her feel even worse, causing another sob to escape her lips. Then another. And another.
“Hey, hey, hey…” Colin immediately got up from the floor to hold the woman in an embrace she didn’t resist. “Calm down. I’m here,” he murmured, gently stroking her back in a comforting and supportive gesture. Discreetly, his gaze shifted to the clock in the room. There were eight minutes left.
The woman didn’t seem able to calm down just yet, and it was only a matter of time before someone else showed up asking about her absence.
“Would you like some water?” the man asked, stepping back a little from her.
Emily could barely nod, wiping her tears with the back of her hand, though they kept streaming down her face. She felt miserable.
The drummer scanned the room for the mini-fridge and walked over to it, pulling out a bottle of water. Once he returned to Emily to hand it to her, she took it with trembling hands and opened it to take a sip before setting it aside. She looked tense, tired, and shattered, but at least the crying had stopped. Colin felt bad for her. He’d seen her sad on other occasions, but never this vulnerable and… broken.
“...Thanks,” the woman said suddenly, averting her gaze from the taller man. Her voice sounded a bit hoarse and low.
“You’re welcome,” replied the man with curly hair, giving her a small smile.}
The silence that followed that exchange lasted only a few moments, during which Emily tapped her phone screen to check the time. Realizing there were only a few minutes left before the show started, and that everyone was probably panicking because neither the lead singer nor the drummer was there. She sighed deeply.
“Do you need… help with anything?” her bandmate asked, sounding a bit unsure.
For the first time in all the time they’d been together, Emily looked up at him.
“Unless you know how to fix my makeup in record time… I doubt it,” she said, the corners of her lips stretching slightly in an attempt at a smile.
Colin immediately smiled and his gaze drifted to the counter where Emily kept all her makeup products, perfectly organized and labeled.
“You’d be surprised,” he said, then reached for a box of tissues and pulled out a couple.
Emily frowned slightly in surprise at the man’s words, and he took advantage of her gaze to dab her face with small, gentle touches, causing the blonde to flinch slightly at the action.
“Stay still, I’m working,” he told her, narrowing his eyes slightly before chuckling a little.
Inevitably, Emily managed to smile a little more, genuinely.
“I’m not sure you know what you’re doing…”
“Emily, I have a girlfriend. You have no idea what kind of things she’s made me do,” the man teased, making sure the woman’s face was dry before picking up the sponge and dabbing the back of her hand with it a couple of times to see if there was any product left on it.
Noticing this, the blonde raised one eyebrow curiously.
“Okay, maybe you do know what you’re doing.”
“I told you. Why don’t you trust me?” he murmured before picking up the foundation bottle and applying a little to the back of his hand; then he scooped some up with the sponge, pressing it a couple of times before dabbing it gently onto her face where the tears had ruined her makeup. “But you take care of the eyes. I’m still hopeless at that. Sorry."
This time, Emily let out a slightly more cheerful laugh. Colin could tell that the sparkle had returned to her eyes, albeit faintly. It was something, at least.
Once the man finished with the foundation and applied a bit of translucent powder, he set the items down on the counter.
“I thought you were going to leave me looking like a mess,” Emily said appreciatively as she looked in the mirror.
“I surprised you, didn’t I?” he smiled smugly, placing his hands on his hips. “Besides a girlfriend, I have a sister to take care of. So I have to know about these things.”
The lead singer turned her face away with an incredulous expression.
“You have a sister?”
“Yes, you,” he said before turning to head for the door, but before leaving, he looked back at the woman over his shoulder. “Um… whatever happened, I hope you know I’m here. Just like the rest of the guys.”
With those words, the man left the room, closing the door behind him, leaving the woman with tears in her eyes. Some of it had felt almost like a hug, even though there hadn’t been one. And the way Colin had simply admitted that he considered her a sister? That had touched her, in a good way.
Inevitably, her thoughts turned to the group. To how they’d all made her feel welcome and at home. It was clear they were a family now, but Emily hadn’t stopped to think about how these people had changed her entire life, and how their dynamic was based on being there for one another, even without prying too much into each other’s problems. Just showing up was more than enough to feel their affection.
She didn’t have to carry everything on her own anymore, did she?
Quickly, remembering that she only had a few minutes left before going on stage, she carefully wiped her tears with a tissue, fixed her smudged eye makeup, and rushed out of her dressing room as fast as she could. There were barely two minutes left before the show started.
When the rest of the band saw her arrive, they practically let out a collective sigh of relief, and the staff immediately came over to adjust her stage monitors and earpiece.
“We were thinking we’d have to delay the show a bit,” Mike said, half-jokingly, half-seriously.
“I’m sorry, I’m really sorry,” Emily apologized, and for a second, she thought she’d have to explain why it had taken her so long to come out, but… no one asked anything.
“The important thing is that you made it,” Dave reassured her with a smile, placing a hand on her shoulder.
His touch was comforting, almost as if he knew something was wrong, but he didn’t press the issue.
She returned his gesture slightly before they came together for their usual little ritual before every concert.
Even though Emily’s heart was still aching from the breakup, in those moments she had a job to do and couldn’t back out.
The concert went on as usual, though her voice cracked more than once during certain songs. Especially during “Waiting for the End.” If that song already got to her, this time she couldn’t even sing the second part without feeling the urge to cry. When the audience noticed this, it didn’t take long for them to show their support with a round of applause and cheers.
After the concert ended and she returned backstage, Emily took a few moments to catch her breath. She was still reeling from it all, and definitely overwhelmed.
Soon, Colin approached her and, without saying a word, simply hugged her. She responded to the gesture almost instantly, and they stayed that way for a few seconds. Then Mike arrived. Then Joe. And Dave. And Alex. Until it had turned into a group hug that left her a little confused.
“What are you guys doing?” she asked with a somewhat nervous laugh. Her emotions were starting to well up again.
“It’s called affection. Just accept it,” Joe said.
“It’s kind of obvious when something’s going on with you,” Dave remarked.
“Did you tell them something?” she accused Colin, who shook his head.
“Not a single word.”
“I hate you guys,” the woman hissed before feeling her eyes fill with tears again.
“And the award for liar of the year goes to Emily,” Mike said with a smile before starting to pull away from her. The rest did the same. “Don’t tell us if you don’t want to, but tonight we’re going to make your life a little miserable.”
“More than it already is. You know that,” Alex said with a playful edge to his voice.
The blonde could only curl her lips into a small smile, moved by the sense of security and support she felt from her bandmates.
She might have a broken heart, but they were going to be there to take care of her while she recovered, and that was all she needed.