Angela's Salvation (22 page)

Taking a sip of the smooth wine, she grinned.  "And here's to the best friend a girl could ever have. 
Hopefully she won't have to pick me up off my butt when I see all those people staring at me tomorrow night." The touched glasses again and sipped on their wine, the mood much lighter than it had been earlier.

Even after the glass of wine, she struggled to fall asleep.  Her thoughts were centered around her debut and of course Nolan.  For two weeks, she'd struggled to find the strength to not call him up and ask him why he'd made love to her so passionately then ended everything.  With her limited experience, it still didn't make sense that he could need her that desperately and then want nothing else to do with her.

Her dreams when they finally came, were of becoming a huge hit and him finally thinking she was worthy enough to love.  When morning finally came she felt like she hadn't slept at all.  Lying in her bed, she stared at the ceiling wishing she could be the type of woman that he wanted in his life.

"Hey sleepyhead, I've got breakfast ready," Rachel popped her head in the room, giving her an excited smile.  After tonight her best friend would no longer be the little waitress f
rom New Jersey, and she wasn't sure who was more excited about that.

Pulling a pillow over her face she groaned and giggled a
t the same time before speaking, albeit muffled by the covering over her face.  "Since when did you become a morning person," she grumbled.

Walking over to the bed, she grabbed the pillow off her face and tossed it across the room.  "Since I've been able to go to bed at a decent hour for a change.  Now get your tush out of that bed, we leave in less than two hours."

Glancing over at the alarm clock by her bed, she was shocked to see it was already ten in the morning.  Sliding out of bed, the nervousness begin.  "I'm not sure I can eat," Angela whispered while following Rachel down to the kitchen.  An entire litany of what ifs moved through her mind, with the least of them being that she'd fall of the stage during her performance.

Rachel laughed, and poured her a cup of coffee.  "Hey I cooked, so you are so going to eat.  Ang, you are going to be incredible tonight."  She couldn't even fathom what it would be like to sing for a crowd of thousands, but her faith in Angela was solid.

Sipping on her coffee, she worried that her voice would croak when she first saw all those people.  "What if I forget the words to the song?"  She'd never done that before, but there was a first time, she considered. 

"Stop jinxing yourself, you're going to blow them away, and Desolite will be wishing they'd opened for you."  She loved the band, but knew without doubt that Angela was even better.  The boy band might be the hottest thing on the air at the moment, but she just knew after Angela's album was out, they'd be standing in her spotlight.

She managed to get down a few bites of toast and eggs, before giving up when her stomach filled with butterflies. "Thanks for breakfast Rach, I really don't think I can eat anything else at the moment.  I wonder if I'll have to talk to those guys?"  The thought of talking with the band made her almost as nervous as performing herself.  They were all incredibly gifted and she wasn't sure what the protocol was for opening acts.

"I'm sure you'll talk to them, and hey I want the introduction to Marcus," Rachel laughed.  He was the hottest thing she'd ever seen, she thought to herself, and she'd definitely love being able to brag about meeting him.

"Great, if I don't puke on his feet, I'll try my best to get the introduction for you." Laughing at the thought of hurling all over the singing god made her stomach settle a little.

"I'm sure you'll do fine," Rachel laughed again, wondering if other women reacted that way when he put those sexy green eyes on them.  "If you're not going to eat you better grab a shower, and finish packing girly, you've got a crowd waiting on you!"

"You cooked, let me clean this mess up before I do."  That was how things always worked back home, whoever cooked didn't clean up.

"Not today honey, you go grab your shower, I've already had mine."  Shooing her away with her hands, she stood up and started grabbing dishes.

Needing a little time to get her thoughts in order, she didn't argue.  She took a quick shower, pulled on a pair of shorts and a tank top, and then got busy packing her off stage clothes.  All the things she'd wear on stage were arranged by the studio, so that was one worry she didn't have.  With her now impressive bank account, she knew that whatever she forgot to pack, she'd be able to pick up in whatever town they were in at the time.

They were both ready by the time Lenny arrived to escort them to the tour bus.  Angela was informed that Desolite would meet them in
Phoenix, their first tour stop, after they arrived.  After Phoenix, they'd make stops all across the US until they arrived back in New York for their last night on tour.  It was scheduled for two months, and she couldn't imagine what it was going to be like.

Both she and Rachel both were blown away by the tour bus.  She hadn't been expecting the likeness of her face to be airbrushed across one side of the bus, and seeing the name Angel Storm in huge letters made it finally hit home that this was a reality.

The vehicle was amazing she thought, as she walked down the long row to the back where a bedroom was waiting.  Everything she could possible need was there including a bathroom, which made her nervous stomach more than a little happy.  Lenny and the other security officers all boarded, and she and Rachel plopped down on the bed in back as the bus took off.

"Can you believe this thing," Rachel laughed, having never seen a bus this decked out before.

Angela picked up the laptop on the bed, and shook her head.  "I guess they thought of everything."  She'd never owned a computer in her life, but had played on the ones at the public library back home.  "This is so cool," she grinned, and handed over to Rachel.

They laughed like school girls, as Rachel discovered the thing had an internet connection and they surfed the internet.  "I wonder if we'll sleep here or at a hotel while we're on the
road."

"I didn't think to ask them about that," Angela grinned.  "I could handle living on this thing for a few months.  Although she knew it would probably get cramped after a few days.  It was apparent she and Rachel would be sharing the bed, and she wondered if Lenny and the guys could be comfortable sleeping in the chairs up front.

"Yeah, I've definitely slept in worse places," Rachel giggled.  The room back here even had a stereo built into the wall.  Definitely more high tech than anything she'd ever seen before. 

Angela noticed the stereo and walked over to find the CD's for the songs she'd be performing.  Turning it on, she decided to get in a little practice as they drove.
  Phoenix was at least a few hours away, and she wanted to prepare as much as possible.  After an hour, she finally felt confident enough to know she'd at least remember all the words tonight.  She'd been going over these songs for weeks, and the vocal coach she'd worked with explained she'd have the music with words playing in her headset the entire time she was on stage.

"Girl you better give those chops a break before we arrive, I think you do sound checks and stuff once you get there."  Rachel had overheard some of the people at the studio mention that sound testing was different for every venue earlier in the week.

"Heck I should just hire you to be my personal assistant," Ang half-joked, thinking how easily Rachel was picking up on all this stuff.

"I love you, but I don't think living on a bus for months on end is really for me honey."  She didn't mind doing this one tour with her best friend, but she liked her feet planted firmly in one place.  She'd done enough running when she was escaping her ex-husband.

Angela had forgotten for a moment how much Rach hated traveling and felt a twinge of guilt.  Her ex had been a raving lunatic that beat the hell out of her on a daily basis until she finally had the nerve to leave him.  Leaving hadn't been enough to get him to leave her alone.  She recalled with horror the story of how Rachel had moved from city to city as he chased her down, threatening her life until he finally had beaten her so bad, the police had put him away for a few months.

Thankfully, and she knew it was probably wrong to feel this way, the man had gotten himself killed in a bar fight after his release six years ago.  If the man hadn't have ended up that way, she would have probably never met Rachel, and she couldn't feel any guilt for his murder when he'd tried to attack another woman in the bathroom.

The woman he'd attacked had a boyfriend who packed a gun, and was known to run with one of the roughest biker gangs in New Jersey.  He'd chosen the wrong woman to go after, and Angela knew that it could have very well been Rachel lying dead in that club if the man hadn't been stopped.  Franco had destroyed her best friend's life for years, and as bad as she felt for thinking it, he got exactly what he deserved in the end. "I'm really sorry that I didn't think about pulling you along with me on this trip, Rach."

"Are you kidding me?" Rachel gave a wink and a grin.  "I may hate travelling hon, but I wouldn't miss this for anything.  I just don't want to do it on a full time basis." 
It had been hard enough pulling herself out of New Jersey to move in with Angela, but being constantly on the road, she couldn't do that again, ever.  There was a lot to be said about staying put, she thought to herself.  She only hoped that no more moves were in their future.  Those two years running from Franco had given her a great love of stability.

"I can't tell you how happy I am to have you with me this time, but I understand.  Besides we wouldn't want our new house to fall in while I'm on the road." Grinning, she couldn't help but be thankful for the incredible gifts life had thrown at her lately.

"Don't worry, while you're out there singing your heart out, I'll make sure it gets all the loving care it needs."  The thought of living the rest of her life out in their new cabin was an idea she could definitely get accustomed too.

A knock on the door interrupted their conversation, and Angela noticed the bus had stopped for the first time.  Opening up the door, she smiled at Lenny.  "Are we here?"

"We are, and you won't believe the crowd we had to go through." This was a security guards nightmare, he thought as they'd made it past the screaming fans outside.  Thankfully, the bus was now safely encased in the building.  "We shouldn't have any problems now, and unless you need to freshen up that other security team wants to get you in the auditorium."

Angela looked over at Rachel, "Are you good to go?"  She wanted to see what this stage was like, but needed to make sure Rachel was ready.

"All good here," she wondered if she should stay behind while Ang did the sound checks, but that wasn't an option as her best friend grabbed her hand and pulled her out after Lenny and the security team.

The auditorium was huge, Angela noted with wide eyes, as they walked up on stage past the crew working to get things ready for tonight.  She smiled as the lead singer from Desolite walked over and held out his hand.  He was even more gorgeous in person, she thought as her eyes took in his tall lanky form with a head full of
chestnut hair, and those mesmerizing green eyes that all the girls swooned over.

"Hey there Angel, nice to meet you
, I'm Marcus." He took her hand and shook it warmly.  She was indeed a doll, he thought, and couldn't wait to hear the voice that the label claimed sounded like a haunted angel.  He hadn't been given her demos and knew this was her first real stage performance.

"Nice to meet you Marcus, this is my best friend Rachel," he seemed like a nice guy, she thought in astonishment.  She'd just assumed he'd be stuck up with all the fame that preceded him.  She fought back a laugh as Rachel blushed heatedly, having never seen her serious friend embarrassed before.

"Very nice to meet you Rachel, I hope you enjoy the show tonight," there was something about this woman that really appealed to him.  Maybe it was the fact that she wasn't as young as the teeny boppers that usually flocked to his show.  He shook her hand as well, and gave a warm smile.  He'd guess her age to be around twenty-seven or so.

Rachel was more than a little flustered at the attention this gorgeous man was giving her.  She'd always thought he was attractive in his videos and talk show interviews, but in person he was simply amazing.  Blushing deeply, she smiled and felt her hand tingle as they shook.  "I'm sure I will."  She wished she'd taken the time to fix her appearance now.  Dressed in a pai
r of denim shorts and a t-shirt, she'd put on no makeup and had her curly black hair pulled up in a ponytail.

"I think the crew is ready for your mic check Angel," Marcus smiled encouragingly, "maybe your friend would like to join me at the sound
station so we can see how the acoustics are working?" Keeping his eyes on Rachel, he was interested in getting to know her better.

Angela could see the instant attraction between the two, and grinned.  "I'm sure she'd love that," knowing Rachel wasn't one for flirting, she decided this trip might be interesting for her after all.

Rachel gave her best friend a panicked look before walking off the stage with the rock star.  She definitely was in way over her head with this man, she thought, and Angela was going to pay for encouraging him, she decided with a shake of her head.