unREASONable by Arya Matthews
Track 43
Marshall
4 months later
An insane few months pass after Alexandra joins the band on a permanent basis. I thought we’d make a few waves with that change, anger some fans, actually lose some popularity by breaking up the dude circle, and so on and so forth. All of that does happen. For two months after the news came out, we tanked in sales and streaming stats hardcore. Kiera and The Label got to do their magic by wiping off the summer from our calendars with a promotional tour abroad. We’ve never been this busy before.
Going through the gig routine is nothing new to me: pack, travel, arrive, unpack, perform, pack again, on the road again. Meetings, greetings, smiling, answering all the same dumb questions over and over again, although they’re not quite the same now that Alexandra’s with us. Everyone is curious about her origins, her skills, her relationships with each of us. It’s grueling work, and I worry that Alexandra will become worn out and tell us this mad lifestyle isn’t worth it. She’s a tough girl though and holds it together like she’s been doing it for years along with us.
Then, in the middle of summer, the tables turn again. The more we’re out with the masses, the more they see us perform live, the more people love our matryoshka. When it’s her turn to sing, the audiences join their voices with her as one. Not that I can’t get the same response out of the crowd, but it’s different. Alexandra’s voice arrests a heart like nothing else can. She’s brilliant, new, fresh. The rankings start rising, along with streaming and sales numbers, and we haven’t even released a full new album yet. We do manage to record five new tracks for an EP, including an updated version of Devastation, Free of Charge. CJ still gives me the stink eye for the hours we wasted on that song any time he can, but I take to ignoring him. What’s done is done. He’ll get over it eventually.
Through all of this, I can’t help thinking, cringing as I do, that I was right. Alexandra did ruin us. For a couple months. Just a little. But Kiera was right too. Alexandra is good for us. For me more than anybody else. That’s why, despite the crammed schedule, I steal her for a week in Hawaii.
“Have you lost your mind?” Kiera shrieks at me, for once losing her cool, when she calls me the moment we land in Honolulu. “Come back immediately. You’re performing in London in eight days. You don’t have a week to waste! You couldn’t wait until the end of August, until after you wrap up the European promo—”
“Kiera,” I interrupt, holding Alexandra’s hand as we wait for our suitcases at the luggage carousel.
She snaps a harried, “What?”
I kiss Alexandra’s hand and take a few steps away. “I can’t wait. Also.” I glance at Alexandra, whose head turns around with energetic awe. She marvels at the world a lot, still, even though she’s hit close to a dozen countries with us. I lower my voice. “It’s too crazy. Alexandra will never say anything, but she should have a breather. We, she and I, need a breather as a couple. To not worry about who sees us or if we have a second to…look each other in the eyes.” It’s true, but I still grimace at having to explain this to our manager. “We needed to get away, okay? Don’t let your blood pressure rise though. We’ll make it to London on time.”
I turn off the phone. There’s no way I’m giving her a chance to keep harassing me into cutting this trip short.
We get to our London venue forty-six minutes late, but no one says a thing until the show is over and we’re on the bus heading to our hotel.
“You were late. You were flipping late!” Sitting across the aisle, CJ throws his beanie in my face.
“And I made up for that with three extra songs.” I toss the hat back at him. “What are you, Kiera’s agent of vengeance now?”
“Don’t be mad. We got stuck in traffic on the way from the airport.” Alexandra looks at him with huge eyes and a sweet, apologizing pout.
CJ shoots her a half-hearted glare. “When did you learn to play dirty?”
“You’re the one who taught me,” she says.
Zach laughs at the top of his lungs from the seat up front, and the O’Neals shake their heads—Shane smiling and Graham staring at his phone.
“You two are terrible together,” CJ grumbles. “No, I take that back. You were pretty awful to begin with. Only then you were fighting, and now you are…” He waves his hand as though the gesture explains us.
Alexandra hugs my arm and rests her head on my shoulder. “That was a great show.”
“Yes. And we played Royal Albert Hall,” I say. “Do you realize what it’s like to play the same venue as some of my favorite musicians?”
She squeezes my arm a little harder. “It’s like you’re one of them now?”
Alexandra gets it. She gets it better than I do because I can’t even begin to wrap my mind around what it would feel like to first join your favorite band, then play huge shows, following in the legends’ steps.
I kiss the top of her head.
Zach wiggles his eyebrows at me over the top of his seat. “Did you propose while you were in Hawaii? Or was it a spontaneous, show-off-for-the-girlfriend trip?”
Alexandra hides her face behind her elbow, but I laugh out loud and pull out my phone, open Insta, and attach a photo of me and Alexandra. On our wedding day. I really was planning to propose. We ended up eloping instead. She was the one who suggested it. The moment I mentioned wedding preparations and how Kiera and the girls would go to town with it, Alexandra grabbed the front of my T-shirt and said she’ll only marry me if we did it immediately. To keep it ours, not the media’s.
She wore a simple white gown with a wreath made with an assortment of pink, purple, and white flowers sitting on her head instead of a bouquet. I wore all white too. We got married on the beach, had thin, white gold bands for rings, and ate our wedding dinner in our hotel room. It was simple, quiet, intimate, and right.
Now it’s going to be public.
I hold my breath as I watch the rest of my bandmates play with their phones. How long until—
“You did not!” Zach yells. “Not without me!”
Alexandra jumps. “Why is he so hyper all of a sudden?”
Zach disregards all safety and tumbles from his seat. He falls over my legs, the heavy giraffe that he is, and fake weeps on Alexandra’s lap. “How could you do this? I was going to take you to the altar.”
Alexandra pushes Zach away. “How did you know? How did he know?” She looks at me, frowning and thoroughly confused.
Graham throws his arm between the seats and shows her his phone screen and my post. I’m all cleaned up, she’s breathtaking, and it’s impossible to miss the rings on our fingers. I think it’s my message that accompanies the photo that takes the cake though.
By the way.