Chapter 57

Hours later he was happy to finally be in a hotel room. Traveling had gone smoothly but it always made him feel too cooped up. A hotel room offered him much more space. His small suitcase was left by the door as he made his way into his room. It was a decently sized room, bright, which was nice. The bed seemed comfortable enough for the few nights he was going to stay here and the tv on the dresser was already aimed at the bed. He sat down to see if it actually was as comfortable as it looked. As he leaned back against the pillows, he pulled his phone from his pocket, the battery was halfway gone but he'd wait to recharge it later. Opening text messages he found his conversation with Sarah and sent her a text saying he had arrived at the hotel and was going to take a quick shower. He sent out two more texts before getting up and heading to the bathroom.

His relaxing shower was disturbed by a banging sound that he just couldn't make out over the noise of the water raining down on him. The water hitting off the walls and floor numbing the sound but as it repeated the second time, he decided he needed to go check it out.

He turned the knob and turned off the water. As he stepped out he reached for one of the hotel's fluffy towels and quickly dried off.

This time it was more clear there was knocking on his door as the sound returned in the middle of him pulling on briefs. The annoying return had startled him in the process but he hurried to pull on his pants.

They had just arrived here, why couldn't he have a peaceful shower? There were no plans on the itinerary for tonight so he just wanted to relax.

He unlatched the door and pulled it open.

"Finally." Jon complained. "What were you doing?" He asked without cluing in from Richie's appearance.
"Showering." Richie said flatly.
"Well, get dressed. We have work to do."
"We do?" He asked, holding the door open for Jon to come in.

Once the door closed, he pulled his suitcase to the luggage stand and heaved it on so he could look for a tshirt.

"Yes, we do." Jon confirmed. "I was thinking of tomorrow's show and what songs to play."
"Okay..." Richie found a shirt he wanted to wear and pulled it on.

Jon sat down at the table as Richie sat down on the bed, checking his phone for replies.

"What song do you want to play?"
Richie shrugged. "I was thinking we should probably do the classics."
Jon frowned at him. "What classics?"
Richie looked up at him, confused. "Prayer, Wanted, Bad Medicine? What are you talking about?"
Jon laughed at him. "No, you idiot. Which of your songs did you want to play?"
"Oooh." Richie said realizing his mistake. "I don't know. You usually don't make set-lists this far in advance."
"I need to figure out how to include your song and how we are going to do this so we know what to do during sound check tomorrow."
"Alright. You're right." Richie put his phone away and became more interested in the topic they needed to discuss.


The next day they headed to the arena for soundcheck in the afternoon. The morning had been quite peaceful and Richie had the chance to phone Sarah again. It had been a full week since he had left but he was enjoying it so far. He'd still rather be at home but he was used to the travel and it was easy to fall back into that routine as well and just pick up the rock star life. He was glad to get an update on Noah and Daniel and happy to know they were both doing better which was quite a relief for him. Being far away and worrying about children wasn't very helpful to any kind of mental state.

Richie shared a car with Jon to the venue as they had done so often before.

Once there they were shown to their dressing rooms. As always, Jon had his own dressing room and Richie, David and Tico shared one. It was easier for everyone to just kick Jon out. That way no one else had to deal with Jon stressing over every small part of the show before it even happened.

They hung out in the dressing room for an hour before heading to the stage and starting soundcheck. For the first concert of the leg, they'd have to make sure everything was running as smoothly as before and that wasn't always the case.

Richie frowned as he watched David and Tico get up to leave the room with him. "You alright?" He asked Tico who did not look well at all.
"Yeah, I'm fine." He waved it off.
Richie didn't want to push so let the matter go.

They headed toward the stage and met Jon, who was waiting for them there.

"You guys ready to go?" Jon asked.

Each of them went to their respective instrument and prepared to start sound check.

Richie picked up one of his guitars, checking it over before picking up the next one. He would play several guitars during one concert and not always the same guitars each concerts. It depended on which songs they would play so he had to keep a decent collection by the stage.

"I want to start with Because We Can. I know we did those often at home too but I want to know how they sound here." Jon explained to everyone.

Richie took his guitar and waited for Jon's countdown to start the song.

After the first seconds, he watched Jon look back and give a look to Tico. Richie stopped, as he heard the mistake as well. Both of them frowned as they watched Tico.

"Are you okay Teek?"