Chapter 18

Monday, I was back home and the GLR tour was done. Warren was still working out the details of my tour, but it looked like it wouldn’t be starting until next month at the earliest, or even May. My last tour had been small and mostly made up of bars and clubs, which were able to set things up fast. Warren had been looking at bigger venues and they’d decided to go even larger after the huge bump in popularity I’d had from all the Dakota and Alina stuff combined.

These places, though, booked a lot further out and required a lot more planning, which meant there were going to be some months where we didn’t have much going on aside from playing the Blue Ridge. We weren’t ready to put out an album and we really needed a label, but we’d started talking about putting out a few singles this year to keep people interested that would be on a later album, since people moved on very quickly if nothing was happening.

I’d talked to the band and we were all working on ideas for songs. I had the two new ones I’d played on The Stage to release, but both were melancholy and a little sad. We needed at least one very up-tempo song to also put out and then find a way to record them so that the quality was decent. It wouldn’t be a full album, more like a mini album preparing for our next one. Warren was calling it an EP plus.

The added time of not touring would also allow me to catch up on my schoolwork. The tutor had been great so far, but I’d dug myself a hole and I still had a ways to go to get my grades all the way back up to where they had been, so a month just being home would really help.

Not that I expected it to be dull. Benny had talked to GLR and they’d backed off on their threats, but they were starting to play games about The Stage album that was releasing our live versions of songs played on the tour, and were including my originals along with the covers. That was in the contract, and we knew it was going to be a thing going in, but they were making noise that it gave them the rights over later published versions of the songs and being difficult about the royalty agreement. Benny was working it out, but it was yet another sign that I’d absolutely made the right choice in not signing with them.

I finished the English homework that was due tomorrow and pulled out my phone to take a little break before I dived into math. My least favorite subject. Since Friday’s show, I’d been following our social media campaign closely, especially on Switcher. The push hadn’t ended with Friday’s last GLR tour date. We’d sold out all three shows, with the people who’d come to see me comprising a large part of the attendance.

Those people had started to post reactions to the show and were uploading videos they took there, so every day I’d taken to checking it whenever I had a few minutes. Incredibly narcissistic of me, I know, but I kept telling myself that it was to stay in touch with my fans.

Not that it didn’t make me feel good; it did.

I searched on my name and the first dozen videos that came up were just videos of the concert itself from different angles. Mostly just my songs, but a few of me and Dexter.

I scrolled and came to the next video which had two girls, probably around my age, sitting cross-legged on a bed, the camera shaking slightly as they giggled and talked over each other.

“It was so amazing y’all. We were pretty far back, but man ... he is so good,” the first girl said.

“You know, he looked at me, right? He looked right at me on the final verse of ‘Country Road.’ We locked eyes and everything,” the second girl with her hair in pigtails said.

“He didn’t. You’re such a liar,” the first girl laughed, shoving her friend.

I had no memory of that. In all honesty, unless they were in the first three or four rows, I couldn’t see anyone. All you could see from up on the stage was just a sea of black, so I just kind of looked out as I sang because Willie always said people liked eye contact.

“I swear to God he did. I literally got chills,” she said as they both squealed, clutching at each other’s arms. “He’s so cute. His eyes are just...”

More squeals.

“I heard somewhere he was touring again this year,” the first girl said to the camera. “If you guys haven’t gotten to see him, you have to. It’s the best show, and he’s amazing.”