Warnings: Some angst

Word Count: 2856

Author's Note: As always, thank you for all the love on this series! I hope you enjoy this chapter :)

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August 2012 - First Show of the Regional At Best Tour

Your first day hadn't been what you had thought it to be at all. Sure, you were hanging out with amazing people and it was definitely an opportunity of a lifetime... but you had never been so stressed in all your life. Everything seemed to be going wrong and you were at your wit's end, hoping that it would miraculously come together last minute. You could somehow manage to handle a day like today, if it hadn't of been for what happened next.

Looking up from your clipboard, you watched as Tyler started pushing his piano toward the backstage door of the venue. But, something went wrong and his foot got caught underneath, having the wheel and all of the piano's weight run right over his toes. Wincing a bit at the loud yell he made followed by some expletives, you covered your face out of nervousness and stress. Your grip on the clipboard tightened, making your knuckles turn white before you felt a strong arm wrap around your shoulders. Confused, you looked up to see the handsome face of Josh, who seemed to be concerned over you.

Sighing deeply, you motioned over to Tyler who was still holding onto his foot angrily. Josh chuckled a bit and shook his head as he looked over to his friend, lifting his shoulders up into a shrug.

"Oh, don't worry about Tyler. He does that before almost every show," he explained to you, hoping that it would calm your already shot nerves.

"Well, that's good to know... for future reference," you mumbled and lifted a shaky hand through your hair, feeling like you should just quit right then and there. You were doing awful and Josh was this nice to you? There's no way this could be right.

You watched as Mark checked in on Tyler, kneeling down to where he had decided to plop himself down on the pavement. They were too far away for you to hear what they were saying, but Tyler seemed to be doing ok. When Mark stood up and went back to whatever he had been doing previously, you let your shoulders drop in relief. A few moments later, Tyler got back up and continued to push at his piano, now muttering quietly to himself.

You looked back down at your list of responsibilities and idly tapped your pen against the edge of the clipboard, looking over the seemingly endless things you had to do. Only a few of the first things were checked off, and those were just easy tasks like making sure the boys had actually arrived at the venue on time and doing a quick roll call of crew members. Just reading over the rest of the things you had to do was making your head spin.

"I'm not cut out for this," you said, already feeling the lump begin to form in your throat. "What if Tyler had gotten seriously injured? I'm not trained to handle that."

"Hey, hey." Josh said. He pulled you a little closer with his arm so that you were now leaning into his side. You had almost forgotten about the arm he had around you. "It's ok. It's only your first day. Do you know how nervous I was the first time I played with Tyler? I almost puked all over his piano. Besides, Tyler is tough. He's not going to get injured so easily."

"You're right," you said, but the words were empty.

You kept your eyes focused on the clipboard, refusing to let Josh see the tears that were beginning to form. This job really seemed like something you could handle, but maybe Beau had been right all along. There was no way you could manage this many people. And what if they got bigger? That meant a bigger crew and bigger venues and more things to make sure weren't going terribly wrong...

Beau.

You suddenly became hyper-aware of how you were leaning into Josh. Every point of contact between the two of you felt like it was on fire and his fingers seemed to be digging into your shoulder. Any comfort you had been getting from him a moment ago was gone, immediately replaced by a sense of guilt.

"I have to go," you said, all but throwing his arm off of your shoulders. "I need to check in with the sound crew. I'll see you when I help with wardrobe."

You walked away from Josh, moving as fast as your legs would carry you. A few of the other crew members gave you weird looks as you stormed past them, carrying your clipboard with white knuckles in one hand and hastily wiping away tears with the other. You shot them equally icy glares, reminding them who was in charge here.

Tyler just so happened to be with the sound crew, barking his own orders from the top of a table as they hooked up his piano to equipment. He turned to look at you as you walked inside.

"There's the boss lady," he said, his mouth curling up into a smile tiny enough to avoid breaking his tough-guy facade. "Thought you would be with lover boy out there."

Lover boy?

"Who? Josh?" you asked, refusing to let your eyes leave the clipboard.

"Sure, or whoever."

Tyler turned and yelled something else at one of the crew members. You sighed and crossed off "Check sound equipment", figuring that Tyler had all that under control. Josh had mentioned something about Tyler being especially picky when it came to sound equipment.

"How's your foot?" you asked, already looking for your next task.

"Throbbing, but there are more important matters to be dealt with."

"Speaking of which, we're doing wardrobe in half an hour. Be ready."

"Anything for you, boss lady."

"And quit it with the nickname."

He shot you a thumbs up just as he snapped at a crew member again. Without another word, you wandered off to get another task done. Each thing that you crossed off loosened the knot in your stomach just a little bit more.

Maybe you could handle this, after all.

Thirty minutes flew by and you found yourself crammed into a corner backstage while holding onto the boys' clothes for their performance. The venue was small and they had to make do with what they were given, so it resulted in you being a wardrobe holder. The whole idea was awkward and probably not best suited for a woman, but you were their manager and knew that it was a part of your job. As the boys pulled off their shirts, your eyes immediately diverted and found a nice spot on the wall to look at. You knew that the both of them were looking in your direction to make sure that you weren't sneaking a peek and Tyler had even teased you about it, saying something along the lines of, "I know that there's a whole lot of goodness to look at, but try to pull yourself together Y/N."

The whole sentence made you perform the biggest eyeroll of your life and made Tyler and Josh both laugh. As Josh was pulling up his pants, he got his foot caught a bit and Tyler seemed to take notice before an idea popped into his head.

"Josh! You know, I'm just so proud of you for doing these concerts with me!" he exclaimed to his best friend and then smacked his back a bit, also pushing him forward to make him lose his balance. Just as expected, Josh fell forward toward an unsuspecting you with wide eyes and the both of you nearly toppled over to the ground. A deep blush formed on both of your cheeks as you were now holding onto the bare skin of his chest and arms, stuttering and throat clears galore. Tyler thought the whole idea was marvelous and gave himself a mental pat on the back.

He pulled on his shirt and then jovially walked away from the both of you toward the stage with a big grin plastered on his face. Little did he know that Josh was staring after him with eyes squinted in anger at first, but then possibly secret thankfulness.

You thanked god when they both finished getting dressed, hoping that the whole situation with Josh could easily be forgotten. Luckily, it hadn't been witnessed by anyone else but Tyler. On the downside, that meant that he wasn't going to let either one of you live it down for the rest of the tour.

Josh seemed to be avoiding you more so than you were him, but he was naturally a shy person and was probably just as embarrassed as you were so you didn't really worry too much about his avoidance. If it got out of hand and he wasn't showing his face around you at all, that was when you would have a problem.

You took a deep breath and leaned your shoulder against the brick wall of the venue, allowing yourself a moment to breathe. There were at least twenty other things that you needed to be worried about getting done right now, and figuring out where you stood with Josh was definitely not one of them. That was just another element of stress that you didn't need right now.

Once your breaths were steady and your head felt a little clearer, you gathered up the boys' discarded clothes in your arms and headed towards the vans that were parked at the back of the venue. A few other crew members were milling about, sorting through various equipment or just taking a break.

"Hey, what are you doing standing around? There's a show that starts in forty-five minutes and if you think that stage setup in there is done, you need to rethink your definitions," you snapped.

One of the crew members - an older guy who had been working with Tyler for awhile - rolled his eyes at you, but the rest of them straightened up and scurried into the venue. You felt bad for misdirecting so much of your anger at them, but it was still your first show and you were determined to make it go right. If that involved snapping at some people, then so be it.

You tossed the clothes into the back of the van and rubbed at your temples. No matter how hard you were trying to push Josh from your mind, you couldn't seem to get it out of your head. Maybe you should just get over the embarassment from Tyler's stupid joke and have a talk with him. The last thing you wanted was to spend the entire tour awkwardly avoiding one another, especially after how nice he had been to you so far.

"Heard you were yelling at people," Mark said, suddenly appearing next to you. He reached into the van and grabbed a small, brown backpack.

"Stressful day," you muttered. "I didn't mean to yell, I swear."

Mark reached over and lightly rubbed your back, "It gets easier. The first show is always the hardest, no matter how long you've been on tour. Having to work a brand new job along with it? I can only imagine the stress you're under."

"Thanks," you snorted.

"Sorry, not very good with words," Mark laughed. "All I'm trying to say is... it won't be this hard forever."

"I think I just need to sort some things out with, um, someone. That, and get through this stupid list."

You picked up the clipboard and waved it for added effect. Mark smiled and took a sip of the water he had grabbed from his bag.

"I suggest you go do that, then. It won't be much longer until the show starts."

With that, you grabbed your clipboard and half-jogged towards the venue.

*      *      *

No matter how many times you tried, you just couldn't seem to get Josh away from the rest of the crew. Just when you thought you had an opportunity to grab his attention, someone else whisked him away for some random task or last minute preparation. If you didn't know any better, you would have thought it was intentional.

It wasn't until five minutes before the show was about to start that you finally got your opportunity. You managed to pull him down a little hallway, out of sight of all the passing crew members. The chatter of the crowd was still audible from where you two were standing.

"Sorry," was the first thing out of your mouth, followed closely by, "I've been trying to pull you aside all afternoon and I just now got the opportunity."

"Busy day," he said, his mouth just barely curling up into a smile. One blink and you would have missed it.

"Listen, I just wanted to say - about earlier - I'm really sorry for freaking out on you like that. I was under a lot of stress and then I started to think about all these other things and it made me act irrationally."

Josh reached out and lightly rested his hand on your forearm, "It's fine. Really. I didn't mean to overstep any boundaries or anything and I'm really sorry if I did. I just saw you stressing about Tyler and wanted to make sure you were ok."

"No, it was - I liked it," you smiled. "I just get... nervous, you know?"

The hand that Josh had on your forearm became a little heavier. More confident, even.

"Still, I'll try not to unnecessarily stress you out, ok?"

If only he knew.

"Ok."

You weren't sure how long you stood there, just appreciating being close to Josh. His hand was warm against your arm, making you forget all about the stress of managing the band for a moment. All that mattered was Josh and those damn chocolate eyes of his.

"Josh! We need to go on!"

You bit back a sigh. Tyler.

"Coming!" Josh said, pulling his hand away from your arm. "You know where to meet after the show?"

"Of course I do," you grinned.

"Good."

Josh shot you a smile - an actual, genuine smile - before running off to join Tyler. You leaned back against the wall and allowed yourself another moment to breathe, something you had found was quite helpful when trying to keep everything in check. For now, your work was done.

But the night was certainly far from over.

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Despite all of the crazy problems that had happened prior to the boys' performance, the show actually went on without a hitch. Everything had gone exactly according to plan and you could tell by some of Tyler's mannerisms that he was pleased that this was so. You would learn more and more how the both of them acted about certain things in the future, you were sure, but tonight was all that mattered in that time. You had managed to finish the checklist and pull it off.

As you stood to the side of the stage with two towels and two water bottles in your hands, Josh and Tyler headed straight toward you with the biggest smiles on their faces. You smiled back and couldn't resist sneaking a peek at Josh's revealed chest that was glistening with sweat, having taken his shirt off a bit ago. Shaking your head to clear your mind, you gave them everything out of your hands and then put your thumb up.

"You guys did an amazing job. The crowd really loved you!" you exclaim to keep their pep levels up.

"Thanks, Y/N!" Josh responded happily, wiping his face off with the towel. Tyler mimicked his friend and then nodded his head to you.

"Yeah, I'm fairly certain that Josh's biggest fan was watching tonight... that's why he was so great. He likes to show off," Tyler teased, which earned him a momentary deadpan expression from Josh. It was as if he was wracking his brain on who exactly Tyler was talking about.

A giggle emitting itself from your lips, you shook your head while trying to hide the little twinge of jealousy you felt. Why were you feeling that? You had a boyfriend at home that... loved you? Maybe? Now that you thought about it, you weren't quite sure what the emotion was.

"Okay, boys. Why don't you go and get cleaned up, change into something fresh and then I'll meet you at the van?"

And so it was done.

What on earth had you expected? When you heard that there was one van, you hadn't really thought it through what the ramifications would be, but this was ridiculous. Here you were, standing outside of the van looking in, as the boys piled themselves on top of each other in the back to lay down and sleep together. You were the only female there.

"Um... this is a hard pass for me. I'll be sleeping up front on the passenger seat." You pointed out and could have sworn that you saw a disappointed look cross Josh's face for a mere second, but you disregarded it as your mind playing tricks on you.

This was going to be an interesting tour.