14. Mai （20）
Eighteen years ago
Mai sat backstage at the club with Ford, Joel and Scotty and tried to keep her breathing under control.
She hated the fact that the others made going onto the stage look so effortless, while she struggled. Every time she thought of the expanding audience, her breath hitched, and her heart pounded.
She had been okay when it was a few dozen people, but now the audience was hundreds, and all the eyes on her were making it harder and harder to stand on the stage.
She'd opened her mouth a few times to tell Ford that she was struggling, but she saw the light in his eyes when he spoke about their gigs; she didn’t want to stifle it with talk about her struggles, as she knew he would walk away from it for her.
He would give up Midnight Thunder for her if she asked.
She couldn’t do that. You only had to watch him on stage to see he was born to be a frontman.
His voice was incredible, with a range that had people writing magazine articles comparing it to Freddie Mercury.
He was magnetic and could hold an audience in the palm of his hand as he led them on a musical journey with him.
She couldn’t ask him to give that up for her; she wouldn’t ask him.
So each gig, she hid her panic and phoned her mum.
“I just need to call mum before we go on,” Sie said to the band, who didn’t bat an eyelid; they thought it was her superstition to phone her mum and teased her about it. They didn’t know it was the only way she could stand on the stage.
Ford grabbed hold of her hand and yanked her toward him, his grey eyes sparkling as they took her in. The noise of the other two chatting and laughing faded away, and it was only her and Ford.
He leaned down and kissed her gently, then growled and deepened the kiss, his hands tangling in her hair.
“Oh, my god. Will you two stop!” Joel’s disgusted voice called out.
It broke through Mai's bubble, and she pulled away from Ford. Leaning down, he put his forehead against hers and grinned into her eyes, whispering, “he’s jealous, cause he just got dumped.”
“Thanks for that reminder, mate,” Joel said dryly, giving his bandmate the finger.
Mai stepped away from the love of her life and gave him one last grin before she walked out the door.
She made sure she was away from prying eyes and ears when she dialled her mum. “Hi, mum.”
“Hi, sweetie. How are you feeling?” Yvonne’s voice was full of concern.
“Better now I’m talking to you.” Her breathing calmed, and her heart rate slowed.
“You’ll be amazing. You always are,” Yvonne reassured her.
Mai chatted for longer, letting the calming energy of her mum wash over her. And when she ended the phone call, she felt ready to go on stage with the rest of the band.
“Hey, Sie!” a man called to her from along the corridor.
She turned slowly to the stranger, taking in the unfashionably white trainers, the light blue jeans and the leather jacket over a T-shirt. He looked like someone’s dad in the body of a twenty-something-year-old.
“Yeah.” She automatically took a step away, glancing over her shoulder nervously at the dressing room door.
“My name’s Donnie.” He thrust his hand out to her, which she politely took, gave a single shake, then stepped back again.
The man's shrewd eyes assessed that he was making her uncomfortable, so he took a step back as well, giving her more space.
“It’s great to meet you. I’m a band manager,” he blurted.
Mai stared back at him and didn’t say anything. She'd found that the less she spoke, the more other people would fill the silence, and the more things she found out.
“I’ve been watching your career for the last year. I think you guys could really go places. I’ve got a degree in business management, and I’m starting my own management firm. I want Midnight Thunder to be my first client.”
Mai blinked a couple of times. They'd chatted to a few people about managing them, but hadn’t yet met anyone who was the right fit.
“Okay. Follow me.” She wasn’t sure what possessed her to take Donnie to meet the band right before a show, but there was something about him that she liked, and the others agreed.
A week later, they signed a contract with Donnie to manage Midnight Thunder.
It was the best thing the band ever did, and in the next year, their fame exploded. Summer Days became a breakout hit, storming the Australian charts, then heading out to the rest of the world.
They wiped the boards at the ARIA awards, winning Album of the Year, Group of the Year, and Best Rock Album.
Ford was now recognised wherever he went, with whole articles dedicated to his soulful good looks and his stage presence.
The magazine articles weren’t so kind to her as they were to the boys. They admitted she was talented but called her stuck-up and aloof, while also criticising her body, her hair, and her clothes. Each dig was like a needle under her skin that she tried to ignore, but would keep on jabbing her.
The only things in the chaos surrounding Midnight Thunder that grounded her were her parents and Ford.
As the shows got bigger, so did her nerves, and now, as well as speaking to her parents before a show, the only way she made it through a set was to fix her eyes solely on Ford, and remind herself that he was the only one that mattered, not the thousands of eyes staring at her.
Screaming at her.
Wanting a piece of her.