Chapter Thirty-one
“Jesse, you can’t back out now.” Greg stood with his arms folded across his chest in an attempt to look stern.
Jesse looked up at him while stretching his muscles in preparation for hitting the stage. “Watch me.”
“You agreed to be his opening act,” Greg insisted. “The arrangements have already been made.”
“Then unmake them. Every show we’re booked for has sold out within minutes. Why the hell would I want to be someone’s opening act when we’re headlining our own sold-out tour?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Greg said, his sarcasm thick. “Maybe because you’ll be joining him after your sold-out tour wraps up. Maybe because the venues he plays are double, triple, quadruple, the size of the ones Conquest is hitting. Maybe because his tour is a world tour.”
Jesse stretched one arm above his head and bent to the side. “Then book us in venues that are quintuple the size we play now and we’ll outsell him.”
Greg snorted. “I have no doubt that someday you’ll be able to compete against Evan on a more equal level, but not now.”
“I can do it now!” Jesse marched across the dressing room and stood inches from Greg. “‘Shattered’ is going to hit as a single two weeks after his first single comes out, and I guarantee, it will be the Number One song above him.”
Greg shifted backward as though forced away by Jesse’s intensity. “We’ll see.” He cleared his throat. “But if that does happen, then you have to see the benefit in the two of you teaming up for his tour.”
“Yeah, benefit to him in being able to sell tickets because it’ll be the only way people will get to see Conquest live.”
Greg turned in frustration to face the rest of the band. “What about you guys? Don’t you get a say?”
Kenny shrugged. “It’s better if we just do what our fearless leader wants. Things go a lot smoother that way.”
Jesse grinned at Kenny and dropped down to a full split.
Trish tipped her head in an admiring gaze. “That’s impressive.”
“And I’m even more flexible,” Brandon chimed in.
Julian gave him a flirtatious smile. “Really?”
Brandon leaned closer to him. “Really.”
“Stop it!” Jesse demanded, pointing at them. “It’s like watching my biological brother and my adopted brother hit on each other.”
“So you’re really not going to do it?” Greg interjected.
“Are you still on that?” Jesse said, snapping himself back into a standing position.
Greg rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands. “Why do I put myself through this?”
“You’re a glutton for self-punishment?” Jesse suggested.
Greg glared at him from between his fingers, then dropped his hands from his face.
“I took on all the responsibilities of Conquest to see that the job was done right, especially since the illustrious manager of Conquest, you, has been too busy to handle things.” He exhaled a loud sigh.
“Fine. I’m not going to hound you about it anymore tonight since you’ve got to focus for the stage, but I should let you know, I booked you and Evan to sing a duet on New Year’s Eve in Times Square. ”
“You did what!”
“Sorry, Jess, it’s the way it’s gotta be.
I got the call asking if I could get you both to perform and couldn’t say no.
It’s huge exposure for Conquest and for Evan’s comeback.
Don’t worry, though. You’ll each get to perform on your own, then later in the show, you and Evan will take the stage together to do one of his songs, and at the end of the show when the ball drops, you’ll be on stage together again, but with all the other acts that will be playing that night and everybody will be doing ‘Auld Lang Syne.’”
“No!” Jesse roared. “I’m not doing it! I refuse!”
“The deal’s already been made, you can’t refuse.”
“The hell I can’t,” Jesse growled through clenched teeth. “Now if you’re done, I need some privacy to get changed.”
Greg stomped past him toward the door. The others trailed after him.
Jesse paced back and forth in the empty dressing room. Achilles jumped off a chair, pacing with him. Jesse sat on the floor and picked him up, holding him to his chest.
“You’re the only one who doesn’t drive me totally nuts, ‘Chilles. Why Greg is pushing so hard. Can’t he understand I have to distance myself from Ev to protect him? Doesn’t he get it that if I’m near him, it’ll break me?”
He tossed his head back and sighed. Evan.
He didn’t even bother to show up to Jesse’s kick-off concert, and if that wasn’t bad enough, it was also October 7th, his birthday.
He knew he shouldn’t have expected Evan to acknowledge it, but he held on to the hope all day that his phone would ring, or that Evan would surprise him by coming to the concert.
Jesse tried to shake away the growing hurt. He couldn’t let Evan affect him. He needed to focus. Everything he ever dreamed of waited for him outside his dressing room door. He lowered his gaze. Almost everything.
He forced himself to stand up. He changed into a pair of black leather pants, and instead of a shirt, he pulled on a short black leather jacket.
He pet Achilles. “You stay here and be a good boy while I go perform.”
Jesse walked out of his dressing room to Kenny, Julian, and Trish waiting for him, and the roaring voices of the crowd chanting “Conquest.” He held his right hand out, the others fell down on top.
“This is the start of the beginning,” Jesse said. “This is where we lay the foundation and let the world know we’re a force that won’t be stopped. Together, we will conquer the world. Let’s do this!”
The others yelled with him and headed for the stage.
The arena lights dropped. The crowd screamed louder in anticipation.
Julian hit the keyboards, pulling out long, deep notes.
Kenny’s guitar broke through the darkness with throaty smooth cords.
A steady beat from the drums came in, getting louder and louder.
Over it all, Jesse’s voice began to rise, growing stronger with each note.
When he hit the top of his range, he could hardly hear himself over the roaring crowd.
The lights flashed on. He ran to the front of the stage, and lit into the fast lines of “Vanish,”
“You look in my eyes,
Thinking you can see all the tears I’ve cried,
You don’t know me,
Don’t hold me.
I can’t believe I bought all the lies that you sold,
Took ‘em to my heart to hold,
Then you let me go.
You breezed through my life,
Night after night,
Pushing me to the edge,
With your smile so beautiful and cold.
Now you stand before me and cry,
Saying you want me by your side.
But I need to go,
I need to run.
I need to vanish like the sun,
Into the coming night.
Let me go,
Walk away,
Let me vanish from your life forever.
Let me go,
Turn away,
I need to leave this all behind forever.
Let me go,
Fly away,
I’d be happier alone forever.
Let me go,
Run away,
Let me vanish in the night forever…”
Kenny’s guitar solo blasted to life at the end of the chorus.
Jesse looked out over the crowd, seeing nothing but a bouncing, jumping mass of faceless bodies screaming hollow affections to him.