Jeff deposited Max in a chair and handed his guitar off to a tech. Max slouched to one side but didn’t fall off, conscious but woozy. “I don’t know,” Jeff said grimly. “But this is ridiculous. Have we just lived such a charmed life that the law of averages is catching up with us, or what?”
Had Max been using during shows this whole time and he’d just gotten very good at hiding it? That would fucking figure, if the wheels were about to fall off now, with four shows to go in the tour.
Jeff, Joe, and Trix looked at each other. Then they turned to Max.
Finally Trix stepped forward and knelt next to the chair. “Hey, Max. You seem kind of out of it. Are you okay?”
“I didn’t, I didn’t.” He blinked slowly, then finally managed to finish. “I didn’t take anything. I swear.”
Trix looked up at Jeff and shook her head. “I think he’s telling the truth. This isn’t… he doesn’t get like this. He gets loud, manic. You’ve seen him.”
Unfortunately. Max was more likely to attempt a double back handspring than sway onstage and nearly fall off it. And now he was listing so far it didn’t seem like he’d be able to stay on his chair.
Joe took a step forward, gently touched Max’s wrist, and then yanked his hand back. “Jesus. He’s burning up.”
“I don’t feel so good,” Max groaned and clutched at his stomach.
Jeff had just enough presence of mind to reach down and yank Trix to her feet before Max leaned over the side of the chair and barfed all over the floor, spattering their shoes.
“Fuck!” Joe jumped back in surprise. “Okay, get the on-site EMTs down here,” he said to a nearby tech, who nodded and touched her headset. “You think it’s, like… the flu?”
“It’s June,” Trix protested. She took a step back as the EMTs arrived. “So probably not the flu, but what if… I mean, I thought I had food poisoning, but….”
Before Jeff could answer, one of the EMTs stepped in. “We’ve seen a few cases like this. There’s a nasty norovirus going around.” She grimaced as Max groaned again, and she and her partner got him on the backboard. “This is the worst case I’ve seen, though, if that’s what it is. He needs the hospital for sure.”
That just figured. And of course now Jeff and Joe had been exposed too, not to mention the tech and whatever poor custodian got stuck cleaning up.
“All right. Shit.” Jeff took a step back and looked around. “Where the fuck’s Tim? We need a game plan.”
He showed up just as the EMTs were ready to take Max to the waiting ambulance. “What happened?” He looked at the stretcher, then at the vomit, and came to the predictable conclusion. “Don’t fucking tell me—”
“They think it’s a virus,” Jeff said impatiently. “Apparently there’s a stomach bug going around. That must’ve been what Trix had yesterday.”
Before he could find a way to make it about him, Trix jumped in. “Someone needs to go with Max to the hospital.” She looked at Tim and crossed her arms. “And someone needs to figure out if we’re finishing this concert and how.”
Jeff mimicked her posture. On his other side, so did Joe.
Finally Tim raised his hands. “All right, all right. I’ll go with him.”
Good, Jeff thought.That’s your fucking job.
“I’ll see if Erica can step in for him,” Trix said, gesturing toward one of the techs. “Text me updates.”
Tim stalked off after the EMTs, already on his phone.
As soon as he was out of earshot, Joe said, “Why have we put up with him for this long?”
“’Cause we signed a stupid fucking contract that tied us to him when we were barely more than children.” At the time, they’d jumped at the chance to skip a step—they should’ve gotten a manager first and then that person should’ve been their advocate at a label. Instead Tim was a corporate shill who took advantage of them for his own gain. Jeff blew out a breath. “Okay, uh, first things first—I think we should all go wash our hands and possibly take some vitamin C?”
Joe looked up as a custodian came trundling down the hallway with a cart. “Hey, man, thanks for coming. What’s your name?”
The custodian blinked in surprise at being addressed directly by the talent. “Uh, it’s Kyle.”
“Kyle, I’m Joe, this is Jeff and Trix. We just want to tell you I think the guy who threw that up is probably contagious with a stomach bug, so if you’ve got a face mask and extrathick gloves or something, uh, you probably want to use them.”
“Thanks, yeah.” Kyle withdrew a paper mask from one of the compartments on the cleaning cart. “Always be prepared.”
Jeff made a mental note to find a way to tip him before he left. “Awesome. Okay, we’re gonna go… decontaminate.”
