Solo Red Cup

        She had saved her money for months, pulling extra shifts, doing odd jobs whenever she could, delivering meals to strangers and carting strangers around in her Aunt’s car because her own would never have been approved by any of the ride share apps. Not that her Aunt would have noticed, the regimen of meds she was on these days had rendered her mostly catatonic. Fortunately, her insurance and savings had been enough to have in-home care, including the hospital bed, monitors, and an assortment of other machines and tubes and wires. It hadn’t covered how the electric bill had nearly doubled, and with Jen trying to save money too. It has been a colossal task, but she had managed to get the ticket. Her own personal golden ticket, and she had attended the biggest concert that had come anywhere near her home town. 

              CatsEyes was the absolute best thing to have ever happened to her in her as yet young life. The K-Pop group was reaching mega superstar status, with two double platinum records under their belts so far, and this enormous world tour that had stopped just an hour outside her home town. They were her most favorite band ever, and she couldn’t even imagine liking any other group better ever. An all girl group like this had never had this kind of success before – they were topping charts from pop to rock, R&B, and even country. It was like everyone was under some kind of collective spell that these young girls were casting, and their videos and live performances kept people entranced. 

              So Jen had just had to get to this concert. And she had, even being able to schedule a night nurse to stay with her Aunt while she went. And it had been perfect. A perfect night, a perfect concert, a perfect experience for her to turn over in her memory in days and months to come. She had laughed, she had danced, she had sung and her voice was now hoarse and husky. Her legs and arms were tired, but now that the concert was over, she couldn’t bring herself to leave the stadium just yet. She had flowed with the crowd down from her upper level seats to the mezzanine, but her legs carried her out of the crowd and down the lower level stands to the floor. No one had noticed; the other fans were all riding the high of the concert, the adults were simply trying to get everyone home. 

              Before she realized it, she was on the ground level, and standing in the middle of the floor, staring up at the empty stage. The lights were all up, and the neon and sparkling stage set looked washed out and old, like it was from some closed up mall that went under back in the 90s. It hardly looked like the vibrant and alive backdrop that it had been mere minutes before. Then she noticed the people on the stage. Roadies taking things apart, loading things up, carting things off. She was struck by how quickly they disassembled the stage, and soon, there was hardly anything left up there to indicate that her favorite band had just performed there. 

              She had been vaguely aware of people milling about around her, some staring, most not, and she turned her gaze away from the emptiness in front of her realizing that she should probably leave. She checked her phone and had a couple messages from the nurse – all was well, but she was wondering when Jen would be getting home.  Her Aunt was resting, and if the nurse needed to leave, it wouldn’t be a bad thing for the old lady to be alone for a bit while Jen made her way home. She told the nurse as much and then started to leave, but paused to take one last look. This time, her eyes gazed around the floor itself. There had been some chairs up near the front, in the VIP section ($1500 a pop for those seats – there had been no way at all of her getting that kind of money). The rest of the space was empty; standing room only. By now, the whole place was nearly empty, and there were fewer and fewer people around. What was left was a ton of empty popcorn sacks, a few coolers turned over, soda containers rolling around, and the streamers that that had dropped from the cat walks during different portions of the show. There was glitter everywhere, and it sparkled in the house lights. 

              Her eyes stopped on one thing just before she turned to leave. A single, red cup sat upright near the blocked off section where the sound equipment was. It was on the floor, and it was completely out of place amongst the left over pre-packaged refuse. She felt the pull of curiosity and made her way over to it, dodging some of the clean up crew and a security guard who questioned her presence briefly, but not seriously. She approached the cup and bent down to look at it, without really understanding why. She knew that the band had all used similar cups to drink from during the concert, but did she really think that this… No, it couldn’t be. But there were absolutely no other cups around, so it also didn’t seem likely that a fan had discarded it. She also knew that none of the vendors sold drinks in cups. So, maybe, somehow? 

              There was lipstick on the edge of the cup – a dark crimson red that looked almost black on the plastic. Hadn’t EVA been wearing dark lipstick, or was her mind just wanting this to be true? She decided she didn’t care and reached for the cup. Just as her hand was about to grasp it, a male voice spoke behind her.

              “Shouldn’t you have left already, young lady?” he asked, and although his tone was genial, the surprise made Jen jump, and the result was a decidedly ungraceful shift to her right and a tumble that left her on her backside, looking up at the man who had spoken. With a smile on his face, he apologized profusely and extended a hand to help her up. She took it, but also glanced back at the cup to see if it was still there, feeling tremendous relief that it was. 

              “I’m sorry, this was just the best concert I’ve ever been to. And I love CatsEyes so much, I guess I just didn’t want the night to be over,” she offered as an explanation.

              “Do you really love them that much?”

              “Oh my gosh, yes. You don’t even know. I live with my Aunt, and she’s in a coma, and when I first heard their music it was like nothing I’d ever heard before and EVA is just the best and her songs just reach right in and I feel like she gets me and the whole band really and…” she trailed off as she realized she had been talking non-stop. The man was smiling though, friendly and something about it reassured her and didn’t make her feel silly at all. 

              “Would you like to meet them?” She had to ask him to repeat that, because there was no way he had actually asked that. But maybe it was just a question and she was reading too much into it. “I mean, would you like to come with me and meet them tonight?” he clarified for her. She fairly jumped up and down in place as she exclaimed that it would be a dream come true. He motioned for her to follow him as he handed her a lanyard with a backstage pass attached to it. He explained as they walked that he was one of their managers and he had been taken with Jen’s devotion as a fan. He often found young fans after concerts alone and in a haze of amazement and happiness, and he liked helping these fans fulfill their biggest dreams of meeting the band. He did it in every town they visited, and here, Jen was the lucky one to be found. 

              He held his arm for her to hold as they left the concert area and went back stage. It was darker here, and she was glad to have his arm to hold because there were all kinds of things on the ground that she absolutely would have tripped over if not for her careful guide. They weaved in and out of big burly men packing everything up and loading things onto trucks. She followed his lead through labrynthine halls until he finally opened a door, and there, directly in front of Jen, was CatsEyes’ bus. She recognized it immediately from all her online stalking of the band that she had done. 

              The door near the front of the bus stood open, the invitation nearly too much for Jen to bear. The man stood at the door, now just behind Jen. She turned to him and he smiled that smile again, and told her to go on. The pass he had given her would allow her full access on the bus. She had tears in her eyes that she didn’t think she could hold back for much longer, and she ran to the man quickly and embraced him in a tight hug.

              “Thank you,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

              “Thank you for your support,” he replied. “Now go on, they’re waiting for you.” 

              She let go of him, turned and ran over to the bus, jumping up the first step and pulling herself inside before her nervousness got the better of her. Once inside, the door shut, although there was no one nearby to have done it. She looked out and the man was gone. No matter, she thought, and proceeded to a curtain that separated the driver’s area of the bus from the rest. It was quiet, almost too quiet, she thought, and the doubts started seeping in. Maybe this was some kind of trick. Surely a bus full of the biggest and hottest band members and their friends would be livelier and louder after a show. 

              “Hello?” she called before she pulled back the curtain. No answer. She passed through the fabric divider and found herself face to face with the band. Well, not exactly face to face. This part of the bus was completely open. The floor had some intricate designs on it, and the girls from the band were all sitting, cross-legged on the floor in a circle. There was a single candle in the center, giving off a faint vanilla scent as it burned. There was a low humming noise, and she assumed it was coming from the girls. This had to be some kind of meditation thing they did after a show. She felt like she was intruding, and she looked for somewhere, anywhere else to be so that she wouldn’t disturb them. 

She carefully tip-toed around and followed a narrow hallway to another part of the bus. Other than the band, she did seem to be the only person there. She felt a little more comfortable now that she wasn’t right with the girls, and she took a seat on a plush small couch to wait for them to finish. It was warm here, and the vanilla scent was stronger. She could still hear the humming from the other room. There was low light, just enough to see the cabinets and small tables around her. She realized how tired she was. How late it was. She leaned into the couch more, sinking down and resting her head against the back. She felt the heaviness of her eyelids and thought she would just rest her eyes for a bit. 

She jumped awake.  She didn’t know if it had been seconds or hours, but she was still on the couch. But she still didn’t know if she was awake or dreaming because as she looked up, all the girls from the band were standing around her. Wait, the man. The pass. This wasn’t a dream; she was on their bus. They had been meditating or something, and she had fallen asleep when she had the first chance to sit down. 

“I’m sorry,” was the first thing she thought to say. She didn’t know why she was apologizing, it just seemed the thing to do. She was always apologizing for this or that, it seemed, no matter where she was or what she was doing. The girls just stared. When they didn’t respond, she continued. “I didn’t mean to fall asleep, but you were, in there,” she gestured to the other room, “and I didn’t want to disturb you. It seemed like you were meditating.” The girls looked between each other and then back to Jen. “I met a man inside the stadium. He gave me this pass and brought me to the bus. He said it was ok…” her voice started to trail off. There had been so much that she had always thought she wanted to say if she ever met the band, but now, she felt like she couldn’t find her voice. She felt like it didn’t matter. There was something not right, but she didn’t know what. 

“Come here, Jen.” It was EVA, Jen’s favorite. How did she know my name flashed in her head, but disappeared just as quickly as EVA held out her hand to Jen. Jen took it and followed her to another room, further back in the bus. EVA walked backwards, keeping her eyes on Jen, who didn’t break eye contact either. She felt that she was in a daze and couldn’t have stopped herself or pulled her hand away from EVA if she had wanted to. And she most definitely didn’t want to. She felt people behind her and knew it was the rest of the band. EVA turned away from her as they came into the next room, another open space, like the first one where she had first seen them. There was a single chair in the center of the floor. Lit by a single light shining directly down on it from the ceiling. It was a simple wooden chair, light brown, with a red cushion on the seat. 

EVA took Jen to it and she set her down in the spot light. Jade brought Jen a cup with a dark liquid in it. Jen saw that suddenly, all the girls had cups, red ones like what had caught her attention in the stadium. She smiled at that and drank all that was in the cup at once. It was cold and bitter, and she couldn’t help but make a face as she swallowed the last of it. The girls giggled as they drained their own drinks. EVA was behind Jen and placed her hands on Jen’s shoulders. 

“You guys are the best. I love you so much,” Jen was saying. Her head was suddenly swimming, and she didn’t have total control over her words. “This is a dream come true,” she said. She was so dizzy all of a sudden. 

“We love you too,” this time it was SweeT. "Our fans give us life!" She was dancing around the room. Her gestures were exaggerated, but they were similar to the choreography to their song “Blood Divine”. 

“Would you do anything for us?” Jade asked as she knelt in front of Jen.

“Yes,” Jen answered without hesitation.

“Anything at all?”” Jen just nodded now, barely able to keep her eyes open. She felt herself falling asleep again. She didn’t even notice, or care much, when she felt the puncturing of her skin at her neck, on her arms, her legs. She gasped slightly, but really, it wasn’t that unpleasant after the initial pinch. Wait, were they having sex with her? What was happening? Why couldn’t she wake up – or was she even asleep? 

Jen jerked awake again. She was on the concrete outside the bus. She was next to her car and the sky was starting to lighten in the distance. She sat up slowly, sore all over, and with the worst headache she had ever had. She rubbed her head and looked around. On the ground next to her was a packet of aspirin, a bottle of water, and a red cup. The same one she had seen inside the stadium. Inside the cup was an envelope with a NDA that she had signed at some point, and a wad of cash. There was signed picture of the group, and EVA had signed the cup that had her lipstick print on it. She scampered away from it all and struggled to get into her car. Her memories were fuzzy, but suddenly she didn’t want anything to do with the band anymore. She started her car, then paused. She reached out and grabbed all the items from the ground. She downed the aspirin and all the water, crumpled up the NDA and threw it in the floor, and stuffed the cash in her back pocket. She looked around, saw no one anywhere near her, and sped away, back to her life, letting out a little scream as CatsEyes came on her radio. She turned it off and swore to never listen to them ever again.