How to Catch a (Rock) Star (The Dead Hour #1) (6 page)

CHAPTER EIGHT

The Scotland gigs had gone really well and the label were pleased with ticket sales. Jed smiled as he thought about Glasgow – their first sell out venue. Man, the crowd had been wild. He had actually been a little concerned that people were getting seriously hurt in a couple of the mosh pits, but had been assured that the Scots were hardcore, and most of them would consider it a shit gig if they didn’t have some bruises and cuts at the end of the night.

Now that they were headlining their own gigs and making good sales, Steve had managed to get the label to supply a tour bus. A gigantic tour bus with onboard TVs, beds and a kitchenette. Not that they were getting it until they got to France, but still. It made driving the mini bus and trailer a lot more easy to bear knowing it was only for another week or so.

He’d saved that piece of news to tell Lillie when he saw her later in Gloucester. After nearly a week of constant texting and at least ten two-hour long phone calls, they were finally going to see each other again.

Johnny had already told him he was playing with fire and that the whole thing was a bad idea. For starters, he believed in a “love ‘em and leave ‘em” philosophy when on tour. He was always saying that on tour was not the time to be trying to cultivate relationships as they were doomed to failure. Johnny agreed with Chris on this point.

Unlike Chris though, who believed in monogamy and girlfriends, Johnny preferred getting laid and moving on. Jed thought it was about time that Chris followed Johnny and got himself some skirt. He was really becoming a pain in the ass to be around. Jed figured that if he just got a little relief, maybe he’d get back to his old self.

Moodier than Eddie, who was like a woman with permanent PMT, he had recently taken to lecturing them all on various subjects from basic hygiene to tour etiquette.

‘Yo, Jed!’ Johnny threw a McDonalds carton at his head. ‘You haven’t looked at your cell in about, ooh, ten minutes. What’s up with that?’

Jed threw the carton back and flipped Johnny the bird. So what if he was excited about seeing Lillie? He knew Johnny thought getting involved with Lillie was a mistake, but it wasn’t as if this was going to be a long term anything, so nobody was going to get hurt.

He concentrated on trying to finish the lyrics to a new song he was writing. It wasn’t about Lillie exactly, although he knew he would take some shit for it when he played it for the guys. By the time he looked up, Steve was parking the bus behind a low, squat building.

‘Welcome to Gloucester,’ Steve drawled. ‘You’ll be real pleased to know that it’s a sold out gig. No meet-and-greet tonight so what you do afterwards is up to you.’ He shot Jed a look and then touched his Bluetooth ear piece and turned away, yelling and complaining about the ‘piece of shit bus’ to some poor guy on the other end of the line.

‘Unload quick and then pub?’ Johnny said, heaving an amp out the back of the bus. Jed hmmmed in a non-committal way. He wanted to check his cell and see if Lillie had arrived yet, but he sure as shit wasn’t going to let Johnny know that. He stood aside to let Chris lift out the bulk of his drum kit. Eddie had once taken it out the bus and Chris had gone so psycho that even Johnny wouldn’t touch his kit anymore.

He grabbed two guitar cases and strode after Chris, keen to avoid any further conversation. He could not fucking wait to have roadies, or even just a roadie. Lugging all this shit about was so not rock ‘n’ roll. And it was messing with his back. The bus didn’t help either. He was really looking forward to lying in a bunk on the proper tour bus soon. Even just being able to stand up at full height on the bus was going to be a-fucking-mazing.

He dumped the guitars and went in search of the rest room, checking his cell as he wandered down the unlit hall. Lillie was ninety minutes away. She’d have to come straight here – he didn’t know anywhere else for her to go, even though he didn’t want to see her in front of the entire band. He texted her and sauntered back out to the bus where Eddie was unloading the last amp.

‘So, dude,’ Eddie said, ‘what’s the deal with this English chick? Is she gonna be hanging around a lot?’

Jed shook his head and Eddie looked relieved.

‘Nah. She’s got her life in Brighton, family, friends, so – ‘ he tailed off and Eddie nodded and took a few steps away from the bus before turning back.

‘So, this isn’t like, a thing or anything?’

Jed made a face and shook his head, slamming shut the
bus doors as Eddie nodded again and disappeared into the building.

If the situation was different, he reckoned it could be a thing. In fact, it would definitely be a thing, but as it was, it could only be a fling. Jesus fucking Christ. That could be the refrain for the new song, he thought, typing it into his phone for later. Lillie would forever be immortalised in a song and, for too many reasons, that was just going to be the most that he could give her.

CHAPTER NINE

They must be heading in the right direction, Lillie thought. Music thrummed through the air, raw and passionate with heavy guitars and drums that went right through to the bone. She was so nervous about seeing Jed again that she was having a hard time keeping down the revolting service station sandwich Kate had insisted she ate on the way up.

‘There you are!’ Jed exclaimed, suddenly appearing in front of her and Kate.

Lillie fought the urge to push him to the floor and start having her way with him. She didn’t think Kate would approve.

‘I was just coming to see if you were having trouble getting in.’ He gave Lillie a kiss on the mouth and Kate a kiss on the cheek. ‘Can we, errr – ‘ he tilted his head and Kate made her excuses with a knowing smile and headed towards the music.

‘But she doesn’t really know anyone – ‘ Lillie protested as Jed grabbed her hand and led her down another hall.

‘She’ll be okay,’ he said, opening the door to a small dingy room which smelt much like she imagined a boy’s locker room would. ‘Johnny’s there.’

Lillie followed him into the room and was about to ask him if that was supposed to make her feel better about abandoning her friend, when he turned to her and said, ‘I’ve missed you.’

Just as easy as that. Married Matt had never been so honest about his feelings. Or anything else, for that matter. She stared at him and felt the blood rush to her cheeks.

‘I missed you too,’ she said, trying not to look at the floor. He grinned and closed the small gap between them, kissing her properly now they were alone. As much as she had loved all the talking and getting to know each other over the phone, this was what she had thought about the most. As Jed pulled her t-shirt over her head and unclipped her bra, Lillie tried not to think about how she would probably never have such amazing sex again in all her life. She didn’t have to try not to think for long as Jed’s hot mouth closed around her nipple and her thoughts were silenced by the rush of intense pleasure flooding her body.

***

Forty minutes later, Lillie followed Jed down the hall into a much bigger room where the rest of the band and Kate were sitting around plucking at guitars and playing harmonicas, of all instruments. Boxes of pizza and bottles of beer were lying around and Lillie picked up a small slice of margherita and a beer and found an empty chair, surprised but delighted to see Kate sitting on Chris’s lap as he tried to play a guitar resting on her knees. He and Johnny were butchering an older White Stripes track, one of Lillie’s favourites. She instinctively covered her ears, the expression on her face clearly relaying her feelings.

‘What? You don’t like The White Stripes?’ Johnny cried out, ‘Jed, dude, you gotta teach her some musical taste.’

‘Actually, I love them but you’re massacring this, which is one of my favourite ever songs,’ Lillie replied.

‘Really? Well, if you can do any better, be my guest…’ he replied, looking hurt and holding out his guitar.

‘I can’t play the guitar,’ Lillie said quickly, taking a swig of beer and turning away.

‘No, but you can sing!’ Kate shouted out. Lillie whirled around to look at her, horror stamped across her face, as Johnny offered to play along as she sang.

‘Ummm, no, I’m not very good and, anyway, I don’t sing in public,’ she said, desperately trying to get out of it and swigging her beer again.

‘Well, this ain’t exactly public, babe,’ Johnny said. ‘C’mon, let’s hear ya. You can’t be any worse than Jed!’

The band all laughed and Johnny started picking out the chords, everyone looking at Lillie expectantly.

‘No, really, I’m not very good, honest,’ Lillie said again and Kate snorted.

‘That’s so not true. Lillie used to sing in the school choir and she had singing lessons until her parents decided she needed to concentrate on school. She even – ‘ she trailed off at the expression on Lillie’s face.

‘I’ll sing with you, Lil, it’ll be fun,’ Jed cajoled and Lillie shot Kate a look before taking another huge mouthful of her beer.

‘Fine, but I’m only singing something short like “Fell In Love With A Girl”.’ This was going to be horrible; she could already feel her cheeks burning.

Johnny started to play the opening chords and Jed began to sing, raising his eyebrows at Lillie when she didn’t join in. Lillie rolled her eyes and took a deep breath, her fingers twisting the sheer overlayer of her dress, eyes fixed on the wall. She began to sing. Oh God, that was totally out of tune. She didn’t dare look at Jed. She carried on, trying to relax and only vaguely noticing that Eddie had taken over playing the guitar and that Jed’s voice was so soft, it could barely be heard over her own.

There was silence as Eddie’s last chord faded away and then Kate started clapping and ran over to hug Lillie.

‘I love it when you sing!’ she exclaimed, still hugging her. ‘Isn’t she amazing?’

‘She’s got a great voice,’ Johnny said, ‘she’s way better than you, Jed. You should totally learn some of our stuff, it could be really cool to have a girl guest starring on some of the tracks, like Alison Mosshart for The Raconteurs that time. Remember?’

Jed was nodding his head and grinning. Lillie had to stop this nonsense right now.

‘Oh God, no, don’t be silly. I’m not a singer and certainly not
a performer,’ Lillie protested. ‘And I’m definitely not Alison Mosshart.’

‘I think it’s an awesome idea. Some of the slower songs would really work with a female vocalist, especially one that sings as well as you do!’ Jed said as if Lillie hadn’t uttered a word. ‘I’ll need to talk to Steve and see what he thinks, but I really think it could work.’ Jed turned to her, his eyes bright with excitement. ‘You could come on tour with us! How great would that be?’ he paused, finally noticing the look on her face. ‘Wouldn’t it?’ he said. ‘Be great?’

‘It would be great if I didn’t have – ,‘ she trailed off. She didn’t want him to know that the thought of standing on a stage in front of a huge crowd of people made her feel physically sick.

‘You’ve already quit your job, Lil. It’s perfect timing. You could tour Europe and the States with us. It would be amazing.’ He said excitedly. He pulled her away from the others and in a lower voice, continued trying to persuade her.

‘Think about it, it would be an awesome experience and you just can’t waste that voice,’ he said. ‘You’d get to see loads of Europe and America and, you know,’ he hesitated. ‘We could give this,’ he gestured towards himself and then to her, ‘a go. See what happens.’

‘You and Johnny are both crazy,’ Lillie said. ‘It
would
be amazing but I can’t see it happening – things like that only happen in the movies. Anyway, your manager would have to ok it
and
your record label. They might not want a girl ruining your image and sound.’

Jed opened his mouth but Lillie kept going.

‘Plus, what about Eddie and Chris? They might not be so keen.’

Jed looked at her, disappointment all over his beautiful face.

‘I just thought it would be a fantastic opportunity for you. You have such a unique, beautiful voice. I know it wouldn’t be dancing but it would still be performing,’ he stopped and shook his head. ‘I really like you, Lillie, and I would love to spend more time with you. Really get to know you. I thought you wanted that too.’

Lillie felt her eyes sting with tears. How could he think she didn’t want to be with him? After all those texts and calls?

‘It’s got nothing to do with you, I just don’t think I can get up and sing in front of a whole load of people. It was hard enough in front of you guys, and I feel sort of comfortable with you,’ Lillie explained, relieved that Jed’s face had smoothed out into sympathy. ‘Of course I want to spend more time with you, I just don’t want to choke onstage in front of all your fans. And I don’t want to get all excited over something that, in reality, just won’t happen.’

‘Lil, you’ll be perfect.’ He put his hands to her face and kissed her. ‘Anyway, you can’t really see the crowd, only the first few rows. You shouldn’t hide away because of nerves.’ He smiled at her.

‘Everyone gets nerves. Our first few gigs, we all got wasted ‘cos we were shitting bricks at the thought of being onstage and people hating us. You’d have the advantage of being in front of people who already like us.’ He put his hands on her shoulders and lowered his head to look her in the eyes, ‘Let me speak to Steve, maybe you could give it a go tonight? We can do “Fell In Love With A Girl” as a duet. You, me and Eddie will have a couple of practices. It’ll be awesome. What do you say?’

‘Oh God, I don’t know,’ Lillie said, feeling excited but sick at the thought of it. ‘God, this is crazy. I can’t believe I’m actually even contemplating it. We could practice now, and I’ll see how I feel later?’

Jed’s face broke into a huge grin as he lifted her up and swung her around.

‘I’ll need more beer if you’re gonna make me do this,’ she said. ‘Seriously.’

‘Yes! This is going to be fucking amazing. We are gonna be awesome.’ He kissed her again before yelling at Eddie over his shoulder. ‘Eddie, get over here, we need to run through it a couple of times. Johnny, can you let Steve know the change of plans?’

Jed was so excited, Lillie couldn’t help but be infected by it, even if Eddie didn’t seem too happy about her singing with them tonight. After a couple of run throughs, Jed and Eddie left to go through their pre-gig ritual of mantras and shots, and Kate cornered Lillie.

‘Oh my God, this is so exciting,’ Kate said. ‘I can’t believe you’re going to sing on a proper stage and stuff.’

‘I’m not,’ Lillie said, suddenly realising what she had agreed to do. ‘I can’t do it. You know I get really bad stage fright, even in a karaoke atmosphere. I really can’t do it Kate. What am I going to do? Jed will be so disappointed. Oh God, I think I’m going to be sick.’ Lillie turned away, holding her stomach.

‘Lil, don’t be stupid. You have a great voice and if you can do this tonight, you might get to go on tour with them. Plus, you’ll get to be with a guy you really like.’ She glanced at Chris, beating his drumsticks against the arm of a shabby sofa. ‘Do you know how lucky you are to have a talent? I wish I could sing like you. If I could, I would take every opportunity given to me to use it and get some great experiences out of it.’ She handed Lillie another bottle of beer. ‘Just keep swigging from this and you’ll be fine,’ she said, as Jed came back, grinning wildly.

‘It’s all sorted, Steve’s agreed and we’ll do the duet last so it will give you loads of time to psyche yourself up,’ He looked at her more closely. ‘Hey, are you ok?’

‘She’s fine, just a bit nervous,’ Kate said, squeezing Lillie’s hand.

‘Cool, let’s go to the stage and watch the support act. They’re pretty good actually. I like to watch the crowd before we go on.’ Jed grabbed Lillie’s other hand and pulled her off towards the stage with Kate following behind.

All through the support act, Lillie felt queasy, her stomach turning over every time they started a new song. Her head was pounding. Jed put a reassuring arm around her shoulders and kept kissing her hair but it wasn’t making her feel any better. She held the bottle of beer but didn’t drink from it, petrified that she would get too drunk and collapse on the stage, or worse. Too soon, the support act finished and the house lights were turned up.

‘You know, Johnny used to get really bad stage fright,’ Jed said. ‘He can probably give you some tips on how to get through it.’

‘I guess it’s worth a try. I don’t want anything else to drink, though’ Lillie replied.

‘C’mon, let’s go down and chill for ten minutes before we need to get on stage. I’ll give you a shoulder massage and Johnny can tell you what he used to do,’ he said, taking her back through the maze of corridors.

When they were back in the main dressing room, Lillie sat down heavily on the sofa next to Johnny.

‘You’re going to blow them away. You and Jed sound awesome together,’ Johnny said, looking at her seriously. ‘Jed wouldn’t risk the gig just because you’re hot.’

Lillie smiled weakly.

‘You’ll see, it’ll rock, and they’ll go crazy for you, and then you won’t ever want to leave the stage again.’ He put his arm around her, leaning back and telling her to just relax and enjoy the show.

‘Actually, Jed thought you might be able to help me out with stage fright,’ Lillie said.

‘Oh God, yeah. No problem,’ he said. ‘I suffered from it really badly. So did Eddie. The trick is to focus on something above the crowd and in the distance. Pick a light and just stare at it. And remember to breathe. That’s pretty important,’ he laughed. ‘Especially for a singer.’

Jed reappeared and, removing Johnny’s arm with a smile, started to give her a pretty good shoulder massage.

‘Me next, dude,’ Johnny said.

‘You get two minutes max,’ Jed replied. ‘I bet I can get a massage back off Lil, but you never reciprocate.’

Johnny started to hotly deny Jed’s accusation when Steve arrived to let them know the crowd were getting impatient. Lillie’s stomach leapt into her throat as she realised that, in about an hour, she would be singing in front of paying fans.

At the base of the stairs leading up to the stage, Jed gave Lillie a lingering kiss. ‘See you in a while, crocodile. You’ll be great,’ he whispered with a reassuring smile before running on and taking his place.

The curtains went up to a mass of screaming and shouting, and the band exploded into their opening number, Jed stalking the stage and causing the fan girls in the front rows to scream with lust and delight. He was a great performer, making sure he covered every inch of available space. His gyrations and teasing drove the fans mad and he was funny and charming when he spoke to the crowd.

Lillie was so caught up in the gig and the atmosphere, she forgot all about her performance until Jed started announcing that they were lucky to have a very special guest with them who had agreed to come onstage tonight. The crowd were buzzing, wondering who this mystery guest was going to be, and Jed looked towards Lillie at the side of the stage.