“I can't do this any more,” Jack told the two girls, and they stared at him. “My parents know. My sister told them.”
“Fuck, well, so what?” Paige asked.
“You don't get it. I've been told to have nothing to do with you.”
“So? Are you really going to listen?”
“Well … they are my parents,” Jack replied. “I sort of have to. I can't ignore them.”
Paige ran her hands through her hair and shook her head. “You said you felt an enjoyment when you did this. Was that a lie?”
“No!”
“You said you wanted to help me, was that a lie?”
“No!”
“Then why is it, when we are about to do something truly incredible. A road trip: doing gigs twelve nights in twenty. Seeing the country. And you bottle it?”
“You've not met my parents.”
Paige sighed. “OK. I'll meet them, and I'll tell them what I think.”
“No!”
“Why are you so scared of them?”
Jack rubbed his nose. “You don't know them. No-one goes up against my father and wins. No-one. He's ruthless. And I don't want to be that person. And I certainly don't want you to be that person because he'll destroy you. It's off. I'm sorry.”
Paige pushed away from the table, and Jack flinched. “I knew it. I knew I couldn't trust you. I asked you when we started, and you promised me.”
“Well that was before you started insisting on doing everything naked. There's a reason why nobody else does it.”
“Yeah, I know that. And I know it's a problem. But you …” She sneered down her nose at him. “You. You're weak. No, you're worse than that. You're pathetic. And that's a much bigger problem!”
“Paige!” Jack shouted, and the tearful girl turned as she reached the door. “Paige! I'm sorry.”
“Yeah. And I'm sorry you haven't got the balls to be a man.”
* * * * *
“You can't expect me not to say anything. You were going to bring plebs into our family. Dirty, slutty girls. I didn't want it, and Mum and Dad didn't want it.” Jack ignored her, and she cooed sweetly. “I know you aren't happy, but you'll thank me for it.”
“You did it out of spite. You couldn't bear to see me happy.” Harriet cackled, and she shook her head.
“Oh, big brother. Is that what you think of me?”
“I know you have secrets, and I don't tell on you.”
“Like what?”
“Like … everything!” Jack shouted. “Like you sneaking off last year to go to that party with your boyfriend. Like setting fire to next door's bush. Like …”
“Prove it.”
Jack got up from his bed and his eyes narrowed. His arms moved wildly as he spoke venomously and angrily towards his younger sister. “I loved being in that band. It made me happy. And you had to spoil it for me. Well now, that's it. The gloves are off. If I find anything about you that I shouldn't, I'm going to use it against you. I am going to be so nasty, 'cause I hate you. I really hate you. Now fuck off and don't speak to me again.”
Harriet laughed. “Hey, but at least it's not me that's the disappointment any more.” She grinned as Jack slammed his bedroom door causing it to splinter. “See ya later, bro!” Harriet called from the other side of the bedroom door.
Chapter XIII
“I don't believe him,” Paige shouted as she walked up and down the station platform. “He is such a Mummy's boy. And he's ruined everything.”
“I'm sorry, Paige.”
“It's not your fault. It's that fucking privileged twat's fault. Why did I trust him? I knew something wasn't right.”
“I introduced you to him. I mean, I thought he is nice enough, but that family only ever think of themselves. I thought he was different, but I guess …”
“No, he bloody wasn't.” Paige kicked a discarded juice carton across the platform to bounce over the white line and onto the track, and she yelled. “How can he be so selfish? He promised us.”
“It's the upper class,” Claire replied angrily. “They think they are above everyone, don't they?”
“Yes. And I fucking hate him. I want to meet him on a dark night now,” she shouted and stormed back to the metal chairs where Claire was sat. She gestured angrily with her hands as she spoke. “And I want to pummel his face. I want to hurt him so fucking much.”
“Easy, Paige.”
“He has ruined it. I thought, after my school talent show, when I just froze a few seconds in that I wouldn't sing in public again. Sure, there was the odd karaoke, but that didn't count, I mean singing to people. And then I met you and Jack. And that gig at the pub in the evening. With the birds and the trees. And all I thought was how I never wanted that day to end. I thought we would have loads of those.” She shook her head and Claire rubbed her brow.
“Maybe we could get another keyboard player?”
“No. It wouldn't be the same. Jack's ruined it. I thought we had something. I didn't care if we didn't make it big, I just loved the band and what we did. It felt incredible.”
“What about the agents we saw. One of them wanted you to split from us, why not give them a ring?”
“Because it won't be the same,” Paige snapped. “I wanted … this,” she said firmly. “I wanted it to be fun. If the Bare Necessities are over then it's … it's over.” She looked at her friend who hummed.
“Maybe you will think differently in the morning.” Their conversation was halted by a train arriving at the platform, and the two girls travelled in silence.
Claire got off the train before Paige and promised the miserable singer that she would ring while Paige got to walk home, lost in her own thoughts.
“You look as miserable as I do,” Hazel told her sister as Paige opened the door and the elder sibling grunted as she slouched onto the bed. “You need to talk?”
“No,” Paige muttered as tears filled her eyes. She sniffed, and her sister looked up from the laptop to see Paige turn to face the wall.
“Paige, what's happened?” Hazel asked in a concerned voice.
Paige sniffed again and then burst into sobs. “I should be packing,” she cried. “My band was going on tour, but we've been abandoned.” Hazel gulped as Paige burst into tears, telling Hazel how Jack had betrayed them, and the young girl sat on the bed and put her arms around her.
Hazel listened as Paige recounted the previous two hours and then nodded in agreement. “He's a bastard,” Hazel agreed with her. “To do that, just as Claire got all the bookings.”
Paige shrugged. “I know. I know I shouldn't have trusted him. I asked him before the agents came to see us, 'what happens if your family find out' and he was, all like, yeah I can handle it but he just lied.”
“Then go on tour without him. Just go.”
“We can't drive,” Paige cried. “Or have the music equipment. It's over. Claire said she will cancel them all tomorrow, we aren't going. I s'pose I better go find myself a proper job,” Paige mused. “Dad's been on at me to find a job so I s'pose I better go to the Job Centre.”
“But at least you get to stay with me,” Hazel said with a smile. “I sort of feel that I've missed my sister for the last few months.” Paige's face flickered slightly, and Hazel cocked her head. “That song. Seeing that song performed and knowing you wrote it about me. Well it made me realise how much I do have someone who loves me, and I think it's helped. Really helped.”
Paige snorted and dried her eyes. “Good.”
“And I have a CD of that music. It helps when I feel … low.”
“Good,” Paige smiled. “At least the little bastard did some good then.”
“But not for you,” Hazel muttered and the two sisters hugged tightly.
“Doesn't matter,” Paige lied and sniffed as she held Hazel. “I'll be all right tomorrow. And he better hope that I never see him again.”
* * * * *
“Happy Jack left town ages ago,” the female voice told him. “What does Aun
ty need to do to bring him back.”
“You can give me some of that whisky in your hand,” Jack snorted as his aunt entered the reception room in his studio. He turned to face her, and she held up a bottle.
“Vodka,” she replied and sat down opposite him. “You were close. But no cigar. I saw that video.”
“Oh. So you come to bollock me.”
Lucinda cackled. “When have I ever done that?” Her eyes sparkled and she leant back in the chair, pointing towards him. “Well once, when you were fourteen and drank my port without sharing.” Jack's face flickered and Lucinda took a swig from the bottle. “I know what it's about, tell me about them.”
“What Claire and Paige? They were fantastic.”
“Are fantastic,” Lucinda corrected him. “They're not dead, so they are fantastic.”
“OK,” he snapped. “They are fantastic. They had a friendship, a partnership that was just brilliant. And I got to be part of that.” His red eyes looked at his father's little sister. “It was great. It made me happy.”
“Yeah, I could tell. You were smiling in that video. And that Paige, awesome voice.”
“I know. And they are going on tour. If Harriet could have kept her mouth shut for two more days, I'd be all over the country going gigs. With them.”
“And you wanted to go with 'em?”
Jack snorted. “Yeah. Of course. It made me happy. Alive. Like nothing I've ever felt. Incredible. It was just … me.”
“Then go,” Lucinda suggested forcefully. “Fuck what your father says.”
“I can't.”
“You mean, you won't. You can if you want. It's only fear holding you back. He only has a hold over you 'cause you're scared of him. Fuck 'im. He's nothing but a joyless bully. The sooner you realise that he only has the power over you, you choose to give him, the quicker you'll break free. He has this reputation of being all-conquering but it's bollocks.” Her eyes twinkled. “I know how much you like your group. You've had a spring in ya step since I saw you with 'em.”
Jack gulped. “But what about his threats?”
“Take your car or studio from you? He hasn't got the time and if you run away he can't take the car away. What else? You think he'll cut you out of the family firm?” Lucinda giggled. “A few trips 'round the country won't make him do that. And anyway, I own 50% of it after our Mum died. Why do you think he can't bully me? I let him run it because I don't want the hassle, but he knows if he pisses me off, I will walk in there and fuck with it. I've done it once before, and he hated me for it.”
Jack looked at her as she took a gulp from the vodka. “So. What? Just leave?”
“Yeah!”
“They stormed away from me two hours ago,” Jack told her. “They'll be cancelling the gigs now.”
“Then ring them and stop them,” Lucinda shouted at him. “Do you want this? If you want it, work for it.” Her eyes narrowed. “If I get Paul and Anne and your bloody sister out for an hour or two at a restaurant tonight, will that be enough time for my favourite nephew do a runner and leave a note.”
“He'll … he'll lose it.”
“I hope so,” Lucinda smiled. “I fuckin' hope so.” Her eyes fell to the floor. “There was a day when he wasn't like this. He used to be … fun. And then our dad beat it out of him. And he's been a bit of a twat ever since.” She rubbed the bridge of her nose. “I still love him, he's my brother, but that doesn't stop me from thinking he's a cock.”
“But …”
“Just go and enjoy yourself,” Lucinda told him as she got up. “Oh, and you have a tummy ache which is why you can't come to the restaurant.” Jack bit his lip through his smile as he looked at the floor, and then looked up at his aunt. “There are plenty of things that make your miserable in this world. It's important to relish the things that don't. I just wish someone would teach that to my damn brother!”
* * * * *
“Wanna cut every copper by his f-roat, chuck 'em down watch 'em float. Kill the fuckers in every town, laugh at 'em when they drown. We say, Fuck the Police. Kill the Police, Fuck the Police. Murder them, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah.”
Andre stood motionless as their latest clients screamed into the microphone at the large venue and he looked at his uncle. Greg scratched her head. “You said,” the man between them shouted. “You said that they weren't offensive.”
“They aren't,” Greg told the organiser. “Much.”
“This is an under-sixteens gig,” he moaned. “We had a pro-rape song earlier.” His eyes darted around the hall and watched as several of the teenagers sang along to the imaginative chorus that involved repeated expletives. “This is not acceptable, Greg.”
“Yeah, I know,” the agent snapped. “I will be having serious words with them.”
“Yeah. And this is live on Junk FM as well. This is my name over the door. This isn't the demo tape you sent me. You know the rules, no swearing. I don't care what style they come here and do, no swearing.”
“I know,” Greg muttered apologetically, and his eyes squinted on the long-haired vocalist.
He screeched into the microphone and yelled. “Fuck Croy-donnnnnnnn!”
Greg shook his head. “Sorry, they are all public school educated, you know.” Andre bit his fingernails as the band started their last song – Jesus Was A Fucking Cunt – that made Greg and the organiser incandescent.
The agent stormed across the hall and burst into the dressing room of the punk rock band the moment they finished their set. The members of the band laughed when they saw his furious face. “What the hell was that?”
“Relax. Bit of controversy,” the lead singer laughed. “Hey, who cares, eh?”
“He's my mate. And he's in such shit tomorrow 'cause of you. And now I'm in the shit.”
“Hey, it'll get us on the front page,” the scruffy singer told him. “Fuckin' relax. We just done your job for you.”
Greg took a few deep breaths. “No. Tonight, we split. I'm not representing someone who will sing that barrel of filth to fourteen year olds.” His eyes met the singer of the band, who cackled and shook his head.
“Then get yourself, and your little pet poodle,” he shouted and pointed at Andre. “And get the fuck out of here.” Andre stared at him as he walked towards Greg. “After we have our money.”
“Fuck off,” Andre shouted. “You think you are going to get paid after that?”
“I want my money,” the aggressive man shouted as Greg and Andre backed away. The door was slammed in their faces, and Andre turned to his uncle.
“There is still the Bare Necessities,” he offered him. “We could get them doing just naked gigs. Or a wonderkid at Crystal Palace called Keanu Rice-Sotherland.”
“Oh, I've not heard of him.”
“Yeah, well he is eight.” Andre shrugged. “Long term investment?”
Greg groaned. “They were our big hope,” he grumbled. “I need to see the bank to get us more time. I can lie about our new clients to them for the time being but we do need something. I can't keep doing it!”
“What about the soccer kid?”
“Have a word with his parents,” Greg replied. “But forget the naked singer. I've not heard anything so ridiculous in all my life!”
* * * * *
Jack watched as his parents drove out of the driveway and ran back to his room. He pulled out the letter to his parents; it was succinct and clear:
Dear Dad,
By the time you get this, I will have left Croydon for a couple of weeks. The band and I are going on tour and this is what I want to do.
I know you don't approve, but we can't choose what makes us happy in life and this makes me happy.
I will be back soon.
Love, Jack.
P.S. Before you think I am the only disappointment, Harriet is addicted to cocaine and keeps her drugs in a false lid of her jewellery box.
He wondered where he should leave it and where it wouldn't be found by his sister, and after considering a range o
f places, decided that on his parents' bed would be the safest place.
He packed his suitcase and ran with it to the car, having closed his curtains and locked his bedroom door. He had already prepared all the musical equipment to go, and had this neatly stacked up by the door of the recording studio.
Within twenty minutes of his parents leaving, Jack was leaving the house. He tried dialling Claire and then Paige, but neither of them answered his call, just as they had refused to do so earlier in the day. He swore; he knew why they were angry at him, but how could he be expected to make amends if they refused his calls and his texts when unresponded to.
Claire slapped his face when he arrived on her doorstep. “I'm having to ring and cancel them all,” she shouted from the doorway of her terraced house.
“No. We are going,” he told her as he stopped her from slamming the front door with his foot. “Didn't you get my texts?”
“What texts?” Claire enquired and then hummed. “I put your number on my block list.”
“Oh,” Jack muttered. “OK, I'm sorry. But Paige and Aunt Lucinda were right, I am too old to be told what to do. So we are off on tour.”
“I don't trust you,” Claire said firmly. “You let us down.”
“I know,” Jack muttered. “I know that. But look in the car. My equipment and my suitcase are ready. I just need you and Paige.”
“Paige won't come,” Claire barked. “I can promise you now, Paige won't come. And you really don't want to go and see her, she'll tear you apart. She was all for meeting you on a dark night earlier.”
“I would deserve it,” Jack admitted and wiped his eyes. “I know I fucked up, but I've realised I fucked up and I just want to put it right.” Jack gulped. “What do I need to do to convince you to come with me?” Her eyes narrowed, and she stretched her toes. “Eh?”
“OK. If Paige says yes then we will go.”
“Excellent!” Jack cried.
“But she won't, 'cause she is in bits. And I am not sure you going to see her is a great idea.”
“Let me deal with Paige,” Jack said quickly and smiled. “Just get packed then,” he demanded and ran around the parked car on her driveway to get to his vehicle. “I will go get Paige.”
“Good luck with that,” Claire shouted and shook her head.
Jack knew Paige was still angry with him, but there was nothing he could do, but apologise. Apology speeches raced around in his mind as he sped across Croydon to get to Selhurst. He parked his car in front of Paige's family vehicle at the back of their flat and ran through the alleyway to the High Street. He banged on the family's front door, and Hazel answered. “I need to see Paige.”