Page 10 of Real Rocks
I’m sure you can, you’ll have to wait until later…x
What time will you finish? Uncle Col’s got us starting super early tomorrow on a job the other side of London. See, I told you I should have stayed with Jonas x
Not sure, maybe around ten? x
“Ten? We’re due to finish then. I thought you’d at least stay around until the end of our set.” Scott’s head loomed over my shoulder, peering at my phone screen. I quickly shut down the message thread and shoved my phone back inside my jacket, thanking my lucky stars I hadn’t been looking at anything from Carl.
His dark eyes appraised me as he lit a cigarette of his own and blew smoke rings into the air. “How’s Rosie?”
“Doing a damn sight better now she’s not seeing you.”
“I guess I deserve that.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “What you did wasn’t cool.”
He shrugged. “We weren’t serious. I never promised her anything. We were just having fun.”
The words resonated. For such a long time, it was exactly how I’d been with guys. A night here, a night there, a couple of dates, usually a splash inThe Gossand then onto the next.
“I’m not sure she saw it like that.”
“Me and Rosie Tatton? Come on, love, it was never going to be serious, was it? We’re from totally opposite poles.” His Mancunian accent grew broader as he spoke, emphasising the differences between his and Rosie’s cut-glass one. He raked a hand through his long fringe. “Now, what I want to know is how you managed to get on tour with us. I heard you’d got some new music out, but had no idea you were ready to take it out on the road.”
Back on safer ground, I was happier to talk to him. “Jonas sorted it out.”
He snorted. “Ah, yes. How could I have forgotten the great Jonas Barnes and his protege cousin.”
“Hardly,” I snapped. “We worked hard to be where we are.”
“‘Course you did.”
Now wasn’t the time to be having this argument. We had to coexist for the next week, regardless of what he thought.
I changed the subject. “You’re bigger than these venues anyway, aren’t you? Surely a sold out gig at Wembley would be more your speed these days?”
“Ha, I wish. Headline slot at Reading and Leeds would work well, but we can’t get close yet. Maybe second stage next year.” A wistful expression crossed Scott’s face.
“We’d love to do a festival.” It was true. As a band, we’d spoken about it so many times, although nothing had come to fruition.
“Hey, why don’t you join us for a song each night?”
“What do you mean?” I frowned.
“You know our trackWasted By My Side? It’s got the female vocal on it.”
I knew the song he meant. It was one of their oldest songs and a fan favourite, although I knew they couldn’t play it live much because it needed a woman to sing parts of the verses. When they first started out, they had a female backing vocalist, but she quit before they made it big. Their guitarist gave it a good stab, but his voice didn’t always cut it.
“It’s fine, you don’t need to do that.”
“Do what?”
“Take pity on me. On us.” I didn’t need any favours from Scott Lincoln and Trash Gun.
“I’m not. I thought it might be a fun thing to do. Come on, Saff, cut me some slack here. I’m trying to be friendly.”
As I dropped my cigarette butt to the floor and ground it out with my heel, I considered his offer. Sharing a stage with Scott for one song wouldn’t be the worst thing to do. It might get TheSB some good publicity and then maybe one day, we could aim for a festival slot too.
Darren appeared. “We’re ready to sound check now, Saff. Are you?”
